Computing with BOINC

Overview documents (read these first)

• Volunteer computing and grid computing
• BOINC in a nutshell
• Why use BOINC?
• Tutorial #1: Quick start
• Basic concepts
• Adapting applications
• Jobs and data
• Validation
• Security issues
• Tutorial #2: Project creation cookbook

Distributed computation with BOINC

• Computing model
  • Platforms
  • Applications and versions
  • Jobs
  • Redundancy and errors
  • Work distribution
  • Locality scheduling
  • Trickle messages
• Data management
  • Files and file references
  • File compression
  • Physical file management
  • Distributed file management?

Developing a BOINC application

• Basic APIs
  • APIs for main apps
  • APIs for graphics apps
• Specialized APIs (most apps won't use these)
  • Trickle messages API
  • Intermediate upload API
  • Options and status API
  • Diagnostics API
• Application development
  • Building BOINC applications - compiling applications on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux
  • Example applications
  • Application development tips
  • Application debugging
  • Application debugging on Windows
  • Dynamic library issues
• Languages other than C/C++
  • FORTRAN
  • Java
  • Python
  • [PyMW PyMW: Python master/worker system]
• Special types of applications
  • Legacy applications
  • Compound applications
  • Non-CPU-intensive applications
  • Running apps in virtual machines
• Multi-thread and GPU applications
  • Application planning
  • Multi-thread applications
  • Applications that use coprocessors
  • CUDA applications

Creating a BOINC project

• What is a project?
  • The BOINC database
  • Directory structure
• Setting up a BOINC server
  • The make_project script
• The project configuration file
  • Project options
  • Daemons
  • Periodic tasks
• Adding applications/platforms
• Adding application versions
• Project control
• Project security
  • Encryption utility program
  • Code signing
• Launching your project

Submitting and handling jobs

• Work-handling daemons
  • Back-end utility functions
• Submitting jobs
• Result validation
  • Homogeneous redundancy
  • Simple validator framework
  • Adaptive replication
  • Low-level validator framework
• Result assimilation
• Server-side file deletion
• Database purging utility
• Assigned work
• Single job submission

Maintaining a BOINC project

• Debugging server components
• Upgrading a project's server software
  • Recent server software changes
• Increasing server capacity
• Administrative web interface
• Log rotation
• Watchdogs
• Stripcharts

Web site

• Customize web site content
• Customize web site appearance with CSS
• Protection from spam
• Creating and managing message boards
• Web site translation
• Server status page
• Profile screening
• Caching
• Adding a wiki

Miscellaneous

• Recruiting and retaining volunteers
• GUI URLs
• Importing BOINC-wide teams
• Creating a 'project skin'
• Export credit data as XML
• Integrating BOINC projects with Grids
• Versions of BOINC?
• Configuring MySQL for BOINC
• Controlling account creation
• Project-specific preferences
• Work filtering by application
• Beta-test applications
• Campus-level BOINC projects
• Accepting donations through PayPal
• Blacklisting hosts
• User-submitted jobs
• Code signing using X509 certificates