Questions and Answers : Windows : Recommended Virtualbox version
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numbacruncher

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Message 39171 - Posted: 23 Jun 2019, 10:31:02 UTC

Which version is recommended for use with Boinc and LHC and is known to work smoothly?
Is there an official recommendation?
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Toby Broom
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Message 39173 - Posted: 23 Jun 2019, 18:55:09 UTC

I use 5.1.38, when I need maximum reliability. I have one computer with 6.0.8 that work OK.
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numbacruncher

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Message 39182 - Posted: 24 Jun 2019, 14:56:45 UTC - in response to Message 39173.  

Version 6.0.8 is not working here. After about 10 minutes I get "postponed for 86400 seconds, VM job unmanageable, restarting later" with ATLAS Simulation 1.01 (vbox64_mt_mcore_atlas) work units
I have tried in on two different PC's with actual Win10 64 Bit 1903, Boinc 7.14.2; one with AMD Ryzen 3-1300X 24GB RAM and the other an AMD RX-4300 with 8GB RAM. Virtualisation is turned on on both PC.
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Message 39183 - Posted: 24 Jun 2019, 15:36:32 UTC - in response to Message 39182.  

Version 6.0.8 is not working here. After about 10 minutes I get "postponed for 86400 seconds, VM job unmanageable, restarting later" with ATLAS Simulation 1.01 (vbox64_mt_mcore_atlas) work units
I have tried in on two different PC's with actual Win10 64 Bit 1903, Boinc 7.14.2; one with AMD Ryzen 3-1300X 24GB RAM and the other an AMD RX-4300 with 8GB RAM. Virtualisation is turned on on both PC.

This one?
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/show_host_detail.php?hostid=10374558
It reports only 6 GB RAM.
That's too close to the requirements of a 3 core ATLAS VM (5700 MB).
As a result there is not enough RAM left for the OS and it's disk cache.

Hence your logfile shows this:
2019-06-23 23:20:22 (7560): VM state change detected. (old = 'paused', new = 'running')
2019-06-23 23:20:32 (7560): VM state change detected. (old = 'running', new = 'paused')
2019-06-23 23:20:42 (7560): VM state change detected. (old = 'paused', new = 'running')
2019-06-23 23:20:53 (7560): VM state change detected. (old = 'running', new = 'paused')
2019-06-23 23:21:04 (7560): VM state change detected. (old = 'paused', new = 'running')
.
.
.



The Ryzen should have enough RAM.
Nonetheless I would suggest to try some Theory VMs first until you are familiar with their behavior and their logfiles.
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numbacruncher

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Message 39184 - Posted: 24 Jun 2019, 16:24:52 UTC - in response to Message 39183.  

No, That one was just for testing purposes. The machine has only 6 GB and an very old Version of Virtualbox installed. I was just curios to know if it works with that less RAM. It's crunching slowly but crunching.
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Toby Broom
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Message 39185 - Posted: 24 Jun 2019, 16:35:37 UTC

For me I see the unmanageable message very rarely with old version, for the 6.0.8 I cap the max CPU to 70% and it's reliable.

I think there was a change somewhere where the priority the various parts of Vbox was changed, sure you could change manually but I have better things to do with 290 tasks running at once.
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numbacruncher

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Message 39188 - Posted: 26 Jun 2019, 8:49:31 UTC

If I cap the number of cores or processing time in Boinc on 6.0.8 the unmanageable message does not appear. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to calculate at all then. Progress is VERY slow, and task manager states CPU usage about 1 to 10 percent.
I installed the antique Version 5.1.30 then because it seemed to work on the "crap machine".
This old version seems to work, I calculated three atlas WU's without problems yet. I'll keep an eye on it.
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Message 39194 - Posted: 26 Jun 2019, 16:44:43 UTC - in response to Message 39188.  

These setting work without the throttling of tasks:

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Message 39196 - Posted: 26 Jun 2019, 17:58:38 UTC - in response to Message 39188.  

If I cap the number of cores or processing time in Boinc on 6.0.8 the unmanageable message does not appear. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to calculate at all then. Progress is VERY slow, and task manager states CPU usage about 1 to 10 percent.


How are you measuring progress? The "% complete" in BOINC Manager is not a reliable indicator for these tasks.
ATLAS tasks are very slow to startup. CPU usage will be low for at least 10 minutes after task startup. You'll notice other short periods of low CPU usage as the task progresses.
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Message 39231 - Posted: 30 Jun 2019, 11:46:57 UTC

I'll stuck with the old Version 5.1.30 of Virtualbox. The last 18 Workunits went fine with it.
Now I had to stop calculating, because it's getting to hot in the appartment, adding more heat with the computer doesn't make sense. I'll restart again when the summer is over.

@bronco: Measuring progress is difficult. Usually boinc is rather accurate, if the wu does't run out of the rudder. You'll get an feeling for it if you know how fast your computer usually is calculating the Wu's and watch the progress from time to time.
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Questions and Answers : Windows : Recommended Virtualbox version


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