Help with a Quad xeon box running Seti. still no luck...

[Tarca]

My buddy has a Quad xeon with PIII 500s (4) and we are only able to crunch 4 units when seti driver is set to 4 processes.

I figure that it should produce 8+ per day. We have Win2k server running.

Any ideas? I or my buddy have ever run Seti on a Quad processor box and could use some help

Tarca

 

[Confused]

If you're using Seti Driver, and have set it up to have 4 Maximum Processes, then it should be using all 4.


What size is the L2 cache? How much RAM have you got? How many have you got in the cache?

You will need at least 4 in your Cache, i would put it at 8 or 12, that will always have enough WUs

Nice assimilation!

Confused

 

[Crazee]

How big is the cache on the CPUs? That could have a big effect on how fast it gets units done.

 

[Engineer]

Are there 4 instances of SETI running when viewing taskmanager?

If not...problem!

If so...are they getting 25% each (4 x 25 = 100% of CPU load for all processors)....

Hmmmmmm?

 

[joinT]

I would try to talk to networkman Rich has a lot of experience w/ multiple proc machines & loves SETI

 

[Tarca]

ok there are 4 instances of seti running... 512cache on each chip and 512 megs of ram.

I'm not sure what to check next but it only averages 4 units a day....

Thanks for the help guys. I'll keep trying.

 

[Swanny]

You do have it set to processor affinity in that little check box, right?

 

[Bigwoofer]

Thanks for everyone's help - will set to processor affinity but was set to that for 48+ hours in the past but no improvement. (if anyone would let us know what "processor affinity" means I would greatly appreciate it)

it has enough units (20), when set to a single process it cranks around 2 / day at around 12hr.s / wu on a single processor but when set to more than 1 process it slows the processing to 18-20hr.s / wu

/me scratching head

thanks for your help!


--edit--> all four processors are at 100% in the "performance" folder /me back to scratching head

 

[Bleep]

It sounds to me like all the processors are cracking the same work unit. I think that each processor should be working on it's own WU.
Bleep

 

[networkman]

If I can be of help I'd like to to, but SetiDriver is something I've not had reason to use.. perhaps I should set it up on one machine just so that I can be of help.

As I've said before, I just use the CLI in seperate directories with SetiSpy to "graphically" track the progress. I will say though that with only 512k of cache per processor, you're not likely to see blazing performance. As has been discussed in this forum in the past, you really need 1meg of L2 cache or larger to really make use of the Xeon's performance - and while the size of the L2 cache is not near as great a deal under the 3.03 client as it was under previous versions, the extra cache does still make for an improvement.

Xeons with 2meg L2 cache may be harder to come by, but they're worth it.

As performance on the quad - with only 512k cache per chip and the shared memory bus for four processors, I rather doubt you'll be crunching 12 units per day with it, although 8 is fairly likely.

Poof is another member with Xeon and SMP experience.

 

[Slaughter]

What about memory timings?

 

[Wiz]

You should get 2 per day per cpu.
Setting proc affinity means you are (Seti Driver is) using one cpu for each instance. Otherwise it will share cpus for all the work you ask of it, and that's not so good unless your doing apps that are optimized for multithreaded execution.
You definitely want Proc Affinity set ON.
If you are not getting 7 or 8 per day on that box then check it's 'real world' use. Does the box have heavy use for any other processes?
This isn't just a seti cruncher is it?
In any case, as has been discussed here many times in the past...

You wont get 4X the performance of a single cpu system just because you are running 4 cpus in one system. All cpu's have to share memory bandwidth, this creates a bottleneck and contention for all system resources. Some cpu's & mobos are good at this and some are not 'as good'. More cache is better because when you have a bigger cache the whole seti process can fit in there and not do as much swapping out. Cache is FAST. You know the allegory of the speed difference between system memory and system swap file 'memory'.
If you are running a process, like maybe a 3D rendering and you run out of physical ram it may start using the 'swap file', hard disk space assigned to hold code that should be processing in ram. Even if your HDD has a 7 Ms seek time, that's a whole lot slower than even PC133 ram at 7 Ns. Millions of iterations per second in ram can turn into hunderds per second on your HDD.
Same thing between executing in cache over system memory, bigger cache is better because it reduces contention for system memory.

Disclaimer: I know enough to be dangerous, some or all of the above could be the insane ramblings of a guy who is too sleep deprived to know better

 

[Woodie]

For comparison, I'm running a 3CPU Proliant under W2K Adv Serv.

I use SetiQueue, rather than driver. Configured cli to run as an NT service, one service on each processor, all pointing to the SetiQueue service right on the box. Every processor is at 100% (seti1, seti2, seti3) averaging about 3 wu/day. CPU= PentiumPro 200 (2 w/ 256 cache, 2 w/ 512 cache).

It was a little tricky at first, but it's been running pretty reliably for quite a while now. I don't have the doc/files at work, but it was something like: (all manual, the batch files didn't work for nothing!)
Registry file for each instance of the service, which sets processor affinity for that service.
Create/register 3 services, using srvany.exe and the seti cmdline version 3.03. Set all the services to run automatically, and away you go.

I'll take a look tonight, and see what files I have.

 

[Tarca]

thanks Woodie

We will keep trying. The server is at bigwoofer's house.

 

[Woodie]

Here's what I see as the install process:
1. Run the appropriate .reg file
Here's the contents of my SetiCPU1.reg file:
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\seti1\parameters]
"Application"="c:\\program files\\seti\\CPU1\\seti.exe"
"AppDirectory"="c:\\program files\\seti\\CPU1"
"AppParameters"="-proxy gunner.barstow.local:5517 -cpu 0" <=== Note it's set to the first CPU

2. Install seti as a service:
"C:\program files\seti\CPU1\instsrv.exe" Seti1 "C:\program files\seti\CPU1\srvany.exe"

Change the path statements to match where you have the seti.exe installed (it's the renamed 3.03 client). Note that the second parament in line 2 (Seti1) must match exactly the name of the service in the HKLM statement.
I created a subdirectory for each CPU, and configured each service seperately.


<-----end procedure------>
FYI, here's my second CPU .reg file:
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\seti2\parameters]
"Application"="c:\\program files\\seti\\CPU2\\seti.exe"
"AppDirectory"="c:\\program files\\seti\\CPU2"
"AppParameters"="-proxy gunner.barstow.local:5517 -cpu 1"
Note the second directory, and the different CPU parameter.

I hope this helps.