Folding@Home Babysitter

LTT_TsiSport · May 9, 2020

On 4/21/2020 at 4:38 AM, Koppa315 said:
Creating a place to discuss the Folding@Home Babysitter script

It has been noticed that pause and un-pausing slots that are stuck in a waiting status looking for work has improved the clients ability to connect and download work units. That's where the Babysitter script that @danielocdh wrote comes in, it checks the Folding@Home client periodically and pauses and un-pauses slots that are stuck waiting on Work Server Assignment. A few people are using this now to try to help manage Folding@Home clients, so I figured it might be easier to create a topic on it for instructions, feedback, in case people are having issues and to provide updates. Easier than running around the different topics that have referenced it. I've been working with @danielocdh to update this script here and there to ensure it works with the recently released version of the Folding@Home Client and fix other issues and add new features

It can be found on GitHub currently, as of writing this topic, the script is at version 1.8 and will now tell you periodically if there are updates.

At the top of the script you can find options as well as a how to for installing Python 3

Installing Python 3 on Windows:

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Good guide already written here: https://www.howtogeek.com/197947/how-to-install-python-on-windows/ (Scroll down to "How to Install Python 3")

Installing Babysitter Script on Windows:
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Create a folder somewhere easy e.g.
c:\babysitter
Open notepad

Copy and Paste script from https://gist.github.com/jhutchings/1f3ac2f27790506b5e9bd0c1ec356d49

Edit options section as needed, most people should be able to leave the defaults unless they have a different setup, descriptions of the options can be found on the topic below

Save file as babysitter.py in c:\babysitter
Open command prompt and go to c:\babysitter (if you followed the above install guide)
Start > Command Prompt
Type: cd c:\babysitter
Hit Enter
Type: python3 babysitter
Hit Enter
All done, let those proteins fold
Options Available:

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hosts = Comma separated quoted string of hosts or ip adresses that can include port if you are using non standard ports, useful if you're using multiple machines (Default: 'localhost')

'localhost'

'127.0.0.1'

'localhost', '192.168.1.15:36330', '192.168.1.16'

hostsPassword = Quoted string, leave as just '' if you are not using a password or the machine is on the password exempt list (Default: '')

restartLimit = Time in seconds, before Babysitter will attempt to pause+unpause the slot (Default: 10 * 60)

checkEvery = Time in seconds, Time between checks on all the hosts listed above (Default: 2 * 60)

checkUpdate = True or False, Should the script check GitHub if there is an update (Default: True)

checkUpdateCycles = Number, Number of check hosts cycles before checking GitHub if there is a script update. Multiply this by checkEvery and it will tell you how long between checks (Default: 30)

If checkEvery is default and checkUpdateCycles default it'll check every hour ( 2 * 60 * 30 => 1 hour)

tConTimeout = Time in seconds, How long to wait trying to connect to FAH Client (Default: 15)

tReadTimeout = Time in seconds, How long to wait trying after a command has been sent to FAH Client (Default: 10)

testMode = True or False, if set to True: checkEvery=6 and restartLimit=0 but won't actually pause+unpause slots (Default: False)

Babysitter is such a useful script, thankyou for answering my prayers

Koppa315 · May 14, 2020

On 5/7/2020 at 3:22 AM, Harpo said:

@Koppa315 Thank you very much, it's much more clear to me now. I also ran it all past my son (who is fluent in Python) and he was impressed with your code.

Thanks also for the fine script! This is what I've been doing manually since I started folding, but I'm not anywhere near so prompt and reliable. I'm trying to keep 3x 2080ti, 2x 1070ti, a 2060 and a 1660ti busy 24/7, and it is a challenge. I'm retired (and a pc nut) so this really makes me feel like I'm doing something useful right now.

On 5/9/2020 at 4:15 PM, LTT_TsiSport said:

Babysitter is such a useful script, thankyou for answering my prayers

Credit goes to @danielocdh for creating this, I've only been making some updates and created a GitHub gist so we can track it a bit easier

Nice setup for folding @Harpo!! I'm currently on two GTX 980s and every month I try to spin up an Azure VM since I have credit on there from work for free (might as well use it for something right?)

Rybo · May 23, 2020

Just discovered that this script is able to check on remote hosts as well. And here I've been running the script locally on every computer like a sucker. Yeah, yeah, RTFM, it's literally the first option available, etc, but you see, I already didn't do that, so it's nice that in preparation for altering the script to add that capability, I found that it was already there.