Hard drives die - just because there are new servers doesn't mean the old ones won't break. How can any operation justify having spare parts on the shelf if their needs are not mission critical - and they have the funds to afford this.

The call for constant staff monitoring of the project is something that simply is not going to happen either. There is no budget for this and there never will be. I'm shocked that there are this many talented people even now.

Lighting up the project staff will accomplish nothing positive. Do you think that they want to deal with problems all the time and listen to people whine all the time. I sure wouldn't! And I work in IT for more than 20 years - if you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem - best to change your attitude and accept what is.

Why is it when there are issues some people are so vocal but do so little to contribute to the forum during the times of prosperity.

This proceeding message is and only should be considered my $0.02
Todd

---

(N)obody promised that this system would work perfectly. Infact, they promised that it wouldn't and you'll note that they also asked that you have either a decent cache or a backup project or 2 to keep yourself happily crunching.

Yes, Matt warned us, when Oscar and Carolyn arrived, that there WOULD be a period of adjustment, where other things could go wrong and the system would go down as they adjusted the other servers to work with the new, more powerful ones. And as tired as Robert and some others are of hearing it said, there WILL be other failures, as the older gear reaches end-of-life and fails before it can be replaced. We need to have patience, and a back-up project if we so desire.

Robert and I have crossed swords a time or two, on these boards and in PMs. I, too, do not care for the negative tone or substance of many of his posts. But in fairness, I try to keep in mind that he is running multiple machines on this project, contributing lots of crunching power which he does not want to go to waste, he has provided useful advice to newbies and others with problems, and that he, too, has put his money where his mouth is and earned a green star.

And remember, you don't have to read, or respond to, every post in every thread. I don't, even though sometimes I have to suppress the urge with difficulty. And if someone REALLY ticks you off, there is always the "Ignore" option in your Community Preferences.

---

Donald
Infernal Optimist / Submariner, retired

...And if someone REALLY ticks you off, there is always the "Ignore" option in your Community Preferences.

And that helps against PMs of that someone too. ;-)

Gruß,
Gundolf

Hard drives die - just because there are new servers doesn't mean the old ones won't break. How can any operation justify having spare parts on the shelf if their needs are not mission critical - and they have the funds to afford this.

The call for constant staff monitoring of the project is something that simply is not going to happen either. There is no budget for this and there never will be. I'm shocked that there are this many talented people even now.

Lighting up the project staff will accomplish nothing positive. Do you think that they want to deal with problems all the time and listen to people whine all the time. I sure wouldn't! And I work in IT for more than 20 years - if you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem - best to change your attitude and accept what is.

Why is it when there are issues some people are so vocal but do so little to contribute to the forum during the times of prosperity.

This proceeding message is and only should be considered my $0.02
Todd

I never said 24/7 staff ... may be funds for occasional weekend vist for problems
May be a fund drive for a bunch of drive replacement ?
Yes drives ware out
Maybe just a general slush fund for what ever pops up ?

The name of this thread Should have been "What do we tackle next"
my sarcasm escaped most

Until the staff sorts out the current new servers and What they have
we remain clueless. We need their input.
I just hope they do it sooner than later While "We the People" are in a mood to provide what is needed to get past these "Bad Times" and outages

---

Please - EVERYONE - have more tolerance for one another.

People have a right to criticize the project, and people have a right to defend the project. But please do not attack each other. If it continues I will be forced to lock the thread permanently.

Thank you Robert for a post I enjoyed reading and for making some valid points.

While we are not "owed" input from the powers that be, they might find it helpful in the long term to let us know what help we could give them other than "just send money". On a project that runs on nickels an dimes it doesn't pay to squander any potential assets.

Robert et al

Without sounding like a cheerleader. Matt has promised me a list of what is needed move the aging fleet of older machines ahead. In some cases small amounts of RAM can improve performance. In some cases drives that run 24/7 are aging and causing issues. The last problem being the "resync" for the WU storage. The time it takes is partly due to the RAID 10 they use for the best throughput and redundancy.

So as we look a the list of Servers, each machine may have an upgrade path that could include RAM, Processors, Drives to increase what they can do. Some are so dated that there is little that can be done. Matt had promised me a list for what he thought might be used to accomplish the new parts/parts swap between machines.

So at this point, if you want to start early marking the Donation for Hardware that is fine. If you want to consider what it would cost to put another Sysadmin in the office. The basic wage would start a 60K/year (plus the overhead for taxes etc. which every employer has to account for). Then the persons hours might be adjusted for one of the weekend days.

Please understand that Matt and Jeff are really more than someone with a computer science degree that handles servers. They are Project Scientists for which the Servers are a necessary evil.

If people like I can share a bit more technical information as to why (suspected reasons) that some of the things happen. Or you are considering building a machine that with the built in RAID where you can put 4 2Tb drives for 8 Tb RAID 0 or if the controller handles it 4 Tb with redundency RAID 10 (go this way please). We have quite a few Computer Experts that can help define what is the best way to go. It could be Fun...

Regards

---

Please consider a Donation to the Seti Project.

More than happy to help out - myself personally or as a group effort with my teammates - the GPU Users Group.

Todd

---

Robert et al

Without sounding like a cheerleader. Matt has promised me a list of what is needed move the aging fleet of older machines ahead. In some cases small amounts of RAM can improve performance. In some cases drives that run 24/7 are aging and causing issues. The last problem being the "resync" for the WU storage. The time it takes is partly due to the RAID 10 they use for the best throughput and redundancy.

I'm curious. How much of a problem is it to come up with an address to ship hardware to? Is it a problem of security? The university not being able to get their 15% of a memory stick? Just the inertia of a bureaucracy that's bothered with shipments not going through and being processed by the universities receiving room? What?

So as we look a the list of Servers, each machine may have an upgrade path that could include RAM, Processors, Drives to increase what they can do. Some are so dated that there is little that can be done.

This is where a ball park figure for a replacement server would help.

Matt had promised me a list for what he thought might be used to accomplish the new parts/parts swap between machines.

So at this point, if you want to start early marking the Donation for Hardware that is fine. If you want to consider what it would cost to put another Sysadmin in the office. The basic wage would start a 60K/year (plus the overhead for taxes etc. which every employer has to account for). Then the persons hours might be adjusted for one of the weekend days.

Please understand that Matt and Jeff are really more than someone with a computer science degree that handles servers. They are Project Scientists for which the Servers are a necessary evil.

If people like I can share a bit more technical information as to why (suspected reasons) that some of the things happen. Or you are considering building a machine that with the built in RAID where you can put 4 2Tb drives for 8 Tb RAID 0 or if the controller handles it 4 Tb with redundency RAID 10 (go this way please). We have quite a few Computer Experts that can help define what is the best way to go. It could be Fun...

Regards

Thank You Todd and the GPU Users Group

More than happy to help out - myself personally or as a group effort with my teammates - the GPU Users Group.

Todd

Al

---

Please consider a Donation to the Seti Project.

Bill et al

There was a time where the shipping address was more public, things showed up which were not suitable for Seti or other purposes. For now call it Security. Eric had asked me not to give it out, unless items were approved or he has been in contact with you.

If one was wanting to ship a Visa Gift card for say the amount of 2 cases of beer, I might be convinced to PM them the shipping address for the Fedex/UPS/Postal service envelope ;0... Yes, this would fall outside the 10% that UCB handles. Not sure if you would get a Green Star, you would have a few friends.

For the other hardware, a new server is not the thing to discuss right now. We are stuck on hold for a bit.

Regards

Al

Robert et al

Without sounding like a cheerleader. Matt has promised me a list of what is needed move the aging fleet of older machines ahead. In some cases small amounts of RAM can improve performance. In some cases drives that run 24/7 are aging and causing issues. The last problem being the "resync" for the WU storage. The time it takes is partly due to the RAID 10 they use for the best throughput and redundancy.

I'm curious. How much of a problem is it to come up with an address to ship hardware to? Is it a problem of security? The university not being able to get their 15% of a memory stick? Just the inertia of a bureaucracy that's bothered with shipments not going through and being processed by the universities receiving room? What?

So as we look a the list of Servers, each machine may have an upgrade path that could include RAM, Processors, Drives to increase what they can do. Some are so dated that there is little that can be done.

This is where a ball park figure for a replacement server would help.

Matt had promised me a list for what he thought might be used to accomplish the new parts/parts swap between machines.

So at this point, if you want to start early marking the Donation for Hardware that is fine. If you want to consider what it would cost to put another Sysadmin in the office. The basic wage would start a 60K/year (plus the overhead for taxes etc. which every employer has to account for). Then the persons hours might be adjusted for one of the weekend days.

Please understand that Matt and Jeff are really more than someone with a computer science degree that handles servers. They are Project Scientists for which the Servers are a necessary evil.

If people like I can share a bit more technical information as to why (suspected reasons) that some of the things happen. Or you are considering building a machine that with the built in RAID where you can put 4 2Tb drives for 8 Tb RAID 0 or if the controller handles it 4 Tb with redundency RAID 10 (go this way please). We have quite a few Computer Experts that can help define what is the best way to go. It could be Fun...

Regards

---

Please consider a Donation to the Seti Project.

More than happy to help out - myself personally or as a group effort with my teammates - the GPU Users Group.

Todd

Would you consent to collecting funds for any memory/drive up dates they may need
and just ship the goods to berkley ?

You already have the address and probably get better price
Would save the 15%

---

Bill et al

There was a time where the shipping address was more public, things showed up which were not suitable for Seti or other purposes. For now call it Security. Eric had asked me not to give it out, unless items were approved or he has been in contact with you.

Fair enough, I can think of other reasons to go under Security. These are not idyllic times. That does put a kink in drop shipping components from Newegg though. Perhaps something could be arranged with Newegg <or other vendors> that would obfuscate the address to the donor and still get components shipped to the S@H crew.

If one was wanting to ship a Visa Gift card for say the amount of 2 cases of beer, I might be convinced to PM them the shipping address for the Fedex/UPS/Postal service envelope ;0... Yes, this would fall outside the 10% that UCB handles. Not sure if you would get a Green Star, you would have a few friends.

Don't care about the green star but that's one way to do it. Another is an E-gift card sent to an email address that would be redeemable at participating restaurants. Of course we would have to know which participating restaurants would be acceptable to the S@H people and if they are local to the Berkeley area.

For the other hardware, a new server is not the thing to discuss right now. We are stuck on hold for a bit.

Understood. Hopefully I'll be here to assist with that. They've scheduled a barium milkshake for my lunch Friday and a bone marrow biopsy sometime later this month.

Regards

Al

Snip

If there is something I can do to help I have no problem with lending a hand.
Todd

More than happy to help out - myself personally or as a group effort with my teammates - the GPU Users Group.

Todd

Would you consent to collecting funds for any memory/drive up dates they may need
and just ship the goods to berkley ?

You already have the address and probably get better price
Would save the 15%

---

Fair enough, I can think of other reasons to go under Security. These are not idyllic times. That does put a kink in drop shipping components from Newegg though. Perhaps something could be arranged with Newegg <or other vendors> that would obfuscate the address to the donor and still get components shipped to the S@H crew.

Amazon does this with their wish list system.

---

SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

In the memory drive that was co-ordinated within the GPU Users Group I just submitted a blind drop ship to my vendor and it went out to the lab. It was effortless on my end - all I had to do was get the price from my vendor and IM my rep. They already have the address on file so it is very easy to get things to the lab.

Todd

---

Well how would it work out if 500 of the fine folks on here wanted to each buy 1 hot spare and send it to the lab.

---

[/quote]

Old James

I think it would be best to have someone step up to co-ordinate that effort that is in a good position to do so or have him/her selected by the SETI staff to lead such a undertaking. It should be done as diplomaticly as possible and I do know that there are people that have done this in the past.

Todd

---

Well how would it work out if 500 of the fine folks on here wanted to each buy 1 hot spare and send it to the lab.

I don't know. I find it hard to imagine 500 people reading these fora much less getting that number to want to donate a hard drive all at the same time.

How many individual donors aggregate donated anything to all the donation drives since September?

First.. I am not sure where the number 500 came from. I am sure that if they decide it is retire time for some disks, it may be a bunch. 500?

I kind of suggest we wait to hear from the lab what they need.. I am sure they know the natives are getting restless by now. The other question of course (can be determined by the actual numbers and additional info.. we will get it, but probably not quickly) we can figure out if they need a new storage device, or just drives. We can then take it from there. But right now I think the best thing we can do for the project is be patient and let them catch their breath.

---

Janice