Hello group,

I'm doing a presentation on BOINC for a local Unix/Linux computer user group and I'm looking for information on the components that are installed on a users computer and that work together to crunch projects. (GNU/Linux)

1. boinc: (core client/Daemon)
2. boincmgr: Project Manager (the BOINC GUI)
3. Software installed by each project to crunch their data.

Is that a good summary of the components? I'm trying to find this info in Wiki's, etc. but haven't come across it yet. I'd like to make a block diagram or flowchart to use in my presentation, but I want to be sure I've got a clear understanding of the components and their relationship to each other.

Thanks for the help.

UPDATE: I found a Wikipedia article that seems to be answering my questions, but if you have a better source, help is appreciated:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BOINC_client%E2%80%93server_technology

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1. boinc: (core client/Daemon)
2. boincmgr: Project Manager (the BOINC GUI)
3. Software installed by each project to crunch their data.

1. BOINC core client: Does all the scheduling of when to contact projects and when to run what, caching of your work, uploading/downloading/reporting and other contacts, etc.

2. BOINC Manager gives you an easy way of giving commands to the client, but other than showing the Event log/Messages and the Notices it doesn't do much of its own.

3. Science applications do all the hard work, crunching the data you get from the projects on CPU and GPU.

4. BOINC Server software: Is the BOINC back-end on project servers, manages all account and hostIDs, credits, RAC, forums and such.

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2. BOINC Manager gives you an easy way of giving commands to the client, but other than showing the Event log/Messages and the Notices it doesn't do much of its own.

Just so I'm clear, when I am reading info on the BOINC websites and it refers to the "BOINC Wrapper" that's boincmgr, the GUI?

FYI: Here's a .PNG generated from the mindmap (Freemind) that I plan on using. The red arrows are live links I can click on to take folks to hyperlinks as I go through the presentation.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/59498129/BOINC_presentation_TWUUG.png

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the "BOINC Wrapper" that's boincmgr, the GUI?

No. See http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/WrapperApp

With the BOINC Wrapper a project can quickly make their science application run under BOINC, without having to rewrite & recompile it so it's compatible with BOINC. For some projects this means they can run their application in the original programming language.

With BOINC 7, the Virtual Box wrapper will be coming in swing as well, where a project can opt for running their science applications only in a virtual machine environment. The Virtual Box wrapper (or vboxwrapper) will then be able to communicate between the VM and BOINC.

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the "BOINC Wrapper" that's boincmgr, the GUI?

No. See http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/WrapperApp

With the BOINC Wrapper a project can quickly make their science application run under BOINC, without having to rewrite & recompile it so it's compatible with BOINC. For some projects this means they can run their application in the original programming language.

With BOINC 7, the Virtual Box wrapper will be coming in swing as well, where a project can opt for running their science applications only in a virtual machine environment. The Virtual Box wrapper (or vboxwrapper) will then be able to communicate between the VM and BOINC.

Ok, I was reading that link earlier and that just didn't sink in. I've got it now, thanks.

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I gave a similar talk to our local Linux user's group. It's been a while, but some of the info is still current. The slides are at: Distributed Computing with BOINC.

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-- Eric Myers

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