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Message boards :
Number crunching :
Why BOINC 6.X has issues with LHC@home and other things
(Message 20740)
Posted 5 Nov 2008 by Stephen Balch 2 Post: Neasan and Alex, I know some people seem to be having problems with Boinc 6.2.*, but my installation, at least through 6.2.18, seems to be working correctly and without issues. Have you blocked Boinc 6.2.19 hosts from receiving work? I can see the \"Results ready to send\" count change, and the \"Results in progress\" count change, and even the \"Workunits waiting for validation\" count change, even as I type this. No, I\'m not relying on the server status page counts, just the fact they change. I just cannot seem to get any work from this project. I haven\'t gotten any work since 15 October 2008 (with Boinc 6.2.18). I\'m pretty sure there is work this morning, but: 11/5/2008 12:20:29|lhcathome|Sending scheduler request: Requested by user. Requesting 864000 seconds of work, reporting 0 completed tasks 11/5/2008 12:20:34|lhcathome|Scheduler request succeeded: got 0 new tasks I\'ve been getting this class of messages for hours this morning (local, US CST, GMT-6). Previously, when I did manage to get work, I got it back to the project as quickly as possible, suspending the other projects to provide good turn-around here. My computer summary shows \"Average turnaround time 0 days, Maximum daily WU quota per CPU 10/day\", so the project shouldn\'t have any performance issues with me and mine. I have an AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60 (dual core) at 2.0 GHz with 2 GB RAM running Vista Home Premium X86 (32-bit) with SP1, I don\'t believe LHC is running HR so platform shouldn\'t matter. While it is not the fastest machine on the project, it\'s not the slowest either. My project settings are a 400 share (was 300, and all other projects suspended), \"processor usage\" tab and \"disk and memory usage\" tab settings have not changed. \"network usage\" settings are: \"Connect about every\" = 0.5000 days, \"Additional work buffer\" = 4.500 days, and nothing else on that tab has been changed. If Boinc is allowed to contact LHC at it\'s leisure, I never get any work because of the ever increasing delay built into the system if no results are received on a communication attempt. Because of this, I feel I need to micro-manage Boinc when work does seem to be available on LHC just to try to get any work, but then I get the sequence of messages below. By the time Boinc decides to try contacting the project on it\'s own, in 2 1/2 hours or more, there almost certainly won\'t be any work available. I\'ve seen that. 11/5/2008 12:20:29|lhcathome|Sending scheduler request: Requested by user. Requesting 864000 seconds of work, reporting 0 completed tasks 11/5/2008 12:20:34|lhcathome|Scheduler request succeeded: got 0 new tasks 11/5/2008 12:22:40|lhcathome|Sending scheduler request: Requested by user. Requesting 864000 seconds of work, reporting 0 completed tasks 11/5/2008 12:22:45|lhcathome|Scheduler request succeeded: got 0 new tasks 11/5/2008 12:22:45|lhcathome|Message from server: Not sending work - last request too recent: 130 sec The message in red above would indicate to me that there is work available but because of some \"wonderful\" decision by someone at the project (or perhaps the Boinc developers), I can\'t get any of it. It is extremely frustrating. I don\'t want to hammer the project with work requests but that seems to be the only option available once the \"Results ready to send\" count shows the possibility of available work. Now it seems that option is also blocked by this minimum time between requests thing. If you can, please try to remove this bottle neck in the system, or at least set the minimum request period to something reasonable (like 5 seconds or less). Now server communications has failed yet again, an all too common occurrence on this project. With a budget like CERN is supposed to have, why can\'t they drop a few more (appropriate units of currency) on this end of the project to provide additional assistance for you two guys and a more reliable communications link with more bandwidth. I remember how badly the project servers were hammered during the Grand Opening. 11/5/2008 13:03:45|lhcathome|Scheduler request failed: Couldn\'t connect to server 11/5/2008 13:04:16|lhcathome|Sending scheduler request: Requested by user. Requesting 864000 seconds of work, reporting 0 completed tasks 11/5/2008 13:04:38||Project communication failed: attempting access to reference site 11/5/2008 13:04:40||Internet access OK - project servers may be temporarily down. 11/5/2008 13:04:41|lhcathome|Scheduler request failed: Couldn\'t connect to server -- and -- 11/5/2008 13:08:51|lhcathome|Sending scheduler request: Requested by user. Requesting 864000 seconds of work, reporting 0 completed tasks 11/5/2008 13:09:13||Project communication failed: attempting access to reference site 11/5/2008 13:09:15||Internet access OK - project servers may be temporarily down. 11/5/2008 13:09:16|lhcathome|Scheduler request failed: Couldn\'t connect to server 11/5/2008 13:20:56|lhcathome|Sending scheduler request: Requested by user. Requesting 864000 seconds of work, reporting 0 completed tasks 11/5/2008 13:21:34||Project communication failed: attempting access to reference site 11/5/2008 13:21:36||Internet access OK - project servers may be temporarily down. 11/5/2008 13:21:36|lhcathome|Scheduler request failed: Server returned nothing (no headers, no data) 11/5/2008 13:22:36|lhcathome|Fetching scheduler list 11/5/2008 13:23:01|lhcathome|Master file download succeeded 11/5/2008 13:23:06|lhcathome|Sending scheduler request: Requested by user. Requesting 864000 seconds of work, reporting 0 completed tasks 11/5/2008 13:23:11|lhcathome|Scheduler request succeeded: got 0 new tasks The comms problem does not appear to be my local connection since I am also accessing UK commercial site (which has links to a German site) in another tab in FireFox 3. I would like to make a suggestion, if I may... instead of dribbling out what appears to be just a few WU\'s at a time into the \"Results ready to send\" queue (all of which are probably gone before I even see the count on the page), could you collect then and drop larger blocks (thousands?) of WUs into the queue at a time? On 30 October 2008 Neasan stated, \"I swear this project is going to be more professional very soon,\". I would like to know when \"very soon\" is. I\'m really very frustrated with LHC. Please don\'t take this as an attack on you two, I think the project is in great hands with the Irish and Welsh (?) working on it. <GRIN> I have confidence in you both. I know you are working on it, and having been a professional in Data Processing/Information Management Systems, I know it can take some time to debug and fix problems. It\'s just my frustration at not being able to get work when I know it\'s available. Cheers, Stephen P.S. Well, lost another window (you\'ll pardon the expression) for getting work, the \"Results in progress\" count is dropping steadily... maybe next time (but I won\'t hold my breath). |
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Message boards :
Number crunching :
Network problems?
(Message 20467)
Posted 21 Sep 2008 by Stephen Balch 2 Post: Yep, they were having problems. (same time zone) Thank you, sir! Cheers, Stephen |
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Message boards :
LHC@home Science :
LHC: Satan's Stargate to Earth!
(Message 20463)
Posted 21 Sep 2008 by Stephen Balch 2 Post:
No, sir! Tin-foil hats only works with your average, run-of-the-mill collider. The Large Hadron Collider is a step above! You need lead hats for protection from it. Or, perhaps, something as dense as this guys mind. Cheers, Stephen |
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Message boards :
Number crunching :
Network problems?
(Message 20437)
Posted 20 Sep 2008 by Stephen Balch 2 Post: I\'m curious, was LHC@home having network or server problems Friday morning (19 Sep 2008, between 02:15 and 05:15 US Central Time, GMT-06:00)? Was I the only one having connection problems? BOINC got the following message-set, or something very like it, more than three dozen times while trying to fetch WUs this morning. (The WU name below was changed to protect the guilty. <GRIN>) (All times given are US/Canada Central Time, GMT-6:00) 9/19/2008 5:05:40 AM lhcathome|Started upload of w3_lhc_symmetric-q1_xx__xx__x__xx.xx_xx.xx__x_x__x__xx_x_sixvf_boincxxxxx_0_0 9/19/2008 5:05:57 AM lhcathome|Sending scheduler request: To fetch work. Requesting 773142 seconds of work, reporting 2 completed tasks 9/19/2008 5:06:02 AM Project communication failed: attempting access to reference site 9/19/2008 5:06:02 AM lhcathome|Temporarily failed upload of w3_lhc_symmetric-q1_xx__xx__x__xx.xx_xx.xx__x_x__x__xx_x_sixvf_boincxxxxx_0_0: connect() failed 9/19/2008 5:06:02 AM lhcathome|Backing off 1 min 0 sec on upload of w3_lhc_symmetric-q1_xx__xx__x__xx.xx_xx.xx__x_x__x__xx_x_sixvf_boincxxxxx_0_0 9/19/2008 5:06:04 AM Internet access OK - project servers may be temporarily down. Note that BOINC could reach the reference site, so I don\'t think it was a problem with my computer or my local connection. I was having problems with both downloads and uploads. Because of the connection problems, I only managed to process six very short WUs. I didn\'t get close to the 20 WUs per day limit (which is another issue...). During that time, I was also experiencing a lag of around 45 to 60 seconds on another connection to a German site, then that connection dropped completely and I\\\'m using an \"emergency\" front end to access it, now. US sites did not seem to be affected. Cheers, Stephen |
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Message boards :
LHC@home Science :
Server Error: can\'t attach shared memory
(Message 20265)
Posted 12 Sep 2008 by Stephen Balch 2 Post: The newly formed black hole has swallowed a couple servers. I\'m sure they\'ll replace them quickly. Don\'t worry! They\'ll be back in service as soon as they retrieve them from the new white hole on the other end of this new black hole. <GRIN> Cheers, Stephen |
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Message boards :
LHC@home Science :
LHC: Satan's Stargate to Earth!
(Message 20264)
Posted 12 Sep 2008 by Stephen Balch 2 Post: have you guys seen the rest of his videos? if hes having a joke, he\'s pretty dedicated to it... He sounds like a religious freak, emphasis on freak. He\'s one of those who will never let truth, logic or facts get in his way. He is probably ilnumerate and well as illiterate. He might be able to read the Bible, but that\'s the limit of his reading. If he has ever had any science classes, they are only those required by his local educational system to graduate, if he did. Did you ever get the feeling the barbarians are winning? Cheers, Stephen |
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7)
Message boards :
LHC@home Science :
BBC Radio coverage of CERN and the LHC
(Message 20263)
Posted 12 Sep 2008 by Stephen Balch 2 Post: There was a good programme tonight on BBC4 A heads up on that, or any other place we could get it, would be much appreciated. Most of the BBC programs we see on PBS are years old, especially the comedy and sci-fi, and I\'m not sure just how current BBC America is, either. Cheers, Stephen |
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8)
Message boards :
Number crunching :
Bandwidth/Data Size Question...
(Message 20257)
Posted 12 Sep 2008 by Stephen Balch 2 Post: Just wondering about the size of the data files download and uploaded by BOINC.. I don\'t have an unlimited internet connection.. @Matt From AU I probably can\'t give you a good estimate, because the availability of WUs has been so sporadic and I don\'t micromanage my project files, but... My AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-60 (2GHz, 2MB RAM, Vista) Laptop, with an air-card (1xEVDO, wireless dial up) connection, has just downloaded 12 WUs of 248 KB each sitting on as I type. I\'ve had a few others earlier today, too. As to the downloads, you can control the amount of data you receive from any project by the settings under \'Advanced/Preferences/network usage/\' \'Connect about every x.xxxx days\' and \'Additional work buffer x.xx days (max. 10)\', especially the latter. Keep it small, say two days or less, and you should be able to keep your data transfers small. My recommendation, \'Connect about every 0.5000 days\' and \'Additional work buffer 2.00 days (max. 10)\', YMMV. There are similar setting under your account for each project. You can also control when you connect by \'Activity/Network activity suspended\' to stop it and \'Activity/Network activity always available\' or \'Activity/Network activity based on preferences\'. I tend to manage BOINCs connections because I\'m not always online. I find it somewhat annoying to have BOINC keep trying to connect when I\'m not online. I change from \"suspended\" when I\'m not dialed in, to \"always available\" when I am. BTW, a lot of the errors you will see in the message log seem to be server-side or network related errors. There isnt anything you can do about them so, unlike some people, don\'t come unglued. They\'ll get fixed eventually. A number of issues I\'ve been having with LHC in the last day or so seem to be bandwidth/network congestion problems. It\'s getting better. I suspect LHC was hammered pretty hard yesterday when they started testing. BOINC/LHC was having problems uploading/reporting, Firefox couldn\'t connect to the web server because of timeouts, and I could barely get an RSS feed through. Hope, this helps a bit... Cheers, Stephen PS These must be good runs, one almost 3 hours and not 50% through, and the other about 2:15 and only about 33% through. These beams are not spinning out as quickly as some I\'ve see (2 seconds and finished) that must have gone straight out the wall from the injector. <GRIN> |
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Message boards :
LHC@home Science :
BBC Radio coverage of CERN and the LHC
(Message 20076)
Posted 9 Sep 2008 by Stephen Balch 2 Post: There was a good programme tonight on BBC4 We can\'t get BBC4 over here, even over the Internet. It\'s a licensing issue. \"Sorry, this video is only available in the UK\" American broadcast television seems to consist entirely of soap operas and infomercials. Cheers, Stephen |
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