BOINC provides a set of scripts for setting up and controlling a BOINC server complex. These scripts require all the server components to run on a single host. This has been tested only on Linux and Solaris hosts; it may work with small modifications on Windows also.

The scripts can be used to create multiple BOINC projects on the same host. This can be handy for creating separate projects for testing and debugging.

Install all components listed in the Software Prerequisites page. Your operating system must have shared memory enabled, with a max shared segment size of at least 32 MB.

Creating the server

Run the make_project script; example command lines:

    cd tools/
    ./make_project yah

will create $HOME/projects/yah with html_user_url set to http:///yah/ and long project name 'Yah'.

    cd tools/
    ./make_project --base $HOME/boinc --url_base http://boink/ yah 'YETI @ Home'

will create $HOME/boinc/projects/yah with the html_user_url set to http://boink/yah/.

See 'make_project --help' for more command-line options available (such as finer control of directory structure or clobbering an existing installation).

The script does the following:

Create the project directory and its subdirectories.
Create the project's encryption keys if necessary. NOTE: before making the project publicly visible, you must move the code-signing private key to a highly secure (preferably non-networked) host, and delete it from the server host.
Create and initialize MySQL database
Copy source and built files
Generate the configuration file (config.xml) used by the server programs.

The script gives further instructions, namely

It generates a template Apache config file which you can edit and paste into /etc/apache/httpd.conf (path varies), or Include directly if it is already perfect.
It generates a crontab line to paste.

The php scripts need access to the database, so the user that Apache runs under needs SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE to the database just created.

At this point you need to add platform(s) and application(s) to the database using the add tool, and add core versions and application versions using the update_versions tool.

Directory structure

Designate a 'BOINC projects' directory on the server host. The scripts will create subdirectories as follows:

boinc_projects/
    proj1/
        config.xml
        bin/
        cgi-bin/
        log/
        pid/
        download/
        html_ops/
        html_user/
        keys/
        upload/
    proj2/
    ...

where proj1, proj2 etc. are the names of the projects you create. Each project directory contains:

config.xml: configuration file
bin: server daemons and programs, including the main start program as well as all the daemons
cgi-bin: cgi programs
log: log output, lock files, pid files
download: storage for data server downloads.
html_ops: copies of PHP files for project management.
html_user: copies of PHP files for the public web site.
keys: encryption keys used by the project.
upload: storage for data server uploads.

When you run the make_project script it will give you lines to append to your Apache httpd.conf. (Basically you need to alias html_user, alias html_ops, and script-alias cgi-bin, all with appropriate directory permissions.) It will also give you a crontab line to install.

You should also set the default MIME type as follows:

DefaultType application/octet-stream

At this point you hopefully have a functioning BOINC server, but it has no applications or work to distribute. The remaining steps to make a public project include:

Develop, debug and test your application.
Develop back-end systems for generating work and processing results.
Using the 'add' utility, add application versions to the BOINC database.
Develop your web site.

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