Why are my Rosetta tasks running in High Priority?

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Ed

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Message 71147 - Posted: 26 Aug 2011, 12:30:25 UTC
Last modified: 26 Aug 2011, 12:32:34 UTC

I have a bunch of Rosetta work units to process. I have 4 with deadlines in August that are partially done and two with September dates that are running in Priority mode. Any idea why?

In addition I have only allocated 40% of my time to Rosetta with Seti getting 60%, but none of my Seti work units are running or even waiting to run. They are in ready to start status.

This has been going on since yesterday.

I am tempted to terminate these rosetta processes but before I do I wanted to get some feedback.

I have BOINC set to switch projects every 60 minutes but it does not look like that is happening.

Normally I have a Seti running and a Rosetta or a second Seti running.

Any thoughts on this? I don't seem to be able to paste a print screen into the post.
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Message 71149 - Posted: 26 Aug 2011, 16:23:37 UTC

to show your screens, you have to have a photo album on the web somewhere that you can link to in here.

but yeah..boinc manager has to "learn" how your system works before it will even out the task load. just let everything run as you usually do and let boinc manager do the rest.
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Message 71156 - Posted: 27 Aug 2011, 14:08:07 UTC - in response to Message 71154.  

And BOINC manager will get out of tune when something happens that it didn't expect, for example running out of SETI work. It will then get a bunch of extra work for the other projects, Rosetta tasks in this case.


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.
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Ed

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Message 71174 - Posted: 1 Sep 2011, 3:35:37 UTC

Thanks guys. This is starting to make sense.

OK I will let it run as it sees fit and wait for it to sort out.
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Message 71784 - Posted: 10 Dec 2011, 20:54:51 UTC

I'd like to add a similar question to this thread...
My rig is running Rosetta tasks in high priority when I have even older Rosetta tasks that is haven't even started yet. Shouldn't Boinc start the tasks with the earliest expiration dates? All my tasks have about a 4 hour run time.
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Message 71934 - Posted: 31 Dec 2011, 11:48:05 UTC

Well, i´m just about to kick the Rosetta project out from my computer due to running in high priority mode. It effectivly blocks every other project since before christmas and it is new years evening today even thoug i have configured boic to shift betweeen projects everey hour.

s this the only way to work around the problem??
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Message 71936 - Posted: 31 Dec 2011, 11:55:59 UTC - in response to Message 71934.  
Last modified: 31 Dec 2011, 12:04:29 UTC

Well, i´m just about to kick the Rosetta project out from my computer due to running in high priority mode. It effectivly blocks every other project since before christmas and it is new years evening today even thoug i have configured boic to shift betweeen projects everey hour.

Is this the only way to work around the problem??


No not really, the problem is your cache size is so large, or your pc doesn't run 24/7, that Boinc thinks that you can't possibly finish the work you currently have prior to the deadlines. It usually develops when you are running several projects, all competing for the same resources, and then one project takes longer to process a unit than Boinc thinks it will when it downloads the work. You can set a project or two to No New Tasks so it doesn't get any more work from anywhere else right now, but as long as Boinc thinks you are overloaded it will run in High Priority mode. As a lost resort you could abort some of the work units, but if you don't set Boinc to No New Tasks it could just download more. Boinc LEARNS from its mistakes but it takes time and is not a very fast learner!

This is also a Long Term Debt issue but the easiest solution is to have a smaller cache. LTD is built up when your pc works a long time for one project and then 'owes' crunching time to other projects because of your percentage settings. If you look in the Boinc Manager under Projects you will see all your projects listed, next to each is a percentage of crunching time that you would like Boinc to adhere to. This is a GUIDELINE not a rule, but over time, perhaps as long as a year in some extreme cases, those numbers WILL be honored. The numbers are adjustable at each projects website.
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Message 71937 - Posted: 31 Dec 2011, 11:59:07 UTC - in response to Message 71784.  

I'd like to add a similar question to this thread...
My rig is running Rosetta tasks in high priority when I have even older Rosetta tasks that is haven't even started yet. Shouldn't Boinc start the tasks with the earliest expiration dates? All my tasks have about a 4 hour run time.


Yes it should but Boinc is only a program that is doing what it THINKS is right, often the programming is slightly flawed in some areas, this seems like one of them. The other possibility is that those units are already over the deadline, if so it will skip them altogether and return them as undone the next time your pc talks to Rosetta.
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Message 71941 - Posted: 31 Dec 2011, 14:46:52 UTC - in response to Message 71936.  

Well, i´m just about to kick the Rosetta project out from my computer due to running in high priority mode. It effectivly blocks every other project since before christmas and it is new years evening today even thoug i have configured boic to shift betweeen projects everey hour.

Is this the only way to work around the problem??


No not really, the problem is your cache size is so large, or your pc doesn't run 24/7, that Boinc thinks that you can't possibly finish the work you currently have prior to the deadlines. It usually develops when you are running several projects, all competing for the same resources, and then one project takes longer to process a unit than Boinc thinks it will when it downloads the work. You can set a project or two to No New Tasks so it doesn't get any more work from anywhere else right now, but as long as Boinc thinks you are overloaded it will run in High Priority mode. As a lost resort you could abort some of the work units, but if you don't set Boinc to No New Tasks it could just download more. Boinc LEARNS from its mistakes but it takes time and is not a very fast learner!

This is also a Long Term Debt issue but the easiest solution is to have a smaller cache. LTD is built up when your pc works a long time for one project and then 'owes' crunching time to other projects because of your percentage settings. If you look in the Boinc Manager under Projects you will see all your projects listed, next to each is a percentage of crunching time that you would like Boinc to adhere to. This is a GUIDELINE not a rule, but over time, perhaps as long as a year in some extreme cases, those numbers WILL be honored. The numbers are adjustable at each projects website.


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Message 71942 - Posted: 31 Dec 2011, 14:49:36 UTC

The BOINC Manager does the best it can to meet all of your stated, and implied priorities. The projects, like Rosetta, do not decide when to send work to you. Rather your machine decides when to request work.

With the holidays here, have you changed how long BOINC is allowed to run in a given day? It may now be reevaluating when it is going to be able to complete tasks with the new information about how much your machine is on.

The way BOINC works, and the meaning of running at high priority is such that it cannot last forever. However, the underlaying reason for the message might evolve over time. Perhaps at the beginning of the period the reason was that you had a large number of Rosetta tasks, and one of them ran longer than expected. This then distorts the estimated runtimes of the remaining tasks. When it later sees these tasks do not take the longer time, it will readjust. But perhaps by that time your machine was powered off over the weekend, and it began to think your machine would be active less in the future.

Please just give it a week of "normal" activity, and I'm sure the underlaying issue will be resolved for you.

I have a few other comments on high priority tasks here
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Message 71944 - Posted: 31 Dec 2011, 15:03:57 UTC - in response to Message 71936.  

My system is up 24/7 allright but perhaps i have allocated to much discspace. On the other hand i was told i had to little space when allocating 1Gb and other project were concered out by... Rosetta!

So it seems no matter how i configure my systems Rosetta is in the front seat. I just deleted some of the waiting worktasks from Rosetta and narrowing the discspace to 2Gb and see what happends.

You state that Boinc learns but i doubt it, it worked smoother when i just installed it on my new computer about a month ago, then after a week it put Rosetta in the front seat

Any suggestions on how to configure my system to share the precessors capacity 50/50 between two projects in another way!.





Well, i´m just about to kick the Rosetta project out from my computer due to running in high priority mode. It effectivly blocks every other project since before christmas and it is new years evening today even thoug i have configured boic to shift betweeen projects everey hour.
Is this the only way to work around the problem??


No not really, the problem is your cache size is so large, or your pc doesn't run 24/7, that Boinc thinks that you can't possibly finish the work you currently have prior to the deadlines. It usually develops when you are running several projects, all competing for the same resources, and then one project takes longer to process a unit than Boinc thinks it will when it downloads the work. You can set a project or two to No New Tasks so it doesn't get any more work from anywhere else right now, but as long as Boinc thinks you are overloaded it will run in High Priority mode. As a lost resort you could abort some of the work units, but if you don't set Boinc to No New Tasks it could just download more. Boinc LEARNS from its mistakes but it takes time and is not a very fast learner!

This is also a Long Term Debt issue but the easiest solution is to have a smaller cache. LTD is built up when your pc works a long time for one project and then 'owes' crunching time to other projects because of your percentage settings. If you look in the Boinc Manager under Projects you will see all your projects listed, next to each is a percentage of crunching time that you would like Boinc to adhere to. This is a GUIDELINE not a rule, but over time, perhaps as long as a year in some extreme cases, those numbers WILL be honored. The numbers are adjustable at each projects website.


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Message 71947 - Posted: 31 Dec 2011, 15:17:01 UTC

Oh I see now. Your machine had many dozens of tasks and it looks like you changed your preferred runtime. Probably from the 3hr default to 24hrs. So BOINC was trying to keep a buffer of work on your machine to keep it working, and suddenly the estimated time to complete that buffer increased 8x.

It looks like you've aborted the extra tasks, which were about to hit their deadlines anyway. Or perhaps you detached from the project (which aborts the tasks for you). If you aborted the tasks yourself, BOINC will now understand that it doesn't need as many tasks to keep your machine crunching.

If you detached, I believe BOINC will think that the default 3hr runtime is a reasonable estimate. So, you might want to set BOINC's number of days of work down to a more modest number before reconnecting to the project.

The impact of changing the target runtime is discussed here
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Message boards : Number crunching : Why are my Rosetta tasks running in High Priority?



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