Latest SETI@home Technical News, and daily stats for 10.09.2006.

[Rattledagger]

Technical News:

September 11, 2006 - 22:00 UTC
We're back on line, more or less, after the science database crash last Friday. Work is being generated, and the assimilators are catching up on the backlogged results. But we're far from out of the woods.

We aren't quite finished getting the data unloaded from the old (broken) database. There is no data corruption, but we are currently operating on only one half of a RAID 10 mirror. In other words, one more drive failure and the whole database is toast. What happened? The two mirrors are on two separate drive arrays, and one of the two enclosures went belly-up, causing all our headaches this past Friday, and our cautionary measures over the weekend.

The rest of the data should be unloaded within the next 24 hours. Then we have to check the data, and load it onto the new server. Then we check to make sure the data on both databases match. And then we shut down the whole project for a day and migrate all the workunits created and results uploaded since we started this whole project a week ago.

Finally, we turn things over to the new database and start the project back up. If all is well, we'll be completely on the new server and can fully retire the old one.

Meanwhile there is positive news about the data recorder. We haven't been able to take much data with the new multi-beam recorder because of DLT drive problems galore. In an effort to move away from that technology, we successfully implemented and tested using swappable SATA drives to store the data. As of this morning we have all the parts working at Arecibo. Soon we will get the parts ordered/installed/tested up here at the lab. Eventually, instead of shipping data back on forth on tapes, we'll be shipping whole 500GB drives.

Also, a forum-post by Matt Lebofsky:

Okay.. No need to argue about this.

We've been slowly working on database migration from a known flaky server to a new one for months. The new server is one with which we have no community expertise (in fact we're beta testing it for Sun), so each step is a slow and careful one. Meanwhile, it has been a known fact for a while that the current database could blow any second.

Should there be more communication from the SETI staff? Yes. Do we have the resources to make daily updates? No. Even if we did, it is questionable whether or not it is worth reiterating the same tasks every day to show exactly what we are currently working on just in case it may provide an obscure clue that something might unexpectedly fail.

The drives have been failing left and right for months, but this Friday there was an all-out enclosure failure. Not a total surprise in the grand scheme of things, but still difficult to predict, and since this actually happened during a lighter load than normal, it was wholly unexpected.

Should I write a tech news item every time I enter the server closet? There's a chance I guess I might trip and knock a power cable out of the wall. On one hand, yes - there can be no shortage of information about a tech-heavy project such as this. On the other.. well I'm too busy and already spent way too much time on this post. Back to work.

- Matt

#____Total Work Done____Todays WD_____AWD________overtake_______Team-name
01______148.359.007______145.449______218.666______impossible______SETI.Germany
02_______83.999.005_______41.808_______42.247______impossible______BroadbandReports.com Team Starfire
03_______80.082.408______197.733______303.062______impossible______SETI.USA
04_______58.686.890_______77.223_______90.271______impossible______Czech National Team
05_______55.535.642_______47.942_______67.343______impossible______L'Alliance Francophone
06_______50.858.897_______42.400_______55.210______impossible______SETI@Netherlands
07_______50.813.927_______52.824______102.068______impossible______BOINC Synergy
08_______44.540.341________9.310_______10.044______impossible______OcUK - Overclockers UK
09_______34.881.369_______19.885_______-6.724______5.188 days______BOINC.Italy
10_______22.514.462_______15.792__________604______impossible______Overclockers.com
11_______20.412.845_______28.557_______55.614______impossible______The Knights Who Say Ni!
12_______15.284.289_______33.903_______29.840______impossible______Team 2ch
13_______12.977.999_______25.803_______48.617______impossible______Team Art Bell
14_______11.604.781_______14.741_______32.161______impossible______The Planetary Society
15________9.734.850_______12.590_______17.555______impossible______Ars Technica
16________6.603.498_________-507______-17.523________377 days______Universe Examiners
17__________381.466________1.107_______-9.000_________42 days______Phoenix Rising
18__________227.677______-11.940______-37.233__________6 days______Planet 3DNow!
19_______32.551.433_______26.912_______60.010______notanoption_____TeAm AnandTech
20_______-4.226.762________2.765______-26.380______impossible______PC Perspective Killer Frogs
21_______-4.258.708_______-4.254______-27.345______impossible______2CPU.com
22_______-5.879.017_______14.850_______18.891________311 days______Team MacNN
23_______-6.424.425______-16.218______-37.711______impossible______Picard
24_______-6.839.849_______-6.485_______-8.598______impossible______Hewlett-Packard
25_______-8.057.254________1.037_______-6.886______impossible______Amateur Radio Operators
26_______-9.052.563_______-7.530______-34.639______impossible______LittleWhiteDog
27_______-9.605.677_______-9.978______-29.867______impossible______BOINC@Denmark
28_______-9.729.439________1.637______-10.520______impossible______Canada
29_______-9.860.322_______-7.271______-31.909______impossible______Portugal@Home
30_______-9.994.600_______23.525________9.595______1.042 days______SETI@Taiwan
31______-11.190.966________2.379______-11.345______impossible______SETI@China
32______-11.890.080_______-5.976______-21.113______impossible______Team NIPPON
33______-12.730.699_______-7.283______-29.931______impossible______Dutch Power Cows
34______-12.949.695_______-4.693______-16.943______impossible______BOINC SETI@home RUSSIA
35______-13.471.245______-12.069______-34.038______impossible______Team EDGE
36______-14.943.823_______-9.725______-10.252______impossible______Team MacAddict
37______-16.040.820_______-7.421______-23.567______impossible______Hungary
38______-16.499.963_______-5.374______-24.623______impossible______SETI@klamm.de
39______-16.968.743______-10.130______-29.659______impossible______HispaSeti&BOINC
40______-17.065.340______-15.588______-41.547______impossible______The Final Front Ear
41______-17.146.498______-20.985______-47.187______impossible______US-Distributed
42______-17.541.793______-14.111______-30.045______impossible______SETI Sverige [Sweden]
43______-18.147.393______-10.603______-37.110______impossible______Lookers
44______-18.448.542_______-4.368______-32.059______impossible______World Wide S.E.T.I.
45______-18.493.673_______-7.979______-25.041______impossible______U.S.Air Force
46______-18.509.639_______-7.384______-32.179______impossible______UK BOINC Team
47______-18.527.585______-13.125______-38.412______impossible______forum.hwsw.hu
48______-18.690.642_______-5.418______-32.102______impossible______Overclockers Australia
49______-18.758.221_______-9.350______-36.085______impossible______SETI.hr
50______-18.924.235______-15.093______-31.400______impossible______BOINC@AUSTRALIA

Appart for Anandtech's stats, it shows how much more/less than Anandtech.
Also shows based on Average Work Done how many days for Anandtech to overtake the team, or be overtaken by a team behind...


As expected, a large drop in production-all around today. But, now the servers are up again, would guess on nearly back to normal again to-morrow.

BTW, the lack of work also means Planet 3DNow! has been delaying the overtake a little...

 

[petrusbroder]

Thanks for the info, and the stats, Rattledagger.
Very interesting post by Matt L.!

 

[amdxborg]

Thanx RD!