Can I safely run multiple identical bitcoind instances ?

[gusti]

Hi :

I'm cloning many linux machines for mining purposes, having each one exactly the same bitcoind install and wallet.
Though I do not intend to use them for doing any transactions, can that be harmful or inconvenient to bitcoin network ?

Best Regards
Gustavo

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[Gavin Andresen]

Giving them all the same starting wallet is a bad idea; they will start out with the same keys, but will eventually each generate their own, so their balances will drift out of sync.

In theory everything should work out, but in practice using the same wallet on multiple machines hasn't been tested much (I fixed a couple of bugs in the last couple of weeks related to a wallet shared between machines).

So before cloning, delete the wallet.dat (assuming it has no bitcoins in it) and let the clones automatically generate a new wallet the first time they start.

[theymos]

It shouldn't be a problem if they truly do no transactions, though. (Generating 50 BTC for themselves would be a transaction.)

[Cryptoman]

On a related note, if I have multiple mining machines behind a NAT and firewall (no inbound 8333), what is the best strategy for the getwork server?  The options are:

• bitcoind running on each miner
• bitcoind running on one miner on the LAN, the other machines requesting getwork from it
• bitcoind running on another machine elsewhere on the internet without firewall restrictions

When I tried the third option, bitcoind repeatedly locks after several hours requiring a kill -9.