Ok, stupid question but...
10 Nov 2010 17:03:28 UTC
Topic 195443
(moderation:
I have a few machines, that due to the nature of their use, can NOT be hooked to the internet. Is there any way one can possibly install boinc on them, use another machine to fetch jobs, (all the work and files are stored in a few directories) then just cut and paste these to the 'off net' machine, let it crunch it's stuff, and then take the results files and bring back to the online machine to send back to your server?
Thank you
Aaron
If god meant for us not to BOINC he'd have made our #$%^%^ shorter!!
Ok, stupid question but...
)
Not unless you're prepared to do a lot of leg work and uninstalling and reinstalling of the BOINC software on the machine that does the downloading and uploading.
You see, it doesn't matter which machine crunches the data, as long as the same machine that downloaded the work will also upload it. All work is registered against the hostID of the machine that did the downloading.
So if you had one machine doing the downloading/uploading --but NOT crunching-- and one machine to do the crunching, you'd go about installing BOINC on both machines, then when the internet machine has downloaded work, exit BOINC there -> move the complete DATA directory onto a USB stick -> move that onto the machine doing the crunching -> (re)install BOINC there to make sure it knows that the data directory (now filled with work) is its data directory (permissions set correctly). Wait for all data to be crunched, then move the data directory onto the USB stick, move it back onto the machine that did the downloading, restart its BOINC, let it upload, report and download new work...
Now, that's doable.
If you have two machines without internet, you will have to do the above, by hand for both separately. All computers will have their own hostID, you cannot download work for one machine and crunch it on many, then upload & report from all of them as if they're different outcomes. Once you uploaded & reported the work for one computer, you cannot upload & report that same work done by another computer. The server will just not take it.
And so.. I wouldn't even begin what you want to do. Unless you have a very boring day-job. But then, get a better job. ;-)
Ok thats the thing, im not
)
Ok thats the thing, im not looking to spread a job across many machines, but get jobs with one machine to put onto another. I have a computer that I can not hook upto the internet with due to what else is on it and what it's job is, so therefore need a way to get the 'work' back and forth to it w/o net access.
If I can use a machine to download data, as you said, usb stick it to another machine to do all the work, then usb it back to the internet machine to upload the results that'd work. Im not trying to split the work, just move it from one machine to another.
As for boring day job, honestly it'd only take a few minutes to transfer the data over. Boring, possibly but the pay is good so I won't be looking for another job anytime soon :)
Ill see what I can get done, I just wanted to see if it was at all possible first, and to also let you know what I am trying so that if it doesn't work, or you see something 'odd' on your end you know im not trying to cause damage or anything malicious.
One other final question. What is the default directory that it installs the data file into?
Thank you
Aaron
If god meant for us not to BOINC he'd have made our #$%^%^ shorter!!
RE: What is the default
)
That depends on the operating system:
Windows 98/SE/ME: C:\Windows\All Users\BOINC\ or C:\Windows\Profiles\All Users\BOINC\ (*)
Windows 2000/XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\BOINC\ (*)
Windows Vista/Windows 7: C:\ProgramData\BOINC\ (*)
Linux: wherever you unpack it/BOINC/
Macintosh OS X: /Library/Applications Support/BOINC/
(*) This directory may well be hidden, so either put the path to it directly into Windows Explorer, or instruct Windows Explorer to show hidden files and folders.
You cannot use a Windows machine to download work and run it on a Linux machine, or vice versa. You will have to move the complete data directory from the downloading machine to the USB stick, in order to allow the BOINC on the downloading machine to make a new hostID for the next machine.
The downloading machine cannot use any of the data directories of any of the machines that are off line. If you want it to do work, it'll need its own directory and data. You will have to backup this data directory prior to putting the data directory back from any of the internetless machines, or else you'll lose the work. Merging of data directories isn't possible.
Thanks for the info here. I
)
Thanks for the info here. I believe I got it to work, we shall see in about a day when I goto transfer the data over and see how it behaves.
If all goes well I will have a few extra machines crunching for us.
Aaron
If god meant for us not to BOINC he'd have made our #$%^%^ shorter!!
RE: RE: What is the
)
Jord can you set up the data directories on the USB stick initially for the machines? If so could he could have two complete but separate Boinc installs, one that uses the defaults as you listed them and one that uses the USB stick for its data? Then he could do the same usb stick install on the second machine and just pull the stick from the internet machine and plug it into the non internet machine, crunch the units and then switch back. This IS going to be confusing though isn't it?!!
Did I see someplace where Dotsch set Boinc up to run off a usb stick with no hard drive involved? That might work for him too.
RE: This IS going to be
)
I lost you someplace after you mentioning my name. ;-)
Ah good one, yes, he has: http://www.dotsch.de/boinc/Dotsch_UX.html
It appears to be working for
)
It appears to be working for me. I just grabbed some files from the off net machine and they did sucessfully transfer to the server.
The usb stick thing, I was thinking of exactly that, doing an install completely on stick, having each machine on its own stick. that way when the project needs to report I just shut down boinc, bring the offline stick to an online machine, let it upload / update whatever it needs, get the new projects onto the stick, then bring stick back to offline machine and let it run new tasks.
In the meantime since the online machine's *own* data is in a different area, I dont need to worry about transferring files, backing up etc etc.
If I have boinc on my machine already, can I do a reinstall and then select which directory to put the data in or is it more complicated than that to remove the old copy and settings?
Thanks again.
I know im a pita here but trying to figure out ways to do things for the project when I dont have net access on some of the machines.
Aaron
If god meant for us not to BOINC he'd have made our #$%^%^ shorter!!
RE: It appears to be
)
Yes during the install process you can chose what directories Boinc uses for what. The only problem might be that when you plug in a usb stick it gets a drive letter, and then when you pull it out and put in a different one it gets the same drive letter. What you may need to do is make a directory on the stick called Aaron and on the other stick called mikey for example. Then for one machine put all the files in the Aaron directory and for the other machine put them in the mikey directory on the that stick, otherwise you could be overwriting the wrong files for the wrong machine. Now I personally would use the machine names but that is just me and my semi-organized mind, I am too forgetful if I don't make it easy in the beginning! My machines are called Boinc1, Boinc2 etc and then I put stickers on each one on both the front and back, so I can just look and know which is which.
RE: RE: This IS going to
)
Getting old are we huh? You have been around here helping people FOREVER and I see you are still at it. THANK YOU!!!
If you have one HDD install,
)
If you have one HDD install, e.g. in
C:\BOINC
C:\BOINC-Data
and another on USB stick, e.g. in
U:\BOINC
U:\BOINC-Data
you can export the registry info 2 times (while every install is active)
and then just exit BOINC and import info in the registry by "executing" one of the:
BOINC_Setup_HDD_C.reg
BOINC_Setup_USB_stick_U.reg
then start BOINC again
(you need also 2 shortcuts: BOINC_HDD.lnk & BOINC_USB_stick.lnk)
The install info is in this registry key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Space Sciences Laboratory, U.C. Berkeley\BOINC Setup]
( As I didn't try that I'm not 100% sure will it work.
But I've done something similar for dual boot system (Win 98 + Win 2000) -
BOINC 6.6.38 is installed in Win 98 (on disk (HDD partition) D:), I exported the registry key,
edited the file to change D: to E: (the same partition is visible as E: in Win 2000),
while in Win 2000 "executed" the edited file to create the registry key + values
and then made shortcut to E:\...\boincmgr.exe and run it (also put copy of the shortcut in StartUp).
BOINC works OK (continues the tasks partly computed on another OS).
I never installed BOINC (never run the BOINC installer) in Win 2000 but it works.
( I've done the same (on another multi-boot computer) between Vista 32 & Win XP 32 -
install BOINC in Vista and import the .reg in Win XP (works OK).
But not successful when I try the same for Vista 64
(import the .reg from Vista 32 to several places in Vista 64 registry (was 2 years ago - don't remember the details))
(even after I try to set the directory permissions (maybe incorrectly))
)
Sample .reg file:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Space Sciences Laboratory, U.C. Berkeley\BOINC Setup]
"INSTALLDIR"="D:\\Programs.98\\Science\\BOINC\\"
"SETUPTYPE"="Single"
"LAUNCHPROGRAM"=""
"ENABLELAUNCHATLOGON"=""
"ENABLESCREENSAVER"=""
"SERVICE_DOMAIN"=""
"SERVICE_USERNAME"=""
"SETUPSTATESTORED"="TRUE"
"MIGRATIONVERSION"=""
"MIGRATION"="FALSE"
"MIGRATIONDIR"="D:\\Programs.98\\Science\\BOINC\\"
"RETURN_REBOOTREQUESTED"="0"
"REBOOTPROMPT"=""
"RETURN_VALIDATEINSTALL"="1"
"DATADIR"="D:\\Programs.98\\Science\\BOINC-Data\\"
"ENABLEPROTECTEDAPPLICATIONEXECUTION"=""
"ENABLEUSEBYALLUSERS"=""
"ENABLEPROTECTEDAPPLICATIONEXECUTION2"=""
)
[pre] [/pre]