SETI@home BOINC

BOINCmon - Multi BOINC Monitor

A graphical package to monitor seti activity that may be running on multiple computers over a network or multiple instances on the same computer. It is the first program to monitor multiple PC's without having to cross mount file systems. Currently runs on Windows , Linux, and Mac OSX will be available soon.

Download here: BOINCmon for Windows


If you have multiple PCs BOINCmon is great for Monitoring SETI@Home or BOINC activity for a single client while saving space on your desktop.

You can see BOINCmon screenshots here

Rather than slowing down your cpu with fancy displays. BOINCmon displays only the necessary facts at a glance. This is especially helpful if you are monitoring multiple computers that may be running SETI@Home or BOINC. The main window will give you a quick look at the progress each of your systems are making. If you wish to see more information just left click on the desired PC name or directory and a detailed work unit screen will appear. A right click will show the position of that work unit in the SkyMap.


Main Window:

This is the main window of BOINCmon. The Main Window shows all the computers or directories status at a glance. Different Colors will indicate if the program is making progress or is currently running. The Bars indicate the progress of each of the computers or directories that BOINC is running in. The number to the left indicate the users completed work units.

Download Latest 3.12
 

Windows Installation Instructions.

Unzip the file that you downloaded and place the boincmon.exe file into the directory that is running seti@home.
ex: c:\Program Files\seti@home

Using the Explorer Double Click on boincmon.exe program
The program will come up default which is monitoring the current directory.

Linux/Unix Installation Instructions.

Download the boincmon-perl-source. This requires Tk 8.0 or later installed on your system (I used Tk800.022 from CPAN). you can install perk Tk with the command perl -MCPAN -e 'install Tk' Or just grab one of the compiled versions of boincmon-i386-libx. These were compiled using perl2exe from IndigoSTAR

To install the tarball execute the following:
gunzip -c boincmon-perl-source-1-21.tar.gz | tar xvf -

Place the boincmon file somewhere in your PATH then if you are running the program for the first time cd to the directory where BOINC resides and type boincmon.pl (or boincmon). It will then configure itself to monitor the current working directory. If you have already configured BOINCmon you can then execute the command from any directory. It saves its current configuration in $HOME/.boincmon.

How to Configure - Both Windows and Linux:

Use pulldown File-> Properties:

Add Directory:

Use the Add Directory Button to add additional BOINC directories. You will be prompted to select the user_info.sah file. This will ensure that you have selected a directory that BOINC resides. The list is a comma separated list of directories to monitor

ex: C:\Program Files\seti@home\1,I:\Program Files\seti@home\2,D:\seti\3

the disks could be local or remotely mounted.

IP-Addrs:

You can monitor seti progress on other computers by adding a comma separated list of IP address of computers you wish to monitor.

ex: 192.168.0.100,kauai

Note: if you use names the program will do a name lookup once to find it's IP address then share information with that computer. If the IP address changes on that computer you can do a View -> Refresh to do another name lookup.

Port:

The default Port # is 1119. You can change this port or socket # but all computers you wish to communicate with will have to be configured the same. Changing the Port can serve two purposes.

The first is privacy. You only want to communicate with PCs that know the port #.

The second is you may want to communicate with different types of users or machines and do not want to share all the same directories with every machine. So you can bring up multiple instances of boincmon using different ports. In order to bring up multiple BOINCmon's you need to make different instances of the ini file. DOS users just copy boincmon.exe to a different directory running this instance will create a new boincmon.ini file. Linux users can use the -i option to create and specify a different ini file other than the default $HOME/.boincmon.

Size:

You can adjust the size of the boincmon by either increasing or decreasing the number on the size line.

Hide Menu Bar:

Selected will hide the menu bar Unselected will show the menu bar Default: Unselected To get the Menu Bar back once it is hidden Double Click on any Progress Bar on your screen

Sound:

Beep if a new client joins the group. Default Sound Off:

Relay Server:

If do not want to cross connect every PC to one another you can designate one PC as the relay server:

Default: disabled.

ex: Simple Scenario

You have 4 PC's A, B, C, D
you can make A your relay server then you only have to point B,C,D to A and All PC's will be able to see each other because A will relay all information it receives to all other PC's. This pointing is accomplished via adding A's IP address into B,C,D's properties Menu.

By Adding A's IP address to B's Properties menu it makes a connection between B and C. Note: Connections between relay servers should be made in a hierarchical method see Multi-Relay Server example below.

Ex: Multiple Relay Server Scenario

You have 9 PC 3 in different areas (maybe behind firewalls etc.) (A1,A2,A3,B1,B2,B3,C1,C2,C3) A1, B1 and C1 you make relay servers. Create ONLY 1 connection between A1 and B1 and 1 connection between B1 and C1. This will create a hierarchy making B1 the central (or backbone) relay server. Do not create a circuit between A1 and C1. This will create a loop. While there is some protection from loops ie. only 3 hops loops will add unnecessary traffic over the network and depending on the amount of pc's being monitored could be substantial. You then can point the remaining PC's to their respective relay server.
A2,A3 -> A1
B2,B3 -> B1
C2,C3 -> C1
All PC should be able to see everyone's work units.



Show Time in:

Select for Time format that you wish to display in the Main window.
Current Time ##.## hrs ex: 8.50 hrs (default)
Current Time HH:MM:SS c ex: 8:30:02 c
Remaining Time HH:MM:SS r ex: 4:20:23 r

Seti Details:

Clicking on the work unit number or directory will display user statistics and work unit progress details.

Seti SkyMap

Right Click on the work unit number or directory will display the position of the work unit in the SkyMap
(Version 1.20 or greater).
 
 

What do the Colors Mean?

Green:
-----
This condition is good. BOINC is working and has updated your results.sah file
within the last 5 minutes.

Red:
----
If BOINC did not update the results.sah file within a 5 minute period.
The status will turn red for that monitored directory.

Yellow:
-------
A yellow condition can occur for 2 reasons.

1) If you do not hear any updates from a remote computer for 15 minutes.

(Likely they shut of there modem..)
After 30 minutes of no response the remote will be erased from
the main screen.. The Computer will then re-appear when
activity starts again.

2) If accompanied by a N/A in the Results field. This means the directory you
are monitoring does not contain BOINC files needed. ex: "user_info.sah" file.

This will most likely occur the first time you use boincmon because you did not
place it in the BOINC directory or did not run it from the BOINC directory.
To correct clear out the directory that occupies the list by highlighting the
directory by hitting the backspace. Then use the Add directory button to select
the correct directory for monitoring.

Download Latest Release

The Solaris and AIX Versions are new thanks to our sponsor IndigoSTAR Software using perl2exe.
Since I do not have a Sun or IBM machine for testing please supply your feedback jomick@users.sourceforge.net
    - Or -

Thanks to my Big-Bro George for putting this web page together and being my system tester. Putting up with some pretty ugly builds..

Hello From Uncle Bob's Cabin!!

I would like to here your Comment/Questions Send mail to Jeff Omick: jomick@users.sourceforge.net


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