Hi, so as ever Im having ideas well beyond my capability. Amazon Web Services allows 1 year of free server time so I decided to try and setup an Ubuntu server running BOINC in a headless mode.

I have created the server and installed BOINC, however remote controlling it from the Linux command (via SSH) is causing me real issues because of my lack of experience.

Im trying to run:
boinccmd [hostname] [passwd] join_acct_mgr {URL} {name} {passwd}

I keep getting:
Authorization failure -155

what is the [hostname], what is the [passwd] ??

Im guessing [hostname] could either be 'ubuntu@ip-172-xxx-xxx-xxx' or it could be 'localhost'

I have no idea what the [password] might be, I mayhave changed it to 'Ubuntu', but that doesnt seem to work either.

Perhaps the syntax I have is wrong, should it be:
boinccmd hostname [hostname] etc.?

thanks.

Im trying to run:
boinccmd [hostname] [passwd] join_acct_mgr {URL} {name} {passwd}

I keep getting:
Authorization failure -155

what is the [hostname], what is the [passwd] ??

Im guessing [hostname] could either be 'ubuntu@ip-172-xxx-xxx-xxx' or it could be 'localhost'

I have no idea what the [password] might be, I mayhave changed it to 'Ubuntu', but that doesnt seem to work either.

The password is whatever is written in the gui_rpc_auth.cfg file:

Controlling BOINC remotely

You might also need to setup the remote_hosts.cfg too.

Claggy

Im trying to run:
boinccmd [hostname] [passwd] join_acct_mgr {URL} {name} {passwd}

The usage of BOINCCMD is:

boinccmd [--host hostname] [--passwd passwd] command

See http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Boinccmd_tool for all the correct commands. All commands are preceded by a double hyphen '--'.

So in this case it would probably be:

boinccmd --host {IP address of the server} --passwd {the password from gui_rpc_auth.cfg} --join_acct_mgr {URL of the Account Manager} {your name at the account manager} {your password at the account manager}

Everything between braces '{}' is added without the braces.

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Thanks Ill try that soon, I suspected it was quite a basic error on my part. Im hoping once I have the BAM control, I wont actually need to repote control the server as it only has 1 virtual cpu.

thanks guys your details really helped me. in the end figuring out what the IP address and password was, was just too complicated for me. But based on the instructions it seemed easier for a novice to do:

cd /var/lib/boinc-client

then:
boinccmd --join_acct_mgr {URL} {name} {password}

Im now on BAM, thanks so much again.

OK I have another question, I got my AWS machine crunching with
/var/lib/boinc-client
boinccmd --set_run_mode always

but after a couple of hours CPU usage went from 100% to 10%. Is anyone aware if AWS are limiting the usage on their end or is there another lever I need to pull to get it running 100% always?

Found the answer:
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/concepts_micro_instances.html#available-cpu-resources-during-spikes

Im using the free tier which is a micro instance so it is AWS limiting the CPU.

AWS informed of this as well. I run BOINC on my web server hosted through AWS. When people mentioned they had difficulty loading my site - especially dynamic content that relies on a MySQL backend - I was informed that the "micro" class instances are quite limited in terms of compute strength.

Technically speaking, all instance types are somewhat limited in that they are effectively run through a Xen-like hypervisor rather than being true dedicated servers - although such an option does exist within AWS, albeit at a significantly higher price tag.

I ultimately found it impractical to run BOINC on AWS, but my budget constraints differ considerably from the average user, so you may be better off.

If you are dead-set on running BOINC (and nothing else) you may want to look into a compute-optimised instance. The current generation is much more efficient and powerful than the last, including in terms of credits/dollar. If paying for compute time for BOINC is not out of the question, it may be worth a look!

Protip: don't use spot instances for BOINC thinking it'll save you time and money. Because of the innately ephemeral nature of spot instances, the AMI effectively resets with each restart, meaning all unreported work gets lost and it reverts (upon restart) to a state where it's doing tasks that project servers won't even accept. That caused issues for me, so don't bother. On-demand or reserved is your best bet.

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