Machine IDs?

[Underwater Mike]

I know that if you're running more than one console on a single box, each instance should have its own unique machine ID. But, if you're running multiple boxes under the same username, do each of those need a unique machine ID?

For example, I have four separate boxes, and five consoles running. On the box with two instances, each has a unique ID number (2 and 3, I think). But, do the instances running on the other boxes -- that is, with only a single console per machine -- need unique IDs as well? Should they be, say, 1, 4 and 5? Or can they all have a machine ID of 1?

I hope this makes sense. I think I just confused myself...

[VSEKH]

You only have to change the machine ID on a box if you are folding more than one console. No need to have different machine IDs on each box.

[Underwater Mike]

Originally Posted by VSEKH

You only have to change the machine ID on a box if you are folding more than one console. No need to have different machine IDs on each box.

Really? Are you sure? I thought that this bit from the FAQ might apply, even though it's not a "cluster" per se:

Is there anything special I should do to run on a cluster?

The main aspect to consider is to make sure that the CPUID for each machine is unique. To help fight from having duplicate IDs, the windows versions (v. 3 and later) keep their IDs in the registry and the Linux version (v. 3.11 and later) keep it in a special file MachineDependent.dat.

Ways to avoid duplicating IDs:

1) If you install each client individually, then it's impossible for there to be problem with a duplicate ID.

2) If you use the recent Windows version and have single processor machines, then you should also be fine (for duals, see the above).

3) For a Linux cluster, make sure that if you copy the directory, you DON'T copy the MachineDependent.dat file. This file will be autogenerated by the client to get a new ID.

[VSEKH]

I've got three separate machines on my network at home. My dual Xeon has 4 consoles, so it has machine IDs 1-4. The other 2 machines have a single console, to the machine ID is 1 on both of them.

I believe the CPUID is automatically generated and assigned by Stanford when your machine starts folding it's first protein and will be different for each console.

[Underwater Mike]

Good enough. Thanks!

I am going to try adding yet another console. Question for you: I know the process should be prioritized automatically when other, higher-priority tasks are running (e.g., video encoding). But I still find that the higher-priority task(s) sometimes suffer unless I exit the console completely. Does that ever happen to you?

[VSEKH]

I have to shutdown a couple of consoles on my dual system when playing games as FAH does not seem to release the CPU cycles even though the priority is set to low in task manager and with each console, the process priority to idle. Otherwise when I'm just browsing the web and using office products, I'm able to leave all 4 consoles folding without having any issues. This is why I never setup the text consoles to run as a service since I can easily shut then down without having to open up computer management and start them up by clicking on the shortcuts.