Disappeared Work Units

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TeraGram
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Message 146894 - Posted: 4 Aug 2005, 15:07:13 UTC

For the life of me I don't know what happened. I have work units listed on one of my computers which were downloaded in July.

Last night, I looked and there were only 2 waiting and 2 running. There should have been a large cache of work waiting. It was gone!

Sometime during the night my machine downloaded another large cache of work to do.

But the work units that are listed on my account from the end of July are no where to be found. I did a complete system search and the files simply aren't there!

Has anyone else ever had this happen?
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Profile Dominique
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Message 146910 - Posted: 4 Aug 2005, 15:54:17 UTC

At one time I had over 50 completed and pending WU's disappear into the ether.
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Message 146912 - Posted: 4 Aug 2005, 16:08:37 UTC

When WUs are finished, and validated, the file deleter cleans up. Otherwise the database would be so huge. It goes about 2-4 weeks back, to keep things clean.



My movie https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/502242
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Message 146919 - Posted: 4 Aug 2005, 16:13:12 UTC - in response to Message 146894.  
Last modified: 4 Aug 2005, 16:15:42 UTC

Has anyone else ever had this happen?

In my short history with boinc I haven't seen that exact scenario, but I have noticed some of my workunits that have been completed and uploaded, with a pending status, disappear from the view computer results screen before credit is granted. It seems my results screen prunes itself with never more than 70-80 results listed. I've had some with pending status drop off the end as new work is downloaded at the top. It's usually a 'stray' workunit that has sat pending for several days that has moved down towards the end of the list with my, and two other finished results waiting for a 4th result to come in. It's possible that the credit does get granted very close to the time new work gets downloaded and it coincidently gets 'cleaned' off the list right at the same time, although I've noticed this a couple times, both following an outage when one or two results from other users are approaching the deadline. I've never kept that close track of pending versus granted credits, but based on averages, it would appear the credit does get applied whether it's still on the list, or has been retired prior to a full quorum.
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TeraGram
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Message 146937 - Posted: 4 Aug 2005, 16:48:35 UTC - in response to Message 146912.  

When WUs are finished, and validated, the file deleter cleans up. Otherwise the database would be so huge. It goes about 2-4 weeks back, to keep things clean.


I think you didn't understand what I said.

I am not talking about WUs that are finished. I was talking about WUs that were sitting on my machine waiting to be worked on.



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TeraGram
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Message 146940 - Posted: 4 Aug 2005, 16:55:09 UTC - in response to Message 146937.  

Here's some of my missing WUs

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21891981
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21891968
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21699606
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21889767
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21889750
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21889656
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21889730
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21797469
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21795868


I have not installed anything new in the last three months, at least.
I have not gone on a major hunt & destroy file-snipe.
I have current antivirus and firewall software & hardware installed and my system currently scans "clean".

For the life of me I can not explain this.

I can also tell you that for whatever reason, I noticed yesterday that this particular machine had been changed from one set of work preferences to the "default".

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Bill Barto

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Message 146948 - Posted: 4 Aug 2005, 17:20:46 UTC - in response to Message 146940.  

Here's some of my missing WUs

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21891981
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21891968
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21699606
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21889767
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21889750
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21889656
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21889730
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21797469
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21795868


I have not installed anything new in the last three months, at least.
I have not gone on a major hunt & destroy file-snipe.
I have current antivirus and firewall software & hardware installed and my system currently scans "clean".

For the life of me I can not explain this.

I can also tell you that for whatever reason, I noticed yesterday that this particular machine had been changed from one set of work preferences to the "default".



Sounds like some files/folders got corrupted somehow. I had this happen once a long time ago.
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TeraGram
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Message 146950 - Posted: 4 Aug 2005, 17:33:24 UTC - in response to Message 146948.  

Sounds like some files/folders got corrupted somehow. I had this happen once a long time ago.


*gack*

I suppose that could be it. We had a power outage two days ago and my machine was unceremoniously shut down.

(worry mode:on) Cripes I wonder what else went bad.

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j2satx
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Message 147002 - Posted: 4 Aug 2005, 19:12:33 UTC - in response to Message 146940.  

Here's some of my missing WUs

I can also tell you that for whatever reason, I noticed yesterday that this particular machine had been changed from one set of work preferences to the "default".



This happened to me the other day.

Look to see if another computer was generated in your computer list. My guess is it has "default" listed as the location.
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Profile [B@H] Ray
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Message 147009 - Posted: 4 Aug 2005, 19:27:25 UTC - in response to Message 146940.  

Here's some of my missing WUs


http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21889656
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21889730
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21797469
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=21795868



For the life of me I can not explain this.

I can also tell you that for whatever reason, I noticed yesterday that this particular machine had been changed from one set of work preferences to the "default".


Looks like you found a BIG BLACK HOLE in space and it ate up your WU's.

Did you try changeing your SETI client to one of the CPU Optimized Clients? They have been known to diasapear on the changeover, so most finish up whar they have before changeing clients.




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Profile Kajunfisher
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Message 147130 - Posted: 4 Aug 2005, 22:57:46 UTC

WU's will not be deleted from the server until the have met the quota and credit given. As to frequently, I don't know. There was an issue a while back of issuing wu's, but the CC (4.43) itself not getting/crunching/returning them. It's possible that you checked the webpage after the units were deleted. My guess...

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Profile Pappa
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Message 147159 - Posted: 5 Aug 2005, 0:00:13 UTC - in response to Message 146894.  

Teragram

If it truely is a system/harddrive error then, From a command prompt type "fdisk /f c:" and then reboot the computer... It will check and correct the file system as the computer restarts... If it was a file system error then that should correct the situation. So without knowing which Core Client (CC) you are running (the current CC is 4.45 {help about in BOINC manager} should tell what CC is running)...

No, I have never heard of a way to "invalidate workunits" in such a manner that would cause then to be deleted on the computer doing work in progress and just disappear for the computer or workunits tobe completed or completely processed at UCB...

To answer the statement that follows the "original post," You can view every workunit that you have ever ccompleted... Use the next 20 and just keep going...
The script that generates the view computer results, cleans up after a period of time... This would "generally" be done to reduce the amount of work on the server that is used to display what you have completed... The work is still there, just in an abbreviated form...

R/

Al

For the life of me I don't know what happened. I have work units listed on one of my computers which were downloaded in July.

Last night, I looked and there were only 2 waiting and 2 running. There should have been a large cache of work waiting. It was gone!

Sometime during the night my machine downloaded another large cache of work to do.

But the work units that are listed on my account from the end of July are no where to be found. I did a complete system search and the files simply aren't there!

Has anyone else ever had this happen?


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TeraGram
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Message 147193 - Posted: 5 Aug 2005, 1:17:47 UTC - in response to Message 147009.  

Looks like you found a BIG BLACK HOLE in space and it ate up your WU's.

Did you try changeing your SETI client to one of the CPU Optimized Clients? They have been known to diasapear on the changeover, so most finish up whar they have before changeing clients.


Freakin' black holes. Just watched a great show on Science/Discovery channel the other day which involved string theory & black holes and all sorts of stuff. I think I conjured one into my own house when I was thinkin' too much about it later that evening.

CURSES!

Anyway...

No, I have not added, deleted, modified, or otherwise changed any software on my machine in quite some time. Once I get a box working the way I like it, I'm loathe to change <I>anything</I>.

I am running one of TMR's optimized clients and have been for quite a while.

- T.

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TeraGram
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Message 147198 - Posted: 5 Aug 2005, 1:24:58 UTC - in response to Message 147002.  

Look to see if another computer was generated in your computer list. My guess is it has "default" listed as the location.



If it were only so, but no the machines I expected to be there are the only ones there.

My current theory is this:

- Power brownage, not quite enough to force a shut down.
- Machine hiccups BOINC carries on but something went wonky with the optimized XML file.
- Power goes out completely.
- I reboot machine after power is stable for several hours. Boinc/Seti Loads, notices that it is no longer the version it used to be and wipes out the work-units which were labelled as "4.18".
- I notice work-units are gone and panick.

I think that's where we're at now.

I'm just so bummed that I've toasted so many work-units (went to a 10 day setup as recommended by someone somewhere). I see now that maybe 10 days isn't a good idea especially when I have a machine which can turn over 2 at a time every 3.5 hours.

- T, heartsick.
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Profile MJKelleher
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Message 147199 - Posted: 5 Aug 2005, 1:25:47 UTC - in response to Message 147159.  

To answer the statement that follows the "original post," You can view every workunit that you have ever ccompleted... Use the next 20 and just keep going...
The script that generates the view computer results, cleans up after a period of time... This would "generally" be done to reduce the amount of work on the server that is used to display what you have completed... The work is still there, just in an abbreviated form...

Not quite. All your work units are still visible because you've only been crunching BOINC for a few weeks. Shortly, the oldest of your completed units will be deleted from the database entirely, leaving only the total in your credit count. I've been on BOINC since January, the oldest of my listed work units is from July 9th. On your account, the computers you first registered as hosts show creation dates of June 16, but the oldest work units were sent on July 9.

MJ

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Message boards : Number crunching : Disappeared Work Units


 
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