tired of computer problems... try this

[forker]

hello fellow traders

i have seen so many of you speaking of computer problems i thought i would share with you the setup i use and what benefits i get over a standard setup.

typical problems with a system are:

1)virus
2)becomes slow
3)corupted windows components

all these = the inevitable downtime.... bad for trading

hardware\software needed
-------------------------------
-you need a really good machine\s to get the full benefit so a dual core with at least 2gb of memory and a good vidio card is required.

-get yourself a copy of vmware (pc or mac) or parallels(mac)

-external redundant disk array or naz is best but costly, you can get by with a really good external drive

-ghost or any imaging software

the setup
-----------

-base install of windows or mac
-good virus\firewall software to protect the base system
-vmware or parallels
-image your base machine to a cd for fast recovery (you will hardly ever need to do a base machine recovery)

once you have this installed you ready to go, you can startup the virtual machine software and load a copy of windows on. you dont need to install any virus software on the virtual machine because you can revert back to a backup in minutes and you want to reduce all applications running on this machine as much as you can to keep it quick. once you have done this, load up all your trading software and get the machine to where you need it so that you can trade. next step is to take your first snapshot image of your virtual machine and store it to your external hard disk. you can do a weekly backup this way andalways be able to restore a perfect system from a point in time in less than 2 minutes. with this setup you will never have to worry about viruses or problems again because you can have a working virtual machine back faster than you can make a cup of coffee. no more downtime

if you have more money and are very serious about yoru setup you can go a step further and get the more advanced hardware with better disk redundancy..


tips:

base machine must have no software runnin apart from the virus\firewall and the virual machine software.. turn off all services not needed..

 

[rnicoll]

Can I just say... why does no-one use Linux??? Stable, free, viruses are more or less not going to happen... and you all use Windows.

Okay, better now.

 

[0007]

Can I just say... why does no-one use Linux??? Stable, free, viruses are more or less not going to happen... and you all use Windows.

Okay, better now.

Something I've been meaning to try for some time. I believe it's possible to run Win applications on Linux using WINE software. Any experience of this? (or other ways of running Win apps?)

 

[rnicoll]

Something I've been meaning to try for some time. I believe it's possible to run Win applications on Linux using WINE software. Any experience of this? (or other ways of running Win apps?)

Haven't tried WINE, but I'm aware of it. In short... forget games, it isn't going to happen. Most trading stuff should stand a decent chance of working, though. Or use Interactive Brokers, who officially support Linux and everything.

 

[0007]

Haven't tried WINE, but I'm aware of it. In short... forget games, it isn't going to happen. Most trading stuff should stand a decent chance of working, though. Or use Interactive Brokers, who officially support Linux and everything.

Games?..... yuk! (have enough games with the market )

I was thinking of things like Metastock and suchlike

 

[dcraig1]

Something I've been meaning to try for some time. I believe it's possible to run Win applications on Linux using WINE software. Any experience of this? (or other ways of running Win apps?)

Some windows apps run with WIne and some don't and it can be fiddly to set up. It's certainly worth a go and Wine is improving all the time. Another way is to use virtualization and run Windows as a guest OS. This should be very compatible with everything except games. VIrtualization products include VmWare, Xen, KVM, and Sun also have a free one which is reportedly quite good. With virtualization, Windows runs in a window or optionally full screen.

Virtualization is a highly viable option, as is Wine in come cases. I have used Wmware several years ago, and it worked very well. Virtualization is likely to be the most trouble free and robust option.

 

[0007]

Some windows apps run with WIne and some don't and it can be fiddly to set up. It's certainly worth a go and Wine is improving all the time. Another way is to use virtualization and run Windows as a guest OS. This should be very compatible with everything except games. VIrtualization products include VmWare, Xen, KVM, and Sun also have a free one which is reportedly quite good. With virtualization, Windows runs in a window or optionally full screen.

Virtualization is a highly viable option, as is Wine in come cases. I have used Wmware several years ago, and it worked very well.

Thanks for that.

 

[shadowninja]

typical problems with a system are:

1)virus
2)becomes slow
3)corupted windows components

all these = the inevitable downtime.... bad for trading

Easy. Stop browsing porn.

 

[dcraig1]

On the topic of reliability, Linux comes with support for software RAID (disk mirroring etc) wich works very well and is probably better than the so called RAID controllers on many motherboards and as fast as many add on hardware RAID controllers. It is a very cheap way to add a little system reliability. I use it on on my database server, and it has been totally trouble free. It is NOT a substitue for backup.

Just one example of the benefits of Linux - there is so much available for free straight out of the box.

 

[fibonelli]

Services, A/V, Wine, Windows, Shimindows, blah, blah, blah

Don't mix P U $ $ Y with computing










miaow

 

[shadowninja]

Oh dear.

 

[fibonelli]

more p u $ $ y

 

[0007]

more p u $ $ y

You know you can get special boxes for carrying cats don't you?

 

[Adamus]

linux is great but you have to know alot - tons and tons in fact. Including loads of commands to type at the command line. What would be ideal is a neighbourhood computing shop who did all the administrator stuff so you can just sit back and enjoy the reliability.

A sysadmin has to set up linux on a box and can then leave it often for months with no further action required. With windows, the sysadmin has to sit there and stroke the machine everyday.

 

[rnicoll]

linux is great but you have to know alot - tons and tons in fact. Including loads of commands to type at the command line. What would be ideal is a neighbourhood computing shop who did all the administrator stuff so you can just sit back and enjoy the reliability.

A sysadmin has to set up linux on a box and can then leave it often for months with no further action required. With windows, the sysadmin has to sit there and stroke the machine everyday.

jrn@turret:~$ uptime
 13:45:29 up 132 days, 21:11,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.00

:clap:

Ubuntu's actually making Linux a lot more approachable. There's still a lot of freaky bits you can get into if you want to mess under the hood, but basic day to day tasks are simple.

I ought to actually wrap up Interactive Broker's Trader Workstation as a ready to install package for Ubuntu, thinking about it...

 

[dcraig1]

jrn@turret:~$ uptime
 13:45:29 up 132 days, 21:11,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.00

:clap:

Ubuntu's actually making Linux a lot more approachable.

Very true. Basic install on a lot of hardware is dead simple - and the device drivers in general come with the OS. Assistance might be needed with things like multi screen setup and RAID. As for maintenance - what maintenance other than clicking a couple of buttons to keep your packages up to date ? Far better than the Windows service pack mess.

 

[Adamus]

I ought to actually wrap up Interactive Broker's Trader Workstation as a ready to install package for Ubuntu, thinking about it...

Why do you need to package it? Doesn't it load OK from your browser?

Anyway utopia would be TradeStation in Linux. I guess I could try running it under wine, but i've never used wine. Apparently it's meant to be very good at the job.

 

[rnicoll]

Why do you need to package it? Doesn't it load OK from your browser?

Anyway utopia would be TradeStation in Linux. I guess I could try running it under wine, but i've never used wine. Apparently it's meant to be very good at the job.

I prefer to run it as a desktop app. While that's fine for me, it occurs that it might be nice for others to be able to do "apt-get install ib-tws" or similar.

Sabayon Linux is apparently rather good for WINE: Sabayon Linux Project Website - haven't tried it myself, though. My current approach to trading is heavily focused on auto-trading, for which I have a custom application, so getting Windows-based tools running isn't really an issue for me...

 

[jgtowny]

I have to agree with Forker, you gotta have a stable machine. I was researching building one on my own and then just ended up buying from Multiplexpc.com - Affordable Multiple Monitor Computer Systems and Multiple Monitor Arrays for Day Trading and Business Professionals!

Not a single problem yet and I was able to get it with XP Pro 64bit and didn't have to pay a downgrade fee like at Dell like I read about in another post.

 

[Adamus]

Key to stability is to upgrade nothing. Nothing at all.

My trading workstation is an old piece of junk and it's been that way for years now but it's all I need.

I used to do hardware and software maintenance for a small office and it was always people upgrading on their own that caused problems. It locks you into a never-ending cycle. It starts off innocently enough, e.g. Adobe Acrobat says you should upgrade, and you end up buying a new machine (and wasting hours re-installing and all that jazz)

So if you don't upgrade, and you run a disk scanning program and a defragger regularly and a Registry cleaner (or is that history now? - I'm on linux these days), then you'll never need any more hardware until it wears out.

Sticking to what I've got and foregoing those nice-to-haves meant that I not only didn't buy any hardware (for this workstation) for 8 years, but I spared myself the hell of endless windows problems.

Just my 2 cents.