Hi,
I am working on optimizing the BOINC Client and I need to test my optimized client against the normal client. My problem is that I need both clients to process the same WU so that I can determine if the optimization is effective. Can anyone guide me on setting up a test environment where I can accomplish this? Do I need to setup a BOINC Server to send the same WUs or can I configure the client to process a WU which I supply manually etc. I really need some assistance on this.

Why are you optimizing the BOINC client? What do you think it does differently than a non-optimized BOINC client? The client doesn't do any calculations, that's the work of the science application, so if you want to optimize that one, you may notice a difference.

Unless you took out specific (scheduling) code, and call that optimizing, but I doubt it.

---

I really don't want to get into the reasons for my experiments into the client since its a school project and I was guided by my Professor. I am interested in testing the optimization if it works I'll release it to the community if it doesn't I'll move on to the next project. What I need to do now is test it so am asking is there a way for me to setup a test environment where I can process the same WU repeatedly using the BOINC client so that I can collect performance statistics.

Thanks

You would still need a science application that does something with the work unit (task) in question. As I said, BOINC does not do any calculations.

So the key question is which/whose science application do you use?

---

Just create multiple installs on your computer and have each point at a different data directory.

Since he's going to be using the standard installer to make the "comparable" BOINC with, it will define the path to the data directory. You can't point the data directory in two different directions on the same system.

It won't even work with the admin install (installer.exe /a) as even that will write to the registry. Any BOINC that runs on that system will use the defined path to the data directory.

So while you can have 76 different data directories on the same system, you can only make BOINC use the one that is set in the registry on Windows.

Having said that, Colin, what OS do you use?

---

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Space Sciences Laboratory, U.C. Berkeley\BOINC Setup

DATADIR

That's what's used by any BOINC 6. BOINC 5 didn't use a data directory, unless you specifically set one up in the cc_config.xml file. So are you sure you're not using that workaround?

---

If I wanted to run the same task in different Boincs I'd download one or more from existing projects. Before the download had finished I'd suspend Boinc activity in the Activity tab to prevent the task from starting to process. I'd then exit completely from Boinc and back up the complete contents of the Boinc Data folder. Boinc could then be reopened, Boinc activity restarted and the task(s) run.

The backed up Data folder contents could be restored into the empty Data folder of another Boinc and the task(s) then run.

I think you'd need to compare tasks from different projects, not just one, on both Boincs.

You'd have to do this all on the same computer and in the same partition so that neither of these factors influence the processing speed. So you'd have to test the processing speed of both Boincs at different times.

This method works for and between various v.6 Boincs from Berkeley. Whether your optimisation has added something that would make the backups & restores impossible I don't know.

I am using Ubuntu 9.8 Kernel 2.6

Thanks Sekerob I'll try your method to copy the data directory content over to the opti-client area and run again and again repeating the copy step.

Thanks very much for the assistance, I really appreciate it

I am using Ubuntu 9.8 Kernel 2.6

Then a "personal" install on Linux would work, and you can easily have multiples running on the same machine.

---

-- Eric Myers

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