I would like to run multiple instances of the boinc client on Linux machines sharing their home directories with NFS, but run_client refuses to start up, claiming another instance is already running, presumably one on another machine.

How can I keep the instances separate other than the really crude approach of different installation directories for each machine.

I would advise installing BOINC locally on each machine. In addition to solving your current problem it may prevent some others, it may also speed your processing up slightly.

---

BOINC WIKI

BOINCing since 2002/12/8

I'm surprised this issue has not come up before, as cross-mounting user directories like this is standard practice for Linux clusters, and many people must think of running Boinc as a default activity when its not in active use for some reason or other. I've only got a couple of nodes in my trial system, but if you had 20 in a rack, no-one is going to have 20 different boinc installations in different directories to manage.

John

It has come up before.
BOINC is just not designed for clustering.

I'm surprised this issue has not come up before, as cross-mounting user directories like this is standard practice for Linux clusters, and many people must think of running Boinc as a default activity when its not in active use for some reason or other. I've only got a couple of nodes in my trial system, but if you had 20 in a rack, no-one is going to have 20 different boinc installations in different directories to manage.

John

If you run BOINC from your home directory this is an issue. But if you run it on Linux as a daemon then each instance can run out of it's own directory (such as /var/lib/boinc) and not interfere with the other.

You can then control them all via setting preferences, or control individual ones with BOINC Manager pointed at the particular one of interest. As long as each machine has a separate working directory there is no problem with clustering.

---

-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

I've now switched to the daemon approach, though it didn't like my moving personal files across after the installation, at least malariacontrol has quick work units, so little was lost.