| 23 | | For details please see the paper T. Giorgino, M. J. Harvey and G. De Fabritiis, ''Distributed computing as a virtual supercomputer: Tools to run and manage large-scale BOINC simulations'', Comp. Phys. Commun. 181, 1402 (2010). [[http://boinc.berkeley.edu/rboinc.pdf pdf]] |
| | 24 | * For details please see the paper T. Giorgino, M. J. Harvey and G. De Fabritiis, ''Distributed computing as a virtual supercomputer: Tools to run and manage large-scale BOINC simulations'', Comp. Phys. Commun. 181, 1402 (2010). [[http://boinc.berkeley.edu/rboinc.pdf pdf]] |
| | 25 | * For client instructions see http://www.multiscalelab.org/utilities/RemoteBoinc |
| 27 | | (This section to be fixed.) |
| 28 | | The software should be fairly self-explanatory, but installation may be tricky. Here's a general overview |
| | 29 | RBoinc is composed by the following main components |
| | 30 | 1. Client scripts, which are used by the scientists to submit and retrieve jobs. They are boinc_retrieve and boinc_submit. |
| | 31 | 1. Server cgis, used to handle files and interfacing with the rest of Boinc. They are called boinc_retrieve_server, boinc_submit_server |
| | 32 | 1. Various (optional) monitoring scripts, which generate nightly reports, statistics, and the like. |
| 41 | | * WUs are kept in a "workflow_directory", a subdir of the project dir, as per slide 22 of the Powerpoint. |
| 42 | | * Inside each dir a "process" bash file is created, which is executed by the assimilator with the name of the assimilated WU as its argument. It will create_work the next step for execution. |
| 43 | | * The main reason for using perl is that I preferred to use the XML::Simple module for (un-) xml-ing data structures over the network - it was useful for adding features on the fly keeping backwards compatibility |
| 44 | | * I implemented basic functions for authentication, but this is not finished yet |
| 45 | | * file storage is optimized through hardlinking and pooling. Network transfers are not (but they could be) |
| | 46 | * WUs are kept in a "workflow_directory", a subdir of the project dir, as per slide 22 of the Powerpoint. Inside each dir a "process" bash file is created, which is executed by the assimilator with the name of the assimilated WU as its argument. It will create_work the next step for execution. |
| | 47 | * File storage is optimized through hardlinking and pooling. (Network transfers are not yet) |
| | 48 | * Warning: authentication is not done yet (do secure the RBoinc port by firewall rules) |
| 48 | | == Annotating the WU template files == |
| | 51 | Both client and server are composed of Perl scripts (respectively command-line and cgi-bin). The main reason for using the Perl language is that I liked the XML::Simple module for (un-) xml-ing data structures over the network - which helped rapid development. |
| | 52 | |
| | 53 | == Client-side instructions == |
| | 54 | |
| | 55 | |
| | 56 | Instructions on using the client scripts are temporarily hosted at http://www.multiscalelab.org/utilities/RemoteBoinc . |
| | 57 | |
| | 58 | Client Perl scripts need be unpacked to some client-visible installation directory. Make sure your Perl installation fulfulls the dependencies (use ''cpan'' or your distribution's package manager if not). |
| | 59 | |
| | 60 | For details on the chaining mechanism, please see the paper T. Giorgino, M. J. Harvey and G. De Fabritiis, ''Distributed computing as a virtual supercomputer: Tools to run and manage large-scale BOINC simulations'', Comp. Phys. Commun. 181, 1402 (2010). [[http://boinc.berkeley.edu/rboinc.pdf pdf]]. |
| | 61 | |
| | 62 | |
| | 63 | |
| | 64 | == Server-side instructions == |
| | 65 | |
| | 66 | The main steps to install the RBoinc server components are: |
| | 67 | |
| | 68 | * Setup or adapt an instance of the apache web server on the boinc server (or change the boinc one) to serve the rboinc cgi and DAV paths. See the ''apache.conf'' example file provided with the distribution. We shall assume that apache will serve at http://YOUR_SERVER:8383/rboinc_cgi |
| | 69 | * Copy the rboinc ''server'' scripts in the cgi directory, and edit the configuration file to suit your site setup. |
| | 70 | * You may want to revise the ''process'' script. It is invoked every time a WU is complete, to perform the submission of the next chain step. |
| | 71 | * Customize the WU and result template files, as directed below. This will RBoinc-enable Boinc ''applications'' of your choice. |
| | 72 | * If desired, install the SQL stored procedures (monitoring components). |
| | 73 | |
| | 74 | |
| | 75 | === Annotating the WU template files === |
