Over the course of my many years of involvement in highly distributed systems and the blockchain I've become increasingly interested in how blockchain technology can be used to create trustless distrubuted systems and how this can be leveraged in more traditional applications.

One thing I've been thinking about a lot recently is if a blockchain solution with a similar contract mechanism and supplier/consumer relationships to the file storage chains (Filecoin, Sia, Storj, etc) could be applied to the running of assets within the kubernetes ecosystem. It seems like a logical extension of the existing technology, but would have unique security requirements to ensure the safety of the host machine (likely by isolating the k8s cluster and pods within a virtualized environment and creating a pod/service combo responsible for inbound network connections and the general network security of the cluster).

I'm interested to hear everyone's thoughts on a system like this and start a discussion surrounding the implications of attempting to open such a broad scope of functionality in a trustless environment. I'm aware of other companies attempting to do something in a narrower scope like https://cpucoin.io/ by exposing a very narrow set of compute resources however I have not found any projects attempting to tackle a larger problem subset like total kubernetes or VM rental mechanisms.

[1) Driver]

Let me preface this by saying I've had massive amounts of headaches scrounging the internet trying to get my nvidia overclocking/power management working on ubuntu. I'm sure this guide is going to miss some edge cases I didn't hit myself. If you spot one please let me know and I'll be sure to update this post.

Before you begin, please note one of the most frustrating pitfalls you can hit when enabling manual control on your GPUs is trying to use integrated graphics. This will cause your gpumanager to recognize your system as a "hybrid system" which will nullify your generated configuration (unless you really know what you're doing and know how to manually write an xorg.conf file, DO NOT USE INTEGRATED GRAPHICS). In fact, it is generally safer to disable the integrated graphics altogether in the BIOS.

1) Driver
For starters, you'll need a driver. Currently, I rely on the Ubuntu optimized apt package 'nvidia-384' which can be pulled by running:

Code:

$ sudo apt-get install nvidia-384

The driver doesn't really matter. You'll just need one that is compatible with ubuntu. I would recommend installing via either apt or deb package, the runfile can cause headaches down the line when you need to upgrade the drivers. At the beginning this guide is meant for people relatively new to ubuntu and I will not be covering voltage control. If someone wants to help with that please DM me or post here.

Once the driver is installed, reboot

2) Enabling Manual Control
On ubuntu and other debian based systems, you'll need to set the Coolbits parameter in your xorg.conf file. This is a bit sequence that enables control of various aspects of the graphics card. You can find the breakdown online, but I will provide it here as well alongside an explanation:

For those unfamiliar with binary, or those who only want to run the recommended settings, please skip section 2.1 and go straight to 2.2 recommended settings

2.1) Coolbits Bit Sequence
[0/1][0/1][0/1][0/1][0/1]
4      3      2     1      0

Bit 0: Enables overclocking of pre-Fermi cards
Bit 1: Attempt to initialize SLI for cards with different memory amounts (This one can be and should be ignored to your own peril)
Bit 2: Enable manual configuration of fan speed
Bit 3: Enable mem/clock overclocking
Bit 4: Enable voltage control

2.2) Recommended Settings
For most cards, you're going to want a cool bits option of "28" which is Bits 2, 3, and 4 set (11100). If you do have pre-Fermi cards you're cool bits option would be
"21" which is bits 0, 2 and 4 set (10101).

2.3) Setting the xorg.conf file
To set the coolbits option. You'll need to run the following command with the your recommended or calculated setting from sections 2.1 and 2.2. I'm using "28" as it is most common.

Code:

$ sudo nvidia-xconfig -a --cool-bits 28

This command is using both the '-a' flag (enables all GPUs in the xorg.conf file) and the '--cool-bits' flag to set the coolbits. If you need to do any manual editing or validation, the generated file will be located at '/etc/X11/xorg.conf'.

Now either log out and back in, or reboot the machine (either one will reread the xorg.conf file). Validate that your xorg.conf file has not changed when you get back to your desktop. If it has changed, please refer to section 4 for troubleshooting.

3) Managing your cards
You will now need to go through and manage the manual configuration of your cards. This is done through two different commands:

Code:

nvidia-settings

for overclocking and fan control

Code:

nvidia-smi

for power management]

Please note that 'nvidia-smi' needs to be run as root while 'nvidia-settings' cannot be run as root.

3.1) Core/Mem Overclocking and Fan Control
In order to overclock the core and memory use the following commands:

Code:

nvidia-settings -c :0 -a "[gpu:0]/GPUMemoryTransferRateOffset[3]=800"

Code:

nvidia-settings -c :0 -a "[gpu:0]/GPUGraphicsClockOffset[3]=100"

In order to control the fan speed use the following commands:

Code:

nvidia-settings -c :0 -a "[gpu:$i]/GPUFanControlState=1"

Code:

nvidia-settings -c :0 -a "[fan:$i]/GPUTargetFanSpeed=85"

To break these commands down, the gpu ID follows the same order listed if you run 'nvidia-smi' in your terminal. The ID number is specified by '...[gpu:<id>]...' prefixing each setting string. The following index you'll notice is the '...[3]...' prior to the equal sign. This denotes that in setting 3 it will receive that much overclock. GPUs in ubuntu and other systems have a scale that denotes how fast they should run in hierarchy from 0-3 with 0 being the slowest and 3 being the highest. If your cards get too hot they'll drop out of setting 3 and into 2, 2 to 1, so on and so forth down to 0. I would not recommend setting any overclock levels other than 3 and work on heat management. The last bit after the equal sign denotes the value to set

3.2) Maximum Power Draw Setting
In order to set the maximum power draw for each card use the following commands:

Code:

sudo nvidia-smi -i 0 -pm 1

Code:

sudo nvidia-smi -i 0 -pl 150

To break these down, the first command sets the power management for card in ID 0 to on. The second command sets the power limit to 150 for card in ID 0. If no -i flag is specified, the setting applies to all cards.

4) Troubleshooting

xorg.conf being overwritten
If your xorg.conf is being overwritten when you log back in, the most likely culprit is the GPU manager. There is a swath of reasons why this could be happening. The most common reason I have seen is trying to use integrated graphics instead of hooking the graphics up directly to the primary GPU. If that is not the case you can look in '/var/log/gpumanager.log' to see if it is overwriting the xorg.conf


If you believe this guide is incomplete or if you have any questions, please feel free to follow up here or over DM and I'd be happy to help.

Hi all,

I am migrating one of my machines over to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. I haven't had this issue with any of my previous machines I've run on Ubuntu, but every time I reboot it, the xorg.conf gets overwritten, removing my Coolbits and inhibiting me from overclocking the cards.

I really don't understand why on some systems running a simple command like

sudo nvidia-xconfig -a --cool-bits=28

works and on this system it doesn't.

Specs are

ASRock H81
5x ASUS 1070Ti blower
1x Gigabyte Geforce 1070
Intel Pentium dual core processor

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I live in the san francisco bay area and consume ~3kWh per hour.

What is the best PG&E plan to use to minimize electricy cost? Tiered, time-of-use or EV plans?

Now, before anyone comes in here and says that mining in California is dumb and I should move to china (always seems to happen). I know it's expensive, and I don't care, so don't bother.

Applications lag when background GPU mining on Ubuntu 16.04 (running graphics through integrated graphics).

I have 1x 1070 in my computer which I set to mining while my screens are plugged into integrated graphics. However, while the GPU mining, all of the graphical applications I'm running (mostly firefox) slow down drastically. The rest of the specs are:

Intel i5-7400
16GB DDR4 2800 Ram
32GB Swap
256GB SSD: /, /boot, EFI
1TB HDD: /home
Corsair HX1200 PSU
Gigabyte Z170X Mobo

Any idea how to solve this? I can see in htop that I have plenty of processor/memory overhead to theoretically deal with the load.

With the vote to repeal Net Neutrality in the US tomorrow, it looks like it is going to occur along party lines (3-2 in favor). What will this mean for mining operations/servers in the US?

Thought I'd share my experience with a new ICO that is happening now.

(ANN thread can be found here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2498919.0)
(Airdrop/Bounty PR thread can be found here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2560611.0)

DO NOT PARTICIPATE. They do not allow withdrawal after depositing coins into their web wallet in preparation for their ICO. I deposited a nominal amount to test if they are legit, but it appears they are not.

First of all the withdrawal is greyed out, but after going into the HTML/Javascript and re-enabling the withdrawal function's underlying code. It is returning withdrawal is not available.

All of their "positive" press in the ANN thread is generated from their Airdrop, don't let it dupe you.

I reached out to the founder of the coin, user Nexty.io, about withdrawing my ether and have not heard back despite him tracking as online for multiple hours following the request.

STAY AWAY!

I know that for RX 580s it is best to get the special edition sapphire nitro+ for the best memory/hashrate. Does the same apply to Vega 64? How can I figure this out for myself in the future?

I managed to find a Vega Frontier Edition brand new listed for $600, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger. After doing some preliminary research into potential hashrates, I saw a wide range of opinions and hashrates depending on the person posting them.

When it comes in, what should I mine? What steps do I need to take to ensure I can get the best hashrate out of it? (BIOS mod, mining software versions?)

Does anyone have experience mining with the Sapphire Pulse vs Nitro rx580? From my research it appears they have the same memory clock.

However, I see a lot of people recommending the nitro and nobody recommending the pulse, is there a quantitative reason for this?

I have a 16 core processor on an old deep learning machine that I rewired to GPU mine. This leaves me with quite a bit of extra processing power in the CPU to mine with. What is the best coin to CPU mine right now? For reference, my electricity is free.

[The final modified case, GPU screws tapped (threaded) into aluminum beam]

Thought I would share the custom 4U rackmount-able case my brother and I customized to support a 6 GPU rig.

It does an excellent job of cooling due to it having 3x 120mm intake fans, 3x 120mm fans pulling air out of the GPU compartment and 2x 80mm fans pulling air out from the motherboard compartment. We've found that setting the rig up this way makes it much easier to keep the GPUs running cooler compared to my open air rig since the ambient temperature around the open air rig is much higher unless a desk fan is placed to direct the hot air away.

Customizing the 4U case was tricky for numerous reasons

1) The internal set of fans was mounted too far forward and had to be moved back to make room for the GPUs
2) The intake fans were mounted to the hard drive bay, which had to be removed. We installed custom rails to replace the removed hard drive bay.
3) Creation/tapping of the GPU mounting bars and support beam.

We've built a couple of rigs in cases like these so far and can say we'm quite happy with the results. We're going to see how a similar setup with 8 GPUs works soon.

Let me know what you guys think!

The final modified case, GPU screws tapped (threaded) into aluminum beam


Front View, no door


Front View, with door and lid


One 1070 installed for reference


Fully assembled, lid off


Fully assembled, lid on, door up

Is it viable to set up a mining operation in a shared workspace like WeWork? An single person office in San Jose costs ~$580/mo flat. Electricity in the area starts around $0.14 per kW and scales up to $0.22 if you're consuming "too much" (top 10% of consumers), so it gets expensive.

I figure it would be sketchy to dump a bunch of open air miners into the office, but I've done numerous builds in 4U server chassis. In an enterprise grade rack (e.g. X Rack Pro 25U w/ noise dampening http://www.xrackpro.com/v/vspfiles/xrackpro25U.htm) it would look like a typical server rack everyone is used to seeing in corporate offices. I know a couple of companies that run numerous servers in their office (firewalls, data storage, compute, etc).

Lets say for example I put 6x 4U mining rigs into the office consuming 1.25 kW each (8x GTX 1070 rigs) for a total of 7.5 kW. Assuming best case cost at $0.14 all of the power, that would run $781.20. Assuming worst case at $0.22 it would cost $1227.60.

0.14 $/kW * 7.5 kW * 24 hrs * 31 days = $781.20
0.14 $/kW * 7.5 kW * 24 hrs * 31 days = $1227.60

Also, further savings could be achieved by renting the office through a shell company (LLC or S Corp), then selling off enough crypto every month with the corporation to cover the electric cost as a business expense pre-tax.

Assuming a 40% personal tax rate, the true cost (pre-tax) of the consumed electricity is:

0.14 $/kW * 7.5 kW * 24 hrs * 31 days = $781.20 / 0.6 = $1,302.00
0.14 $/kW * 7.5 kW * 24 hrs * 31 days = $1227.60 / 0.6 = $2,046.00

Thus total savings would amount to minimum $722/mo, but closer to the maximum of $1466/mo.

Has anyone attempted this? How did it turn out?

[Survey:]

Hey guys,

I recently got together a team of devops/security/networking engineers and graphic designers to try and make the mining experience better/more streamlined out of pure frustration due to the amount of client-side overhead there is to setting up a mining operation. We brainstormed a few ways to innovate, but are looking for feedback from the community on where we should focus our attention. I have included a link to the google survey below. It should only take around 1 minute to complete. All feedback is welcome!

The survey is completely anonymous.

Thank you!  

Survey: survey.skyblue.io
Time: ~1 min

Recently I heard about a coin (I forget which one) that during its ICO phase it offered equity in the organization through standard SEC-approved business practices (C-Corp stock options) and kept the coin separate from the initial investment.

What are your guys' thoughts on this? Due to the recent surge in popularity of cryptocurrencies as a whole I wouldn't be surprised if the SEC is digging deep into how to regulate the market. Do you think standard ICOs are still the way to go, or going the route of SEC-friendly practices is a better bet long term for new coins?

[SURVEY LINK:]

Hi all,

Throughout my experience mining cryptos I've been frustrated with the inconsistency of mining pools for smaller alts and lack of innovation in multi-pool tech. So, I've put together a team of devops engineers (cloud/sec), blockchain/mining experts and graphic designers to attempt to make the process more streamlined and easy for everyone.

Due to the teams background in devops, the underlying platform for the pool will be multi-cloud (AWS w/ Azure failovers) and multi-region in each cloud. It will be secured using best-of-breed firewalls (Palo Alto) and ddos protected through native web application firewalls (WAFs) in AWS and Azure through their load balancers.

However, the purpose of the survey is to determine what new features/innovation would benefit people the most. We're currently in the early stages of figuring out where the pain points are so we can tailor our solutions to the needs of the community as a whole.

The survey takes around a minute to complete. We'd love any and all feedback!

SURVEY LINK: survey.skyblue.io
Length: ~1 min

Thank you!