--- title: 'VMware FAH Appliance: Making Of F@H-Stats' url: 'https://patrik.kernstock.net/blog/vmware-fah-appliance-making-of-fh-stats' markdown: 'https://patrik.kernstock.net/blog/vmware-fah-appliance-making-of-fh-stats.md' date: '2020-03-22' description: "You might have seen my previous blog post about the VMware Appliance for Folding@Home. This article is about how the local console was made underneath – and actually how simple it is. Usually when powering on a Linux-based operating system, you just get the usual login console after boot. I thought that it would be handy to see what or if something is ongoing without actually logging in – so in other words: Seeing how busy the virtual machine is, and what the Folding@Home software is doing. So I went ahead figuring out a simple, fast and easy way showing both. Ending up with the idea: Using a terminal multiplexer, and showing the classic top and tail -f /var/lib/fahclient/log.txt. That’s how it looks like (when Enable F@H Stats in VM Console was enabled during deployment): Local Console / F@H Stats This is how it works… How it works 1. First of all, make sure to install tmux on your machine first. On PhotonOS that’s done by running tdnf install -y tmux. (see tdnf docs) 2. Prepare a small script to start tmux. (nano /root/tmux.sh, or vi) #!/bin/sh tmux new-session -d 'top' tmux split-window -p 10 -v 'tail -f /var/lib/fahclient/log.txt' tmux -2 attach-session -d This starts a new tmux session with top, then splitting the window horizontally with 10% height where the tail command is run. Then we basically attach to the newly created" taxonomy: category: - Linux - 'Shell & System' - VMware tag: - Fling - QuickTip - tmux --- # [VMware FAH Appliance: Making Of F@H-Stats](https://patrik.kernstock.net/blog/vmware-fah-appliance-making-of-fh-stats) March 22, 2020 2 min [Linux](https://patrik.kernstock.net/category:Linux) [Shell & System](https://patrik.kernstock.net/category:Shell%20%26%20System) [VMware](https://patrik.kernstock.net/category:VMware) [Fling](https://patrik.kernstock.net/tag:Fling) [QuickTip](https://patrik.kernstock.net/tag:QuickTip) [tmux](https://patrik.kernstock.net/tag:tmux) Note This article is more than 6 year(s) old – information may be outdated. ![VMware FAH Appliance: Making Of F@H-Stats](https://patrik.kernstock.net/images/2/0/2/0/-/2020-03-1908-18-43-mcqhag14-5d7d8a91.png?g-1145e14b "VMware FAH Appliance: Making Of F@H-Stats") You might have seen my previous blog post about the [VMware Appliance for Folding@Home](https://patrik.kernstock.net/blog/vmware-appliance-for-folding-at-home). This article is about how the local console was made underneath – and actually how simple it is. Usually when powering on a Linux-based operating system, you just get the usual login console after boot. I thought that it would be handy to see what or if something is ongoing without actually logging in – so in other words: Seeing how busy the virtual machine is, and what the Folding@Home software is doing. So I went ahead figuring out a simple, fast and easy way showing both. Ending up with the idea: Using a terminal multiplexer, and showing the classic *top* and *tail -f /var/lib/fahclient/log.txt*. That’s how it looks like (when *Enable F@H Stats in VM Console* was enabled during deployment): [![](https://patrik.kernstock.net/user/pages/01.blog/2020-03-22-vmware-fah-appliance-making-of-fh-stats/2020-03-19_08-18-43-McqHAg14.png?g-1145e14b)](https://patrik.kernstock.net/user/pages/01.blog/2020-03-22-vmware-fah-appliance-making-of-fh-stats/2020-03-19_08-18-43-McqHAg14.png?g-1145e14b) Local Console / F@H Stats This is how it works… ## How it works **1. First of all, make sure to install *tmux* on your machine first.** On PhotonOS that’s done by running *tdnf install -y tmux*. (see [tdnf docs](https://vmware.github.io/photon/assets/files/html/3.0/photon_admin/tdnf.html)) **2. Prepare a small script to start tmux.** (*nano /root/tmux.sh,* or *vi*) ``` #!/bin/sh tmux new-session -d 'top' tmux split-window -p 10 -v 'tail -f /var/lib/fahclient/log.txt' tmux -2 attach-session -d ``` This starts a new *tmux* session with *top*, then splitting the window horizontally with 10% height where the *tail* command is run. Then we basically attach to the newly created tmux session… Voila, we have our simple overview! **3. Make the above script executable** by using: ``` chmod +x /root/tmux.sh ``` **4. Configure the script being called upon boot and shown instead of login console** Note: This steps are designed for Linux distributions taking use of systemd. ``` $ mkdir -p /etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d/ $ cat > /etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d/override.conf <