HI

I have noticed that SETI@Home work units I get tend to have very long deadlines (usually 1-2 months) even though my Average Turn Around Time is 2.56 days.

So what happens is that other projects (which often have deadlines of 1-2 weeks) end up running in "high priority" mode - while SETI tasks sit idle for months.

I have disabled CPU processing of SETI WUs because of this - because I figured there are other projects that need it more due to the long deadlines of SETI WUs (I only process GPU tasks for SETI now because of this).

My statistics show my SETI processing dropped by half in less than a month (from about 10,000 to 5,000, and still dropping) since I added a project that sets very short deadlines (Poem@Home - which in 3 weeks went from 0 to 30,000 and still rising).

I actually have had to suspend other projects or BOINC wouldn't process any SETI WUs at all but I don't want to have to keep doing this .

Why does SETI@Home set such long deadlines for their tasks/WUs ?

Ps: I am only running 3 projects at the moment World community Grid, POEM, and SETI (BOINC only very rarely processes SETI tasks anymore because the other projects run in "high priority" - all the projects are set to use 100% of CPU/GPU time so the only difference is the long SETI deadlines).

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Just increase seti resource share on web preferences to balance this out.

The long deadline is supposed to give slow computers a chance to finnish the work in time as well.

Dont forget tho not everybody is running 24/7.

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With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

Just increase seti resource share on web preferences to balance this out.

The long deadline is supposed to give slow computers a chance to finnish the work in time as well.

Dont forget tho not everybody is running 24/7.

Increasing resource share isn't going to stop the other projects from taking preference anyway because at least one of them is always running in "high priority" mode (due to their short deadlines) - or am I wrong?

POEM@Home always sends me tasks with deadlines of a week or less (always runs in high priority), and World Community Grid also sends me WUs/tasks with very short deadlines (the ones I got today are also due in 6 days).

Are some projects abusing the system by setting such short deadlines so their work takes priority - so that projects such as SETI@Home (with VERY long deadlines) simply get pushed back in the BOINC priority queue ?

Shouldn't SETI counter this by sending tasks/WUs with shorter deadlines to PCs/users with short Average Turn Around Times ? My average turn around time is 2.56 days, and I get SETI tasks sent to me that are due in 2 months time.

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Set a small cache size so your tasks with short durations don't run in high priority.

(The 'Maintain enough tasks to keep busy for at least' as well as being the Minimum cache level, is also the number of days offline the host will have,
if you set it to one day, Boinc will try and get work done one day before deadline,if you set it to two days, will try and get it done two days before deadline, etc,
increasing it further may mean Boinc will have to get it done before the work is even sent, meaning work from projects with very short deadlines will always run in high priority)

Seti has long deadlines so even the slowest host can complete them within deadline.

Projects that set very short deadlines do it to monopolise hosts crunching time on their projects, and to ensure a quick turnaround of their tasks.

Claggy

Set a small cache size so your tasks with short durations don't run in high priority.

(The 'Maintain enough tasks to keep busy for at least' as well as being the Minimum cache level, is also the number of days offline the host will have,
if you set it to one day, Boinc will try and get work done one day before deadline,if you set it to two days, will try and get it done two days before deadline, etc,
increasing it further may mean Boinc will have to get it done before the work is even sent, meaning work from projects with very short deadlines will always run in high priority)

Ok thanks - I will set Network Usage for all projects "Maintain enough tasks to keep busy for at least" to 1 day, and I will set "... and up to an additional" to 0.05 days, and see what happens.

The thing that worries me about setting this to 1 day is that not all projects send out WUs every day - and sometimes some project servers can't be contacted for over 24 hours (communication keeps getting deferred).

However, my BOINC log shows this every time it loads: cc_config.xml not found - using defaults (I wonder if this will set my cache to the 3 day default anyway).

Projects that set very short deadlines do it to monopolise hosts crunching time on their projects, and to ensure a quick turnaround of their tasks.

Very unethical - I am going to consider removing projects from my BOINC client that do this all the time - POEM@Home does it to me all the time (they have few users/hosts compared to other projects).

Mike
Claggy

Thanks Guys.

Ps: can anyone point me to a thread/link/post where the log entry "cc_config.xml not found - using defaults" is discussed (I have tried reinstalling BOINC a few times, removed all the folders, and I still get this every time I start BOINC) - or is this normal ?

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Ps: can anyone point me to a thread/link/post where the log entry "cc_config.xml not found - using defaults" is discussed (I have tried reinstalling BOINC a few times, removed all the folders, and I still get this every time I start BOINC) - or is this normal ?

This is normal.

cc_config.xml is an optional file which you can supply yourself if you wish to modify the way BOINC works. It's fully documented in client configuration.

While you're there, you can read the rest of the user manual, if you wish.

To Chris Zawislak:

The thing that worries me about setting this to 1 day is that not all projects send out WUs every day - and sometimes some project servers can't be contacted for over 24 hours (communication keeps getting deferred).

When this happens, SETI or another of the projects should step in and grab some work. Not all projects are unreachable at the same time unless it is your internet connection that is broken.

I personally LIKE the long deadlines that SETI gives. I have to travel 5-6 times each year for 1-2 weeks each. Having a long deadline allows me to run SETI right up to the time I have to leave for the airport, knowing when I get back I will still have enough time to complete any WUs not done. Those short deadline projects get "No new tasks" a few days before I leave to ensure they all complete before I leave.