BOINC Info Needed - one more question 2/1

[JWMiddleton]

I went to the BOINC site this morning and activated my account. They presented me with a Setup Form to fill out.


You can control when and how your computer is used by SETI@home.
To use the defaults settings, scroll to the bottom and click OK.

Processor usage
---------------
Do work while computer is running on batteries?
(matters only for portable computers) yes no
Do work while computer is in use? yes no
Do work only after computer is idle for
(applies only if above is 'no') minutes
Do work only between the hours of
(no restriction if equal) 0:001:...
Leave applications in memory while preempted?
(suspended applications will consume swap space if 'yes') yes no
Switch between applications every
(recommended: 60 minutes) minutes
On multiprocessors, use at most processors

Disk and memory usage
---------------------
Use no more than Gbytes
Leave at least Gbytes free
Use no more than % of total disk space
Write to disk at most every seconds
Use no more than % of total virtual memory


Network usage
-------------
Connect to network about every
(determines size of work cache; maximum 10 days) days
Confirm before connecting to Internet?
(matters only if you use a modem) yes no
Disconnect when done?
(matters only if you use a modem) yes no
Maximum download rate: Kbytes/sec
Maximum upload rate: Kbytes/sec

Miscellaneous
-------------
Should SETI@home send you email newsletters? yes no
Should SETI@home show your computers on its web site? yes no


This is very specific to ONE system and some of the defualts blow my mind like 100 GB of disk space. Well, I submitted the form and download the client. I did not find any menu items allowing me to change any of the above info.

We need to start discussing this for those of us who will migrate to a BOINC based project when classic ends. At th is point I have no idea if there is a no screensaver version nor do I have any clue on optimization.

 

[JWMiddleton]

A little investigation at the BOINC site allowed me to find the setup info and I learned that you can have up to 3 diff configs:

Add separate preferences for home
Add separate preferences for school
Add separate preferences for work


That helps some.

Not sure how you apply each one when you start a client. Anyone know?

 

[zaph]

Welcome to the boinc clan JW

Im not sure about how to assign a location (home/work/school) to a computer, all my rigs are using the default (home) location.

As for the setup questions :

Processor usage
---------------
Do work while computer is running on batteries? no

Do work while computer is in use? yes
Do work only after computer is idle for n/a

Do work only between the hours of no restriction
(no restriction if equal) 0:001:...
Leave applications in memory while preempted? default ( i think iots yes)

Switch between applications every << i use 60 on the machine i have cpdn and seti on
(recommended: 60 minutes) minutes
On multiprocessors, use at most processors

Disk and memory usage
---------------------
all default


Network usage
-------------
Connect to network about every
(determines size of work cache; maximum 10 days) days <<< i use 7.1 it gives me a manageable cache without having toi worry about wu's expiring

Confirm before connecting to Internet?
(matters only if you use a modem) no
Disconnect when done?
(matters only if you use a modem) no
Maximum download rate: Kbytes/sec default, or whatever sliice of your bandwith you want it to use in the few seconds it takes to connect
Maximum upload rate: Kbytes/sec see above



As for the no-screensaver version, i just make sure that boinc is NOT set as my screensaver, and i am getting setti-classic-cli-version times out of my boinc boxes.

Boinc seems to run the science 1st and the screensaver seems like a "plug-in" you can use if you want.

I am running boinc here @ work on an old tbird classic 1.4 and have NO problems with it interfering or slowing down my other programs.

Hope this helps!

-chris s / zaph

 

[Rattledagger]

There are 3 sets of preferences, global, project specific and forum-preferences.

The global is for all projects, and the default should be usable but for seti would recommend this:

"Leave applications in memory while preempted?" set to yes, even if only running one project, if you're not really really short on memory...

"On multiprocessors, use at most N processors", remember HT counts as 2 processors.

"Connect to network about every N days", remember SETI@home is having 14-day-deadline. In seti, recommends to not set N to more than 5 before you're sure no computers is having any problems returning before deadline. If multi-project, remembers some projects have shorter deadline so normally use smaller setting...

And no, seti will not use 100 GB regardless of your disk-settings.


Project-specific:
"Resource share", if multi-project controls how much of the time is used at seti.
"Should SETI@home show your computers on its web site?" defaults to yes in seti.
"Default computer location" home/school/work. New computers gets the selected default venue.

Forum-preferences:
Configure as you wants, not all projects have updated the forums resently so haven't this setting...

How to select a venue:
Appart for the default location for new client-installs, you can select an individual computer and change to another venue.


Oh, and for the current BOINC core client, v4.1x, the cli is hidden away in the BOINC-directory after installation and is called boinc_cli.exe
boinc_cli -install will install as service.

They're hard at work finishing the separate gui, when this is released the cli will always runs hidden, while the new gui can be exited if you wants. If running as service or not is an install-choise.
Also, this means there will be a gui for all platforms, not just for windows.

 

[networkman]

Okay, two points in favor of BOINC, a) it supports dual processors quite nicely, and b) it upgraded without a hitch from 4.16 to 4.19.

 

[zaph]

It seems NWM is starting to warm up to the idea of boinc

 

[Assimilator1]

We need to start discussing this for those of us who will migrate to a BOINC based project when classic ends.

I was just gonna ask you John........or RD

 

[Polo]

Still no local queue ? It's a BIG lack in this project !

 

[Rattledagger]

The BOINC-client have built-in caching and multi-project-support, this means any computer with direct or indirect internet-connection through a proxy can be used. The internet-connection can be permanent, or daily/weekly dialup. Well, not all projects would work with only weekly connection, due to the deadline, or due to large downloads/uploads.

So if you're not walking around with a floppy/cd/whatever distributing wu & collecting results, you should have the opportunity to use BOINC.

Still, there is some more long-term-plans to let BOINC act as proxy-server or something for other clients, but not sure if this will include being fed with wu from cd or something...


Oh, as for security, the BOINC core client can't be auto-updated, but must be manually downloaded and installed.
Normally the science-applications is automatically downloaded as needed, but can also use the compile-it-yourself-approach, "anonymous platform", and by using this method it's not auto-upgraded. Not all projects supplies the source, so you can't compile it yourself...

 

[JWMiddleton]

Thanks for the info guys!

I am running one instance of SETI Classic and one BOINC SETI on a P4 with HT. Seems to be running fine. On my BOINC screen it has status for 4 WUs as 100% complete and "Ready to report" Does that mean that it has not sent in the data? I only connect every two days to get a cache, but I changed that to .1 days. But, it does not seem to have taken effect. Any way to send results?

 

[Rattledagger]

Returning work in BOINC is a 2-step-process, step 1 is uploading result-file(s). This normally happens immediately after a result is finished crunching, and afterwards the gui lists that WU as "ready to report" in the work tab.

The 2nd step is to "report" finished work, and this happens when your computer successfully connects to a scheduling-server and all "ready to report" WU are removed from the work tab in BOINC.

To minimize traffic on the scheduling-server, they're trying to group multiple "reports" together, so you only connect if either you're asking for more work, at least one result is near deadline, or you manually hit "update" on the Project tab in BOINC.



Guess next question is, why no credit yet...

In seti, a wu isn't marked for validation before atleast 3 "success"-results have been reported. If the validator isn't backlogged as it's currently is, normally crediting will happen immediately afterwards.

The validator checks till finds a pair of results to be "similar enough", if can't find a pair another copy of the wu is sent to yet another user. If finds a pair, the rest of the "success"-results is also tried validated.

Crediting is decided at the same time wu was validated, based on how many results passed validation:
If only 2 results passed validation, lowest claimed.
If 3 or more, remove highest & lowest claimed and average the rest.

BOINC will wait on any later results, but only till all results is passed their individual deadline or reported and tried validated. These results passing validation get the same credit as the rest, no re-calculation is done.

Since seti is distributing to 4 and trying validation after 3 "success", normally the middle claimed of the 3 returning 1st decides crediting, but if validator backlogged as now some wu have already 4 results when validator catches up so the average after highest/lowest removed.

 

[JWMiddleton]

...you manually hit "update" on the Project tab in BOINC.

That did the trick! TY!

 

[JWMiddleton]

Verify this for me.....

I detached from the project and all the WU's went away. So, I am assuming that when you detach that it puts the WUs back in the Queue. Seems pretty slick! Glad I didn't just exit the client!

I have 6 boxes down at home and need to put this one back on Classic full time.

 

[Rattledagger]

If you reset a project, the client just removes all wu, results & application-files from disk.
If you detach, you also removes the project.

In both cases, no info is reported back to the servers, so any results still not reported is lost.

If you wants to stop crunching, the better is to set "cache for N days" to zero, hit "update" in the client, and finish the current queue.

 

[JWMiddleton]

Thanks RD! Well, that really SUCKS! They should have some help files and even ask you if that is what you really want to do.

I had originally set things to 2 days, then reduced it to .1 days. The change didn't seem to make a diff after a few days. So, I did reset it to zero. But, when I lost those machines at home I felt compelled to move all power back to Classic.

 

[Rattledagger]

In the separate-gui-version currently in alpha, last v4.63, there are tips explaining you will lose all work, and if you chooses any of them you must also click "yes".

They're planning to release v4.6x later this month...