Computing with BOINC

Overview documents (read these first)

• Why use BOINC?
• Quick start
• Basic concepts
• Adapting and developing applications
• Jobs and data
• Validation

Distributed computation with BOINC

• Basic concepts:
  • Projects and applications
  • Files and file references
  • File compression
  • Platforms
  • Applications and application versions
  • Workunits
  • Results?
• Work distribution:
  • Redundancy and errors
  • Numerical discrepancies
  • Work distribution
  • Locality scheduling
• Trickle messages
• Security issues

Developing a BOINC application

• The BOINC API:
  • Basic API
  • Graphics API
  • Diagnostics API
  • Trickle messages API
  • Intermediate upload API
• Application development:
  • Building BOINC applications
  • Example applications
  • Application development tips
  • Application debugging
  • Application debugging on Windows
• Support for other languages
  • FORTRAN
  • Java
  • Python
• Legacy applications
• Compound applications
• Non-CPU-intensive applications
• Multi-thread and GPU applications
  • Application planning
  • Multi-thread applications
  • Applications that use coprocessors

Creating a BOINC project

• What is a project?
  • The BOINC database
  • Directory structure
    • Upload/download directory hierarchy
  • The project configuration file
    • Project options
    • Daemons
    • Periodic tasks
• Setting up a BOINC server
• The make_project script
• Adding applications/platforms
• Adding application versions
• Project creation cookbook
• Project control
• Project security
  • Encryption utility program
  • Code signing
• Upgrading a project's server software
  • List of recent server software changes
• Increasing server capacity
• Beta-test applications
• Launching your project

Getting work done

• Work-handling daemons
  • Back-end utility functions
• Generating work
• Result validation
  • Simple validator framework
  • Low-level validator framework
• Result assimilation
• Server-side file deletion
• Database purging utility
• Assigned work
• Single job submission

Monitoring a BOINC project

• Administrative web interface
• Debugging server components
• Log rotation
• Watchdogs
• Stripcharts

Managing distributed data

• Uploading file lists
• Uploading files
• Downloading files
• Deleting files on client hosts

Web site

• Web site customization
• Protection from spam
• Creating and managing message boards
• Web site translation
• Server status page
• Profile screening
• Caching
• Importing BOINC-wide teams
• Adding a wiki
• StyleSheets for documenting CSS

Miscellaneous

• Recruiting and retaining volunteers
• GUI URLs
• Creating a 'project skin'
• Export credit data as XML
• Integrating BOINC projects with Grids
• Versions of BOINC?
• Configuring MySQL for BOINC
• Controlling account creation
• Project-specific preferences
• Work filtering by application
• Campus-level BOINC projects
• Accepting donations through PayPal
• Blacklisting hosts
• User-submitted jobs