D²OL Tweaking Guide & How-2

http://www.adventurevision.com/ftp/R...work/logo2.jpg There are now Easy installers available for the XS D²OL Team that does all of the tweaking, installing, and registration for you! (There are versions that allow you to self register your node(s)) You can get them from the XS D²OL Downloads page HERE!!!

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Here are the tweaks in short, for a more detailed description just scroll down :)

1.) Tweak - Disable as many animations in the main window as possible.

2.) Tweak - Or disable all animations by disabling the main window completely in the agent’s properties.

3.) Tweak - Set the candidate queue size to 200+ in the agents properties.

4.) Tweak - Use 2 agents on SMP or P4 CPUs with Hyper Threading (4 agents on a dual Xeon system with Hyper Threading)

5.) Tweak - Use D²OL Daddy to make the client run at the lowest possible priority (Like it should).

6.) How-2 - Backup your node.prp files so you don’t have dead nodes in your stats/profile if you ever need to reinstall.

7.) How-2 - Restoring your node numbers from the backups. You can also use steps 7>8 to fold as many clients as you want under 1 node! Giving you a SUPER NODE!!!

8.) How-2 - Cleaning house of the dead nodes created by the re-installation of clients and the restoration of the node.prp file.



1. If you like the information in the main D²OL window but don’t want to sacrifice that much performance for it then go to the main D²OL window:


http://xtremesystems.org/forums/atta...chmentid=17626

Now go to the option bar below the animation window and disable the "hud", "state" and "msg" windows by clicking on the buttons in bar below the animation window.

Then click on the round compass like looking button next to the "msg" button. Right click in the center of the X-Y cross so the animation of the rotating structure stops and is no longer eating extra resources.

Make sure the "name" option to display the names of the atoms is disabled. If not then disable it by clicking on the "name" button on the right in the same bar below the animation window.

Now set the animation detail to the lowest quality as well by sliding the small button next to the "name" button to the far right.



Your main D²OL window should now look like this
http://xtremesystems.org/forums/atta...chmentid=17628

This should already save some resources and give you a performance boost! :)




2. Or if you don’t care about the information displayed in the main window and want the most performance, then go to the properties:

http://xtremesystems.org/forums/atta...chmentid=17629

And uncheck the "enable animations" and "launch main window on startup" options. This will completely disable the main window and all the animations. You will still be able to access all options and settings by right clicking on the try icon in the taskbar in windows :) This should give you a nice performance boost, like running the DF client with the "hidden" option.




3. While you are in the properties menu you should also set the "Candidate Queue Size" to 200 or higher. This will help save you from D²OL server crashes. And will keep you from running out of work. A fast PC can finish up 50 candidates before the next upload. (Uploads are set to every 6hrs)

http://xtremesystems.org/forums/atta...chmentid=17621




4. If you have an Intel Pentium 4 CPU with Hyper Threading or a dual processor system you should install the agent twice or 4 times (dual Xeon) to different directories .../d2ol/1/ and .../d2ol/2/ for example :)

if you are overclocking your CPU ,which usually requires you to disable Hyper Threading to reach a high overclock, you should take into account that a slower clocked CPU with Hyper Threading and 2 agents is in most cases faster than a higher clocked CPU with Hyper Threading disabled.

A pentium4 @3.2ghz with HT is, for example, faster than a pentium4 @4ghz without HT.



5. “D²OL Daddy is a Graphical User Interface that sits in your Windows tray and monitors the D2OL and TSC clients to make sure their processes are running at the lowest possibly priority. This should greatly reduce and in many cases entirely eliminate the choppy/slow response from other software while D2OL/TSC is running on your machine. It will even monitor and control multiple copes of D2OL/TSC running on the same machine.”

I was having a lot of trouble using my day to day rig until I installed this! It’s a must have if you are going to be using the rig for much of anything. http://gilchrist.ca/jeff/D2OLdaddy



6. Some might find it important to be able to reuse their original node numbers. If you lose a client and need to reinstall, it will install with another node. This will give you a dead node in your stats. This is an easy fix.

a.) Right click on “node.prp” in the “…\D2OL\res” folder and select copy

b.) Create a Folder to hold all of your backups for your clients. For this example I’ll use “Node_Backups” and I’ll put it right in the root of C:\

c.) In this folder, C:\Node_Backups, create another folder named after the node # you are backing up. For this example I’ll be using 111787. You will have a path like this: “C:\Node_Backups\111787”

d.) In this folder you need to post the “node.prp” from step a.)

e.) It would also be a good idea to create a .txt file that says which client the node # belongs to. (Which machine and, if you have a rig with HT, which install)

f.) Repeat this process and continue adding folders to the “C:\Node_Backups” to store your different node numbers

g.) You might want to store this on a CD-R or save it to a safe disk.

7. If you ever need to install the node again but want to keep your previous node # then follow these steps. This guide will also let you fold as many clients under 1 node as you want!

a.) Install the client as normal

b.) Register with the same e-mail you used originally

c.) Let the client initialize and start it’s first candidate

d.) Don’t let the client upload any work (you have 6hrs so don’t sweat it) You don’t need to do anything special for this… just don’t wait 6hrs to complete this and do not do a manual update. If you restart the PC or the Agent for any reason it will upload any work you have done... So don't restart!

e.) Right click on the client in the task manager (next to the clock) and select “Exit”

f.) Now go to the folder where you copied your backup node and copy the node you want to restore.
For this example: “C:\Node_Backups\111787\node.prp”

g.) Paste this file in the new client install folder “…\D2OL\res” and allow it to replace the current node.prp file

h.) Restart the client and you should have your backup node # displayed in the “Status” window under “Statistics”

8. A new node was created in your stats page when you re-installed the client. As the whole purpose of the last two steps was to prevent dead nodes, we need to go delete them.

i.) Go to http://app.d2ol.com/memberServices/memberLogin.jsp and log in. Delete the new node that was created by the re-install by clicking [del] to the right of the node. (NOTE: you cannot delete a node that has completed work. Only new nodes that have no stats can be deleted)

j.) You may need to click “add node” to make the new node visible. Click the [del] button to the right of the node.

Please post more tweaks if you know any :)

.

If you follow step 3 then step 1 isn't needed at all. You will never use the GUI... you can do everything from the right click menu on the D2OL Sys. tray icon.

While you are in the properties menu you should also set the "Candidate Queue Size" to something like 200... This will help save you from D2OL server crashes. And will keep you from running out of work. A fast PC can Finish 50 candidates before next upload. (Uploads are set to every 6hrs)

better?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by saaya

better?

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I got more... lol I had intended on opening a thread like this but you beat me too it! :toast: Most of the stuff is at home so I'll have to try and look up the info again...

cool :)

sorry, but i had to open this threads :D it was so empty and cold in here :D

Some might find it important to be able to reuse their original node numbers. If you lose a client and need to reinstall, it will install with another node. This will give you a dead node in your stats. This is an easy fix.

1.) Backup the “node.prp” in the “…\D2OL\res” folder.

a.) Right click on “node.prp” and select copy.
b.) Create a Folder to hold all of your backups for your clients. For this example I’ll use “Node_Backups” and I’ll put it right in the root of C:\
c.) In this folder, C:\Node_Backups, create another folder named after the node # you are backing up. For this example I’ll be using 111787. You will have a path like this: “C:\Node_Backups\111787”
d.) In this folder you need to past the “node.prp” from step a.)
e.) It would also be a good idea to create a .txt file that says which client the node belongs to. (Which machine and, if you have a rig with HT, which install)
f.) Repeat this process and continue adding folders to the “C:\Node_Backups” to store your different node numbers.
g.) You might want to store this on a CD-R or save it to a safe disk.

2.) If you ever need to install the node again follow these steps.

a.) Install the client as normal
b.) Register with the same e-mail you used originally
c.) Let the client initialize and start it’s first candidate.
d.) Don’t let the client upload any work (you have 6hrs so don’t sweat it) You don’t need to do anything special for this… just don’t wait 6hrs to complete this and do not do a manual update.
e.) Right click on the client in the task manager (next to the clock) and select “Exit”
f.) Now go to the folder where you copied your backup node. And copy the node you want to restore. For this example: “C:\Node_Backups\111787\ node.prp”
g.) Paste this file in the new client install folder “…\D2OL\res” and allow it to replace the current node.prp file.
h.) Restart the client and you should have your backup node # displayed in the “Status” window under “Statistics”

3.) A new node was created in your stats page when you re-installed the client.

a.) Go to http://app.d2ol.com/memberServices/memberLogin.jsp and delete the new node that was created by the re-install. (NOTE: you cannot delete a node that has completed work. Only new nodes that have no stats can be deleted.)
b.) You may need to click “add node” to make the new node visible. Click the [del] button to the right of the node.

This guide will also let you fold as many clients under 1 node as you want! Lets say you have 5 rig. Do the necessary installs… let them initialize… Stop them… copy the “node.prp” file that you want to use and replace it on the various rigs. Boom!!!! You have a super node!!!

ok, added it, but i changed some monor things. please let me know if its ok with you like that, if not, then just edit my post :)

but dont mess up the vb code! :D



thx a lot steven! :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by saaya

ok, added it, but i changed some monor things. please let me know if its ok with you like that, if not, then just edit my post :)

but dont mess up the vb code! :D



thx a lot steven! :D

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:lol: I fixed the vb code... changed some things back... and ran it through a spell checker (which I think it broke :lol: )

I also re-worded some of my stuff... looks pretty slick!

I'm going to take donations to get you a new keyboard and spell/grammar checker saaya :lol: You prop wore all yours out 6,000 post ago!

im not a native speaker :P

ive learned most of my english from americans themselves, irl and online, so i guess my bad grammar reflects the bad grammar of the people i learned it from :D

we learned so silly things in the english classes in school... just the extreme basics :rolleyes: me and some others asked the teacher to do at least some shakespeare but we had to stop because 90% of the class didnt get anything at all and even the teacher had problems understanding it :rolleyes:

and yeah, i DO need a new keyboard :D

New Tweak/Tip going up...

shouldnt it say "use D²OL daddy to make it run at the HIGHEST priority" ?

nope... Lowest... so it dosn't hog your system when you are trying to use it! ;)

Just like DF... You ran it at low priority and when you start to use your rig it kicks the client out of the way... but it still gobbles up the leftover CPU cycles like a little scavenging vulture.

i think saaya is excused since germans have everything synchronized, movies games and so on :p: :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Creep-DK

i think saaya is excused since germans have everything synchronized, movies games and so on :p: :D

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unfortunately :(

i loved movies in the cinema in venezuela! always the originaly sound+subtitles... that was nice!

and steven, dont you think its better to say its best to set it to the lowest priority if its your main rig? because many people have dedicated folding boxes wich would run better set to highest priority, no? no big difference i guess, but knowing some people here this 0.1% is worth it for them heheeh :D

What happens saaya is a little studder-step if you don't use D2OLDaddy. I noticed this on my wifes AMD XP rig and I really noticed it on those dual 1.6GHz Xeon rigs I built. It's funny but on my A64 rig I didn't really notice it. :shrug:

It's a little annoying after you notice it's happening. ;)

yeah, ive noticed it already. it goes away by changing the priority? ive also lost the net connection several times because of this "studder" :/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by saaya

unfortunately :(

i loved movies in the cinema in venezuela! always the originaly sound+subtitles... that was nice!

and steven, dont you think its better to say its best to set it to the lowest priority if its your main rig? because many people have dedicated folding boxes wich would run better set to highest priority, no? no big difference i guess, but knowing some people here this 0.1% is worth it for them heheeh :D

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The dedicated folding rigs will do just fine at low priority. When they are just sitting there none of the other proccesses will be doing anything so D²OL will take 100% of the CPU.

Here is what the site says about the program and why it's a good thing to have.

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Why do you need D2OL Daddy? The D2OL/TSC client spawns new GridWin.exe and DockWin.exe processes every few minutes after work has been completed. In Windows, there are two priority settings for programs, one is process priority and the second is thread priority. The developers set the process priority of those two processes to IDLE but forgot to change the thread priority so it defaults to NORMAL. D2OL Daddy will find those processes and set their thread priorities to the lowest possible making D2OL/TSC behave more nicely on your machine.

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I also put it in the guide because the main point of folding is that you can do it on a PC that you work with... without slowing it down so you can work as normal while the client eats what's left of your CPU cycles.

If you don't use the rigs then there is no need to install it... then again it's SUPER easy :lol: You can have it running in 3 clicks of the mouse from where you are RIGHT now! lol

anywork found out if after minimising the details on the pictures, zooming out so its really tiny helps at all? just an idea but im not sure of how to test it?

You can test this easy. The GUI is all Java. When you have it open you will see "javaw.exe" in the task manager. Right now with it open and running normal the javaw.exe process is taking between 22% and 27% of the CPU (on the rig I'm on right now). When I zoom all the way out it drops to between 17% and 23%. As you can tell the GUI is a HOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BTW... it also uses 23K of RAM

When you disable the animations the process takes up a steady 0% but every few seconds it jumps up to 4%.

Closing the GUI kills the javaw.exe process and it doesn’t use anything! ;) The GUI looks pretty... but it's useless. You can assess all of the info you need by right clicking on the D²OL icon in the System tray (Next to the clock)

Kill the GUI and use DSpy to monitor them. It doesn’t use that much resources at all.

ok, so its only useful when the gui is opened, which mine isnt.

that's correct.
in other words, for best performance just forget about java Agent and never open it. like the above mentioned guide says, uncheck "Launch main window on startup".
besides, if u have it opened with all bells-and-whistles turned off (animations, hud, messages) then what's the point of using it?

yeah i was jst curious as to whether it used any resources when minimized etc.

i dont have the main window open anyway, theres no point to it as you say

Nice saaya, thanks !

no problemo :)
half of it is from steven :D

I do what I can!! :D

Q:how do a do this,like it seems that running with 1node is better then 2nodes on 1 cpu.

A wont to set node 112147 on my PIII rig,but how,do a copie/paste "node.prp" from node 112147,that is now on the xp-m rig to the new install on the PIII,is it like this,yes,or how.

But the PIII rig is normale not connected to internet,how do i now when it needs to upload the work that it's done to the D2OL server,or can i save the work that its done on my HD and when i connect it to internet upload the work,what is the correct way to do this,a dont wanna lose candidates tru that,am i clear on what i wont to say,a now my english is not that good:).

Do i set in propeties/candidate queue size 300 or 2000,how long can it then without connecting to internet.

I now that a have to buy a router or hub,but a dont have one yet,so how do a go about it,a have 1 inet connection(2 in total) left on my xp-m rig(8rda3+),so normal i can use that,but don't no how.

yea, set the queue size up to 2000. Thats like 2 weeks worth of work atleast. The avg of my nodes is around 75 Candidates a day. I had to plug/unplug rigs to get them a connection a few weeks ago when i had to order a new router, its just annoying !

Somone else will have to inform you on the transfering of nodes question.

It's real easy and yes it will work!

Just follow the steps in the first post of this thread and copy it to the other system. (Maybe you didn't see the guide in the first post or you don't understand it??) If you have questions just post them here.

On the offline folding... it's also easy to do as well. Your node will have to be connected to the internet at first (To download the work) Change your queue size to the Max it will let you (this is also explained in the first post of the guide) Once it downloads all of your work you can take it offline. (You will also want to right click on the D²OL icon in the system tray [next to the clock] and remove the checkmark from "online". This will keep it from burning up CPU time trying to connect to the server every 6hrs. You will want to change it back once you go to upload points.) You can upload your points by right clicking on the D²OL icon in the system tray (next to the clock) and select "status". In this window you will want to click "Manual Update" in the lower left corner (This will also download more work for you to do).

You can tell when it needs to upload points and Download more work by opening the GUI.

When this number gets close to 0 you will have to upload!
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=18210&stc=1

Ok thks :up: i think i got it now,a go and set it up tomorow,if i got a Q a will ask it ;).

1 node per cpu, always, unless the cpu has hyperhtreading :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by saaya

1 node per cpu, always, unless the cpu has hyperhtreading :)

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Saaya :stick:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...291#post572291
:hehe: Don't tell me you didn't read this yet! :lol:

should we include thsi in the tweaking guide steven?
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=44321

Quote:

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Originally Posted by saaya

should we include thsi in the tweaking guide steven?
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=44321

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:up: yes sir! I was just stopping in to add it! This one's all yours!

Putting the New XS Easy installers into the guide...

http://www.adventurevision.com/ftp/Rodzilla/XSsoft.htm

Man... that is some top-notch work there Rodzilla. :toast: Not only is the installer nice... but the simple webpage is classy! :up:

i muts say ive jsut used a Rodzilla Xtreme Custom installer (heh...) and its - well... its about the simplest thing ive ever installed!

run > hit enter > hit enter > hit enter > hit enter > done

and its working!

excellent work mate!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rinsewand

i muts say ive jsut used a Rodzilla Xtreme Custom installer (heh...) and its - well... its about the simplest thing ive ever installed!

run > hit enter > hit enter > hit enter > hit enter > done

and its working!

excellent work mate!

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:lol: I knew it was easy to use... I was just hoping it still worked! :lol: :rotf: :ROTF:

Glad to see you have a D2OL team!

Here's a handy program to monitor your crunching farm, Dspy.

I use it regularly! :up: It's a really neat app! It even gives you per day graphs for each node! It even breaks them down per Target!

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=18894&stc=1

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=18893&stc=1

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TheReaper

Glad to see you have a D2OL team!

Here's a handy program to monitor your crunching farm, Dspy.

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Thanks for the pointer... I think there's a link to DSpy in our project sticky. :confused: Or at least there should be. ;)

And if you ever need a change of scenery... :devil: We'll be here. ;)

I have updated the XS team installs with some new software...

http://www.adventurevision.com/ftp/Rodzilla/XSsoft.htm

Going to add DSpy... but me very sleepy :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rodzilla

Saaya :stick:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...291#post572291
:hehe: Don't tell me you didn't read this yet! :lol:

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huh? :confused:

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------Conclusion------
As you can see by the daily output from RocKer, His production went up when he switched his AMD rig from 2 nodes back to 1. As soon as he went back to 2 nodes on one rig his production fell.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by saaya

huh? :confused:

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Now you got me confused... you saying that is's not better to run a single node?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by saaya

1 node per cpu, always, unless the cpu has hyperhtreading :)

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am i wrong? is 1 node still better on one cpu even if it has ht? i thougt he had an amd cpu? wahhhh im confused ^^

if you have HT it is better to run 2 nodes...

thats what i said :P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by saaya

1 node per cpu, always, unless the cpu has hyperhtreading :)

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just one question .......... how to get that pruuuuuuuuty pic showing the stats in my signature :( . Im a nub and just started folding for xtremesystems.

Looks like you already figured it out! :up:

Well i joined this evening. Hung up F@H for this. I installed the custom XS single cpu version and im assuming since it automatically set everything up for the XS team, i dont have my own stats? It never asked me for a user name and such.

Welcome to the team!

You need to use the installer labelled "personal" to have it setup to have your own stats. But, that is easily correctable, and if that is what you desire someone can easily help you do that. your points will move with you. So for now, you're good; you can always move them tomorrow or the next day.

Again, welcome. Great to have you with us!

This will get you crunching under your own account.

.:NOTE:. I know this looks like a lot but I made it wordy to eliminate confusion... it's really simple!

To make your node, created by the community installer, stop crunching for the XtremeSystems_Community account, and start crunching under your own personal account:

You need to remove the node.prp which holds the node registration and create a new node with your registration info.

1.) Stop the XS_D2OL Service from running so you can make the changes.

Go to the service manager (Right click on your My Computer icon on the desktop and select Manage. At the bottom you should see Services...) Stop the XS_D2OL1 service. (Repeat for XS_D2OL2, 3, and 4 is you used the multiple node installers.)

Now go to the task manager and stop the Gridwin.exe task(s) (or Dockwin.exe) Do it for all of them if you used a multiple node installer (There will be multiple DockWin or GridWin task running if you did)

The D2OL Agent(s) is now stopped.

2.) Now remove the node.prp file from the "C:\XS_D2OL\D2OL1\D2OL\res" folder

This will unregistered your node from the XtremeSystems_Community account. You will then be free to re-register your agent under your own account.

Now go to the "C:\XS_D2OL\D2OL1\D2OL" and open D2OL.exe. This will start the D2OL Agent in the sys tray...

When you start the D2OL.exe file it will ask you to register the node... Use your e-mail address that you already have an account for, or plan to use to create an account. Use the same e-mail for every node you ever register. !!!***USE A REAL E-MAIL ADDRESS THAT YOU HAVE ACCESS TO***!!!

Repeat step 2 if you have any other nodes on the system created by a multiple node installer. Substitute the path to D2OL.exe and node.prp with "C:\XS_D2OL\D2OL2\D2OL" and so on for multiple node installers.

3.) If you haven't already created an account you will need to do so now. The following instructions assume that you do not have an account.

Take note of the node number(s) that were just created when you entered your e-mail for registration. To do this:

Right click on the D2OL sys tray icon and select Status. At the top select Statistics.

Here you can see your node ID and your e-mail address.

You only need to know 1 of your node ID's for registration. The rest will be available to add once your account is created.

With this information you can now create an account.

Go to this page and create your account. http://app.d2ol.com/memberServices/createMember.jsp

Enter the e-mail and a node number that you have registered.

The node that you used to activate your account will be automatically tied to your user name.

If you registered more nodes you will be able to add them by clicking on the "ADD NODE" button at the bottom of your "Team - My Home Page".

You should be ready to rock and roll!!!!!!

NOTE... the points that you contributed to the community account are left in the Community account. It is impossible to move them out.

I copyed my .prp to a folder on my backup drive,created folder named backup node, opened foldr & created folder with node # than put .prp in 1st. folder. Is this good to go for backup.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by heater918

I copyed my .prp to a folder on my backup drive,created folder named backup node, opened foldr & created folder with node # than put .prp in 1st. folder. Is this good to go for backup.

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Description is a little confusing, but yeah, that sounds about right. As long as you have a copy of that node.prp somewhere safe you're set. By the way, if you want to use the same node #, for installs on other computers -to create a "supernode" (where all your machines run under one # ) then you just copy the node.prp into the appropriate folder on a new install. ( per the instructions above ).

Or you can just keep it for normal backup purposes, in case of OS re-installs, disasters, etc. That way you don't end up with dead nodes.

i should of said i followed guide #6 on 1st. page here. And that's all i need to do. Unless i get another node. Thanks for info on supernode that would of been my next question as i'm putting unused machine to work in a few weeks. Thanks

Awwh!! Annoying, just found out this too late. Now the same A64 comp has two different node IDs. Anyway, very good guide w/ lots of good stuff. :thumbsup:

So do I need two nodes for a dual core opteron?

2 cores = 2 nodes :D