Posts by Grant (SSSF)

21) Questions and Answers : Macintosh : Restrict Rossetta@home to only run two tasks at a time? (Message 108141) Posted 3 Mar 2023 by Grant (SSSF) Post: So you are saying if I have 7 cores, rosetta will always run one task per core simultaneously? Does that mean if I set it to only use 25% CPU - it would then only run two? Sorry if these are dumb questions. I am used to running other projects which work quite differently, so just trying to get my head around how rosetta works. Rosetta works the same as all the other BOINC projects. One other thing - rosetta thinks my iMac is 8 core - when it is only 7. Any way to correct that? It thinks it is 8 because it has 8 cores as reported by BOINC. And BOINC reports 8 cores because that is how many it has- 4 performance cores, 4 efficiency cores. BOINC will use as many cores as it can, unless you limit the number available to BOINC. As to how many are used by a particular Project at any given time depends on how many Projects you are running, your Resource Share settings (they are a ratio not a percentage), your cache settings, how many are available for BOINC to use, the size of your cache, how much time BOINC is able to process work when the system is running, how many hours in the day the system is running (although it is possible to set limits for a given project, it requires a lot of fiddling around & editing of configuration files. Just setting your Resource Share settings & keeping your cache as small as possible & letting BOINC sort itself out is a whole lot easier), and what processing debt is owed to other Projects. If running more than one Project, no cache is best. Store at least 0.01 days of work Store up to an additional 0.01 days of work If running just one Project, and you feel the need for a cache, with Rosetta set it to no more than 2.5 days (the deadline period is only 3 days). Store at least 2.5 days of work Store up to an additional 0.01 days of work
22) Message boards : Number crunching : Problems and Technical Issues with Rosetta@home (Message 108087) Posted 19 Feb 2023 by Grant (SSSF) Post: Will i contribute more if i set Target CPU run time to 1 day 12 hours? No. In reality, you'd be contributing less (if work were continually available). The more Tasks you do, the more you contribute to the data being processed. The project determined years ago that 8 hours was sufficient time with the hardware available back then to do enough work to produce a useful result. Any further time processing a given Task just wasn't worth the extra time required to produce that extra data, better to spend that time processing another Task. Given how much more powerful systems are now than they were all those years ago, even 8 hours is probably more time than is needed to produce a valid result these days. The longer it takes you to process a Task, the less work you can do before the deadline is reached, so you actually contribute less to the project. But unless you have the very latest and greatest in x86 or M2 hardware, reducing the Target time from the default 8 hours would most likely result in less useful work being done as older hardware (or phones/tablets) can't do as much work in the same period of time. Hence the Projects' default Target CPU runtime of 8 hours (even though many Tasks these days won't even run for that length of time).
23) Message boards : Number crunching : Problems and Technical Issues with Rosetta@home (Message 108055) Posted 17 Feb 2023 by Grant (SSSF) Post: Hi everyone, thank you all for your feedback on the issues we've been having. Thanks to these comments we were able to track down the issue, and a preliminary job has been working great. However, I jumped the gun and looks like I made a mistake on the large batch submission. I will remove those jobs. I apologize for the error. Fingers crossed we should have lots of (good) jobs to send out soon. Thank you again. Looking at the graphs and numbers, it does look like the problem has been fixed. Instead of a couple of thousand results being returned each 24 hrs (at best), presently it's up around 25,000 per 24hrs. Just a shame it's taken almost 3 months for the problem to be fixed.
24) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : HELP-- New computer brought on line --- Can not download Rosetta work (Message 108046) Posted 16 Feb 2023 by Grant (SSSF) Post: I tried updating the sw but BOINC Manager version 7.16.11 was the version available. Must be an I3 restriction. It's not a matter of updating- you need to go to the BOINC page and download it yourself, then install it to update the existing installation (no point getting the VirtualBox version for the i3). All BOINC versions https://boinc.berkeley.edu/download_all.php
25) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : HELP-- New computer brought on line --- Can not download Rosetta work (Message 108038) Posted 15 Feb 2023 by Grant (SSSF) Post: Would that be the i3 with the BOINC Manager version 7.16.11? Upgrade to the current version and things might start working again. There's an issue with the servers security certificates, but as the project it pretty much dead, nothing has been done about it since it became a problem over 2 months ago.
26) Questions and Answers : Windows : No new jobs for the last month (Message 108029) Posted 8 Feb 2023 by Grant (SSSF) Post: and there have not been new tasks for 2 months There is work released occasionally, but it's generally only once a week or two, and not very much of it. Yes, it is pretty much dead. Oh- and there are problems with the Projects security certificates, so many systems aren't actually able to download or return any work, even if it is allocated to them.
27) Questions and Answers : Getting started : Always "got 0 new tasks" (Message 108018) Posted 1 Feb 2023 by Grant (SSSF) Post: Nothing's been posted, but it's believed most of the work is now being done by Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning the project now has access too. Other researchers submit the extremely occasional & limited amount of work that occurs every week or two. And there are issues with the site's security certificates, so many systems can't actually download any work, and that has been the case for a couple of months now with no action by the Project on the issue, or even a post to acknowledge there is a problem.
28) Questions and Answers : Getting started : Always "got 0 new tasks" (Message 108016) Posted 1 Feb 2023 by Grant (SSSF) Post: There is very, very, *very* little new work available. The Project is pretty much dead.
29) Message boards : Number crunching : Problen downloading work tasks. (Message 107971) Posted 17 Jan 2023 by Grant (SSSF) Post: Updated to boinc-client 7.20.5 (pre-release)... yesterday. still do not get any data from the server Since there isn't any work available, then you won't be able get any.
30) Message boards : Number crunching : Problen downloading work tasks. (Message 107893) Posted 23 Dec 2022 by Grant (SSSF) Post: Download server still shows as not running on the Server Status page.
31) Message boards : Number crunching : Problen downloading work tasks. (Message 107821) Posted 17 Dec 2022 by Grant (SSSF) Post: When the server status page says the download server isn't running, it isn't running, and no one is getting any tasks sent down to them. Even though all the other stats show that they are.
32) Message boards : Number crunching : Problen downloading work tasks. (Message 107819) Posted 17 Dec 2022 by Grant (SSSF) Post: Edit: Reading this thread again from the top, I'm suspicious of whether you're running Norton and have Secure VPN turned on. I have it on 3 or 4 of my PCs and it's fine on all but one, which is constantly restarting Secure VPN and it's knocking out our email and access to web pages in a really weird way. Turning it off and turning off Auto VPN is an immediate solution. No idea why it's happening on that one but not all the others. Given the number of posts, and the fact that while there is work being dished out it is well below the usual levels this is more than just an issue with some systems & as the Server Staus page does show the download server as not running, the project at the very least should restart the download server and see if that resolves the problem (with both the downloads and the reporting of the server status).
33) Message boards : Number crunching : Problen downloading work tasks. (Message 107813) Posted 16 Dec 2022 by Grant (SSSF) Post: Regardless of the Server Staus page, work is being sent out. The Top Computers list shows systems with recently allocated work, and the graphs also show work going out over the last few days. However it does appear to be at a lower rate than usual, so a reset of the download server would probably not go astray.
34) Questions and Answers : Preferences : Is it possible to use multiple cpus to run tasks faster? (Message 107812) Posted 16 Dec 2022 by Grant (SSSF) Post: Hey guys I was wondering, is there a way to use multiple CPU's on a single task (and make it faster) rather than have multiple tasks running at the same time? Only if the application supports it. In most cases it's just not worth the effort to code for that for the CPU- one core processing one Task gives the best throughput, and that is the case for most projects including Rosetta. If a single Task can be split up & processed by multiple cores/threads at the same time, then it's best done by a GPU, as that is how they work. And why a single high-end GPU with a well written application can out perform a CPU, even those with hundreds of cores/threads.
35) Message boards : Number crunching : Problems and Technical Issues with Rosetta@home (Message 107713) Posted 9 Nov 2022 by Grant (SSSF) Post: Store at least 0.50 days of work Store up to an additional 1.5 days of work. There are 5 projects. Is that really so large a cache? For more than a couple of projects, yes. The whole idea of a cache is to keep your system busy if a project has issues, and you are attached to only that project. The odds of all your projects having issues at the same time with that many projects is bugger all, so there is no need for a cache. With more than a couple of projects, Store at least 0.05 days of work and Store up to an additional 0.01 days of work is plenty, and it means your Resource share settings will be met, much, much sooner.
36) Message boards : Number crunching : Problems and Technical Issues with Rosetta@home (Message 107690) Posted 8 Nov 2022 by Grant (SSSF) Post: Furthermore, it seems to me it takes much longer than a month to approach my desired ratios, even when all projects are continuously sending out work. Because you are running multiple projects with a large cache. The more Projects you run & the larger the cache, the longer it takes for your Resource share settings to be met. It's that simple.
37) Questions and Answers : Preferences : How to Limit CPU cores ? (Message 107272) Posted 12 Oct 2022 by Grant (SSSF) Post: Do you have any recommendations for a possible replacement, preferably one which does not need a back mount? I use water cooling these days due to the high ambient temperature & humidity here (without the aircon running the temperature in the house gets to the mid to high 30°c, and this time of the year the relative humidity is often 85%+). For an air cooler apparently it's hard to go past the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE, excellent cooling at a reasonable price, but it does require a backing plate. I had a quick look at a couple of stores, and there's not much that's available without a backing plate these days. And those without a backing plate don't appear to be much (if any) better than the stock Wraith Spire cooler anyway. Pulling the fan off & giving the heatsink a good clean out along with the fan blades could make a difference, if the system's several years old, removing the heatsink, cleaning it's base & the CPU and putting fresh heat sink compound in can also make a difference. Or do what some people have done & fit a slightly larger & faster fan for improved airflow) But given the mucking around involved in removing & re-fitting the old heatsink, or in getting a larger fan mounted & working, i'd just go with a new much better heatsink assembly with a backing plate (i figure it'd be a similar level of hassle, if not less, and you'd know it will be better).
38) Questions and Answers : Preferences : How to Limit CPU cores ? (Message 107268) Posted 12 Oct 2022 by Grant (SSSF) Post: PS, omg is Rosetta ever a CPU hog!! 9 running Rosetta tasks have pushed the CPU temperature to over 85°C, a temperature I have never seen before on this system. You might want to check your CPU cooling. The Rosetta applications haven't been optimised & their thermal impact even when running at 100% load & using all cores and threads isn't particularly high.
39) Questions and Answers : Preferences : How to Limit CPU cores ? (Message 107237) Posted 11 Oct 2022 by Grant (SSSF) Post: This issue also pisses me off, as Rosetta simply ignore app_config or is not taking it into account at all. So abandoning Rosetta@home with all future task, until they (scientists) figure it out how to put a software that is "inclusional" & not "exclusive". 👍 I haven't noticed this. Previously, I was limiting Rosetta to 2 running tasks, and this setting in the app_config file was being honoured. There has been an issue for years with making use of the setting to limit running Tasks per Project. It has always been very intermittent as to when the bug will manifest- some people will get it without fail on a particular project, where as others can use it without problems occurring on that project, but have the problem on a different project. I think the latest version of BOINC is meant to include a fix for the bug, but i'm very unsure if that is the case.
40) Questions and Answers : Preferences : How to Limit CPU cores ? (Message 107213) Posted 10 Oct 2022 by Grant (SSSF) Post: Changing the "Store at least...days" setting to 0.5 brought in 6 more Rosetta tasks, and 6 from LHC -- all ATLAS, which is surprising, as there are plenty of CMS and Theory tasks available also. Perhaps LHC's "max CPUs" setting does not work as advertised?? Continually changing things means they will never, ever settle down. Limiting the number of CPUs for one Project will impact other Projects processing, and not always in the way you might expect. Leave the "Use at most x% of the CPUs" limit on to keep one for your non-BOINC activities. Put the cache back to 0.2days, and i would suggest removing the max CPU limit for LHC as well. And then just let things be for several days, at least. The fact that you went and increased the cache & downloaded all that other work just means it's going to take that much longer for things to finally settle down now that it has to clear all that work with it's particular deadlines before it can have any hope of meeting your Resource Share settings. Reduce the cache again, (removing the LHC CPU limit will most likely speed up the processing of those Tasks which will get your Resource Share met sooner), and then just leave it alone for at least a few days. Even with the REC half-life set to 1, the extra work you got is going to impact it's ability to sort things out quickly. Perhaps LHC's "max CPUs" setting does not work as advertised?? How do you think it's meant to work??? From what i can see it just limits the number of CPUs one of those Tasks can use. It does not limit the number or type of Tasks, just the number of CPU cores/threads they may use when they are being processed. Generally if an application needs/can use more than one thread at a time then let it- the sooner work gets done then the sooner your Resource Share settings will be met. The longer it takes to process work, then the longer it will take for your Resource Share settings to be met.

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