HI EVERYONE! I HAVE BEEN A PART OF THIS COMMUNITY FOR A FEW YEARS NOW.
I HAVE 2 DESKTOPS RUNNING BOINC 24/7 BUT THEY JUST AREN'T CUTTING IT FOR ME.
THE COMPUTING SPEED ISN'T WHAT I WANT IT TO BE FROM THE DESKTOPS.
SO I WENT ONLINE TO BUY 2 USED SERVERS FROM EBAY BOTH LOOK LIKE THEY'LL DO THE JOB.

I AM BEGINNER USER ON LINUX OS'S.
I DO PLAN ON INSTALLING LINUX ON BOTH SERVERS.
WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO HAVE BOINC RUN ON SERVERS?
I WANT TO USE THE MOST OUT OF THESE SERVERS.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP.

You really want something with GPU power if you really want to see some action. ;-)

Cheers.

IF I FOCUS ON BUYING A GRAPHICS CARD FOR MY DESKTOP WHICH WOULD WORK.
HOW COULD I MAKE THE MOST OUT OF THE SERVERS?

well, to simply get them up and running, assuming those machines don't have GPUs (servers usually don't), install Debian (or Ubuntu) on them, then log in as root and do the following:

apt-get install boinc-client   

(type "y" when asked)

boinccmd --project_attach http://setiathome.berkeley.edu account_key

where "account_key" is your account key you get from the corresponding webpage of your seti@home account. Use the WEAK account key, not the main account key!
To make this clear, don't type "account_key", or things possibly screw up. Type the key from your seti@home account page instead

and then

service boinc-client restart

and there you go, all CPUs start crunching at 100% after the initial boinc benchmarks.

I don't know Ubuntu that well, but the Debian installer is pretty simple. At the end of the setup process it will ask you what software to install. All you need is basic tools. I'd recommend to install ssh-server, too, so you can use the program "putty" or the like to log in via network.

AWESOME I WILL DEFINITELY TRY THIS WHEN I RECEIVE MY SERVERS IN A COUPLE OF DAYS.
THANK YOU SO MUCH.
I WILL KEEP YOU POSTED ON MY TURN OUT.

I HAVE A FEW GRAPHICS CARDS LAYING AROUND PRETTY OLD THOUGH LIKE MAYBE 8-10 YEARS OR SO. WITH THESE WORK FOR AND OK GPU OR DO I NEED TO GET NEW ONES.

The online BOINC User Manual has good instructions for how to install BOINC on several Linux distros.
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Installing_BOINC#Linux

Really to get the most out of any of the system is to use the optimized apps instead of the stock ones. The installer makes it really simple for Windows. The Linux ones you have to do 100% manually, but it is pretty simple if you can copy and paste.

---

SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

I HAVE A FEW GRAPHICS CARDS LAYING AROUND PRETTY OLD THOUGH LIKE MAYBE 8-10 YEARS OR SO. WITH THESE WORK FOR AND OK GPU OR DO I NEED TO GET NEW ONES.

For Nvidia GPUs you need something from the 8000 series or newer.
For ATi GPUs you need something from the 5000 series or newer. Note: Some mid to high end 4000 series GPUs can work but are often a PITA.

Depending on the type of servers you have bought there could be many options for popping newer GPUs in them.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

WHEN YOU MENTION OPTIMIZED APPS.
DO MEAN USING CPU OVERCLOCKING APPS?
OR RUNNING A BAREBONES SYSTEM?

Neither, the "optimised" applications have been carefully worked to run as fast as possible on the target hardware.

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

HOW DO I CHECK IF THE OPTIMIZED APPS ARE RUNNING?

You have to manually download and install them.

For Windows systems there is a good installer that does the basic configuration for you, I'm not sure if there is an installer for Linux systems.



(btw - Is your caps lock jammed on, as all your posts are "shouting")

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

HOW DO I CHECK IF THE OPTIMIZED APPS ARE RUNNING?

Hey... That is leaping before you can run...

The 'optimized' apps are cutting-edge work by the Lunatics that sometime need a little care. You can take best advantage of them by using the latest generation of graphics cards.

Note that all their 'mainstream' optimizations are already included in the normal s@h app that is downloaded automatically.


I run exclusively Linux servers for minimum footprint and maximum reliability. Works well.

For best performance, you should be looking at adding a recent graphics card. Go for the latest 'biggest' GPU your servers can power. GPUs give vastly greater performance for number crunching s@h than CPUs...


Welcome to the great search!

Happy fast crunchin',
Martin

(And nope... The RAC listed for me here isn't representative... :-P )

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

I work for HP and for their severs they use Red Hat.
If all I want to run is BOINC....
I know this may seem like a strange question.
What would be better to install on my server Red Hat, Ubuntu, or Debian?
What is the most lightweight OS for servers?

I just installed Ubuntu seems good! but how do I know if boinc is running?

I just installed Ubuntu seems good! but how do I know if boinc is running?

At a command line or terminal prompt enter the following command

ps ax | grep boinc

You should see something like

11870 pts/0 S+ 0:00 grep boinc
18103 ? Ss 0:54 /usr/sbin/BOINC/boinc --daemon

The last line indicates boinc is running.

I just installed Ubuntu seems good! but how do I know if boinc is running?

At a command line or terminal prompt enter the following command

ps ax | grep boinc

You should see something like

11870 pts/0 S+ 0:00 grep boinc
18103 ? Ss 0:54 /usr/sbin/BOINC/boinc --daemon

The last line indicates boinc is running.

This what my google cloud instance with Ubuntu 15.10 displays.

BOINC stopped
19022 pts/0 S+ 0:00 grep boinc

BOINC started
19061 ? SNsl 0:00 /usr/bin/boinc --dir /var/lib/boinc-client
19412 pts/0 S+ 0:00 grep boinc


I find it easier to connect to the host using BOINC Manager to check how it is doing.

---

SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

I installed LXDE for a GUI. Instead of having to boot into Lubuntu every boot is there a way to boot without the GUI. At this point I'm just switching between Gui to Terminal view by using the Crtl+Alt+F1 and Alt+F7 feature.

I just installed Ubuntu seems good! but how do I know if boinc is running?

On Ubuntu and Debian, I'd say either

"service boinc-client status" (modern way)

or

"/etc/init.d/boinc-client status" (legacy way)



You might also want to check cpu load using "top"
(when running, press q to exit. h for help)

I installed LXDE for a GUI. Instead of having to boot into Lubuntu every boot is there a way to boot without the GUI. At this point I'm just switching between Gui to Terminal view by using the Crtl+Alt+F1 and Alt+F7 feature.

When it comes to GUI I'm out of the equation. The words "server" and "GUI" are somewhat mutually exclusive :D (GUI will do just fine tho, don't worry).
In theory there is a way to dual boot, but as you apparently are no linux/u*ix expert yet I'd recommend refraining from that. It's not worth the hassle, most Linux GUIs aren't Windows - they (usually) don't do spurious stuff in the background eating up resources.
You should be fine booting to GUI and using a console window or switch to console and back like you do.

Linux is a great platform for BOINC. It is low overhead and saves you the cost of the microsoft license per machine. There is a bit of learning but it isn't too bad.

I have not been able to figure out how to run ATI/AMD GPUs without running the GUI. It appears that the drivers are built into X. All of my linux BOINC machines with ATI/AMD GPUs are running Ubuntu desktop with the GUI.

I can, and do, run Linux with Nvidia GPUs without running the GUI. You get a small performance boost by not running the GUI. All of my linux BOINC machines with Nvidia GPUs are running Ubuntu LTS server, no GUI.

I don't recommend older GPUs for BOINC. They are not power efficient and many projects are starting to phase them out. The Nvidia 750ti is a good starter card. Go up from there, not down.