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One_Box · 13th Dec 2011, 08:15

Does anyone know of a version of vmware which can handle 12 or more threads ?

I have tried version 3.0 but that only deals with 8.

I know Vmware make a workstation version but I think it's about $200.

Is there any other virtualization software that can be used used (Win 7 host) running folding via a Linux VM ?

Leroyingo · 13th Dec 2011, 08:52

Would virtual box do it. I have seen a screenshot which shows allocation upto 12 cores but have no experience with it.

One_Box · 13th Dec 2011, 08:56

Thanks, I'll have a look.

Fod · 13th Dec 2011, 09:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leroyingo

Would virtual box do it. I have seen a screenshot which shows allocation upto 12 cores but have no experience with it.

The current version of virtual box allows for up to 16 CPUs and 12GB RAM (although i think the RAM might be just because my system has 12GB installed).

One_Box · 13th Dec 2011, 15:26

Any issues with the installation or running folding as a VM ?

TaRkA DaHl · 13th Dec 2011, 17:34

*From memory* virtual box isn't as 'efficient' as VMware and won't give the same PPD.

Maybe someone with more free time has or will test this and confirm though.

One_Box · 13th Dec 2011, 18:37

OK, will see if I can get it running first and then do some testing.

coolamasta · 14th Dec 2011, 10:22

I've been playing recently with VM technology's and have settled on running the free version of ESXi 5.0 on my Watercooled i7 970 (Hex core, 12 thread) rig and I've happily assigned 12 CPU's to an Ubuntu 10.10 VM and its sitting there doing bigbeta's @ around 95,000 PPD (Until Jan comes and they move the goal posts to 16 threads but we wont go there now lol)

The main advantage to using ESXi over a windows based VM server is you don't have to worry about the host OS overheads, its totally headless, its uber reliable/stable and you can tell it to reserve CPU & Memory specifically for individual VM's making sure no matter how much CPU and Mem another VM's take the VM you have fix the minimum CPU and Mem allocation on always get that regardless.
You can do this on each VM or you can make Resource Pool's which determine the amount of CPU and Mem allocated to the VM's in the pool, see my screen-shot below

As well as the Ubuntu VM I also run 2 more on this rig, one is a backup domain controller which uses hardly any CPU once its booted up and the other runs Win7 with "PS3 Media Server" which streams video to my Sony BluRay Player and Xbox's, again when its not doing anything it doesn't use hardly any CPU meaning the Ubuntu VM gets all the beans, OK when streaming I use about 5-10% total processor power where its Transcoding video but I only stream for an hour or 2 most days so no major dents in PPD

Anyway yeah I can't recommend the free ESXi 5.0 enough, its rock solid and does exactly what I want

TaRkA DaHl · 14th Dec 2011, 15:07

Would love to use ESXi but as this PC is used by my other half for watching movies it wouldn't quite work properly :/

coolamasta · 14th Dec 2011, 16:21

Ahhhh, just make that machine an ESXi rig and get her a netbook or cheap PC

lol

cave_diver · 14th Dec 2011, 19:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by coolamasta

Ahhhh, just make that machine an ESXi rig and get her a netbook or cheap PC

lol

Even a netbook can do about 500-1k PPD hehe not that I put F@H on my netbook at all!

One_Box · 14th Dec 2011, 21:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by coolamasta

I've been playing recently with VM technology's and have settled on running the free version of ESXi 5.0 on my Watercooled i7 970 (Hex core, 12 thread) rig and I've happily assigned 12 CPU's to an Ubuntu 10.10 VM and its sitting there doing bigbeta's @ around 95,000 PPD (Until Jan comes and they move the goal posts to 16 threads but we wont go there now lol)

The main advantage to using ESXi over a windows based VM server is you don't have to worry about the host OS overheads, its totally headless, its uber reliable/stable and you can tell it to reserve CPU & Memory specifically for individual VM's making sure no matter how much CPU and Mem another VM's take the VM you have fix the minimum CPU and Mem allocation on always get that regardless.
You can do this on each VM or you can make Resource Pool's which determine the amount of CPU and Mem allocated to the VM's in the pool, see my screen-shot below

As well as the Ubuntu VM I also run 2 more on this rig, one is a backup domain controller which uses hardly any CPU once its booted up and the other runs Win7 with "PS3 Media Server" which streams video to my Sony BluRay Player and Xbox's, again when its not doing anything it doesn't use hardly any CPU meaning the Ubuntu VM gets all the beans, OK when streaming I use about 5-10% total processor power where its Transcoding video but I only stream for an hour or 2 most days so no major dents in PPD

Anyway yeah I can't recommend the free ESXi 5.0 enough, its rock solid and does exactly what I want

Thanks Coola, I may well try it.

At the moment I have FAH set up as a Linux VM using Virtual Box 4.1.6 with host Win 7

I have it running project 6995 (R0 C95 G247) with a TPF of 1:51. using all 12 threads which should give about 43552PPD.

I'm trying to access the FAH folder in the VM from the host so that I can use my Windows copy of HFM to monitor the PPD. The only trouble is all the data for the VM is held in a file called Fah-virtual.vdi and I have no idea how to make this available to the host and the FAH folder which is part of Fah-virtual.vdi.

Help anyone ?

coolamasta · 14th Dec 2011, 22:55

No worries mate

Just use the network name of the Linux host with the share name of the fah folder assuming of course you shared the "fah" folder on Linux and have samba installed etc, did you follow this excellent guide for folding on Ubuntu 10.10? - http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=...&postcount=259

One_Box · 14th Dec 2011, 23:42

Thanks coola.

Yes I have that link bookmarked and have HFM set up on a linux box monitoring three machines without problem. I think I'm just tired, my first stab at a virtual machine ... will try again tomorrow.

One_Box · 15th Dec 2011, 06:44

@ coola,

Downloaded the iso file but not sure I should go ahead. I'm only using Win 7 home premium not a server OS.

I believe this iso will produce a bootable disk which is then used to install ESXi 5.0. Will this interefer with my Win 7 and native Linux partitions ?

Any thoughts gratefully received

One_Box · 19th Dec 2011, 05:52

Tried to do a manual install of ESXi 5.0 bu it stopped half way through, says it can't find a driver for the network card (SB-E mobo too new for it I suppose). Will have to do further research after Christmas.

I did manage to get Virtual Box running on all 12 cores and it seems to fold quite well. Again I need to do more testing when I have time to see if there is any real advantage over native Win 7.

13th Dec 2011, 08:15	#1
One_Box Folder of the month April 2012 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vale of Glamorgan Posts: 601	Version of Vmware for 12 threads? Does anyone know of a version of vmware which can handle 12 or more threads ? I have tried version 3.0 but that only deals with 8. I know Vmware make a workstation version but I think it's about $200. Is there any other virtualization software that can be used used (Win 7 host) running folding via a Linux VM ? __________________

13th Dec 2011, 08:52	#2
Leroyingo Multimodder Join Date: May 2011 Location: Australia Posts: 177	Would virtual box do it. I have seen a screenshot which shows allocation upto 12 cores but have no experience with it. __________________ i7-2600k @ 4.5 & i3-540 @ 4.4/ 1 x GTX 275 / 1x 8800GTX (all 24/7) i7-920 @ 4.0 / 1 x GTX 580 SOC / 1 x GTX 275 (occasional folders, mainly for gaming)

13th Dec 2011, 08:56	#3
One_Box Folder of the month April 2012 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vale of Glamorgan Posts: 601	Thanks, I'll have a look. __________________

13th Dec 2011, 15:26	#5
One_Box Folder of the month April 2012 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vale of Glamorgan Posts: 601	Any issues with the installation or running folding as a VM ? __________________

13th Dec 2011, 18:37	#7
One_Box Folder of the month April 2012 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vale of Glamorgan Posts: 601	OK, will see if I can get it running first and then do some testing. __________________

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13th Dec 2011, 17:34	#6
TaRkA DaHl Ultramodder Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 1,369	From memory virtual box isn't as 'efficient' as VMware and won't give the same PPD. Maybe someone with more free time has or will test this and confirm though.

14th Dec 2011, 10:22	#8
coolamasta Folding@Home CC Captain 2010/11/12 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Sunny Brizzol! Posts: 2,339	I've been playing recently with VM technology's and have settled on running the free version of ESXi 5.0 on my Watercooled i7 970 (Hex core, 12 thread) rig and I've happily assigned 12 CPU's to an Ubuntu 10.10 VM and its sitting there doing bigbeta's @ around 95,000 PPD (Until Jan comes and they move the goal posts to 16 threads but we wont go there now lol) The main advantage to using ESXi over a windows based VM server is you don't have to worry about the host OS overheads, its totally headless, its uber reliable/stable and you can tell it to reserve CPU & Memory specifically for individual VM's making sure no matter how much CPU and Mem another VM's take the VM you have fix the minimum CPU and Mem allocation on always get that regardless. You can do this on each VM or you can make Resource Pool's which determine the amount of CPU and Mem allocated to the VM's in the pool, see my screen-shot below As well as the Ubuntu VM I also run 2 more on this rig, one is a backup domain controller which uses hardly any CPU once its booted up and the other runs Win7 with "PS3 Media Server" which streams video to my Sony BluRay Player and Xbox's, again when its not doing anything it doesn't use hardly any CPU meaning the Ubuntu VM gets all the beans, OK when streaming I use about 5-10% total processor power where its Transcoding video but I only stream for an hour or 2 most days so no major dents in PPD Anyway yeah I can't recommend the free ESXi 5.0 enough, its rock solid and does exactly what I want __________________ My Main Rigs:~ H2O'd i7 3770K @ 4.5 - 16GB - H2O'd GTX 670 \| Asus Z9PE-W8, EP-Xeon 2670 @ 3.2 - 16GB \| ~~~ My Current Dual EP-Xeon 2670 Project ~~~ \| ~~~ My Mitsubishi Evo Track Car Project ~~~ \|

14th Dec 2011, 15:07	#9
TaRkA DaHl Ultramodder Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 1,369	Would love to use ESXi but as this PC is used by my other half for watching movies it wouldn't quite work properly :/

14th Dec 2011, 16:21	#10
coolamasta Folding@Home CC Captain 2010/11/12 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Sunny Brizzol! Posts: 2,339	Ahhhh, just make that machine an ESXi rig and get her a netbook or cheap PC lol __________________ My Main Rigs:~ H2O'd i7 3770K @ 4.5 - 16GB - H2O'd GTX 670 \| Asus Z9PE-W8, EP-Xeon 2670 @ 3.2 - 16GB \| ~~~ My Current Dual EP-Xeon 2670 Project ~~~ \| ~~~ My Mitsubishi Evo Track Car Project ~~~ \|

14th Dec 2011, 22:55	#13
coolamasta Folding@Home CC Captain 2010/11/12 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Sunny Brizzol! Posts: 2,339	No worries mate Just use the network name of the Linux host with the share name of the fah folder assuming of course you shared the "fah" folder on Linux and have samba installed etc, did you follow this excellent guide for folding on Ubuntu 10.10? - http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=...&postcount=259 __________________ My Main Rigs:~ H2O'd i7 3770K @ 4.5 - 16GB - H2O'd GTX 670 \| Asus Z9PE-W8, EP-Xeon 2670 @ 3.2 - 16GB \| ~~~ My Current Dual EP-Xeon 2670 Project ~~~ \| ~~~ My Mitsubishi Evo Track Car Project ~~~ \|

14th Dec 2011, 23:42	#14
One_Box Folder of the month April 2012 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vale of Glamorgan Posts: 601	Thanks coola. Yes I have that link bookmarked and have HFM set up on a linux box monitoring three machines without problem. I think I'm just tired, my first stab at a virtual machine ... will try again tomorrow. __________________

15th Dec 2011, 06:44	#15
One_Box Folder of the month April 2012 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vale of Glamorgan Posts: 601	@ coola, Downloaded the iso file but not sure I should go ahead. I'm only using Win 7 home premium not a server OS. I believe this iso will produce a bootable disk which is then used to install ESXi 5.0. Will this interefer with my Win 7 and native Linux partitions ? Any thoughts gratefully received __________________

19th Dec 2011, 05:52	#16
One_Box Folder of the month April 2012 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vale of Glamorgan Posts: 601	Tried to do a manual install of ESXi 5.0 bu it stopped half way through, says it can't find a driver for the network card (SB-E mobo too new for it I suppose). Will have to do further research after Christmas. I did manage to get Virtual Box running on all 12 cores and it seems to fold quite well. Again I need to do more testing when I have time to see if there is any real advantage over native Win 7. __________________