If you already have a recent version of VirtualBox installed (4.2 or later), we will automatically be able to use it. And you do not need to download the guest - the Charity Engine client will automatically download it and set up VMs whenever needed. It will also remove them once they are done so as not to clutter your system. You also don't need to start VirtualBox - we'll start it automatically in the background and you don't have to keep the window open.
So overall, everything is automated as soon as VirtualBox itself is installed.
1. What is the overhead of having VBox running in the background if there is no VM operational?
2. Am I correct in assuming that a different "guest" is downloaded for each contract and there would be multiple VMs running simultaneously?
3. My biggest problem with Charity Engine at the moment is the way it seems to impede my software defined radio programs such as HDSDR, insofar as these require priority access for their sampling. Whereas my system will sample at around 2.4 million samples per second normally, having Charity Engine running cuts it to about 1 million samples per second even when, notionally, Charity Engine is takking very little processor power
2. Possibly - some VMs will be reused between different contracts. As for running multiple copies - if your computer has enough memory and cores enabled for processing, we will run multiple copies. Also, some VMs can use multiple cores (given that hardware virtualization is enabled on your host).
3. One thing I can imagine would be your host being IO bound so that when VM starts your disk would be reading quite a lot of data and slowing down your radio. You could also changing the number of cores you allocate to Charity Engine by using your client preferences and see if it makes any difference.
I have discovered that the latest version of Virtual Box is a bit more recent than mine but it all seems to work OK. However Charity Engine really interferes with all of my SDR programs quite badly. If I mark the SDR applications as exclusive applications in Charity Engine they run OK. It just means that Charity Engine halts while I am running any of them.
I have had an email suggesting I download Virtualbox. I already use this for other purposes and:
1. Do not want to have it load every time at boot
2. Want to be able to use other virtual guests
Where can I download the guest to import it into my Vbox system.
Graham
If you already have a recent version of VirtualBox installed (4.2 or later), we will automatically be able to use it. And you do not need to download the guest - the Charity Engine client will automatically download it and set up VMs whenever needed. It will also remove them once they are done so as not to clutter your system. You also don't need to start VirtualBox - we'll start it automatically in the background and you don't have to keep the window open.
So overall, everything is automated as soon as VirtualBox itself is installed.
Hm..
1. What is the overhead of having VBox running in the background if there is no VM operational?
2. Am I correct in assuming that a different "guest" is downloaded for each contract and there would be multiple VMs running simultaneously?
3. My biggest problem with Charity Engine at the moment is the way it seems to impede my software defined radio programs such as HDSDR, insofar as these require priority access for their sampling. Whereas my system will sample at around 2.4 million samples per second normally, having Charity Engine running cuts it to about 1 million samples per second even when, notionally, Charity Engine is takking very little processor power
I will give it a try and see what happens.
1. Vbox only runs when a job is running.
2. Possibly - some VMs will be reused between different contracts. As for running multiple copies - if your computer has enough memory and cores enabled for processing, we will run multiple copies. Also, some VMs can use multiple cores (given that hardware virtualization is enabled on your host).
3. One thing I can imagine would be your host being IO bound so that when VM starts your disk would be reading quite a lot of data and slowing down your radio. You could also changing the number of cores you allocate to Charity Engine by using your client preferences and see if it makes any difference.
OK it seems to work.
I have discovered that the latest version of Virtual Box is a bit more recent than mine but it all seems to work OK. However Charity Engine really interferes with all of my SDR programs quite badly. If I mark the SDR applications as exclusive applications in Charity Engine they run OK. It just means that Charity Engine halts while I am running any of them.
Graham