LHC@home

For some reason project only gives cms tasks when i enable "If no work for selected applications is available, accept work from other applications"

6/29/2021 4:40:08 PM | LHC@home | No tasks sent
6/29/2021 4:40:08 PM | LHC@home | No tasks are available for SixTrack
6/29/2021 4:40:08 PM | LHC@home | No tasks are available for sixtracktest
6/29/2021 4:40:08 PM | LHC@home | No tasks are available for Theory Simulation
6/29/2021 4:40:08 PM | LHC@home | No tasks are available for ATLAS Simulation
6/29/2021 4:40:08 PM | LHC@home | No tasks are available for ATLAS (long simulation)
6/29/2021 4:40:08 PM | LHC@home | Project requested delay of 6 seconds

You may check your preferences:
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/prefs.php?subset=project

"ATLAS Simulation" must be checked.
"Run native if available?" must not be checked.

Thank you. It helped.

For some reason project only gives cms tasks when i enable "If no work for selected applications is available, accept work from other applications"

6/29/2021 4:40:08 PM | LHC@home | No tasks sent
6/29/2021 4:40:08 PM | LHC@home | No tasks are available for SixTrack
6/29/2021 4:40:08 PM | LHC@home | No tasks are available for sixtracktest
6/29/2021 4:40:08 PM | LHC@home | No tasks are available for Theory Simulation
6/29/2021 4:40:08 PM | LHC@home | No tasks are available for ATLAS Simulation
6/29/2021 4:40:08 PM | LHC@home | No tasks are available for ATLAS (long simulation)
6/29/2021 4:40:08 PM | LHC@home | Project requested delay of 6 seconds

ATLAS (long simulation) has to be unchecked.
That is not a windows project. That is Linux.

My experience is the project sends this message when you have filled your queue of number of tasks allowed by the project that you set in your account preferences.

I have total tasks allowed in queue to be 2. When I reach 2 and it goes to look for work it either sends the no work or computer has reached its limit messages.

I want to run Atlas singe-core tasks. Then I set 1 in parameter "Max. number of CPUs". This way I'm given only 4 tasks for my 12-core CPU, no more. If I set "No limit" in parameter "Max. number of CPUs" I'm given a lot of tasks, but not singe-core. Is there a way to run singe-core tasks?

Atlas-native have also a Limit of four Tasks when you are using ONE Cpu for a task.

It is very sad while running not only Atlas. Single-core and Multi-core tasks does not work properly together in BOINC. That's why I need single-core Atlas tasks. But not only 4, I need 11 or more.

You may try the following setup.

The web preferences for this computer should be set to 3 CPUs.

Then use an app_config.xml to reduce ATLAS to 1 CPU.
See section "Project-level configuration" here:
https://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Client_configuration



Slightly OT but worth to be mentioned:
Since you attached roughly 100 cores to LHC@home it is recommended that you use a local HTTP proxy.
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/forum_thread.php?id=5473

Slightly OT but worth to be mentioned:
Since you attached roughly 100 cores to LHC@home it is recommended that you use a local HTTP proxy.
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/forum_thread.php?id=5473

Thanks. I payed attention. But all these cores are on different PCs on isolated networks.

It is very sad while running not only Atlas. Single-core and Multi-core tasks does not work properly together in BOINC.

This is why no Atlas tasks under windows for me, only Atlas-native in a VM (CentOS8 or CentOS7)!

You may try the following setup.

The web preferences for this computer should be set to 3 CPUs.

Then use an app_config.xml to reduce ATLAS to 1 CPU.
See section "Project-level configuration"

Can't understand, which parameter I should set to 1?..

<app_config>
[<app>
<name>ATLAS</name>
<max_concurrent>1</max_concurrent>
[<report_results_immediately/>]
[<fraction_done_exact/>]
<gpu_versions>
<gpu_usage>.5</gpu_usage>
<cpu_usage>.4</cpu_usage>
</gpu_versions>
</app>]
</app_config>

It is very sad while running not only Atlas. Single-core and Multi-core tasks does not work properly together in BOINC.

This is why no Atlas tasks under windows for me, only Atlas-native in a VM (CentOS8 or CentOS7)!

Good luck for this special xml Tipp from computezrmle.

By the way: Theory meets the same problem, CMS does not.

Theory and ATLAS are limited server side to avoid swamping the clients with too many tasks.
ATLAS uses 4 * #cores, Theory ... (don't know).


On your 12 core computer you can use "3" #cores on the web prefs page to allow 12 ATLAS tasks to be downloaded.
Then use this app_config.xml:

<app_config>
   <app_version>
       <app_name>ATLAS</app_name>
       <plan_class>vbox64_mt_mcore_atlas</plan_class>
       <avg_ncpus>1.0</avg_ncpus>
       <cmdline>--memory_size_mb 3900</cmdline>
   </app_version>
</app_config>

Be aware:
ATLAS uses a 2nd memory configuration parameter that can't be modified via app_config.xml.
This limits the number of ATLAS tasks on your computer to 11 (may be less).

David Cameron wrote this:
Each task can use from 1 to 8 cores according to what is set for "Max # CPUs" in the LHC@Home project preferences. By default this is 1, so if you want to run multiple core tasks you should change this setting. You can also change the number of cores to use and other setting by using an app_config.xml file (recommended for experienced volunteers only).
Information on ATLAS tasks https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/forum_thread.php?id=4178

David Cameron wrote this:
By default this is 1

Obviously, this is not relevant. The default value is "No limit". Setting 1 entails a limit of 4 single-core tasks : - (

Theory and ATLAS are limited server side to avoid swamping the clients with too many tasks.
ATLAS uses 4 * #cores, Theory ... (don't know).


On your 12 core computer you can use "3" #cores on the web prefs page to allow 12 ATLAS tasks to be downloaded.
Then use this app_config.xml:

<app_config>
   <app_version>
       <app_name>ATLAS</app_name>
       <plan_class>vbox64_mt_mcore_atlas</plan_class>
       <avg_ncpus>1.0</avg_ncpus>
       <cmdline>--memory_size_mb 3900</cmdline>
   </app_version>
</app_config>

Be aware:
ATLAS uses a 2nd memory configuration parameter that can't be modified via app_config.xml.
This limits the number of ATLAS tasks on your computer to 11 (may be less).

The parameter works, but not quite. The VM really starts with 1 worker, but BOINC still thinks that 3 threads are busy :-(
Thank you for help anyway!

Your recent logfiles report this lines:

2021-09-22 04:23:39 (18124): Setting Memory Size for VM. (10200MB)
2021-09-22 04:23:39 (18124): Setting CPU Count for VM. (8)

This happens if you set #cores at the web prefs to "8" or "unlimited".
The RAM size allocated for the VM is then calculated to 3000MB + 8 * 900MB = 10200MB.
The same RAM size is used by the BOINC client to calculate the total RAM requirement per ATLAS task even if you tweak the local setting via app_config.xml

Limited by the #CPUs (12) your BOINC client would run just 1 ATLAS task concurrently using 8 cores and 10.2GB RAM.



If you set the web prefs to #core=1 the RAM requirements would be calculated to 3000MB + 1 * 900MB = 3900MB.
This would allow your BOINC client to run 12 ATLAS VMs concurrently using 46.8GB RAM, but as you already noticed the server would send only 4 tasks.


Setting the web prefs to #cores=2 would allow 8 tasks to be send.
Your computer could run 6 of them concurrently (total CPU limit) and each task would allocate 4.8GB => 28.8GB in total

Same with #cores=3
max #tasks sent: 12
running concurrently: 4 (total CPU limit)
total RAM used: 22.8GB

This setting can be tweaked by an app_config.xml as already explained.
If <avg_ncpus>1.0</avg_ncpus> and <cmdline>--memory_size_mb 3900</cmdline> are set this would correspond to a 1-core setup but the server would still send 12 tasks.
Nonetheless your BOINC client would use a value of 5.7GB to estimate whether there's enough free RAM to start an additional task.


To make all of that work you need to
- reload the BOINC config files (or restart the BOINC client) after you modified app_config.xml.
- ensure all tasks currently in your work buffer are created with the same prefs settings.

- ensure all tasks currently in your work buffer are created with the same prefs settings.

I believe this is a reason of my last try fail.
I'll set NNT, wait for current WU to be done, then try again.

Your recent logfiles report this lines:

2021-09-22 04:23:39 (18124): Setting Memory Size for VM. (10200MB)
2021-09-22 04:23:39 (18124): Setting CPU Count for VM. (8)

This happens if you set #cores at the web prefs to "8" or "unlimited".
The RAM size allocated for the VM is then calculated to 3000MB + 8 * 900MB = 10200MB.
The same RAM size is used by the BOINC client to calculate the total RAM requirement per ATLAS task even if you tweak the local setting via app_config.xml

Limited by the #CPUs (12) your BOINC client would run just 1 ATLAS task concurrently using 8 cores and 10.2GB RAM.



If you set the web prefs to #core=1 the RAM requirements would be calculated to 3000MB + 1 * 900MB = 3900MB.
This would allow your BOINC client to run 12 ATLAS VMs concurrently using 46.8GB RAM, but as you already noticed the server would send only 4 tasks.


Setting the web prefs to #cores=2 would allow 8 tasks to be send.
Your computer could run 6 of them concurrently (total CPU limit) and each task would allocate 4.8GB => 28.8GB in total

Same with #cores=3
max #tasks sent: 12
running concurrently: 4 (total CPU limit)
total RAM used: 22.8GB

This setting can be tweaked by an app_config.xml as already explained.
If <avg_ncpus>1.0</avg_ncpus> and <cmdline>--memory_size_mb 3900</cmdline> are set this would correspond to a 1-core setup but the server would still send 12 tasks.
Nonetheless your BOINC client would use a value of 5.7GB to estimate whether there's enough free RAM to start an additional task.


To make all of that work you need to
- reload the BOINC config files (or restart the BOINC client) after you modified app_config.xml.
- ensure all tasks currently in your work buffer are created with the same prefs settings.

It worked out. Thanks!