21) Message boards : Number crunching : Atlas simulation taking forever (Message 46426)
Posted 5 Mar 2022 by Jim1348
Post:
The native ATLAS are running OK for me. But you seem to be on VirtualBox, and have only 7.5 GB of memory.
That might be enough to run one, with nothing else. But you are probably swapping out to disk most of the time.
22) Message boards : CMS Application : Feature Request: wu.rsc_fpops_est adjustment (Message 45985)
Posted 3 Jan 2022 by Jim1348
Post:
On my computers even with a very low work buffer of 0.2 days when BOINC request work from CMS it receives 100's of WUs.

It looks like you have the dreaded <max_concurrent> problem.
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/forum_thread.php?id=5738&postid=45506#45506

See:
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/forum_thread.php?id=5726&postid=45384#45384
23) Message boards : ATLAS application : Repeated computation errors - Missing Files (Message 45969)
Posted 31 Dec 2021 by Jim1348
Post:
I currently have BIONC throttled to 14 CPU's and 50% CPU load. The workunits downloaded showed to be for 8 CPU's. I noticed that the CPU load never increased. I also saw that the VBox Command Line Tool and Console Window Host processes were continually starting and stopping about every 15 seconds.

There is nothing wrong with limiting the number of CPU's, but have you tried 100% load?

Also, in Computing Preferences, uncheck "Suspend when non-BOINC usage is above ...%.
And allow 100% of the memory to be used by BOINC.
24) Message boards : ATLAS application : Repeated computation errors - Missing Files (Message 45957)
Posted 28 Dec 2021 by Jim1348
Post:
The only other specific similarities that I can think of is that both machines use NordVPN which twiddles with the routing table and both have TrendMicro's anti-virus/anti-malware product installed.

The AV probably has "real-time protection" enabled. That usually operates at a network level to inspect the packets even if the project is excluded. I would disable the AV entirely.
25) Message boards : News : Lack of CMS tasks due to a problem in WMAgent development (Message 45932)
Posted 22 Dec 2021 by Jim1348
Post:
Deaths is what matters, not cases. Look at the deaths graph, scroll down here:

I read The Telegraph for all the statistics. It gives us a couple of weeks of warning in the U.S.
26) Message boards : News : Lack of CMS tasks due to a problem in WMAgent development (Message 45849)
Posted 10 Dec 2021 by Jim1348
Post:
You need a subscription to read this, but the gist is that it is moving fast.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/09/charts-ministers-think-could-hit-million-omicron-cases-day-christmas/
Hang in there.
27) Message boards : ATLAS application : Bad WUs? (Message 45827)
Posted 8 Dec 2021 by Jim1348
Post:
Seem a problem with the Cores more than ONE and NOT the vboxwrapper!!
Good. I am glad there is a fix for it.
But I would prefer that Oracle make their stuff compatible with virtual cores, so that we don't lose performance.
Maybe it is not possible?
28) Message boards : ATLAS application : Bad WUs? (Message 45825)
Posted 8 Dec 2021 by Jim1348
Post:
I recently posted a comment about vboxwrapper at the forum of another project.
It's not exactly the same issue but I think it's worth to try it out.

I tried it on the Rosetta pythons, though I had to use the vboxwrapper from LHC on my Ubuntu machine, since it appears that BOINC has it only for Windows.

However, I got a "checksum" error, even though I had modified the cc_config.xml. So it seems that the wrapper must be compatible with the app.
I didn't see a way to disable the checksum in cc_config.xml.
29) Message boards : ATLAS application : Bad WUs? (Message 45821)
Posted 8 Dec 2021 by Jim1348
Post:
so the question seems to be: is the problem connected to the VBox version or to the number of CPUs used ???

Good question. I used to be able to fix it by going back to VBox 5.2.44. But that seems to no longer work.
It is easy in Win10, but harder in Ubuntu, since Ubuntu 20.04.3 is not compatible with 5.2.44, only with 6.1.x.
So I went back to Ubuntu 18.04.6 and VBox 5.2.44, but that still did not fix it on Rosetta pythons.

I have noticed however that if I set BOINC to use only 50% of the CPUs, that it reduces the problem. That is almost like operating on full cores.
Next, I am going to turn off virtual cores (not virtualization!) in the BIOS, and see if that fixes it.
For my AMD motherboard, that is to disable symmetric multithreading (SMT) in the BIOS.
Of course, you need to leave Virtual Machine Architecture (SVM) enabled.
30) Message boards : ATLAS application : Bad WUs? (Message 45817)
Posted 8 Dec 2021 by Jim1348
Post:
PC with one CPU (Virtualbox 6.1.12) have no problems so long.
All with faulty are using 2 CPU's (Virtualbox 6.1.30).

That is interesting. My Rosetta machines have 24 or 32 CPUs (virtual cores). Someone needs to look into it.
31) Message boards : ATLAS application : Bad WUs? (Message 45815)
Posted 8 Dec 2021 by Jim1348
Post:
I have seen two different problems:

A) VMs running endless with less than 1% CPU-Usage
B) VMs get suspended after 10/20/30/40 Seconds, they are "unmanagable". This spreads over all my systems and different VirtualBox-Versions.

I see both of them on the Rosetta python work units, which use VirtualBox.

There is something very wrong with it, and I am surprised that Oracle has not figured it out.
32) Message boards : ATLAS application : Bad WUs? (Message 45813)
Posted 8 Dec 2021 by Jim1348
Post:
I haven't seen it yet on native ATLAS.
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/results.php?hostid=10697859&offset=0&show_names=0&state=4&appid=
33) Message boards : ATLAS application : Repeated computation errors (Message 45793)
Posted 6 Dec 2021 by Jim1348
Post:
The drive may not matter, but if you don't install/uninstall correctly, it could go to the wrong drive.
It is simpler on a single drive.
34) Message boards : ATLAS application : Repeated computation errors (Message 45788)
Posted 6 Dec 2021 by Jim1348
Post:
It looks like you are using drive E: for BOINC, at least the data directory.
I have not tried that, but I expect that BOINC and especially VirtualBox are best located on the OS drive.
35) Message boards : Number crunching : VM Applications Errors (Message 45732)
Posted 22 Nov 2021 by Jim1348
Post:
I downloaded/updated VirtualBox to 6.1.26 and that appears to have solved my problem.

You may have jumped from the frying pan into the fire. After a while, you will probably see "Vm job unmanageable" suspensions where the tasks don't run.
If so, you could try downgrading to VirtualBox 5.2.44. At least it works on Windows 10. It may not be compatible with Windows 11.
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds_5_2

Otherwise, you have to wait about a day for the tasks to start running again, or else you have to reboot.

PS - LHC is much better than most. I have seen it more often on Cosmology and some others.
36) Message boards : CMS Application : Occasional lack of work units? (Message 45712)
Posted 17 Nov 2021 by Jim1348
Post:
Thanks. I do not do the sixtracks, at least not on that machine.
The memory requirements are so different I usually use different machines.
37) Message boards : CMS Application : Occasional lack of work units? (Message 45709)
Posted 17 Nov 2021 by Jim1348
Post:
I am wondering what causes the occasional lack of work units. I know they fill the WU's with "jobs" when available, and sometimes they are not available. It is usually only for a short period, ten minutes or so, and then they are back. It is not a problem for me, since it is an insignificant amount of time without work.

But I am wondering about the larger cause. Is it that the scientists don't create enough work, or that the servers sometimes can't dish it out on time?
The overall availability rate has actually been pretty good.
38) Message boards : ATLAS application : Tasks download 1.9 GB EVNT files (Message 45699)
Posted 14 Nov 2021 by Jim1348
Post:
Same for me (1.12 GB) on native ATLAS. That is no problem on the file transfers, but it makes the project folder 46.5 GB.

I have plenty free on a 500 GB SSD, but it could be an unexpected problem for some.
39) Message boards : Number crunching : not getting any tasks despite many showing on Project Status page (Message 45689)
Posted 13 Nov 2021 by Jim1348
Post:
So, I guess my VB installation is not the issue. I'm still baffled why I'm not getting any tasks.

I remember back in my early days, it would ignore me for a while and then send a bunch of tasks.
I am not sure if they are past that phase or not, but just wait a while.
40) Message boards : Number crunching : not getting any tasks despite many showing on Project Status page (Message 45686)
Posted 13 Nov 2021 by Jim1348
Post:
In Task Manager, on the second (Performance) tab, at the bottom with all the CPU info, it says "Virtualization: Enabled". Does that address what you are asking about?

That is probably good, but the most reliable indication that I look to is in BOINC itself.

It is best to reboot, and then look at "Tools/Event log". Somewhere around line 14 or so (in Linux for me), it will show which version of VirtualBox you are using.
If it sees that, then it should be good on any BOINC project.


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