Technical thread for Server Discussion (merged)

[Piratecat]

I may end up using my home computer for the Grid, Krug, but we would rather not use the EN World servers in this way.

Quick update:

- Adlon should have my check tomorrow.

- Thanks to Elocin, Adlon will have the processors tomorrow.

- Adlon is pricing equipment and will be purchasing this week and next; we are going with 4 Gigs of RAM and very fast mirrored SCSI drives.

- We haven't yet had confirmation on shipping the donated Gateway. I'm hoping it hasn't fallen through (more likely the EN World member is away this week), but I'll follow this up.

- Checks and PayPal donations are coming in at the rate of one or two a day. At last count we're at $13,100, enough to fund top-notch servers and pay our way through 2005. It's going to be a delight having a fast site AND not having to worry about funding for a year.

- I'm preparing a list of email addresses for everyone who contributed; this list will be used to get folks their donated pdfs. Physical products and unique pdfs will be awarded starting next week.

 

[Krieg]

That's _not_ a good idea. Distributed projects use 100% processor time when it notice the computer is idle. The servers will never be idle (and if they are, the spare cycles should be used for database maintenence etc).

It's not really as much of an issue as it sounds. The apps use any idle cycles, not just when the proc is not handling another thread. However, they are also very low priority so any other thread that needs to run will take precedence over the app. The apps will not steal cycles from anything else that needs to be crunched.

I've seen them run without any problems on servers that are running even more processor intesive applications than the databases that these two will be handling.

I may end up using my home computer for the Grid, Krug, but we would rather not use the EN World servers in this way.

Not a problem at all, 'twas just a suggestion.

BTW Krug =

 

[IronWolf]

- Adlon is pricing equipment and will be purchasing this week and next; we are going with 4 Gigs of RAM and very fast mirrored SCSI drives.

Sounds awesome! That RAM and fast SCSI drives coupled with the donated processors should make things fly!

 

[Steve Jung]

Yay. Let's all be proud of this technological terror we've created.

 

[Piratecat]

BTW Krug =

I meant -- err - Krieug, the hideous lycanthropic amalgamation between Krieg and Krug! Oh sure, it LOOKS friendly, but one full moon and. . . err. . .

I got nothing.

Sorry about that.

 

[BSF]

Krieg,
It looks like the software to drive the Grid is Windows based. Since the Server Team is planning on using Linux for the OS on the servers, I don't think it would even be possible to help in that way right now.

It sounds like the servers will be a lot more robust than the baseline fundraiser. Knowing that 2005 is also paid for in hosting (unless bandwidth usage increases dramatically) is also nice. It sounds like EN World will be around for a while.

 

[Krieg]

Krieg,
It looks like the software to drive the Grid is Windows based. Since the Server Team is planning on using Linux for the OS on the servers, I don't think it would even be possible to help in that way right now.[/i]

Well that is a bit of a sticking point no? lol

Seriously though having messed with the client for the past two days I am not entirely satisfied with it. Unfortunately it actually seems to be a step backwards from some of the other clients out there that have been around longer (seti & folding for example).

Right now I am trying to decide whether I want to stick it out and see if they are serious about improving the client over a series of generations or whether they are happy with the status quo.

If the later is the case I very may well switch over to one of the other distributed clients. If that happens it will most likely be folding@home as they have a pretty robust support community & satisfy my desire to stay in the health sciences related field.

I will probaby start another thread on the software board to see if any has any thoughts/input on the matter.

It sounds like the servers will be a lot more robust than the baseline fundraiser. Knowing that 2005 is also paid for in hosting (unless bandwidth usage increases dramatically) is also nice. It sounds like EN World will be around for a while.

Speaking of which does the Gateway server have a second proc or is there just a single 3Ghz Xeon?

The model in question definitely supports dual procs so adding a second Xeon might be worth thinking about if it is an option.

 

[Piratecat]

Speaking of which does the Gateway server have a second proc or is there just a single 3Ghz Xeon?

The model in question definitely supports dual procs so adding a second Xeon might be worth thinking about if it is an option.

It's a single processor. Frankly, at this point there's no reason to spend the money adding a second processor; we shouldn't see any bogging down unless our traffic increases substantially. If it does, we can address the problem then.

 

[BSF]

Piratecat, have you guys looked at kernel optimization on the linux side and app optimization for Apache/MySQL? Optimization doesn't derive as much benefit on a linux desktop/laptop, but on a server those incremental improvements add up throughout the day.

 

[Piratecat]

Piratecat, have you guys looked at kernel optimization on the linux side and app optimization for Apache/MySQL?

I'm proud to announce that out of this sentence I recognized my user name. I'll let Thomas Heretic field this one.