WCG - 16th Birthday Challenge

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TennesseeTony

Elite Member
Aug 2, 2003
4,204
3,631
136
www.google.com
I sure hope so, I just DDoS my own internet connection....took 2 minutes to load this page, lol... ...no hope of watching the SpaceX Crew One mission live on YouTube now.
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
25,483
14,434
136
All my instances say "ready to report" and "project/update" was 5 minutes ago, no change.
 

StefanR5R

Elite Member
Dec 10, 2016
5,459
7,718
136
Each day at 00:00 UTC, Worldcommunitygrid takes a database snapshot, and then starts a statistics run to convert the then current boinc credits and time stats into their permanent record of WCG points, result counts, and CPU times. I suspect that the database snapshot happens reasonably quickly. The statistics run takes some time. I remember that the WCG web pages which are statistics related showed sort of a maintenance-in-progress message for the duration of this run, and it could sometimes last for hours.
Right, for example "My Contribution" -> "My Contribution History" is showing

The page you requested is currently unavailable because the statistics are being updated.
The statistics update will finish in about 8 minutes 42 seconds .

during the statistics run.
 

cellarnoise

Senior member
Mar 22, 2017
709
394
136
Uploading now! I lost a day of work on one machine as I was having trouble following directions on how to set up new instances.

I fought the system for a whole day, because I messed a step. Stupid human.
 

StefanR5R

Elite Member
Dec 10, 2016
5,459
7,718
136
The race starts
sometime around 00:00 UTC on Monday, November 16,
when WCG have taken the database snapshot.​
The race ends
sometime around 00:00 UTC on Monday, November 23,
when WCG begins to take the database snapshot.​
I don't know of a way to observe these two points in time.
Perhaps a way to determine these points in time is when "My Contribution" -> "My Team" -> "Challenge Control Panel" is moving the challenge from "Upcoming Challenges" to "Current Challenges" (then it has started), and when it clears the challenge from "Current Challenges" into the team challenge history as "Past Challenges" (then it has finished). Although, either of these display changes could be deferred from the actual database snapshot.
 

cellarnoise

Senior member
Mar 22, 2017
709
394
136
I am sorry, I take back my thoughts that I had these multiple instances figured out. I have several instances set up, but I am having trouble having more than one running at a time...

Human error is great in this one...

I hope I don't lose any bunkered work!
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
25,483
14,434
136
I am sorry, I take back my thoughts that I had these multiple instances figured out. I have several instances set up, but I am having trouble having more than one running at a time...

Human error is great in this one...

I hope I don't lose any bunkered work!
We will help you on this. Stefan is the expert, but at least I got it working.
 

Icecold

Golden Member
Nov 15, 2004
1,090
1,008
146
I am sorry, I take back my thoughts that I had these multiple instances figured out. I have several instances set up, but I am having trouble having more than one running at a time...

Human error is great in this one...

I hope I don't lose any bunkered work!
Like @Markfw said I'm sure somebody here can help. Is it Windows or Linux? If you can explain how you spun up the instances I'm sure somebody here can help diagnose where it might be going wrong.
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
25,483
14,434
136
Like @Markfw said I'm sure somebody here can help. Is it Windows or Linux? If you can explain how you spun up the instances I'm sure somebody here can help diagnose where it might be going wrong.
And why you think they are not working, and how you are tracking their progress.
 

cellarnoise

Senior member
Mar 22, 2017
709
394
136
Based on Stefan's guide here, he pointed to this thread on OVN that I have been trying to follow.

I think I was not properly adding the new password that is unique to each new batch file? I was using the same "password" from the gui_rpc_auth.cfg file for all new instances. At least in my 4th new instance this password had changed from the original? I may have messed up my 2nd and 3rd instances by using the same password from the 1st instance?

I am trying to recover my 2nd and 3rd instances now.

I was able to reconnect to my 1st instance and upload all.

I am having reconnection problems to the 2nd and 3rd, which were only created to continue to get additional tasks.
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
25,483
14,434
136
Seems like you folks were by far the most aggressive in bunkering and in dumping the bunkers. :D

1TeAm AnandTech32,619,300032,619,30032,619,30000
2HardOCP3,888,472-28,730,8283,888,4723,888,47200
3SETI.Germany3,503,290-385,1823,503,2903,503,29000
4The Scottish Boinc Team3,080,210-423,0803,080,2103,080,2100
I guess we need the individual stats to see how we really did. There should be an update yet tonight on Free-DC
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
25,483
14,434
136
Based on Stefan's guide here, he pointed to this thread on OVN that I have been trying to follow.

I think I was not properly adding the new password that is unique to each new batch file? I was using the same "password" from the gui_rpc_auth.cfg file for all new instances. At least in my 4th new instance this password had changed from the original? I may have messed up my 2nd and 3rd instances by using the same password from the 1st instance?

I am trying to recover my 2nd and 3rd instances now.

I was able to reconnect to my 1st instance and upload all.

I am having reconnection problems to the 2nd and 3rd, which were only created to continue to get additional tasks.
I have identical files for that and remote_hosts, including the same password for all 10 instances. What are you using to control the instances, once they are up ?

Oh, crap, all windows ? I have to defer to Stefan now.
 

Icecold

Golden Member
Nov 15, 2004
1,090
1,008
146
Based on Stefan's guide here, he pointed to this thread on OVN that I have been trying to follow.

I think I was not properly adding the new password that is unique to each new batch file? I was using the same "password" from the gui_rpc_auth.cfg file for all new instances. At least in my 4th new instance this password had changed from the original? I may have messed up my 2nd and 3rd instances by using the same password from the 1st instance?

I am trying to recover my 2nd and 3rd instances now.

I was able to reconnect to my 1st instance and upload all.

I am having reconnection problems to the 2nd and 3rd, which were only created to continue to get additional tasks.
If you go into c:\program data\BOINC2 and c:\program data\BOINC3 (or whatever you had named the instance folders) there should be a gui_rpc_auth.cfg file in each that can be opened in notepad and show the password. Worst case scenario if you're having issues with the shortcut to open the new BOINC Manager window you can always go into your existing BOINC manager, Select File --> New BOINC Manager Window and then the hostname would be 127.0.0.1: port (so if following that guide instance 2 is 127.0.0.1:31418) and the password would be in the gui_rpc_auth.cfg file in c:\program data\BOINC2 folder. Instance 3 would be 127.0.0.1:31419 and the password in the gui_rpc_auth.cfg file in c:\program data\BOINC3 folder. Please let me know if that helps at all or if I'm missing where the issue is. I'm working under the theory those instances are already running but you're having issues getting the BOINC manager shortcut to correctly connect to them.
 
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cellarnoise

Senior member
Mar 22, 2017
709
394
136
I am using Boinc Manager.

Still trying to figure out BoincTasks. BoincTasks will be nice in the future to control several different puters.

I seem to have one instance running that I can't "see" and another instance of BoincManager (BM) that is very slow to respond that I think is trying to connect to another "instance", that I have loaded up with finished work, but I can't get the BM to show me any data / history on. This is the same problem for my 2 and 3rd instance.

I think my 4th instance that I can't see is running tasks now....

What a mess :)
 

Icecold

Golden Member
Nov 15, 2004
1,090
1,008
146
Thanks Icecold. I'll work on it, before I open another beer and report back :)
I had a typo in it before, when you go to do instance 3 it should be 127.0.0.1:31419 since the port increments up by 1 for each new instance. I went ahead and edited the previous post so it would be accurate.
 

StefanR5R

Elite Member
Dec 10, 2016
5,459
7,718
136
I used boinc on Windows only up to Windows 7.

In Windows 7's taskmanager, each presently running client would show up in the processes tab as "boinc.exe". This can be used to confirm how many of them are currently running, but not which ones (in the default view).

It is possible in Windows 7's taskmanager to add a column to the processes tab which shows the command line. This should show whether or not any of the currently running boinc.exe's were started with custom paramaters, notably their own data directory and own GUI RPC port.
 

StefanR5R

Elite Member
Dec 10, 2016
5,459
7,718
136
For additional diagnostics, you can open the data directory of each client instance in the filemanager, and then view the files stdoutdae.txt and stderrdae.txt. These should contain the event log of the client and any more or less serious error messages. Also look at the timestamp of these files to determine when they were last written.
 

StefanR5R

Elite Member
Dec 10, 2016
5,459
7,718
136
Seems like you folks were by far the most aggressive in bunkering and in dumping the bunkers. :D
I suppose several European users will start to upload in a few hours from now; it's in the middle of the night here. (I wanted to sleep through it myself, but woke up and went checking if my timed upload had been working right, and what's on in the forum.)
 

cellarnoise

Senior member
Mar 22, 2017
709
394
136
I'm on Windows 10 on the machine. I hope the following makes sense....

Boinc "instance 1"
"C:\Program Files\BOINC\boincmgr.exe"
This shortcut shows the exact same rest of Properties window for Instance 2 and 3.

I don't know the port number used on my machine for instance 1, but I hope it was the same as the tutorial? 31416? I increased the port number by +2 for each of the following. (I hope? )

Boinc instance 2 shortcut - points to C:\ProgramData\BOINC2
"C:\Program Files\BOINC\boincmgr.exe" /m /n 127.0.0.1 /g 31418 /p 21498169a53a39a9d8f5b19458fbde07
Note that I add +2 to the port # from the instance before.

Note that the desktop shortcut I created shows the exact same rest of Properties window for Instance 2 and 3.


Boinc instance 3 found in C:\ProgramData\BOINC3
"C:\Program Files\BOINC\boincmgr.exe" /m /n 127.0.0.1 /g 31420 /p 21498169a53a39a9d8f5b19458fbde07
Note that I add +2 to the port # from the instance before.

Note that the desktop shortcut I created shows the exact same rest of Properties window for Instance 2 and 3.

Note the same password as in 1 and 2, but different than in my 4th instance below?

This shortcut shows the exact same rest of Properties window for Instance 2 and 3.


BOINC instance 4 found in C:\ProgramData\BOINC4 This ended up having a new password in the "gui_rpc_auth.cfg" file? Maybe I created a new password somewhere by accident?
"C:\Program Files\BOINC\boincmgr.exe" /m /n 127.0.0.1 /g 31422 /p 4498a71916aa2e76b6eaec7902429dff

Note that the desktop shortcut I created shows the exact same rest of Properties window for Instance 2 and 3.

I'm still looking for the error of my ways (likely mine), but I did crack open another IPA....