Posts by pimjoosten

1) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : so sorry (Message 96128) Posted 5 May 2020 by pimjoosten Post: No, the other solution that i pointed out & you seem to have missed is that you can set the Target CPU Runtime to a value that is less than the 8 hour default, and set a very small cache size (with more than one project, no cache is best). And you can change the settings on your system so Rosetta is able to do more work while the system is running without impacting on it's general performance/responsiveness. Thanks for your replies. I did not miss it, I just had no time yet to respond. I wanted to respond to Mod.Sense first to ease his frustration ;-) Target CPU runtime is new to me. Does this actually mean the size of the WU I receive? I assume setting a Target CPU Runtime affects all computers? Also, why should I set a smaller cache size than the default 0,1/0,5 and even smaller if I also run another project? The system settings on limiting BOINC when the computer is in use and the time available I have determined after having found the system not responsive enough while using it when tasks were still running and the temperature rising too much to my liking. I started with the defaults and then scaled back when I stumbled on some limitation and thus arrived at my current settings where I do not have any issues anymore. I'd rather keep it that way. BOINC allows multiple projects to be run on a single (or multiple) systems. The default settings will work for pretty much any project & system, they are set for the vast majority of users & projects. However for edge cases such as yours, and when more than one project is being done, changes to the defaults will be required to meet those particular circumstances. Yes, I think you're right, I did not realize that. In your Account, Computers, Details. Also per application- Application details, Show. There it is! I did look for them before posting but could not find it, but I did remember that I saw them sometime. With "per application- Application details, Show." do you mean the BOINC client or somewhere else? In the BOINC client I only see Project > Properties and then no average turnaround time. From your earlier post: The default target CPU Runtime is 8 hours. To do 8 hours work over 3 days is not a big ask or expectation. I disagree here. On my weaker computers this apparently is an issue. World Community Grid has longer deadlines for smaller tasks, so a longer deadline can be set. I am still curious why the deadline had been reduced from 7 to 3 days. Before that happened everything was running fine with the default settings on all 3 computers.
2) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : so sorry (Message 96123) Posted 5 May 2020 by pimjoosten Post: Your average turnaround time is 2 days. And they've just taken steps to help ensure machines are not sent more work than they can complete before the deadline. They've also just implemented changes to do more checkpointing on long-running models, so if the daily shutdown was losing progress on the work unit, that issue has now been addressed as well. I am always frustrated when people take their first post on the message boards to tell me they are in some way fed up and leaving. You've got a thousand people here that have run in to just about any circumstance you can imagine, and you chose to use the communication of the message boards only to say good bye, rather than ask questions. Please ask questions. Thank you for your response and my apologies for your frustration. I was not saying I was fed up, but I was unable to run R@H anymore under the current circumstances and frustrated because of that fact. That is why I took the effort to post here instead of just leaving. Please consider that a sign of my involvement. Also note that I have been running R@H for about a month on my 3 computers without any issue. But now that the deadline was shortened, on 2 of my computers it was immediately not possible anymore to return WUs on time and on my 3rd computer the problems started with the new Junior_HalfRoid_design5_COVID-19 tasks that apparently take twice the time the other tasks did. I also said that if in the future the deadline would be longer again, I would participate again. So I am giving a solution and not saying I am fed up. Maybe there is a good reason why the deadline has changed from 7 to 3 days, but I have not read it and I did try to find it. To me a deadline of 7 days instead of 3 days seems the simplest solution. I noticed it that these tasks were not completed on time anymore, because I occasionally check the clients. If I had not ,looked BOINC would have been running without being able to return work, without me knowing it. That is why I was surprised the deadline had been shortened and especially that there was no message about that in the BOINC client. What questions would you like me to ask? I have tried to find answers on the forum by reading various posts, but could not find any solution. For me it was the shortening of the deadlines that was/is the problem. And TBH IMHO I should not have to tweak BOINC too much, especially as a newbie to the project. I also run World Community Grid and I did not have to tweak anything for that. Tasks take less time and the deadline is longer, therefore their deadlines are always met. Are you saying that with more checkpointing I should not receive the Junior_HalfRoid_design5_COVID-19 tasks anymore? I do not know exactly how to interpret your remark. I think you are saying that more checkpointing should prevent losses from shutting down, because there is less time between those checkpoints and therefore losses are smaller. I am going to try whether that solves not being able to finish the work on time, even though I have a bit of doubt whether that will solve it, because the computer is shut down only once per day and at the deadline the task always was only around 50-60% completed. I read somewhere else that BOINC does not stop working on a WU after the deadline has passed, because some projects will extend it if the computer still works on it, and other projects only have a deadline as a formality. However, in all cases where I did not meet the deadline for the Junior_HalfRoid_design5_COVID-19 tasks I could see that the task was distributed again within 5 minutes to other far more powerful computers and I was 100% certain that they would beat me if I kept the WU going. Is there any way to not receive the longer WU's? I am still rather new to the topic of project and BOINC settings, so I do not know. You also say that machines are not sent more work than they can complete before the deadline. Does this mean the quantity of the work or also the size? Usually all work was started very quickly after receiving it, so on my side it was not a problem of having too many items in "stock". Despite what you write, I still cannot run R@H anymore on my other 2 computers, because they were not able to meet the new 3 day deadline for smaller tasks. One of those computers only runs for 2-3 hours per day, the other has a weak processor (J3160) for which I had to include a couple of processing restrictions (see my previous post). It seems here the only solution can only be a longer deadline, hence my point for the developers to increase the deadline. You write that my average turnaround time is 2 days. Where can I find that? I have not found it in the client or in my account, but I am likely overlooking it. I suspect these 2 days only relate to the one computer on which I had still been running R@H. Thanks in advance for your reply. Pim
3) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : so sorry (Message 96098) Posted 5 May 2020 by pimjoosten Post: I too am sorry having to leave Rosetta@Home. Two months ago I signed up to R@H to support the search for a Covid solution. I installed it on 3 of my computers and everything had been running fine until a change was implemented a couple of weeks ago. The change was that the deadline is now just 3 days instead of the previous 7 days. Two of the three computers are (somewhat) weak (but run for many hours a day), so I had to adjust the settings so that work is only done 50% percent of the time on both computers. On one computer (Intel Core i3-4030U) I also had to change the settings as to not run work while the computer is in use and on the other of the two (Intel J3160) I had to limit work to 2 of the 4 cores. That was no issue when the deadline was at 7 days. The third computer is more powerful (Intel G4400) but only runs for 2-3 hours per day. Again, with the 7 day deadline this was no issue. Immediately after the deadline had been changed to 3 days I already had to stop work on 2 computers because they could never reach the deadline and today I also had to disconnect the 3rd computer. Recently work has been sent (Junior_HalfRoid_design5_COVID-19 tasks) that take much longer than the previous tasks. They too do not end on time (the other tasks did). My local settings are 0.1/0.5 days, the default settings in BOINC. I therefore never have excess WU and they usually started quickly after they arrived. So it is with great sadness that I cannot participate anymore, unless sometime in the future the deadline will be longer again. I was really happy to be able to participate, but it is impossible at the moment. That is why I now take the effort to write this down, because it really is a disappointment for me having to stop contributing. I do not know whether this is the correct forum to post this message or that Number crunching is a better place. My main goal for posting is to inform the developers that a 3 day deadline is too short. I think for R@H it is a pity to lose people who are willing to contribute but can’t do that anymore.