If you haven’t head about Folding at Home yet, it is project that utilizes the community’s extra compute to allow disease research computations to occur faster and cheaper.
I heard about it from Amanda Blevins and William Lam on Twitter. There is a nice write-up on the Office of the CTO Blog about it as well.
I was trying to manually install it when VMware released a FaH OVA via their Flings program. Thank you to all of those that made this possible!!! The VMware Wavefront team even has a dashboard displaying VMware FaH group stats.
The OVA is easy to deploy if you’re wanting one or two instances of it. If you have a larger lab and wanted to deploy more, I thought it’d be great to share how to do this via OVF Tool. If you’ve used it before you can skip to the bottom to see the properties you need.
If you are not familiar with OVF Tool, it is very handy to import/export VM’s and modify/create OVA/OVF files, which you can see via my last post. OVF Tool can be download here and the user guide is here if you want to read more about it.
If do not know what parameters to add to the command line, OVF Tool will get them for you. I’m storing the OVA within the E:\Fah folder locally so I’ll run the following command:
ovftool.exe --hideEula e:\FaH\VMware-Appliance-FaH_1.0.1.ova
You’ll get a list of all the settings that can be set and their default values.
OVF version: 1.0
VirtualApp: false
Name: VMware Appliance for Folding @ Home
Version: 1.0.1
Vendor: VMware
Product URL: https://foldingathome.org/
Vendor URL: https://vmware.com/
Annotation: Version: 1.0.1
VMware FaH Team: 52737
Download Size: 285.04 MB
Deployment Sizes:
Flat disks: 4.00 GB
Sparse disks: 771.25 MB
Networks:
Name: VM Network
Description: The VM Network network
Virtual Machines:
Name: VMware-Appliance-FaH
Operating System: otherguest64
Virtual Hardware:
Families: vmx-11
Number of CPUs: 2
Cores per socket: 1
Memory: 1024.00 MB
Disks:
Index: 0
Instance ID: 9
Capacity: 4.00 GB
Disk Types: SCSI-lsilogic
NICs:
Adapter Type: VmxNet3
Connection: VM Network
Properties:
Key: guestinfo.hostname
Category: Networking
Label: Hostname
Type: string
Description: Hostname of system
Value: fah.vmware.corp
Key: guestinfo.ipaddress
Category: Networking
Label: IP Address
Type: string
Description: IP Address of the system (Leave blank for DHCP)
Key: guestinfo.netmask
Category: Networking
Label: Network CIDR Prefix
Type: string["32 (255.255.255.255)", "31 (255.255.255.254)", "30 (255.255.255.252)", "29 (255.255.255.248)", "28
(255.255.255.240)", "27 (255.255.255.224)", "26 (255.255.255.192)", "25 (255.255.255.128)", "24
(255.255.255.0)", "23 (255.255.254.0)", "22 (255.255.252.0)",
"21 (255.255.248.0)", "20 (255.255.240.0)", "19 (255.255.224.0)", "18 (255.255.192.0)", "17 (255.255.128.0)",
"16 (255.255.0.0)", "15 (255.254.0.0)", "14 (255.252.0.0)", "13
(255.248.0.0)", "12 (255.240.0.0)", "11 (255.224.0.0)", "10
(255.192.0.0)", "9 (255.128.0.0)", "8 (255.0.0.0)", "7 (254.0.0.0)", "6 (252.0.0.0)", "5 (248.0.0.0)", "4 (240.0.0.0)",
"3 (224.0.0.0)", "2 (192.0.0.0)", "1 (128.0.0.0)", "0 (0.0.0.0)"]
Description: Network CIDR Prefix
Value: 24 (255.255.255.0)
Key: guestinfo.gateway
Category: Networking
Label: Gateway
Type: string
Description: Gateway of the system (Leave blank for DHCP)
Key: guestinfo.dns
Category: Networking
Label: DNS
Type: string
Description: DNS Servers (space separated)
Key: guestinfo.domain
Category: Networking
Label: DNS Domain
Type: string
Description: DNS Domain
Key: guestinfo.ntp
Category: Networking
Label: NTP
Type: string
Description: NTP Servers (space separated)
Value: pool.ntp.org
Key: guestinfo.http_proxy
Category: Proxy Settings (optional)
Label: HTTP Proxy
Type: string
Description: Enter HTTP Proxy Server followed by the port and without typing
"http://" before. Example: "proxy.provider.com:3128"
Key: guestinfo.https_proxy
Category: Proxy Settings (optional)
Label: HTTPS Proxy
Type: string
Description: Enter HTTPS Proxy Server followed by the port and without typing
"https://" before. Example: "proxy.provider.com:3128"
Key: guestinfo.proxy_username
Category: Proxy Settings (optional)
Label: Proxy Username (optional)
Type: string
Description: Username for the Proxy Server
Key: guestinfo.proxy_password
Category: Proxy Settings (optional)
Label: Proxy Password (optional)
Type: password
Description: Password for the Proxy User
Key: guestinfo.no_proxy
Category: Proxy Settings (optional)
Label: No Proxy
Type: string
Description: No Proxy for e.g. your internal domain suffix. Comma separated
(localhost, 127.0.0.1, domain.local)
Key: guestinfo.root_password
Category: OS Credentials
Label: Root Password
Type: password
Description: Password to login in as root. Please use a secure password
Key: guestinfo.fah_username
Category: Folding @ Home Settings
Label: F@H Username
Type: string
Description: Username to credit F@H Contribution
Key: guestinfo.fah_team
Category: Folding @ Home Settings
Label: F@H Team ID
Type: string
Description: F@H Team ID (default: 52737)
Value: 52737
Key: guestinfo.fah_passkey
Category: Folding @ Home Settings
Label: F@H Passkey
Type: password
Description: F@H Passkey - Obtain unique key from
https://apps.foldingathome.org/getpasskey
Key: guestinfo.fah_mode
Category: Folding @ Home Settings
Label: F@H Mode
Type: string["light", "medium", "full"]
Description: F@H Mode
Value: medium
Key: guestinfo.fah_gpu
Category: Folding @ Home Settings
Label: GPU
Type: boolean
Description: Enable GPU
Value: False
Key: guestinfo.fah_web_remote_networks
Category: Folding @ Home Settings
Label: F@H Local Web Management Allowed Networks
Type: string
Description: Remote networks allowed to connect to F@H Web Management
(http://[FQDN]:7396)
Value: 0.0.0.0/0
Key: guestinfo.fah_remote_networks
Category: Folding @ Home Settings
Label: F@H Remote Management Allowed Networks
Type: string
Description: Remote networks allowed to connect to F@H system
Value: 127.0.0.1 0.0.0.0/0
Key: guestinfo.fah_remote_pass
Category: Folding @ Home Settings
Label: F@H Remote Management Password
Type: password
Description: Password to configure for remote F@H management
Value: VMware1!
Key: guestinfo.fah_console_stats
Category: Folding @ Home Settings
Label: Enable F@H Stats in VM Console
Type: boolean
Description: Enables Top statistics and F@H Log details in VM Console. Use
Alt+F2 to login normally
Value: True
Key: guestinfo.debug
Category: zAdvanced
Label: Debugging
Type: boolean
Description: Enable Debugging
Value: True
Now that we have the list of items, we can build our command. I’ve set the following options based on my environment.
"--net:VM Network=LabVMs" --datastore=VM-Datastore-1 --name=EricFah01 --prop:guestinfo.hostname="EricFah01.lab.net;" --prop:guestinfo.ipaddress="<192.168.1.11" --prop:guestinfo.netmask="24 (255.255.255.0)" --prop:guestinfo.gateway="192.168.1.1" --prop:guestinfo.dns="192.168.1.1" --prop:guestinfo.domain="lab.net" --prop:guestinfo.ntp="192.168.1.1" --prop:guestinfo.root_password="VMware1!" --prop:guestinfo.fah_username="ericblee6" --prop:guestinfo.fah_team="52737" --prop:guestinfo.fah_passkey="MyPasskey" --prop:guestinfo.fah_mode=full --prop:guestinfo.fah_gpu=False --prop:guestinfo.fah_remote_networks="127.0.0.1 0.0.0.0/0" --prop:guestinfo.fah_web_remote_networks="0.0.0.0/0" --prop:guestinfo.fah_remote_pass="VMware1!" --prop:guestinfo.fah_console_stats=True --prop:guestinfo.debug=True
A couple notes about this.
- I’m not showing HTTP Proxy settings but they can be added from the OVA output list above.
- If you want to use DHCP you can. Just omit ipaddress and gateway fields.
- I had to use quotes around all values in order to deal with special characters. I did it throughout just to keep it consistent.
You will need the vSphere locator to deploy it to your desired location. This will be in the format:
vi://username:pass@localhost/my_datacenter/host/esx01.example.com/Resources/my_resourcepool
The last thing to automate this is the CPU/Memory that you want to apply. Thankfully this is available in version 4.3 of OVF Tool, as documented by William Lam.
Finally, put all of these parameters together and give it a go.
ovftool.exe --acceptAllEulas --noSSLVerify --allowAllExtraConfig ^ "--net:VM Network=LabVMs" ^ --datastore=VM-Datastore-1 ^ --name=EricFah-01 ^ --numberOfCpus:'*'=18 ^ --memorySize:'*'=16384 ^ --prop:guestinfo.hostname="EricFah01.lab.net;" ^ --prop:guestinfo.ipaddress="<span data-mce-type="bookmark" id="mce_SELREST_start" data-mce-style="overflow:hidden;line-height:0" style="overflow:hidden;line-height:0" ></span><192.168.1.11" ^ --prop:guestinfo.netmask="24 (255.255.255.0)" ^ --prop:guestinfo.gateway="192.168.1.1" ^ --prop:guestinfo.dns="192.168.1.1" ^ --prop:guestinfo.domain="lab.net" ^ --prop:guestinfo.ntp="192.168.1.1" ^ --prop:guestinfo.root_password="VMware1!" ^ --prop:guestinfo.fah_username="ericblee6" ^ --prop:guestinfo.fah_team="52737" ^ --prop:guestinfo.fah_passkey="MyPasskey" ^ --prop:guestinfo.fah_mode=full ^ --prop:guestinfo.fah_gpu=False ^ --prop:guestinfo.fah_remote_networks="127.0.0.1 0.0.0.0/0" ^ --prop:guestinfo.fah_web_remote_networks="0.0.0.0/0" ^ --prop:guestinfo.fah_remote_pass="VMware1!" ^ --prop:guestinfo.fah_console_stats=True ^ --prop:guestinfo.debug=True ^ E:\FaH\VMware-Appliance-FaH_1.0.1.ova ^ vi://labuser@lab.net:labuserpass@vc1.lab.net/LabDC1/host/LabCluster1
We’re off and running!!!
If you’ve deployed 16 CPU’s or more, make sure to add Client-Type bigadv so it requests extra large work units. See their post on this here.
vEric: 