I don't think you will see a standalone client for this project.
For good or bad this is a boinc project.
I understand that you are hesitant to get involved because of the boinc framework a lot of farmers feel the same way.
Once you have the clients setup up and monitored management isn't too difficult.
If you decide to get involved there are a few things you should be aware of.
The benchmark code is broken.
Works fine for windows boxes runing single CPU's but you will be seriously disadvantged running SMP machines.
You should get benchmarks on SMP machines close to that of the UNI processor equivalents but you don't.
Obviously the shared memory on SMP boxes is a factor but the benchmarks are far too low.
If you run the benchmarks manually occasionally the scores pick up to be close to what they should be but when it runs again you will drop back down.
This was a big problem for me as I use quite a few Athlon MP machines.
linux benchmarks are a joke compared to a machine running windows.
This can be fixed to a certain extent by compiling the client yourself but you still end with low points because the claimed credit of folks running the standard linux client are so low.
Strangely the benchmark code in linux is OK with SMP machines, a dual scores about the same as the UNI processor equivalent.
Choice of projects.
The only reliable project I found was CPDN.
Seti is a real mess, lots of server problems.
The others turned out to be beta tests and disappeared quickly.
They promised to return and occasionally you might get work but who want's to be messed about like that.
Maybe einstein will be OK and actually stay up :)
Boinc software.
New versions come out frequently and if you are trying to manage a farm it is a PITA keeping up.
Not all the projects keep up to date and I have been in situations where the version demands of one project have precluded my participation in others.
Credit
You will be really frustated with this.
You return work and expect to recieve credit in a timely manner, not going to happen.
You have to wait for others to return work before you get credit and wait for the validator to sort out it out.
Hard luck if you do the same WU as someone with a messed up machine and they screw the WU up and claim zero credit.
Or someone abondones the WU and it is weeks before someone else does it.
Sounds like BOINC has a little ways to go.
It also sounds like a lot of thought has gone it to it and some nice features are coming about since the first time I installed it awhile back.
It appears I should stick with the clients I use and the projects I particpate in until BOINC becomes more mature and robust.
I'll just keep an ear out in the forums over at Free-DC.org to keeep abreast of how it's developing.
Thank you to all that had some constructive comments.
One thing I didn't see mentioned in this thread is the new client when it comes out uses the microsoft msi package installer. In theory you can set up a package that will install BOINC on remote machines and automatically generate the account*.xml files (automatically attach to projects). I do not know if anyone has tested this functionallity though.
It has been mentioned but bears repeating that you can copy the account*.xml files to a new computer to make attaching to projects much easier.
Yes you can copy the xml files for the various projects between clients.
For IB
This is how you can mange the client on a windows farm
I install the client once on a windows PC and cancel when it asks for a project.
This directory then gets copied to a network share ready to roll out.
Then I run it and add all the projects, once this is done I copy the xml files to a network Share.
When I want to roll out a client I copy the directory from the network share and add the xml project files that I want to run.
Then I run it in cli mode.
boinc_cli.exe -allow_remote_gui_rpc -return_results_immediately
This is usually set up as a service {I keep reg files to set this up quickly}
The clients are monitored with boincview.
IB I don't think you will
)
IB
I don't think you will see a standalone client for this project.
For good or bad this is a boinc project.
I understand that you are hesitant to get involved because of the boinc framework a lot of farmers feel the same way.
Once you have the clients setup up and monitored management isn't too difficult.
If you decide to get involved there are a few things you should be aware of.
The benchmark code is broken.
Works fine for windows boxes runing single CPU's but you will be seriously disadvantged running SMP machines.
You should get benchmarks on SMP machines close to that of the UNI processor equivalents but you don't.
Obviously the shared memory on SMP boxes is a factor but the benchmarks are far too low.
If you run the benchmarks manually occasionally the scores pick up to be close to what they should be but when it runs again you will drop back down.
This was a big problem for me as I use quite a few Athlon MP machines.
linux benchmarks are a joke compared to a machine running windows.
This can be fixed to a certain extent by compiling the client yourself but you still end with low points because the claimed credit of folks running the standard linux client are so low.
Strangely the benchmark code in linux is OK with SMP machines, a dual scores about the same as the UNI processor equivalent.
Choice of projects.
The only reliable project I found was CPDN.
Seti is a real mess, lots of server problems.
The others turned out to be beta tests and disappeared quickly.
They promised to return and occasionally you might get work but who want's to be messed about like that.
Maybe einstein will be OK and actually stay up :)
Boinc software.
New versions come out frequently and if you are trying to manage a farm it is a PITA keeping up.
Not all the projects keep up to date and I have been in situations where the version demands of one project have precluded my participation in others.
Credit
You will be really frustated with this.
You return work and expect to recieve credit in a timely manner, not going to happen.
You have to wait for others to return work before you get credit and wait for the validator to sort out it out.
Hard luck if you do the same WU as someone with a messed up machine and they screw the WU up and claim zero credit.
Or someone abondones the WU and it is weeks before someone else does it.
Sounds like BOINC has a
)
Sounds like BOINC has a little ways to go.
It also sounds like a lot of thought has gone it to it and some nice features are coming about since the first time I installed it awhile back.
It appears I should stick with the clients I use and the projects I particpate in until BOINC becomes more mature and robust.
I'll just keep an ear out in the forums over at Free-DC.org to keeep abreast of how it's developing.
Thank you to all that had some constructive comments.
One thing I didn't see
)
One thing I didn't see mentioned in this thread is the new client when it comes out uses the microsoft msi package installer. In theory you can set up a package that will install BOINC on remote machines and automatically generate the account*.xml files (automatically attach to projects). I do not know if anyone has tested this functionallity though.
It has been mentioned but bears repeating that you can copy the account*.xml files to a new computer to make attaching to projects much easier.
BOINC WIKI
BOINCing since 2002/12/8
Yes you can copy the xml
)
Yes you can copy the xml files for the various projects between clients.
For IB
This is how you can mange the client on a windows farm
I install the client once on a windows PC and cancel when it asks for a project.
This directory then gets copied to a network share ready to roll out.
Then I run it and add all the projects, once this is done I copy the xml files to a network Share.
When I want to roll out a client I copy the directory from the network share and add the xml project files that I want to run.
Then I run it in cli mode.
boinc_cli.exe -allow_remote_gui_rpc -return_results_immediately
This is usually set up as a service {I keep reg files to set this up quickly}
The clients are monitored with boincview.