Monthly Archives: April 2020

vmware fah appliance 3

Joining VMware and the Folding@Home Project – FAQ

General, ,

Since my first post about joining the VMware Team in the Folding@home (F@H) project, a lot has happened, we have created an easily to deploy and use OVA via our Flings website, which once deployed, will connect to the F@H project and start contributing straight away.

I’ve been humbled to be part of this internal VMware project and provide some of the documentation for the Fling..

In this post I will cover a FAQ of the typical questions we have come across. A FAQ can also be found on the fling web page.

VMware Appliance for Folding FAQ

1. Where can I learn more about the Folding@home project?

I recommend you check out the Folding@home website

2. If I have no VMware software, can I still contribute?

Yes, the OVA Fling is designed for deployment on VMware Workstation, Fusion and vSphere products.

However you can simply run the F@H client locally on your workstation, laptop or home micro server. VMware Software is not needed!

3. I seem to be receiving no workloads, is my OVA working?

If you can see logs stating the below, this means there are no available work units for your appliance configuration. We recommend leaving your appliance running, and it will continue to search for available work units.

16:24:39:WU00:FS00:Connecting to 65.254.110.245:8080

16:24:40:WARNING:WU00:FS00:Failed to get assignment from '65.254.110.245:8080': No WUs available for this configuration

4. My appliance seems to not be working, and I see “vghetto-photonos login:” when I open the console for my appliance.

You need to deploy the appliance with the OS Root Password configuration, this is a mandatory parameter, as there is no default root password for PhotonOS builds.

5. Why cannot I not select to just work on COVID-19 projects?

This is not an option that’s available from the F@H team, however any work units for COVID-19 will be prioritised. These are the Covid-19 projects:

  • CPU : 14328 – 14329 – 14530 – 14531
  • GPU : 11741 to 11764

6. How many CPUs should I configure my OVA with?

This depends on your available resources, by default the appliance will deploy with 2 CPUs.

7. Are there any other optimizations I can make with my configuration?

You can consult the previous link for advanced client settings. We also recommend authenticating your work by using a PassKey, please see this link; https://foldingathome.org/support/faq/points/passkey/.

8. Can I deploy the OVA on a ESXi host?

Yes, however you will need to use the OVFTool, the Host Client UI is not supported. You can find sample scripts here; https://github.com/lamw/vmware-fah-automation

9. Can I deploy multiple OVAs at once?

Yes, you can reference the following automation options,

10. Can I deploy the OVA on Fusion or Workstation?

Yes, you can deploy our latest OVA (ver. 1.0.1 and higher) to both VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation.

11. What are my options for monitoring the appliance?

There are three options;

  • Within the VM console itself, you can choose between the PhotonOS shell (ALT + F1) and Top screen (ALT + F2).
  • Connecting the web client – https://OVA_IP:7396
  • Using FAHControl to connect to multiple clients. This is installed by default with the F@H client on Windows and Mac OS X and there is a separate installer for Linux machines.

12. Is there something cooler, like monitoring in vROPs?

You can monitor the VMware Team’s performance using this vROPs dashboard; https://github.com/johnddias/vROps-Folding-at-Home

13. What ports and IP addresses do I need to open on my firewall?

  • External (Internet)
    • Inbound/Outbound on port 8080 or 80 to receive and upload Workload Unit (Please see Folding @ Home Documentation for a complete list of servers for security whitelisting)
  • Internal
    • Inbound/Outbound on port 36330 for remote management of FAHClient using FAHControl Center
    • Inbound/Outbound on port 7396 for local web management of FAHClient using FAH Web Control(e.g. http://[FAH]:7396)

14. Can I change the configuration of my F@H client after it is deployed?

Yes, you edit the settings using either FAHControl, or by connecting to the appliance and editing “/etc/fahclient/config.xml”. You can find more information at this link: https://foldingathome.org/support/faq/installation-guides/configuration-guide/.

15. Can I use a GPU with my appliance?

Yes, please see the supplementary documentation on the Fling website. Please also review the Folding@Home requirements; https://foldingathome.org/support/faq/installation-guides/linux/requirements/.

16. if your GPU isn’t detected on your windows box

This fix has worked for other;

  • Windows Updates often breaks OpenCL support when it updates the drivers automatically. To fix it, reinstall the drivers you downloaded from nVidia or AMD website.

16. Where can I check the VMware Team stats and my user stats?

Official F@H Searchable Stats page – Team VMware

Official F@H – Fast stats – Team VMware

We have found that sometimes the official F@H stats page gives the error “Bad gateway”, so we recommend the Extreme Overclockers Forum link below.

Our WaveFront team have created a public facing dashboard as well!

17. I see in the logs, “Exception: Failed reading core package header”

Check your firewall/proxy settings for web filtering/download file inspection. It may be needed to exclude your appliance from this feature.

Exception Failed reading core package header

Note: I have personally seen this as an issue with the Sophos UTM used for home setups.

Regards

Dean Lewis
vmware fah appliance 3

Using FAHControl to monitor multiple Folding@Home Clients

Uncategorized, , ,

This blog post will cover how to centrally manage multiple Folding@Home clients.

  • Installing FAHControl
  • Monitor Multiple instances of VMware Appliance for Folding@home
  • Configuring Access to your Linux based clients or directly on the VMware F@H Appliance
  • Connecting FAHControl to your clients
  • Troubleshooting FAHControl issues
  • Firewall Rules

Installing FAHControl to monitor multiple installations

For Windows instances, this is installed as part of the FAHClient

  • “C:\Program Files (x86)\FAHClient\FAHControl.exe”

For Linux, you will need to install FAHControl separately

Monitoring multiple instances of the VMware Appliance for Folding@Home

When you deploy you’re OVA you’ll be asked to configure the below highlighted settings, by default we input a rule of 0.0.0.0/0 meaning any FAHControl node can connect (using the correct password). You can alter this for your local subnets.

VMware Appliance for FoldingatHome FAHControl remote management networks

Configuring Access to your Linux based clients or directly on the VMware F@H Appliance

On your Linux machines or deployed OVAs

  • Connect via SSH
  • Edit the config.xml file
vi /etc/fahclient/config.xml
  • Insert the following code to enable FAHControl access
    • From within vi press ‘i’ to enter insert mode
  • To configure a single address to access your client
    • Without passwords;
<command-allow-no-pass v='127.0.0.1 x.x.x.x’ />
  • With Password;
<command-allow v='127.0.0.1 192.168.200.10' />

<password v='VMware1!' />

N.B. The localhost address must remain configured, otherwise the client work run

  • Save the config.xml file
  • Press ESC key
  • Enter without quotes “:wq!”

Using FAHControl to monitor multiple Folding@Home Clients example config.xml file

  • Reload the FAHClient
    • /etc/init.d/FAHClient restart

reload FAHClient init.d restart

If you see “Starting fahclient … FAIL” check your XML file again for any syntax errors.

Examples Config.xml changes

Using password with a single IP restriction

  <!-- Remote Command Server -->

  <command-allow v='127.0.0.1 192.168.200.10' />

  <password v='VMware1!'/>

Without a password against a single IP restriction

  <!-- Remote Command Server -->

  <command-allow-no-pass v='127.0.0.1 192.168.200.10' />

Without either a password or IP restriction

<!-- Remote Command Server -->

  <command-allow-no-pass v='127.0.0.1 0.0.0.0/0' />

Connecting FAHControl to your clients

  • Open your FAHControl and click Add
  • Enter the name of your client as you would like it to be displayed, the IP address of your client and your password if necessary, and click save
  • You should now see your client is connected in FAHControl.

Connecting FAHControl to your clients adding a client

Connecting FAHControl to your clients adding a client settings

Troubleshooting FAHControl issues

FAHControl uses the default TCP Port 36330

Test access with telnet you should get a response as below.

FAHClient telnet port 36330

The VMware Appliance for Folding@Home has IPTables configured to allow this port by default, if you did not specify a specific remote management address during deployment, then access is open to all IP addresses.

Ensure that the machine where you are running FAHControl is not blocking outbound connections to TCP 33630.

Appendix

Firewall rules

The below firewall rules have been added to the VMware Appliance for Folding@Home  by default to allow for FAHControl to remotely manage FAHClient.

If you are using these instructions for a Linux machine, you can use the below settings as well.

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 36330 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 36330 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

 

Regards

Dean Lewis