SAGAN Admin Manual
Getting Started
Before You Begin
- Make sure you've read what this is all about.
- System requirements:
- GPU: OpenCL-capable with at least 3 GB free VRAM. SAGAN cannot operate with less.
- Disk Space: At least 1 GB free. For seamless maintenance-free operation, 2 GB+ recommended.
- Operating System: Linux (primary) or Windows. Check the download section.
Installation
See the download page for installation instructions. The short version:
curl -sSf https://lbc.cryptoguru.org/static/client/install.sh | bash ./sagan
SAGAN handles everything automatically on first run: hardware detection, calibration, bloom filter download, and configuration.
Operation
System Usage
SAGAN uses a hybrid CPU+GPU architecture where both work in tandem. While running, expect both your GPU and CPU to be heavily utilized. A system running SAGAN is not meant to do much else.
Resource Usage
- GPU: Near 100% utilization. SAGAN needs at least 3 GB free VRAM.
- CPU: Near 100% utilization on hybrid kernels (CPU and GPU working together).
- Memory: Moderate. Bloom filter is loaded into GPU memory.
- Disk: ~512 MB bloom filter + client binary. At least 1 GB free, 2 GB+ recommended for updates.
- Network: Minimal. A few KB every few minutes to report completed work and request new intervals.
- I/O: Minimal. No significant disk activity during operation.
Complementary Workloads
SAGAN has virtually no impact on network or disk I/O. This means workloads that are network-bound or I/O-bound can potentially run alongside SAGAN on the same machine.
Example: Running SAGAN alongside PoC (Proof of Capacity) mining is feasible, since PoC is primarily I/O-bound. You may want to reserve one CPU core for the miner using SAGAN's configuration options.
Thermal Considerations
Running SAGAN continuously will keep your GPU at high temperature. Modern GPUs handle this well with automatic thermal throttling, but ensure adequate cooling. Desktop GPUs in well-ventilated cases are ideal. Laptop GPUs may throttle more aggressively due to thermal constraints.
Security
SAGAN operation is secure and poses no threat to your computer system. The client is a standalone binary with no external dependencies and minimal system access.
What SAGAN Accesses
- Network: HTTPS connections to the LBC pool server only
- Disk: Its own directory (bloom filter, config, found keys log)
- GPU: OpenCL for computation
What SAGAN Does NOT Need
- No Bitcoin wallet or blockchain data
- No privileged/root access
- No access to your personal files
- No background services or daemons
Server Infrastructure
The LBC server infrastructure is under tight control. No cloud services, no managed hosting. Systems are fully under the project maintainers' control, kept up-to-date, and monitored for security issues.
Integrity Verification
Client integrity is verified through checksums. The server validates that connecting clients are running unmodified official binaries. Tampered clients are blocked from the pool.
Misbehaving clients (excessive false positives, work non-delivery, protocol violations) are blacklisted. The system is designed to be resistant to cheating and abuse.
Running in Isolation
If security is paramount, you can run SAGAN in a container or VM. There is some performance loss from GPU passthrough overhead, but this provides additional isolation. Docker with NVIDIA Container Toolkit works well for this purpose.
References
Performance
SAGAN supports three operating modes with vastly different performance characteristics. Choose based on your hardware.
Performance Summary
| Mode | Best | Typical Range |
|---|---|---|
| GPU-only (ECC kernel) | 2678 Mkeys/s | 50-2678 Mkeys/s |
| Hybrid | 115 Mkeys/s | 35-115 Mkeys/s |
| CPU-only | 11 Mkeys/s | 6-11 Mkeys/s |
GPU-Only Mode (ECC Kernel)
Full pipeline on GPU: elliptic curve computation, hash160, and bloom filter lookup.
| GPU | Mkeys/s | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA RTX 4090 | 2678 | Desktop, Ada Lovelace |
| NVIDIA RTX 3090 | 1231 | Desktop, Ampere |
| NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada | 747 | Workstation SFF, 70W |
| NVIDIA RTX 5000 (Turing) | 722 | Workstation, 230W |
| AMD Radeon Pro W6600 | 537 | Workstation, RDNA2 |
| NVIDIA RTX 2060 Max-Q | 430 | Mobile |
| NVIDIA RTX 5000 Mobile | 420 | Mobile, 80W |
| NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti | 335 | Desktop, Pascal |
| AMD Vega 64 | 322 | Desktop |
| 2 × AMD WX4100 | 182 | Server, Polaris (multi-GPU) |
| NVIDIA GTX 1060 | 125 | Mobile |
| AMD WX4100 | 94 | Server, Polaris |
| NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti | 80 | Desktop/VM passthrough |
| NVIDIA Quadro M2000M | 50 | Mobile, Maxwell |
Hybrid Mode
CPU handles elliptic curve computation, GPU handles hash160 and bloom filter lookup.
| CPU | GPU | Mkeys/s | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xeon E-2276M | Quadro RTX 5000 | 115 | Balanced, CPU-limited |
| Intel Broadwell | GTX 1050 Ti | 53 | |
| Xeon E3-1505M v5 | Quadro M2000M | 48 | Balanced system |
| i7-7820X | Vega 64 | 35 | Skylake-X mesh penalty |
Note: The i7-7820X result demonstrates the mesh interconnect penalty. Skylake-X CPUs have ~3× higher L2 latency than ring-bus CPUs, severely impacting ECC throughput.
CPU-Only Mode
Pure CPU computation, no GPU acceleration. Use only when no suitable GPU is available.
| CPU | Cores | Mkeys/s |
|---|---|---|
| Xeon E-2276M | 6 | 11 |
| Xeon E3-1505M v5 | 4 | 6 |
Mode Selection Guide
| Scenario | Recommended Mode |
|---|---|
| Powerful GPU, any CPU | GPU-only (default) |
| Weak/mesh-interconnect CPU | GPU-only |
| Balanced system with ring-bus CPU | Hybrid |
| No GPU available | CPU-only |
Rule of thumb: GPU-only mode (the default) is best for most systems. Hybrid mode can help on balanced systems where the GPU would otherwise be idle waiting for work. CPU-only mode is a fallback when no suitable GPU is available.