Message boards : Number crunching : How many cores does a vbox64 LHC use?
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Profile Joseph Stateson

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Message 34197 - Posted: 1 Feb 2018, 1:58:46 UTC

I show not quite %50 utilization of my XEON cpu that has 4 cores and 8 threads. There are 2 Collatz running on a pair of ATI graphics boards and 3 LHC@home that are vbox64 also running. That leave 3 threads unused. There are 16 waiting LHC tasks. Something is wrong. Three of those tasks should have been scheduled to run. Under usage there is no indication of how many cores are required. Does the vbox require a thread? if so, that would account for the missing 3 tasks that should be running.



As show above, there should be at least 8 running process, not 5.
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Message 34199 - Posted: 1 Feb 2018, 3:15:30 UTC

CPU-Z show you how many CPU's and Threads your Computer have.
Virtualbox is using no separate thread.
Otherwhise take a deeper look into taskmanager.
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computezrmle
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Message 34200 - Posted: 1 Feb 2018, 7:05:14 UTC - in response to Message 34197.  

All lhc@home VMs you are running are singlecore (or better singlethread) except ATLAS which is multicore.
It is coded in the Application column:
singlecore: -> (vbox64)
multicore: -> (vbox64_mt_mcore_atlas)
ATLAS will try to use up to 8 threads for a single VM.

As the VMs also need other resources beside a CPU core, especially much RAM, you may check whether your BOINC client is set to use enough RAM to start an additional VM.
On the other hand your VMs may fail if you run too much of them concurrently - mostly due to load peaks within the first few minutes after startup. In this case reduce the number of concurrently running VMs.
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Toby Broom
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Message 34201 - Posted: 1 Feb 2018, 7:10:38 UTC
Last modified: 1 Feb 2018, 7:13:14 UTC

The number of cores used can be adjusted here:



The default is 1 for ATLAS tasks.
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Message 34211 - Posted: 1 Feb 2018, 13:55:04 UTC - in response to Message 34197.  

CMS needs 2048mb RAM each, Theory 630mb and ATLAS 3420mb for single cores.

I've seen that situation when not enough RAM was seen by BOINC.

Check to see how much RAM you are allotting to BOINC while in use. Also, make sure you have set BOINC to use all cores. I sometimes set it to 50% while watching vids or gaming and forget to go back to 100% later.

Your LHC should be using 4.7GB with those 3 running.
You can check their properties and see how much working set they want to claim.
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Profile Joseph Stateson

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Message 34218 - Posted: 1 Feb 2018, 16:51:25 UTC - in response to Message 34211.  

CMS needs 2048mb RAM each, Theory 630mb and ATLAS 3420mb for single cores.

I've seen that situation when not enough RAM was seen by BOINC.

Check to see how much RAM you are allotting to BOINC while in use. Also, make sure you have set BOINC to use all cores. I sometimes set it to 50% while watching vids or gaming and forget to go back to 100% later.

Your LHC should be using 4.7GB with those 3 running.
You can check their properties and see how much working set they want to claim.


You are exactly correct. I did not have enough memory. I actually had a message stating "suspended, waiting for memory" but was unable to read it as there was not enough space for that entry on the display. When I expanded the box I saw the warning about memory. I had set memory usage to %90 when I set this system up as it had only 6gb and my other systems have at least 12.

I cannot adjust cores as suggested by Toby as I am not the owner of the project. Grcpool is the owner. However, I will be able to return to BAM! in a few weeks as I will have a coin balance large enough to not have to use their pool.
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Message 34219 - Posted: 1 Feb 2018, 17:16:02 UTC - in response to Message 34218.  

I cannot adjust cores as suggested by Toby as I am not the owner of the project. Grcpool is the owner. However, I will be able to return to BAM! in a few weeks as I will have a coin balance large enough to not have to use their pool.

Why is Gridcoin with so many Teams in LHCatHome?
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Message 34220 - Posted: 1 Feb 2018, 17:18:44 UTC - in response to Message 34218.  

Search the forum for app_config.xml setup for Theory.

6GB?

You can run 8 Theory if you set the working memory to 512mb (instead of 630mb) in the app_config and still leave yourself 2GB for OS, caches and Collatz.
They swap to the drive a lot more but they succeed.

Goodluck!
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Message 34221 - Posted: 1 Feb 2018, 17:25:31 UTC - in response to Message 34219.  

I cannot adjust cores as suggested by Toby as I am not the owner of the project. Grcpool is the owner. However, I will be able to return to BAM! in a few weeks as I will have a coin balance large enough to not have to use their pool.

Why is Gridcoin with so many Teams in LHCatHome?


Labor should be rewarded especially with the downward pressure on wages from automation, gig economy and AI.

The more mercenary of Gridcoin goes where they can best compete.
I'm here because my training is in physics, but I never worked as a scientist, and this science is closest to my heart.
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Message boards : Number crunching : How many cores does a vbox64 LHC use?


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