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Number crunching :
No work being done by one of my laptops???
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Author | Message |
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George 254 Send message Joined: 25 Jul 99 Posts: 155 Credit: 16,507,264 RAC: 19 |
I have 6 laptops giving 3-4,000 credit a day crunching between 22 & 55 tasks a day. One of them, an old Acer with 3GB RAM and running Linux has recently crunched between 2 & 18 tasks a day except for the last two days where it does not seems to have done anything. I have previously rebooted it when the number of tasks has steadily decreased, but no effect this time. Could someone explain what is going on here? TIA George |
rob smith Send message Joined: 7 Mar 03 Posts: 22220 Credit: 416,307,556 RAC: 380 |
Is this the computer: ID: 7857207 Details | Tasks Cross-project stats: BOINCstats.com Free-DC 6 411.30 52,869 7.2.42 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T5500 @ 1.66GHz [Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 6] (2 processors) --- Linux 3.13.0-86-generic Last contact: 24 May 2016, 21:13:35 UTC The last line shows this computer hasn't contacted the servers for a couple of days - have you checked to see if it can actually contact the internet, if so is there a firewall that is blocking BOINC contacting SETI's servers? Bob Smith Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society) Somewhere in the (un)known Universe? |
George 254 Send message Joined: 25 Jul 99 Posts: 155 Credit: 16,507,264 RAC: 19 |
yes that is the computer. Can't think why there would be a firewall but will check. The issue only arose a couple of days ago. Thanks for the prompt response. |
George 254 Send message Joined: 25 Jul 99 Posts: 155 Credit: 16,507,264 RAC: 19 |
Bob Checked the settings and can see no reason why there is no communication with BOINC. The WiFi is switched on. It still receives WUs including one yesterday. George |
Grant (SSSF) Send message Joined: 19 Aug 99 Posts: 13746 Credit: 208,696,464 RAC: 304 |
Are there any other programmes running on that system other than BOINC that could be using up CPU time? Did it get shut down for an extended period? It looks like that system averages around 7 WUs per day. Then on the 22nd of May, it only downloaded 3. Then there was nothing downloaded till the latest one on the 26th. Grant Darwin NT |
rob smith Send message Joined: 7 Mar 03 Posts: 22220 Credit: 416,307,556 RAC: 380 |
As a trial - turn off your screen saver and switch to the "advanced view". This will allow you to see more information on what is running and what the progress is. Bob Smith Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society) Somewhere in the (un)known Universe? |
Al Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 1682 Credit: 477,343,364 RAC: 482 |
No idea if this applies or not, but I just loaded another computer with Win 7 & BOINC, Computer 8010411, and one thing I noticed was that it didn't seem to have a countdown timer running under Status column in the Projects tab. It would happily up/download the new tasks when I hit the Update button, and would even do the 5 min backoff, but after that completed, it then went to blank. The tasks were still running, but they didn't appear to auto upload, unlike all the other systems I had installed recently. I poked around the settings, and didn't see anything obvious as to why it wouldn't work as expected, though before I shut it down, I think that it might have at some point uploaded some of the tasks itself, but I had to give it a final nudge to get the last 10 or so tasks uploaded. As I was just test running it, I haven't really worried about it, my main concern was hardware errors, but I will have to keep an eye on it when I bring it up again to run it in the farm. Just thought I'd add this to the discussion, in case there are others with this issue as well. |
Bill G Send message Joined: 1 Jun 01 Posts: 1282 Credit: 187,688,550 RAC: 182 |
No idea if this applies or not, but I just loaded another computer with Win 7 & BOINC, Computer 8010411, and one thing I noticed was that it didn't seem to have a countdown timer running under Status column in the Projects tab. It would happily up/download the new tasks when I hit the Update button, and would even do the 5 min backoff, but after that completed, it then went to blank. The tasks were still running, but they didn't appear to auto upload, unlike all the other systems I had installed recently. The next time you communicate with the project is will Update. That has been normal for some time (at least on my computers). It looks as if it is not wasting bandwith when there is nothing meaningful to transmit. SETI@home classic workunits 4,019 SETI@home classic CPU time 34,348 hours |
George 254 Send message Joined: 25 Jul 99 Posts: 155 Credit: 16,507,264 RAC: 19 |
Interesting insight Bill, thanks |
Al Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 1682 Credit: 477,343,364 RAC: 482 |
Bill, I think I might not have explained it properly. On the machine I am typing on currently, running Win 7, when I pull up BOINC Manager, and choose the Projects tab, under the column Status, it shows Communications deferred 00:05:05 or some such after each successful contact back to home base. It talks, then it resets and counts down again, and does that continuously. It does it on all of the systems I have set up, except for the one I mentioned. That is what was weird, the comm deferred was not happening, but if I did the manual update by hitting the button, the 5 min countdown happened, the up/download happened, and then it just sat there blank. It is shut down right now, and ready to be put into the farm when the time comes, I just thought that was unusual, and would mention it to the OP. If you have any thoughts as to why it is behaving the way it is, I'd love to hear them, because I couldn't find anything that was mis-configured. |
Richard Haselgrove Send message Joined: 4 Jul 99 Posts: 14653 Credit: 200,643,578 RAC: 874 |
All is revealed in the Event Log. 28/05/2016 17:44:06 | SETI@home | Sending scheduler request: To fetch work. 28/05/2016 17:44:08 | SETI@home | Scheduler request completed: got 1 new tasks 28/05/2016 17:44:08 | SETI@home | Project requested delay of 303 seconds Every so often, your computer needs to compare notes with the project server (specifically, the 'scheduler'). It might be for any one of a number of reasons: that one was 'To fetch work', it might be 'To report completed work', or simply 'Requested by user'. But every time the computer contacts the server, they will do whatever is necessary, and then the server will say "go away for 303 seconds - don't bother me again for that long". That simply spreads out the workload, giving the server more time to deal with requests from the other 141,458 active users. The countdown you see is simply how much of the requested delay remains before the server will allow another request for work. There will only be a countdown visible if there has been a reason for the computer to 'phone home' within the last five minutes (and three seconds). If it's just quietly getting on with the work it has already - nothing to chat about, no countdown. |
Al Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 1682 Credit: 477,343,364 RAC: 482 |
Huh, ok, thanks Richard. I guess that makes sense, but it is strange that on all (as best as I can recall) the 30 some systems I've set up in the last couple months, this one was the only one that didn't have the countdown timer running continuously. In fact, when I brought up that screen on that computer, I had to look at it for a second to see what wasn't right about it, as I knew something was off, and then noticed that there was no countdown on this one unlike all the others. Well, I'll just chalk it up to weirdness, and keep an eye on it when I get them all up and running. Oh, one question. I remember mentioned to me in the last month or two that there was a program that I could put onto each machine, and be able to monitor all of the systems running BOINC as if I was sitting right in front of it, it gives the same info that I see when I pull up BOINC. Do you happen to know what that is, and how well it works? Thanks! |
Richard Haselgrove Send message Joined: 4 Jul 99 Posts: 14653 Credit: 200,643,578 RAC: 874 |
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Al Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 1682 Credit: 477,343,364 RAC: 482 |
Thank You! Any experience with it personally? |
Brent Norman Send message Joined: 1 Dec 99 Posts: 2786 Credit: 685,657,289 RAC: 835 |
You might be thinking of BoinicTasks http://efmer.com/b/boinctasks to view how all computer are doing. Or, BOINC Manager can also open other computers by using IP address. Or, TightVNC can take control, keyboard video mouse, of another computer. |
Brent Norman Send message Joined: 1 Dec 99 Posts: 2786 Credit: 685,657,289 RAC: 835 |
I use BoincTasks all the time, and like it. |
HAL9000 Send message Joined: 11 Sep 99 Posts: 6534 Credit: 196,805,888 RAC: 57 |
Huh, ok, thanks Richard. I guess that makes sense, but it is strange that on all (as best as I can recall) the 30 some systems I've set up in the last couple months, this one was the only one that didn't have the countdown timer running continuously. In fact, when I brought up that screen on that computer, I had to look at it for a second to see what wasn't right about it, as I knew something was off, and then noticed that there was no countdown on this one unlike all the others. You can use BOINC Manager to view any system on your network. Once you have configured BOINC to allow remote connections. However if you want to see all of them at once you are probably thinking of BOINC Tasks or BOINC View I prefer BOINC View. I use it to: 1) Make sure all the hosts are running. 2) Make sure they all have work. I liek the way it does this better than BOINC Tasks. YMMV SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[ |
Richard Haselgrove Send message Joined: 4 Jul 99 Posts: 14653 Credit: 200,643,578 RAC: 874 |
Thank You! Any experience with it personally? No, I'm still running its predecessor BoincView - not maintained or updated since 2007, but still working. Once you find a tool and get used to it, you won't want to be without it - but there's always a learning curve to be negotiated first. |
Al Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 1682 Credit: 477,343,364 RAC: 482 |
I think I'll be installing the client on all of my computers in the near future. Are there any security holes opened up by installing it that you are aware of, that I should make sure are closed by proper configuration? Or is it just run it and use it? |
Al Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 1682 Credit: 477,343,364 RAC: 482 |
Is one better than the other? I can relate, I preferred the old version of EVGA Precision, but the X and X16 came out, all bells & whistley, and found that I liked the older one better. Unfortunately, unlike BoincView, it doesn't play well with the latest hardware. But I can relate. |
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