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VMware Appliance for Folding@Home

Summary

Requirements

Instructions

Changelog

Comments 195

Bugs 3

This Fling is a vSphere Appliance that contains the Folding@Home client software. Upon deploying the VMware Appliance for Folding@Home, the user will be prompted to enter information to configure the Folding@Home software. Once the appliance is deployed, the Folding@Home client is running and ready for Working Units. The Fling is also pre-configured to allow remote management of the Folding@Home client. For more information on the Folding@Home Project and how we can be a Force for Good against diseases like the Coronavirus, visit the website www.foldingathome.org.

The Folding@Home Appliance is configured to automatically join Team VMware ID 52737. Everyone is welcome to join! Check out http://vmwa.re/fah for team and individual statistics.

More details about this project, please check out this VMware OCTO blog post

Infrastructure Requirements:
  • Deployment Options:
    • vCenter Server 6.0 or greater
    • Standalone ESXi 6.0 or greater (requires OVFTool, please refer to PDF deployment guide)
    • Fusion or Workstation
  • 2 vCPU and 1GB memory
      • Recommend 16 vCPU or greater to ensure that you consistently receive FAH Work Units and update memory to 4GB
  • Support for Virtual Hardware 11
Folding @ Home Application Requirements:
  • CPU and/or GPU is supported. For those GPUs, vGPU via NVIDIA GRID has been documented and additional setup instructions can be found in the Fling download drop down menu.
  • Connectivity
    • External (Internet)
      • Inbound/Outbound on port 8080 or 80 to receive and upload Workload Unit (Please see Folding @ Home Documentation for a complete list of servers for security whitelisting)
    • Internal
      • Inbound/Outbound on port 36330 for remote management of FAHClient using FAHControl Center
      • Inbound/Outbound on port 7396 for local web management of FAHClient using FAH Web Control(e.g. http://[FAH]:7396)
Note: VMware does not officially support the Folding @ Home Application. For more information, please refer to their official documentation here and here
Please refer to the instructions in the download which includes details in using the Fling along with GPU configurations supporting both GRID and non-GRID GPUs
May 6, 2020 - v1.0.4
  • F@H software has been updated to latest 7.6.13
     VMware-Appliance-FaH_1.0.4.ova
     MD5: 151a5708f5d8cada3f5b48936e749f60

April 17, 2020 - v1.0.3
  • F@H software has been updated to latest 7.6.8
  • Add OVF property (guestinfo.fah_next_unit_percentage) to control Workload Unit Percentage (default value of 90)
     VMware-Appliance-FaH_1.0.3.ova
     MD5: d82d0829badc64e7e19bf24999a2db1a

April 1, 2020 - v1.0.2
  • F@H software has been updated to latest 7.5.1
  • Add OVF DeploymentOption (Small, Medium and Large) to help simplify initial configuration including optimal memory setting for 16 vCPU
  • SSH is now disabled by default (can be enabled during OVF deployment)
     VMware-Appliance-FaH_1.0.2.ova
     MD5: 44843701611febbf45d72b8b37a0778a

March 23, 2020 - v1.0.1
  • Support for VMware Fusion and Workstation
  • Support for vHW 11
  • Automatic detection of CPU >= 16 and configuration of "bigadv" in config.xml (during initial setup and upon each reboot)
  • Fixed HTTP Proxy configuration required in config.xml
  • ClientIdentifier for DHCP has been update to use MAC Address preventing issues when cloning from powered on FAH Appliance
  • Updated Setup Instructions, FAQ and vGPU configuration using NVIDIA GRID
     VMware-Appliance-FaH_1.0.1.ova
     MD5: 3b526544be33c8dc95355e54fddbe2b9

March 20, 2020 - v1.0.0 (Initial Release)
     VMware-Appliance-FaH_1.0.0.ova
     MD5: fe03d681c8ed747561df8639381b84f5