Running NT on Windows Server?

[wayneFH]

Does NT run properly on Microsoft Windows Server operating system? I heard it has issues with Vista.

I want to install and run NT on a dedicated server at a data center to reduce latency to the broker and a more reliable internet connection for automated trading.

Please advise if NT runs on Microsoft Windows Server and perhaps what versions it runs on.

Sincerely,
Wayne

[NinjaTrader_Dierk]

- NT does not have issues with Vista
- you can run NT on a windows server
- you may or may not be able to run NT on a 64 bit windows system

[wayneFH]

Licensing Question

Excellent, I am signing up with LiquidWeb.com because they did extremely well with a Linux server I had previously. They offer a Windows Server fully managed for $105 with 768Meg. And a rep in the chat window gave me a coupon that makes it only $90.00 a month.

I plan to install NinjaTrader and then use a remote desktop to work with NT and run it, etc.

I will remove it from my current desktop since I can't afford 2 monthly license leases, if that is necessary.

Or does the license allow for a 2 cpus? Many software licenses do in the form of the desktop and laptop. Or is your license a "single user" license that allow 2 cpu's?

Please advise.

Sincerely,
Wayne

[wayneFH]

Licensing question

Does the NinjaTrader license allow for a 2 cpus? Many software licenses do allow that in the form of the desktop and laptop.

Please advise. - Wayne

[NinjaTrader_John]

Licensing question

Hello Wayne:

NinjaTrader can be installed on as many PCs as you like as long as only one PC is used to trade at a time. NinjaTrader does not allow concurrent PC use with a single license, that is a violation of our users agreement.

Sincerely,

John

[wayneFH]

Very good news. Thanks.

That makes sense. I remember it is free to use for research but you pay for live trading. I only want to use it for further R&D on my desktop but live trade it from the server. It will have far less latency and higher reliability. IT seems it checks the license at your server when starting up so that's cool.

Thanks a million. Very cool licensing structure. People rave about being able to use if for free for research.

Keep up the great work!

Wayne

[ctrlbrk]

- NT does not have issues with Vista
- you can run NT on a windows server
- you may or may not be able to run NT on a 64 bit windows system

Can you provide more info on running it on x64, say Vista x64 for instance? I am considering it in order to take advantage of more memory, which my aim is that NT will use so I can run longer backtests and optimizations without the 'out of memory' NT error.

Mike

[NinjaTrader_Dierk]

Running NT on 64bit window will not provide any additional value, since NT still is a 32bit process -> same limitations as to any 32bit process apply. Please contact Microsoft for details.

[Anagoge]

I'm running NT 6.5 under Vista 64 and it usually works well for me. But once it reaches about 1.1 GB of memory use (private working set), it generally crashes. This regularly happens when I'm running long sequences of optimizations (say 12 optimizations of 45 minutes each over 4 years of day bars), and the memory from previous optimizations is not released when I start a new one.

Hopefully, NT 7 will be more robust in this area. Providing a 64-bit .NET download of NT 7 might help some, but it wouldn't automatically fix the memory "leaks" - those would need to be fixed in the NT code itself. Technically, memory leaks in pure .NET code are not normal leaks, but more often just references held too objects for too long/unnecessarily, since the data is no longer useful but still referenced for whatever reason. For example, there may be some object container holding all of the results from previous optimizations, even though the NT GUI has no way to bring them up to view again, etc.

[ctrlbrk]

I'm running NT 6.5 under Vista 64 and it usually works well for me. But once it reaches about 1.1 GB of memory use (private working set), it generally crashes. This regularly happens when I'm running long sequences of optimizations (say 12 optimizations of 45 minutes each over 4 years of day bars), and the memory from previous optimizations is not released when I start a new one.

I have found the same thing, usually about 1.2GB of memory. I have seen it up to about 1.3GB on occasion before it crashes.

This is on Vista x86.

However, today I installed VMware Workstation 6.5 and did a clean XP SP3 install. I set it to one processor and 1GB of memory. NT is flying! I cannot believe my eyes. I have not had time to do a lot of side-by-side tests, in the VM w/XP vs out of the VM w/Vista, but something is dramatically different here.

So, if this is at all an option for you, I would recommend it. Today I have found my strategy analysis work going three times as fast because a) I can run two optimizations simultaneously (one in, one out of VM), and b) the XP SP3 VM instance of NT appears to be quicker than the native Vista instance.

I also second your request for a x64 NT7 if that is what is required to run these complex optimizations without crashing. However, I am hopeful that NT7 has been re-designed enough so that it won't even be an issue and the amount of memory will not be as crucial as in NT6.5.

Good luck!

Mike

[NinjaTrader_JoshP]

NT7 will bring performance improvements.