I'm running seti@home and Rosetta. I have Preferences set to switch every 60 minutes as recommended. I think I understand that BOINC runs the task due first if there are more than one. I have a Rosetta task due 1/3 but BOINC is running only the S@H task due 2/3. Is it figuring it can still run the Rosetta task on time? The Rosetta task has been stuck at .258% for days now. If indeed it's supposed to be switching every 60 minutes why doesn't the Rosetta task increment?

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That is a pile of questions you bundled up there.

First things first, if your Rosetta task is not making progress, but BOINC shows it is "running", exit and restart BOINC.

When you switch between projects every 60 min. you are just telling BOINC to decide each hour which task would be best to work on. It may decide over and over that the same task needs work. Just depends on your resource shares, time to deadline, estimated time remaining, history of the amount of time per day your machine is actively running BOINC, etc. etc. In short, yes, it is figuring it can still run the Rosetta task on time, and so it is trying to rotate through your projects to match your resource shares. So it's not necessarily related to the task with the earliest deadline.

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Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense

That is a pile of questions you bundled up there.

First things first, if your Rosetta task is not making progress, but BOINC shows it is "running", exit and restart BOINC.

When you switch between projects every 60 min. you are just telling BOINC to decide each hour which task would be best to work on. It may decide over and over that the same task needs work. Just depends on your resource shares, time to deadline, estimated time remaining, history of the amount of time per day your machine is actively running BOINC, etc. etc. In short, yes, it is figuring it can still run the Rosetta task on time, and so it is trying to rotate through your projects to match your resource shares. So it's not necessarily related to the task with the earliest deadline.

Time will tell. BOINC finished up the first of two 2/3 S@H projects last night and is busily working on the other one. The Rosetta project is 'running' but stuck at .258%. I exited and restarted and no change at all. Steve

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I'm running seti@home and Rosetta. I have Preferences set to switch every 60 minutes as recommended. I think I understand that BOINC runs the task due first if there are more than one. I have a Rosetta task due 1/3 but BOINC is running only the S@H task due 2/3. Is it figuring it can still run the Rosetta task on time? The Rosetta task has been stuck at .258% for days now. If indeed it's supposed to be switching every 60 minutes why doesn't the Rosetta task increment?

I have same issue. Ran just WCG for years and recently decided to add other biology tasks. Started with Malaria stuff. Then Ralph seemed to HOG BOINC. Just added Rosetta and see same thing. I find myself manually looking at the dates and have started "Suspending" a task at night (which automatically lets the others run) then re-enable in the morning.
Personally seems like a bug to me?

I'm running seti@home and Rosetta. I have Preferences set to switch every 60 minutes as recommended. I think I understand that BOINC runs the task due first if there are more than one. I have a Rosetta task due 1/3 but BOINC is running only the S@H task due 2/3. Is it figuring it can still run the Rosetta task on time? The Rosetta task has been stuck at .258% for days now. If indeed it's supposed to be switching every 60 minutes why doesn't the Rosetta task increment?

I have same issue. Ran just WCG for years and recently decided to add other biology tasks. Started with Malaria stuff. Then Ralph seemed to HOG BOINC. Just added Rosetta and see same thing. I find myself manually looking at the dates and have started "Suspending" a task at night (which automatically lets the others run) then re-enable in the morning.
Personally seems like a bug to me?

You say you have the same issue, but the previous post refers to a couple of problems.

1) The original poster mistakenly assumed that BOINC tries to run the task with the earliest deadline first.

2) A Rosetta task was stuck at a particular point for several days. That sounds like either a broken task or the original poster did something unusual like leaving suspended tasks in memory and then restarted the computer (wiping any completed work still in memory).


I am guessing that your issue is with point 1. This is standard behaviour for BOINC when you have multiple projects and not something to worry about. The BOINC manager does work for each project based on the resource shares you have set; if you have all projects on the same setting then BOINC will try to do the same amount of work for each project averaged over time.

Assuming that your BOINC Manager runs for a similar amount of time each day, the internal algorithm is clever enough to prioritise tasks to avoid failing deadlines. But by suspending the tasks you are second guessing the BOINC Manager and forcing it to take corrective measures when the task is resumed. This will lead to unexpected behaviour patterns as BOINC trys to correct your actions.

It is best to let BOINC run itself. When you add a new project or change settings you can temporarily unbalance BOINC but it will return to a stable pattern within a day or two if left alone.

If you do not like the projects to have an equal share of the computer time you can reduce or increase the resource shares as appropriate.

I'm running seti@home and Rosetta. I have Preferences set to switch every 60 minutes as recommended. I think I understand that BOINC runs the task due first if there are more than one. I have a Rosetta task due 1/3 but BOINC is running only the S@H task due 2/3. Is it figuring it can still run the Rosetta task on time? The Rosetta task has been stuck at .258% for days now. If indeed it's supposed to be switching every 60 minutes why doesn't the Rosetta task increment?

I have same issue. Ran just WCG for years and recently decided to add other biology tasks. Started with Malaria stuff. Then Ralph seemed to HOG BOINC. Just added Rosetta and see same thing. I find myself manually looking at the dates and have started "Suspending" a task at night (which automatically lets the others run) then re-enable in the morning.
Personally seems like a bug to me?

You say you have the same issue, but the previous post refers to a couple of problems.

1) The original poster mistakenly assumed that BOINC tries to run the task with the earliest deadline first.

2) A Rosetta task was stuck at a particular point for several days. That sounds like either a broken task or the original poster did something unusual like leaving suspended tasks in memory and then restarted the computer (wiping any completed work still in memory).


I am guessing that your issue is with point 1. This is standard behaviour for BOINC when you have multiple projects and not something to worry about. The BOINC manager does work for each project based on the resource shares you have set; if you have all projects on the same setting then BOINC will try to do the same amount of work for each project averaged over time.

Assuming that your BOINC Manager runs for a similar amount of time each day, the internal algorithm is clever enough to prioritise tasks to avoid failing deadlines. But by suspending the tasks you are second guessing the BOINC Manager and forcing it to take corrective measures when the task is resumed. This will lead to unexpected behaviour patterns as BOINC trys to correct your actions.

It is best to let BOINC run itself. When you add a new project or change settings you can temporarily unbalance BOINC but it will return to a stable pattern within a day or two if left alone.

If you do not like the projects to have an equal share of the computer time you can reduce or increase the resource shares as appropriate.

Thank You. I do believe I understand all these priority explanations. There are now 5 projects evenly allocated at 20% each. Check this out though.
A few days back, under the Tasks tab, I saw a WCG task running with Status "Running, with highest priority". The Remaining Estimated Time Left was very close to the Deadline Time, if not longer.
I have not received anymore tasks from WCG since.
Granted there may be no tasks available. But the timing feels like I am being rejected for being late with a return.
All imagination running wild probably. So I am still Suspending Rosetta for awhile to keep fighting Malaria. And it works great.

Thank You. I do believe I understand all these priority explanations. There are now 5 projects evenly allocated at 20% each. Check this out though.
A few days back, under the Tasks tab, I saw a WCG task running with Status "Running, with highest priority". The Remaining Estimated Time Left was very close to the Deadline Time, if not longer.
I have not received anymore tasks from WCG since.
Granted there may be no tasks available. But the timing feels like I am being rejected for being late with a return.
All imagination running wild probably. So I am still Suspending Rosetta for awhile to keep fighting Malaria. And it works great.

It sounds like you are describing the common symptoms of a "debt" problem.

When you are linked to multiple projects your BOINC manager assigns a debt level to every project. When one project is working BOINC increases the debt levels of all the other projects and decreases the debt of the current project. When the current project finishes its run BOINC consults the debt levels, compares those to the deadlines and then decides which project to run next.

The higher a project's debt or the shorter the deadline, the more likely it will be chosen for the next run.

If a project's debt level gets high enough the BOINC manager will force you to repay the debt by only downloading work from that project. That could be why you aren't seeing many WCG tasks at the moment - the other projects are in severe debt and you won't get more WCG tasks until you start repaying the debt to the other projects.

By suspending Rosetta tasks you are forcing BOINC to stop repaying Rosetta's debt and are then increasing the debt by doing more work for the other projects. When you allow Rosetta to work again the balance between debt levels and deadlines is even more skewed than last time and BOINC's behaviour becomes abnormal.

In extreme cases the deadlines can become confused, forcing BOINC into high priority mode, as explained in another user's comment from a few years ago.

Greg_BE wrote:

yep, that happened to me as well.
Rosie ran out of work and Einstein and Poem loaded me up big time.
Then Rosie came back online and Boinc manager had to sing high priority for awhile while clearing the backlog of the other projects.

Then it started loading Rosie stuff in and not the others due to debt levels and finally settled down a week or 2 after that. If you watch your 'user average' stats chart, you will see that one of your projects is way higher than Rosie in credit and then you should see that project drop off in work a bit and Rosie loading in more work to get your credit back up to where it was.

But like we said, just sit back, let things run and Boinc manager will sort it all out for you over time and then return to normal.

Thank You. I do believe I understand all these priority explanations. There are now 5 projects evenly allocated at 20% each. Check this out though.
A few days back, under the Tasks tab, I saw a WCG task running with Status "Running, with highest priority". The Remaining Estimated Time Left was very close to the Deadline Time, if not longer.
I have not received anymore tasks from WCG since.
Granted there may be no tasks available. But the timing feels like I am being rejected for being late with a return.
All imagination running wild probably. So I am still Suspending Rosetta for awhile to keep fighting Malaria. And it works great.

It sounds like you are describing the common symptoms of a "debt" problem.

When you are linked to multiple projects your BOINC manager assigns a debt level to every project. When one project is working BOINC increases the debt levels of all the other projects and decreases the debt of the current project. When the current project finishes its run BOINC consults the debt levels, compares those to the deadlines and then decides which project to run next.

The higher a project's debt or the shorter the deadline, the more likely it will be chosen for the next run.

If a project's debt level gets high enough the BOINC manager will force you to repay the debt by only downloading work from that project. That could be why you aren't seeing many WCG tasks at the moment - the other projects are in severe debt and you won't get more WCG tasks until you start repaying the debt to the other projects.

By suspending Rosetta tasks you are forcing BOINC to stop repaying Rosetta's debt and are then increasing the debt by doing more work for the other projects. When you allow Rosetta to work again the balance between debt levels and deadlines is even more skewed than last time and BOINC's behaviour becomes abnormal.

In extreme cases the deadlines can become confused, forcing BOINC into high priority mode, as explained in another user's comment from a few years ago.

Greg_BE wrote:

yep, that happened to me as well.
Rosie ran out of work and Einstein and Poem loaded me up big time.
Then Rosie came back online and Boinc manager had to sing high priority for awhile while clearing the backlog of the other projects.

Then it started loading Rosie stuff in and not the others due to debt levels and finally settled down a week or 2 after that. If you watch your 'user average' stats chart, you will see that one of your projects is way higher than Rosie in credit and then you should see that project drop off in work a bit and Rosie loading in more work to get your credit back up to where it was.

But like we said, just sit back, let things run and Boinc manager will sort it all out for you over time and then return to normal.

Thank You again. I greatly appreciate how clearly you explain things. I leave my computer on 24/7 and from now I'll leave all projects enabled and trust BOINC to do its own thing.