C-bro

Note: In order to gain the full benefits of this information, you should already be running your console as a service. If you aren't, please see this FAQ on setting up your console to run as a service. It covers the step in adequate detail.

With Decreased Visibility Comes Decreased Accessibility

You may have noticed that since you started running F@H as a service, there are no more nice windows and your desktop icons prove useless now. There's much more depth involved with the starting, stopping, and monitoring of the folding client. I plan to give a brief outline of the methods that I find useful and convenient for service control.

Flags and Parameters:

This section tells you how to customize the flags and parameters used by the folding client. Normally you could just create a shortcut and tack on the flags, but when the client is run as a service, it becomes more difficult. Many people just append flags trough the normal Services control panel, but I had to enter mine manually everytime I ran the service. For the automated activation of the flags, I had to take this route...

WARNING: BACK UP YOUR REGISTRY BEFORE YOU DO THESE CHANGES. IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH REGISTRY EDITING, DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS SECTION! OVERCLOCK.NET AND I WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY CRASHES, LOST WORK UNITS, OR GENERAL PROBLEMS ARISING FROM THIS GUIDE.

If you still want to continue, follow these steps:

1) Go to "Run" and type regedit and hit enter.

2)Find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\<Folding Service Name>

By default, <Folding Service Name> should be the location of your folding console. ie:
FAH@C:+Documents and Settings+Administrator+My Documents+Folding@Home+FAH504-Console.exe

3) Find the ImagePath variable and double click it.

4) Add any desired flags like -forceasm, -verbosity #, to the end of your ImagePath. For my ImagePath I use:

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\Folding@Home\FAH504-Console.exe -forceasm -svcstart

5) Exit regedit.

Now everytime you (or Windows) runs the folding service, it will automatically execute with those newly added flags. It's a bit more involved that just specifying the flags in the services panel, but like I said, this was the only way that would work for me.


Starting:

You'll have to get the name of your folding service from your services control panel (Run->services.msc). After you have the name of your service, open up Notepad and key in the following, where <Folding Service Name> is the name of your folding service:

In my case, I used my service name from above, so my start file looks like this:
Save this file as something like startFAH.bat
Now, whenever you want to start your folding, just double click the batch file.

Notes:

- To use multiple cores, simply add another "sc start" line with another service name.

Stopping:

1) Do the exact same as starting, but replace the start command with stop in a new bat file.

2) Save as something like stopFAH.bat


Monitoring:

There are two methods here. I prefer the second, but it requires 3rd party software.

#1 FAHlog.txt

In your console directory, there is a log file that tells how far along your work unit is. You can simply click on that to give your current status.

#2 FAHMon

There is a program available here called FAHMon. Not only does it provide a GUI for monitoring your local consoles, you can also use it to monitor other folding consoles on your network. Taeric has provided an extensive FAQ on the features and operation of FAHMon. You can view it here.


Scheduling:

With the creation of your new Folding batch files, you can now also use them to set up task scheduling in Windows. Even though the client dynamically allocates unused compute cycles, some people may still want to limit the folding to when they sleep. Here's how...

1) Control Panel -> Scheduled Tasks
2) Click "Add Scheduled Task"
3) Click "Next" and then "Browse" and find your batch file that starts folding.

4) Set up the times that you want the task to run and you're finished.
5) Repeat steps 2-4 to schedule the batch file that stops folding.

Now the Folding client will turn on and off at whatever times you've specified. I use it at work because my computer sounds like a jet engine at 100% CPU usage. To minimize the office disruption, I just scheduled folding to come on after everyone leaves and turn off as everyone arrives. It's an easy way to contribute some extra work units.
Hopefully you were able to add a bit more accessibility to your service-configuration the Folding@Home console. I know this little tricks made my life easier, and I hope they worked for you as well.

Burn

Very nice!

__________________
My CNC Mill Project
We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.
--Randy Pausch
Current Best Benchmark

C-bro

Thanks! It was actually another members post that taught me to run the console as a service, but when I did that I realized how much of a pain it was to have any sort of interaction with the folding client. I basically just made this out of necessesity to get the client working how I wanted. Hopefully others find it useful.

Also, if you guys want to see anything added, please let me know. I already added an extra bit on scheduling. Enjoy!

Burn

The start and stop BAT files work great :D

__________________
My CNC Mill Project
We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.
--Randy Pausch
Current Best Benchmark

Chipp

I'm very impressed with this, nice info.