Has anyone ever done an install in a corporate environment, so that it gets installed silently?
I'm trying to get people to install it in their work environments, and the best way would be to have it done silently in the background like everything else.

Has anyone else done this before?
Any suggestions on how it might be done, with a default config?

Also - same question regarding putting it on servers as well so they can be used in quiet times?

Make sure you have written permission to make use of the work systems in this way, it's not worth losing your job over.
Cunstom installations.

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Grant
Darwin NT

This is more of a BOINC question than a Rosetta question. If you search for BOINC silent installer, there is lots of help out there.

While BOINC does run at the lowest priority possible, so other work gets done first, it also (when running Rosetta at least) consumes a lot of memory. A higher priority task cannot actually run on the CPU until the memory that it was using is available. If BOINC tasks are consuming memory, then other tasks may get swapped out and therefore have to be swapped back in before they can run. This can cause perceptible sluggishness on the other applications.

So, my suggestion would be, first to ensure you have permission. Secondly, to not take any great lengths to try to get every ounce of compute power available out of these machines. Leave them some memory and at least one CPU to do their "day job". The default configuration is to use at most half of the memory. You can also schedule hours of the day for both network use, and computing time, so that might make a lot of sense too. Be sure to set activity to "run based on preferences" to honor those settings.

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Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense

thanks for the link, very helpful :-)

excellent advice, esp re reduced computing power. I've only just started using Rosetta at home, up till now I've been using folding at home, and one thing that bugs me about F&H is the lack of control over the CPU use. BOINC does seem to be much more friendly and configurable in this regard.

In general, would one be better to use (say) 1 core at 100% usage rather than (say) 4 cores each at 25% usage? Do you have a feel for which of those options might be better in terms of fewer watts used, CPU temperature and work unit completion? I know from experience people don't like it when their laptops get hot.

In general, you would be better off to use one CPU than to have four pancakes in the air and only one griddle. Control the number of CPUs used, not the usage of each CPU. This will reduce your memory footprint, and improve your L3 cache hit rates too.

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Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense

just in case anyone continues reading this thread.

So in terms of getting permission - of the three companies I've spoken to who are interested, it seems that security and cost are currently the issues. Mostly security, although there is plenty of stuff on the web to show it is secure, so hopefully it'll get past that.

Then there's the cost of running it. Nothing is for free. Compute costs electricity at the very least. I'm going to have to work on that one.

The biggest issue I personally have come across so far is heat. After trying various throttling options in the BOINC manager, running fewer CPUs, running them at different percentages, etc, the best way I've found of keeping the CPU temperature at a reasonable level (ie below the 60c "high" for my particular processor - 8 core 4 ghz AMD FX8350) while keeping the processes delivering the maximum benefit is to throttle the CPUs at the hardware level. Now I can do this since most of my time my PC is not doing a lot computationally, and I don't mind waiting a few seconds for my browser to load all the tabs at the start. However, not sure that would be a runner for most people.

I found that running all 8 cores at 100% in BOINC manager (but throttling CPU down from 4ghz to 2.1 ghz at the hardware level) runs the machine at 52c
Whereas running 4 cores at anything more than 40% in BOINC manager (but with the CPU not hardware throttled, so max of 4ghz) takes it over 60c
Even running 1 single core at 100% in BOINC manager and CPU not hardware throttled takes it over the 60c.

Worse still, if I run the cores throttled at 40% in BOINC, the timescales are so long to I may not complete work units in time unless my computer is on 24/7. And even then maybe not.

That I'm sure will be the next issue I face in terms of getting it through corporate will I'm sure be heat. It's noticeable, physically.

I welcome any suggestions.

I found that running all 8 cores at 100% in BOINC manager (but throttling CPU down from 4ghz to 2.1 ghz at the hardware level) runs the machine at 52c
Whereas running 4 cores at anything more than 40% in BOINC manager (but with the CPU not hardware throttled, so max of 4ghz) takes it over 60c
Even running 1 single core at 100% in BOINC manager and CPU not hardware throttled takes it over the 60c.

Worse still, if I run the cores throttled at 40% in BOINC, the timescales are so long to I may not complete work units in time unless my computer is on 24/7. And even then maybe not.

I have an FX8370 (and also a 8350 - much the same). My PC has pretty good cooling, but irrespective of that, I'm running at 4.4GHz on all 8 cores for 100% of the time and my temp is currently (checks) 46c
Something else is going on for you - those are horrible numbers. As if you didn't have any cooling at all.

Before anything else, turn off your PC, take the PC somewhere with a lot of room (your back garden if you have one) and blow out all the dust from your case.
Then (inside) check every fan in your case one at a time to make sure 1) they're working at all and 2) aren't clogged up with dust or whatever. Pay particular attention to your CPU cooler.
It's worth plugging the PC back in with the case panel off (before you connect it up to monitor etc) and turning it on so you can see that all the fans are running as they should.
Then connect it back up and see what difference it has made. Because no Boinc settings or throttling are going to fix those numbers you report.

And before you do any of that, find some old dirty clothes to put on, as if you're fixing an oil leak on your car. This will get messy.
(Note: I keep a small hair dryer with a cool setting to blow dust out, and a portable car hand vacuum to suck in the clouds of dust removed for just this exercise)

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thanks for the feedback. It is a new PSU and CPU cooler and so I hope they are good, but'll I'll give that a go.
Anything else I should check? I can see all the fans running okay.

thanks for the feedback. It is a new PSU and CPU cooler and so I hope they are good, but'll I'll give that a go.
Anything else I should check? I can see all the fans running okay.

Do that first and come back with your temps again. If you're PC's full of dust-bunnies, nothing else will compensate. When you're certain it's cleaned up we can see how much further you need to go, if at all.
First time it was pointed out to me I nearly choked on the cr*p that came out. A miracle it worked at all. And that was pre my overclocking days.

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so yes definitely a physical problem. The inside got cleaned. I added an case fan, as per what google wisdom I could find. (suck in at the front and out at the back). Made a small difference.
Then added 2 side panel fans, to draw more air into the case, which seemed to be conventional wisdom. Made it hotter! So reversed the fans and I got a 10c cooling over all. A bit better. Plus it'll keep my feet warm in winter :-)

Isopropyl alcohol and MX4 thermal paste on order. Once they arrive and I've re-seated the cooler then I'll report back.

I did find another issue with CPU throttling that looks like a bug, but I'll report that separately.

Many thanks for your advice so far.

so yes definitely a physical problem. The inside got cleaned. I added an case fan, as per what google wisdom I could find. (suck in at the front and out at the back). Made a small difference.
Then added 2 side panel fans, to draw more air into the case, which seemed to be conventional wisdom. Made it hotter! So reversed the fans and I got a 10c cooling over all. A bit better. Plus it'll keep my feet warm in winter :-)

Isopropyl alcohol and MX4 thermal paste on order. Once they arrive and I've re-seated the cooler then I'll report back.

I did find another issue with CPU throttling that looks like a bug, but I'll report that separately.

Many thanks for your advice so far.

I see you've allowed some tasks to come down.
Even before you've re-seated the cooler, where are you with you cores and temps atm, so we can see how far you've got left to go?

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I was running @4ghz.
running at 6 cores, 35% usage, my cpu was between 53c (during the day) and 46c (at night)
anything above 50% cpu usage for six cores made it go over 60c.
100% cpu made it go over 70c

I'd be interested to know what "pretty good cooling"is. Is it liquid cooled? I was reading one article that said a guy achieved 56c while running at full tilt only after adding a liquid cooler.

I was running @4ghz.
running at 6 cores, 35% usage, my cpu was between 53c (during the day) and 46c (at night)
anything above 50% cpu usage for six cores made it go over 60c.
100% cpu made it go over 70c

I'd be interested to know what "pretty good cooling" is. Is it liquid cooled? I was reading one article that said a guy achieved 56c while running at full tilt only after adding a liquid cooler.

It is, but I didn't want to distract with that initially as your numbers were so bad there had to be something else to it as well. I've been through all these stages as a novice some years ago.
I can't recall how wellbadly I did under air cooling, but certainly all problems went away with some form of liquid cooling, which was when I got into overclocking.
I think I had an FX8120 in those days. An FX8350 ran both faster and cooler.
As I said above, I'm running at 4415MHz on 8 cores at 100% and around 44C CPU package (Max 62C) and 49C CPU Motherboard (Max 72C) as showing using the excellent HWInfo64 app
This is with a new (2nd hand) Asus Sabertooth 990FX motherboard I had to get recently after blowing an M5A99FX Pro motherboard after running it as 4768MHz for about 5yrs

Depending on whether your case can handle only 120mm (more usual) or up to 140mm fans go to this page for all-in-one (AIO) liquid coolers
My old case used a single 120mm CoolerMaster 120ML for a few years with temps in the mid-50s
I took the trouble to upgrade the case last year to take 140mm fans, so I'm now using a 280mm (2x140mm) Corsair Hydro H115i.
My temps are low because I'm only slowly edging up my multiplier with this new m/board to see how far I can comfortably go as it's slightly different to the old one. I'll be ticking the multiplier up another notch shortly to get nearer to my old levels.
Fwiw I'm using a 120mm Corsair Hydro H60 on an Intel i3-8350 that's under lockdown atm (very different CPU so maybe not comparable) but if your case can handle 2x120mm then a 240mm Corsair Hydro H100i is notable for high fan speeds and looks interesting. Obviously I have no idea about your budget.

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