Building a 100TB Folding@Home Server!

[jakkuh_t]

Due to the massive influx of people donating their processing power to the Folding@Home project their work servers have actually been completely overloaded, but LTT was ready for the call. So in today's video, we build our OWN Folding@Home work server to help in the fight against Covid-19!

 

 

Check out the limited edition Folding@Home x LTT shirt with 100% of the profits going directly to help fight Covid-19, matched by Intel up to $40,000:  https://lmg.gg/7RMkX

 

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[Guest]

Finally! I thought this was supposed to be uploaded a week ago according to one of the wan shows

 

[GrockleTD]

[BloodKnight7]

Anyone has the link with the instructions on how to configure the server? I will try to get 1 or 2 up and running with similar specs to the one in this video.

[Dirtnapper]

Now im curious aboot Zpool and how to set that up so i can have some cached wu's

[NetoriusNick]

Made the push to join the cause because of their first video (kept meaning to but never bothered before) would love to setup a server to help but don’t have the ability

 

[grzegorzkogr]

What is a name of this case?

Anyone know?

[brandishwar]

1 hour ago, NetoriusNick said:

Made the push to join the cause because of their first video (kept meaning to but never bothered before) would love to setup a server to help but don’t have the ability

 

Sounds like they also don't make that easy to do. So hopefully that's something Folding@Home will be changing so they can allow volunteers to set up servers. But then the workers are intended to be able to come and go. Servers have to be dedicated.

[RingaDingDingDong]

Hey guys. What software does jake use to config the server? Thanks 

[Kilrah]

2 hours ago, BloodKnight7 said:

Anyone has the link with the instructions on how to configure the server? I will try to get 1 or 2 up and running with similar specs to the one in this video.

As he says at the end they're not handling the software, F@H guys do it - the servers aren't something you can just set up yourself, so you'd want to contact them directly.

[BloodKnight7]

10 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

As he says at the end they're not handling the software, F@H guys do it - the servers aren't something you can just set up yourself, so you'd want to contact them directly.

Must have missed that part. Thanks for the clarification.

[Eschew]

2 hours ago, grzegorzkogr said:

What is a name of this case?

Anyone know?

If you meant the storage cabinet, it seems to be a Norco C-42U Rack Cabinet.

If you're referring to the individual rack chassis, I believe it's an iStarUSA M-280-JB -- I can't be 100% sure.

 

Storage Cabinet Sources:

Spoiler

Server Cabinet (Timestamp: 0:04

Also LTT Server Rack (thread) answered by BrinkGG.

 

Individual Rack Chassis Sources:

Spoiler

External Layout Comparison

Spoiler

LMG's Folding Server Rack

 

iStarUSA M-280-JB Server Rack

Internal Layout Comparison

Spoiler

LMG Folding Server Rack

 

iStarUSA M-280-JB Server Rack

Notable Similarities:

• 8 Hot-Swappable Bays.
• PSU and MOBO Layout.
• No front USB 3.0 (look closely at the Jake pic), so it probably isn't the iStarUSA M-280-MATX.

 

[Egg-Roll]

Linus please stop dropping things... It's not helping.

(highlighted part is up time)

[Founders]

I’m curious if they keep this server running long term. They’ve already done all of the work and they can always lower its bandwidth allocation after this epidemic has ended. It’s a great use for their older hardware and I’m pretty sure Seagate provided the storage. Either way nice job LMG.

[jefftheworld]

Love seeing ZFS content on LTT! Especially when leveraged for a good cause!

 

One thing I noticed is that they've built their ZFS system with a strong focus on ARC/L2ARC, but I'm interested to know how much that'll help with this workload. (L2)ARC is generally most effective when you have data that is read often. Are the researchers likely to be pulling the same datasets quite often?

Adding a slog device — a dedicated write cache device — might also help with this workload since it'll improve write performance. A slog normally introduces additional risk, since data sits for a while on a non-redundant disk (although, you can even use a pair of mirrored disks for this), but this workload is unique in that the data generated by individual jobs isn't critical to the health of the dataset as a whole.

Given that chassis, I'd probably do something similar to Linus but with the addition of a pair of slog SSDs. Luckily, slogs can be added to a zpool even after the zpool has been created and filled with data! So if you're planning a follow-up video...

[DarthBaggins]

Definitely plan on snagging a shirt, but not sure how I feel on $9 shipping for a shirt - I can see $2-3 as that's what I pay ShirtPunch for their shirts coming from Ontario into the US

[Egg-Roll]

1 hour ago, DarthBaggins said:

Definitely plan on snagging a shirt, but not sure how I feel on $9 shipping for a shirt - I can see $2-3 as that's what I pay ShirtPunch for their shirts coming from Ontario into the US

How are you getting it for $2-3 from them? Being in Ontario I am seeing $6, or are you adding as many shirts to lower the cost of shipping per? As I've stated in a different topic the shipping costs from them are not the worst I've seen. Also you are comparing a tech company to a print shop. A print shop could push out a 52ft trailer a day/week in merchandise if big enough for a flat fee, where as LMG can't get such discounts. Not to mention they could ship out threw a 3rd party transport company charging by the truck/skid/trailer % etc not touching any shipper in Canada saving money that way, many many many luxuries a company selling Merch as a side money maker simply does not have either because of lack of sales or the logistics of it would each away from any savings to the customers in their profits. If some how you are getting $9 for 1 shirt, don't complain, I paid $12.99, a very expensive price once put into Canadian Dollars for 1 shirt. 

 

This will likely be the only time I'm going to be buying from LTT esp if they decide to use the money from the tees towards a persons salary to keep face masks in production (esp if they can afford to pay it themselves, most people are volunteering to do such work also). Seriously, if LTT can float such a cost my money is better spent elsewhere helping others.

[DarthBaggins]

Im not complaining, just not getting how it would cost that much - but if that's what it is then that's what it is.  As I said I was going to buy one either way and was wondering about the cost.  Also I've ordered merch from them in the past - the reason why I have a Linus DSA Profiled keycap along with some other things.  I've been folding for nearly a decade now and is something I support largely due to the research that goes into Cancer and Alzheimer's - but due to current events am more than happy to aid in the charge against this where I can. 

[CallumCarmicheal]

7 hours ago, RingaDingDingDong said:

Hey guys. What software does jake use to config the server? Thanks 

Termius - SSH client, it's a native W10 store app. You will find it in the Microsoft Store. There is also an android and iOS app.

 

I quite like the look of it but I find myself still using cygwin (mintty and Furacode NERDFONT patched) for my terminal client. 

[Luscious]

It's great that you guys not only threw together a 6 GPU folding rig but also went the extra mile to set up a WU server.

 

Congrats also for topping 50k active users and pushing 5 billion PPD!!! Way to make an impact.

 

What disappoints me, however, is the number of those out there with an online presence who don't even have a folding team to speak of (shame on you Paul, Kyle, Jason, Justine, MKBHD). Never mind those teams from Engadget, HP, Apple etc.. and the various university/college teams that are barely making a dent in the standings. Don't these people, along with their followers, feel any importance to this cause or for fighting debilitating illnesses in general???

[Eschew]

25 minutes ago, Luscious said:

What disappoints me, however, is the number of those out there with an online presence who don't even have a folding team to speak of (shame on you Paul, Kyle, Jason, Justine, MKBHD). Never mind those teams from Engadget, HP, Apple etc.. and the various university/college teams that are barely making a dent in the standings. Don't these people, along with their followers, feel any importance to this cause or for fighting debilitating illnesses in general???

Hm. In their defense, some of the channels you've mentioned have released videos asking people to aid and showing people how they can aid the folding effort.

 

Paul's Hardware

Spoiler

 

Engadget

Spoiler

 

 

Also, not everyone may be in a position to contribute to folding efforts or to fold enough to "leave a dent" in the rankings. May I quote from GOTSpectrum:

8 hours ago, GOTSpectrum said:

No issues with them folding for any team, all folds are good folds!

Perhaps some people aren't as hyped about folding as you or I, or are prioritizing their own situations over aiding the research effort, or have small folding teams that aren't folding 24/7. That's fine. We can't control what other people do, but we can control what we do. We know we're doing good work, and we should feel proud of ourselves and our team for it, not berate or pressure other people for not following suit or for not meeting standards.

 

Lead by example, not by force.

[GOTSpectrum]

2 minutes ago, Eschew said:

Perhaps some people aren't as hyped about folding as you or I, or are prioritizing their own situations over aiding the research effort, or have small folding teams that aren't folding 24/7. That's fine. We can't control what other people do, but we can control what we do. We know we're doing good work, and we should feel proud of ourselves and our team for it, not berate or pressure other people for not following suit or for not meeting standards.

Have to say that is one of the better quotes you could have picked!

 

No matter if you are folding 10,000 points a day or 1,000,000,000, you are part of the solution!

 

Stay safe, keep your distance and continue to be part of the solution. 

[Egg-Roll]

8 hours ago, DarthBaggins said:

Im not complaining, just not getting how it would cost that much - but if that's what it is then that's what it is.  As I said I was going to buy one either way and was wondering about the cost.  Also I've ordered merch from them in the past - the reason why I have a Linus DSA Profiled keycap along with some other things.  I've been folding for nearly a decade now and is something I support largely due to the research that goes into Cancer and Alzheimer's - but due to current events am more than happy to aid in the charge against this where I can. 

For a 6x6x1 in package, going to Canada only. So I technically overpaid after conversion. So now I'm curious as to how and who it's actually going to be shipped by, or are they going to ship it in this massive box weighting 10 pounds? (last thing I shipped that was about $21 to ship)

 

As to why it costs them so much is because of Canada since our mail system isn't subsidized like the US (mentioned on a wan show ages ago), if they decide to go with someone else (stupid idea) it'll obviously cost more. Personally my biggest grief about any Canadian Site unwilling to accept Canadian Dollars is just that, because while I can see buying things on Amazon USA for product reviews would be beneficial their day to day activities are in Canadian, so they will lose 2%+ of all money towards conversion not to mention costing Canadians the same. It's really not hard to create a dynamic canadian dollar conversion on their own website to avoid such fees, most days a daily update is good enough. Doing so would be cheaper for both buyers and them.

 

As for folding I have known about it for about 12ish years but none of my computers till a few years ago could handle it w/o limiting my abilities to use them.

[twstdude0to1]

Anyone know graphing web UI Jake is using towards the end of the video?

[WanaCrypt-Life]

I'm sorry if this has been answered before somewhere else, and my google fu was to no avail.. What are they using to manage the server? They showed it so far in two of their Folding at home videos, and I cannot for the life of me find a name or a matching logo on google haha.