Metallus97

Sapphire Pulse or PowerColor Red Dragon - whichever is cheaper. Both are good. Avoid XFX and Gigabyte models

Not a matter of taste - insults aren't a means to winning an argument or discussion. They're childish and have no place on the forum as per CoC

yep. Idd go with Aorus Elite. But between those to its pretty much personal taste.

Aww sweet ! Thanks so much !! 

I have the same MOBO and the version you use is really old! I had problems with that one to. Just download the latest version. As of writing this latest version is 1408. I flashed that today and everything works fine
You dont have to update one by one. I recommend doing it via easy flash or how its called. So with a USB stick and directly in the BIOS!
If you have a Ethernet connection it even supports flashing via the internet but idd do the good old USB stick way.
Let me know about any questions and how it goes
BIOS: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-Strix-X570-E-Gaming/HelpDesk_BIOS/
HowTo: (works the same even all those years later. HAHAH look at young steve)
 

Introduction
This is an extension of the already existing guide written by @Metallus97 for using cloud GPUs to run folding applications. I will be referring to some steps in that guide, so it will probably be good to have it open in an other tab. That guide shows you how to set up Folding at Home for a normal google cloud instance for 1.7MPPD+ for free for almost two weeks. In this guide I will be showing you how to set up Folding at Home to run on "preemptible" google cloud instances for a little under half the cost with little/no PPD penalty, that gives us almost a month of GPU time at around 1.7MPPD for free! These instances also last at the very most 24 hours before they get shutdown, depending on time of day I have had instances up for a range between 1 and 10 hours so it required some extra setup to do constant, almost uninterrupted folding using this instance type (Don't worry about that though, I have made a Terraform project to to almost ALL of the setup for you!).
 
Lets get started!
1. Pick where you want to run your folding vms. Using this calculator, change the machine class to "Preemptible" and "Machine type" to "n1-standard-2" or whichever has at least one core per GPU that you want to have. Add the GPUs that you want and click add to estimate. Different regions have different costs so you can click "edit" to test which regions you will get the best bang for your buck, and/or which are the best places to run these vms because they are near you. I have chosen what I found to be the cheapest region to use, so if you just want to just get started you can ignore this step, and steps 8 and 9.
 
2. Next off, you will need to follow steps 1.1-1.5 on @Metallus97's guide.
3. Then, download and install Terraform as that is what we will be using to automatically set up almost everything you will need!
4. Download and unzip this file.
5. Open `terraform.tfvars` in a text editor.
6. in the `terraform.tfvars` file you should:
    - Fill in remote_access_ip and remote_access_password if you want to access BOINC or F@H Remotely(If you leave the password blank, Terraform will generate a password for you). 
    - Fill in your F@H username, passkey, and team if you want to use Folding at Home
    - Choose how many of each instance type you want to be running (F@H exclusive, BOINC exclusive, and both F@H and BOINC)
7. If you want, in `terraform.tfvars` you can also set the machine type, GPU type and count to what you chose before, or leave the defaults for a 1 GPU Tesla P100 instance for a single instance of the best $/PPD/Day configuration for F@H. (More GPUs as long as you keep 1 core per GPU will yeild more PPD and the same bang for buck, but give you less time. The default config gives you almost a month!).
 
You can ignore these steps if you didn't want to do the work of choosing regions yourself, the project is configured to use what I found to be the cheapest regions by default.
10. Open your project dashboard and add `project=` in `terraform.tfvars` to the  "Project ID" in your dashboard. e.g `project="my_project_id"`.
11. Go to the functions and scheduler web pages and wait for them to initialise, when asked to set a region for the scheduler pick what you chose for the app engine (or if you are going with the defaults, select "us-west2".
12. Go to the service accounts page and add a service account for terraform and add these rolls:
Cloud Functions Developer Cloud Scheduler Admin Compute Admin Service Account User Pub/Sub Editor Storage Admin Then create and download the account key.
13. Rename the downloaded .json file to "credentials.json" and move it into the `resources/` folder in the unzipped project folder.
14. Open the project folder in a terminal, and run:
`terraform init`
$ terraform init Initializing the backend... Initializing provider plugins... - Checking for available provider plugins... - Downloading plugin for provider "archive" (hashicorp/archive) 1.3.0... - Downloading plugin for provider "random" (hashicorp/random) 2.2.1... - Downloading plugin for provider "google" (hashicorp/google) 3.16.0... Terraform has been successfully initialized! You may now begin working with Terraform. Try running "terraform plan" to see any changes that are required for your infrastructure. All Terraform commands should now work. If you ever set or change modules or backend configuration for Terraform, rerun this command to reinitialize your working directory. If you forget, other commands will detect it and remind you to do so if necessary. Then `terraform apply`
$ terraform apply data.archive_file.start_vm_function_source: Refreshing state... An execution plan has been generated and is shown below. Resource actions are indicated with the following symbols: + create Terraform will perform the following actions: ...... Plan: 10 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy. Do you want to perform these actions? Terraform will perform the actions described above. Only 'yes' will be accepted to approve. Enter a value: and enter "yes".
 
15. Add your instance as a remote client (if you configured an access IP and password) (using port 36331 for F@H) and wait for it to come up. You might need to wait a while for the instance to finish installing the Nvidia drivers and F@H client and/or BOINC client. You can keep tabs on the installation progress by running:
tail -n 100 -f /var/log/cloud-init-output.log on the instance over SSH (see how below).
 
 
Notes
You can SSH (remote terminal) into the instance by clicking this on this page:
 
When you are finished (probably when you have run out of free credit), open the project folder in a terminal again and run:
terraform destroy  
EDIT:
I have been dealing with strange FAHCore interruptions (code 102) on my GCE instances (on GPU units). After looking through the system logs and resource usage it turns out that F@H was chewing up all available memory and then getting OOM killed. If you are dealing with this, try changing the machine type to `n1-standard-2`. After waiting to see stability I may change the default machine type to this even though it costs a bit more (but negligible compared to the GPU costs anyway).
 
EDIT2:
I should also note, this setup doesn't do anything special to for BOINC to handle the instances starting and stopped. I couldn't find much online and what I did find suggests that BOINC already handles this fine. Let me know if you have any problems or know otherwise.

---UPDATE IN PROGRESS---
 
 First of all A HUGHE THANKS TO @Gorgon, @proptied and @sazrocks who helped me figure some stuf out and contributed some tip, tricks and commands to this guide!
 
Another HUGE THANKS to @jctappel67 and @WhyKickAmooCow. Those guys did the advanced part of the guide. This will be a lot more involved and require more fiddling around with the configuration. However I highly recommend doing it if you have the time! @WhyKickAmooCow has written some custom scripts to set up the instances for you as a preemtible one. That way you will save 50% of your money. Normally those preemtible instances don't run 24/7 and get shut down by google after some time (depending on demand). BUT with his awesome work you will be able to gracefully stop and directly restart the machines. Everything done automatically!
So go over here for that:
 
 
Continue here for the basic version using just (more expensive) normal VMs. The rest about this guide beneath the installation and setting up of things stays the same for both normal and preemtible instances!
Basics and Introduction
 
I am using Google Cloud Engine and other services sometimes for my work as it includes MUCH Data science etc. Setting up an account there and getting a Debian (Linux) VM going with F@H at full blast on a big Nvidia Tesla is pretty easy and can be done in like 30min. We will start with google since its the easiest, but ill include a more general approach you can use on every Debian server.
 
Basic Infos
Google clouds virtual machines are paid by usage time. Sign up for the free trial will give you 365 days of time and a free budget of $300 to spend on computing time. Since its a payment system by the hour you cant loose much after the free budget is over. Simply calculate how much time you have and deactivate the machines accordingly.
In this guide I will show how to create some machines which max out the power but burn through the 300€  relative slowly. I calculated the prices. Best PPD for PPD (PerformancePerDollar for PonitsPerDay seems to be a Nvidia Tesla P100 GPU. It pulls about 1,4mPPD and is a little more than 1$/h of usage time. Therefore you can get a little more than a week of free big PPD from your account. Also nobody stops you from creating more than one account. BUT I am responsible for nothing!  
Therefore this is a nice, easy and free way of boosting your PPD!
 
 
RIIIGHT so letzzzze go MARIO
 
(The screenshots will be German, because I didn’t want to reset my whole google accounts language, but ill mark + tanslate everything so its easy to follow)
 
1. You need a Google Account. You can use your existing one or create a new one (multiple are also possible, but I am NOT responsible for anything :P)
https://cloud.google.com/ sing in, give them your Card (there they write about not charging you until you’re done with the free 300$ budget. If you have google pay you can use that).  Watch out to create a PERSONAL account!!
 
 
Once your in at the dashboard: Click on compute engine, then you have to wait a few minutes for google cloud to activate some stuff... (see screenshot, everything will be in spoilers form now on to keep this already big post as clean as possible) The free plan does not include GPU Compute. Trying to create a slot with a GPU will result in an error. Therefore: At the top of the page there should be a banner with a gift box. Click on upgrade and upgrade your account to a payed one. Dont fear you will only pay when going over the free budget. As mentioned above, simply be smart and terminate the machines in time. If you do this you wont have to pay anything .  The payed account was created to have the opportunity to apply for a (or several) GPU slots. Support has to unlock them for you. But this works every time. Requesting a single or maybe 2 GPUs is peanuts for them. To request GPU quota go to: Top left main menu: IAM & Adminstration -> quotas. Search for Max GPU allowed here: You have to deselect everything and then only select GPUs (all regions) leave all the other boxes as they are. Now check the box with "Compute Engine API GPUs (all Regions)" at the top of the page click "edit quota". You now have to give them your name email and phonennumer (I used 0218347348 or something but suggest taking your real one. They are trustworthy and that way you wont have complications in getting approved). You also have to tell them what you plan to to. I wrote something like "I need it for a month for a Folding event. If performance is nice ill consider letting my work run on your servers (I actually do this right now). Then send the request.
It can take 1 or 2 business days to get approved. BUT for me on several instances it only took like a few hours. You will get Email confirmation! When aprovede go back to. main menu-> compute engine. Create a new VM-Instance Leave every setting as is unless I tell you to change it  We need a standard machine with a general purpose dual core. Also a Nvidia Tesla P100. To add it click CPU platform and GPU. Also chose the newest CPU arch you have available. Changing CPU arch should not cost more, but watch it!
There are V100s available. They are faster but in terms of price to performance P100 wins and still gets you a nice 1,4mPPD (V100 is 1,7mPPD but 1,7$/h compared to 1,07$/h for P100)
The cheapest ones are available in the Regions beginning with US. Not in every region there is availability for what we want. simply try weather you can select it or not. Also watch pricing. Some places are more expensive! Should look like this and beneath this the CPU type and GPU selection: In terms of OS we will save some time and hassle by selecting a preconfigured Image with Nvidia CUDA (that's where F@H is running on)
Choose "Deep Learning Image: Base m36 (with CUDA 10.0)" Yes I know we dont do Deep learning but CUDA and a preconfigured graphics driver is niiiiiice!'
  Leave the Memory option as is. We do not need a SSD and they are more expensive  
Back at the „VM-Instances“ view: wait a minute for your VM to be initialized and booted
Info: You can connect to the VM via SSH, so you Putty guys: go!
But for our purpose the simplest way is to connect with the build in tools. So click on SSH besides the machine informations.
after you're connected (takes a minute) it will i meditaly ask you to install Nvidia drivers -> answer with y enter. This takes a moment.
reboot the box with
 
sudo reboot SSH will disengage. Wait 2min then click reconnect. Give it time!
Now you’re in Debian (terminal Version). No need to configure anything more! To be able to copy and paste go to settings at the top of the window „Clipboard settings“ and activate „copy with ctrl…“
 
 
To see if driver install was ok: Do a quick
nvidia-smi P100 showing up? -> nice!
Now we basically only need the FAHClient (FAHControl is not needed and unless since we don’t have graphical output :P)
Everything is taken from: https://foldingathome.org/support/faq/installation-guides/linux/manual-installation-advanced/
 
First run (input it with copy and paste) 
wget https://download.foldingathome.org/releases/public/release/fahclient/debian-testing-64bit/v7.4/fahclient_7.4.4_amd64.deb Thats downloading the client, then  sudo dpkg -i --force-depends fahclient_7.4.4_amd64.deb To install FAH. A configuration will pop up and ask for Username and Team Nr. and Passkey -> you know what to do 223518 FTW! Set that baby to full thrust! ENABLE autostart!!!! You will get some errors now, but you can ignore them  Give it 3min, for real! Now we need to tell the client to use our GPU also. Therefore we will need to edit the configuration file with sudo nano /etc/fahclient/config.xml To close this editor: crtl+X
If you open that and it has a bunch of comments everywhere (you'll see what I mean the first time you do it), FAHClient hasn't finished started. Wait 30 seconds and try again. Repeat as necessary. Once the comments are gone you have to edit it to:
  config> <!-- Client Control --> <fold-anon v='true'/> <!-- Folding Slot Configuration --> <gpu v='true'/> <!-- Slot Control --> <power v='full'/> <!-- User Information --> <passkey v='yourpasskey_should_already_be_here'/> <team v='223518'/> <user v='your_user_should_already_be_here'/> <!-- Folding Slots --> <slot id='0' type='CPU'/> <slot id='1' type='GPU'/> </config> What you have to change should be:
-GPU to true
-create the GPU slot. Watch out to have CPU on slot 0 and GPU on 1!
Exit via Ctrl+X and the choose Y to save but dont change anything on how or where it is saved just pressing enter when it asks for the location of where to save to.
To apply this new config reboot once more, you know how to do that. Otherwise -> Step 17
after being logged back in give it some more time to spinn everything up. Folding should be active now.
You can check via the following commands:
 
nvidia-smi should look like this:
there you see the Folding process pegging the GPU
also run: 
top This is sort of a task manager where you should see the folding slots doing their work.
You can see the log file via
 
tail /var/lib/fahclient/log.txt this shows the last lines of the log. Usually enough to judge if everything is fine. To see everything replace top with nano.
Cool! Everything done, to get out of there at the main prompt:
 
exit  
The tips and tricks form here on can be used on the preemtible and the normal instances
 
How to do a quick PPD check and other checks
Main Terminal:
FAHClient --send-command <command> Commands: 
ppd -> gives you the current overall produced PPD (you know PPD is not accurate in the first hour or so) configured -> if output is "True" your client is configured with username team etc slot-info -> gives you information on wich devices its running queue-info -> verry detailed info about the wokrunits being done at the moment  help -> everything you can do and some you probably shouldn’t do.  
 
Remote Monitoring (Client or HFM)
 
 
In Google Cloud Platform
 
Go to VPC Network>Firewall Rules>Create Firewall rule Set the network to default, target to "All instances on this network" Source Ip ranges to 0.0.0.0/0 [This matches all IPs], protocols and ports to tcp port 36331. 
[Nonstandard port to try to prevent portscanning bots from easily guessing that FAH is running] 

  In the VM, edit the FAH config.xml to include <allow v='127.0.0.1 My.Public.ip.Address.at.home'/> <command-port v='36331'/> <password v='My_Super_Secret_Password'/> Do note that the password is sent in plaintext, so don't use anything that you particularly care about. This is again just to mainly keep out bots.
 
 5. restart FAH with this command:
FAHClient restart (If this dent work do "sudo /etc/init.d/FAHClient restart"
 
6. Add the client to FAHControl or HFM.Net as you normally would, making sure to use the external IP address of the VM (shown on the compute engine homepage) as the IP and also making sure to set the port to 36331 (or whatever it was that you set it to). Also make sure to enter your password. If everything went well you should see the slots show up in FAHControl just as if FAH were running on your local system.
 
Other server providers and installation with CUDA and driver not being preinstalled
My top recommendation is CherryServers. They offer a 2xGTX1080 Box for 0,38$/h including 30$ of free budget! https://www.cherryservers.com
Plaining on paying and going over the free budget? Thats your cheapest option! Every Ubuntu 18.06 LTS server with a decent Nvidia GPUs will work with this guide. AMD is possible but not really there in the GPU compute server industry. Therefore my tutorial with CUDA:
Create yourself an account in the top right click Log in -> create account -> you know how to do this . As with the google service you will have to give them your card. But its NOT charged unless you tell them to. I also got a window promoting me to set up a automatic top up, but you can close that and work with the free test budget. Later payment is even possible with crypto etc. Once your in the portal go to servers -> bare metal (this time we want full power and nothing virtualized) and pick the E3-1240LV5 with 2xGTX 1080, show in pic: Go on customize and at the bottom choose the OS Ubuntu 18.04. Then add to chart and leave everything as is!
3. Go to your chart and turn the credit top up slider all to the left. That way you wont be charged beforehand. The server will run as long as you have balance on the account.
4. WAIT... mine took 30min to be finished. You will get email notifications. ATTENTION: once you got the notice that it is running, you're paying it.
5. When the server is running: On your servers overview click on the server and note the password displayed there. Also not the public IP.
6. SSH into dat B.  SERVER (WTF is SSH? -> see this post: 
7. The following steps will be similar to what I have described in top.
BUT here we will have to make a few steps before downloading and installing FAH... we need the graphics drivers and cuda support to run properly
 
First update your system
sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade  
We will now install MUCH more than we need, but this is the simplest solution  it can take 10-15min to finish the install, but tinkering with everything else needed would be SOO much more effort.
therefore follow this step by step and IN ORDER:  (For the Linux PROS: Yes I know... but due to the server only being used for F@H and the extra stuf not having any impact on F@H this is the best solution. And yes I know I am installing nearly a full gnome + window server etc) Source is Nvidias official stuff: https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-downloads?target_os=Linux&target_arch=x86_64&target_distro=Ubuntu&target_version=1804
wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu1804/x86_64/cuda-ubuntu1804.pin sudo mv cuda-ubuntu1804.pin /etc/apt/preferences.d/cuda-repository-pin-600 wget http://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/10.1/Prod/local_installers/cuda-repo-ubuntu1804-10-1-local-10.1.243-418.87.00_1.0-1_amd64.deb sudo dpkg -i cuda-repo-ubuntu1804-10-1-local-10.1.243-418.87.00_1.0-1_amd64.deb sudo apt-key add /var/cuda-repo-10-1-local-10.1.243-418.87.00/7fa2af80.pub sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get -y install cuda Reboot! IMPORTANT!  Continue with Step 19. form above. Make sure both GTX10808 are showing up. Also make sure to create two GPU slots on your config. XML 
Slot 0 CPU
Slot 1 GPU
Slot 2 GPU Don't forget the reboot and you're done   
K, but now my free credits are gone and I dont want to pay for more compute time 
 
Simply delete the machine in the overview. That way there wont be any extra cost. You now can close the GCloud account altogether if you wish to.
 
But bro... I only have a CPU server with 3849cores, folding possible?
YES! In that case you dont have to check for GPU drivers and simply run some modern form of Debian on the server and install F@H as shown. Editing the config is not needed. It should automatically detect the cores and start on them  
 

Other providers to try are:
Amazon MS Azure IBM Cloud (Hint from @Mihle: Free credits will last about 4,2 days or so with a single P100, you have to specifically allow ssh and allow outbound connections.) ATTENTION: Some users reported being blocked/banned there for folding with he free credits) Oracle Cloud You know any more cheap GPU server rentals? My results so far:
At the time of writing the original version of this guide I had:
1xRadeon ViII + 1x R9 290X in private system pulling close to 2mPPD
6x Tesla P100 in GCloud pulling 1,4mPPD for each one
2xGTX1080 on Cherry pulling 1,2mPPD together 
 
I think its worth it! 
 
 
 
As always: Tips and suggestions? Plz. tell me in the comments!
 
Happy cloud Folding,
Metallus
 
 

I'll be sticking with the team and some time tomorrow I should have the new system with 2 x 2060 up and running.

Yep, but don't worry, the BOINC pentathlon is coming up in 4 weeks and the next folding event will be in June!
 
Please do not forget to thank @leadeater for his scripting wizardry, @Metallus97 for his FAQ, troubleshooting and lending a hand on the sheet and finally @j1philli for being a massive help with the validation of entries on the sheet!
 
But mostly, make sure you thank yourselves, because without you lot this wouldn't have been anywhere near as fun, mostly because it would just be my drunken self shouting at FOLDATRON to go faster!

Got your folding rigs set up?
 
Now is the time to get your phones fighting to!
This App works only when your phone is being charged and is limited in terms of how heavily it uses the CPU, so its fine regarding battery longevity, heat etc.
https://www.vodafone.com/news-and-media/vodafone-group-releases/news/vodafone-foundation-imperial-college-london-team-up-with-dreamlab-against-coronavirus
The free App is made by the Vodafone foundation UK, but can be uses around the world on any iOS and Android device.
 
Personally I have my iPhone and iPad  crunching when charging and a old 6S doing work 24/7!

I had one V100 that was golden, it consistently pulled 3m PPD during the whole week. No idea why it was outperforming so much the others but that was nice

In case you missed it:
https://folding.extremeoverclocking.com
FAH is at 2,3eFlops now 😮
We were all like damn when we crossed 1 but now HOLLLLY MOLY 
 
allso there is a little  Interview with the FAH Boss linked!

I guess you could write some nice scripts and enable email notifications. What I did is download the GCE app and keep an eye on it that way
 
yep!

In case you missed it:
https://folding.extremeoverclocking.com
FAH is at 2,3eFlops now 😮
We were all like damn when we crossed 1 but now HOLLLLY MOLY 
 
allso there is a little  Interview with the FAH Boss linked!

In case you missed it:
https://folding.extremeoverclocking.com
FAH is at 2,3eFlops now 😮
We were all like damn when we crossed 1 but now HOLLLLY MOLY 
 
allso there is a little  Interview with the FAH Boss linked!

In case you missed it:
https://folding.extremeoverclocking.com
FAH is at 2,3eFlops now 😮
We were all like damn when we crossed 1 but now HOLLLLY MOLY 
 
allso there is a little  Interview with the FAH Boss linked!

In case you missed it:
https://folding.extremeoverclocking.com
FAH is at 2,3eFlops now 😮
We were all like damn when we crossed 1 but now HOLLLLY MOLY 
 
allso there is a little  Interview with the FAH Boss linked!

In case you missed it:
https://folding.extremeoverclocking.com
FAH is at 2,3eFlops now 😮
We were all like damn when we crossed 1 but now HOLLLLY MOLY 
 
allso there is a little  Interview with the FAH Boss linked!

Got your folding rigs set up?
 
Now is the time to get your phones fighting to!
This App works only when your phone is being charged and is limited in terms of how heavily it uses the CPU, so its fine regarding battery longevity, heat etc.
https://www.vodafone.com/news-and-media/vodafone-group-releases/news/vodafone-foundation-imperial-college-london-team-up-with-dreamlab-against-coronavirus
The free App is made by the Vodafone foundation UK, but can be uses around the world on any iOS and Android device.
 
Personally I have my iPhone and iPad  crunching when charging and a old 6S doing work 24/7!

I am the guy who wrote the guide about GCE folding. I did not know about this instance type back then. Sadly I don’t have free credit left and am pretty financially constrained right now (due to friggin corona).
 
Therefore I cant test this instance type and modify the guide.
Annyone wanna help with that?
Shoot me a PM  

Welcome to the forums!
 
I am typing this on a Mac VM on Unraid using this:
 
 
But depending on your hardware you could be able to runn MacOS directly. That will be my next project

Welcome to the forums!
 
I am typing this on a Mac VM on Unraid using this:
 
 
But depending on your hardware you could be able to runn MacOS directly. That will be my next project

Chill bro... no need to spam
 
So yhea I would reccoemend an other rad in the front to be save with the temps. This will work with one but wont be silent. Rest of the fan set-up looks nice

also in the tutorial "The free plan does not include GPU Compute. Trying to create a slot with a GPU will result in an error. Therefore: At the top of the page there should be a banner with a gift box. Click on upgrade and upgrade your account to a payed one. Dont fear you will only pay when going over the free budget. As mentioned above, simply be smart and terminate the machines in time. If you do this you wont have to pay anything "

That cloud thingy catapulted me from top 2000 to top 1000 in 2 days lol