It's Raining Again (Feb 17 2011)

Message boards : Technical News : It's Raining Again (Feb 17 2011)

Author	Message
Matt Lebofsky Volunteer moderator Project administrator Project developer Project scientist Send message Joined: 1 Mar 99 Posts: 1375 Credit: 74,079 RAC: 0	Message 1078481 - Posted: 17 Feb 2011, 21:34:34 UTC
	It's raining pretty hard all week, especially today. This is never good for the air conditioning (it's more efficient on dryer days). Strangely the beeper went off while Jeff and I were here in the lab - and the only reason it goes off is if computers in the closet are well beyond some high temperature threshold. Well, actually there's another reason it would go off: somebody misdialing and calling the beeper number. Turns out the latter was the case. Ha! Still, temperatures are slightly higher today in the closet. Keeping an eye on that. Projects continue along, like the decommissioning of ptolemy. This was a multi-purpose, heavily used internal file server, so I've been lost in a lot of rsync'ing, cleaning up stale symbolic links and hard paths in scripts/crontabs, etc. However annoying it's a good opportunity to do some filesystem spring cleaning. However thorough I'm being I'm still bracing for unexpected things to break when we cut over (next week some time?). Speaking of next week, Monday is a holiday (President's Day) so don't expect much activity from us. However, by Tuesday's normal weekly outage we hope to have all the workunits copied back to gowron from thumper so we can revert to our original state and regain a little more normalcy. We did shut down the assimilators/splitters for a while today to do some database read/cache settings during quiet states to remove all variables and confirm our understanding how informix is caching results/indexes/etc. The good news is we seem to understand the plumbing. The bad news is we still aren't where we want to be i/o-wise. Still working on it. - Matt ____________ -- BOINC/SETI@home network/web/science/development person -- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude
	ID: 1078481 ·

msattler Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 9 Jul 00 Posts: 34154 Credit: 344,591,060 RAC: 545,205	Message 1078484 - Posted: 17 Feb 2011, 21:38:16 UTC
	Although is does seem rather tedious work, glad to hear that you are still podding away at it. Hope you don't run into any major snags for a while. And thanks once again for keeping us informed, Matt. ____________ ****** "Ask not, what your kitty can do for you. Ask what you can do for your kitty." As it is kitten, so shall it be done.
	ID: 1078484 ·

Jeff Mercer Send message Joined: 14 Aug 08 Posts: 89 Credit: 60,291 RAC: 0	Message 1078529 - Posted: 17 Feb 2011, 22:43:47 UTC
	Thanks for the news and your hard work Matt. I'm crunching again and so far, no problems at all.
	ID: 1078529 ·

Claggy Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 5 Jul 99 Posts: 3365 Credit: 25,951,744 RAC: 1,177	Message 1078538 - Posted: 17 Feb 2011, 22:57:57 UTC - in response to Message 1078481.
	Thanks for the update Matt, Claggy ____________
	ID: 1078538 ·

Gary Charpentier Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 25 Dec 00 Posts: 10324 Credit: 5,093,098 RAC: 6,237	Message 1078559 - Posted: 17 Feb 2011, 23:54:54 UTC
	Thanks for the update and tell Eric how to fix the Beta status page. :) Gary ____________
	ID: 1078559 ·

Claggy Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 5 Jul 99 Posts: 3365 Credit: 25,951,744 RAC: 1,177	Message 1078571 - Posted: 18 Feb 2011, 0:15:17 UTC - in response to Message 1078559. Last modified: 18 Feb 2011, 0:15:32 UTC
	Thanks for the update and tell Eric how to fix the Beta status page. :) Gary +1 :) Claggy
	ID: 1078571 ·

dpatter3 Send message Joined: 3 Sep 03 Posts: 7 Credit: 6,359,385 RAC: 11,320	Message 1078578 - Posted: 18 Feb 2011, 0:38:02 UTC
	So Matt, Is there anything you guys can't fix? I keep reading about all the issues you have and never have I seen any of you just give up and quit trying to fix the issues. Good job in keeping everything running. ____________
	ID: 1078578 ·

Jeff Mercer Send message Joined: 14 Aug 08 Posts: 89 Credit: 60,291 RAC: 0	Message 1078627 - Posted: 18 Feb 2011, 3:15:06 UTC - in response to Message 1078578.
	So Matt, Is there anything you guys can't fix? I keep reading about all the issues you have and never have I seen any of you just give up and quit trying to fix the issues. Good job in keeping everything running. HOW TRUE ! I wish that I had just HALF of those guy's brains !
	ID: 1078627 ·

Wolverine Send message Joined: 9 Jan 00 Posts: 34 Credit: 6,113,164 RAC: 4,355	Message 1078660 - Posted: 18 Feb 2011, 5:22:24 UTC
	Always good to get an update (Thanks Matt). If you are having temperature troubles in the server room when it rains outside, have you guys looked at getting a dehumidifier. Let me explain: Air Conditioners cool the air by removing the moisture from it. Thus, on rainy days there is more in the air (hence A/C cannot remove moisture fast enough to cool properly). My thought here is to get a dehumidifier and run it when it rains out. This will greatly help the A/C work alot more effectivly. Depending on the size of the room and how quickly you want the excess moisture removed, depends on the price of a dehumidifier. There are some nice units available that are on wheels and can be rolled into a storage closet out of the way when not in use (about the size of a large suitcase). Just a thought! -W ____________
	ID: 1078660 ·

Douglas Davidson Send message Joined: 26 Sep 05 Posts: 2 Credit: 470,932 RAC: 1,135	Message 1078667 - Posted: 18 Feb 2011, 6:05:15 UTC Last modified: 18 Feb 2011, 6:06:26 UTC
	Thanks for all the work you'll are doing! Keep your stick om the ice, we all pulling together! ____________
	ID: 1078667 ·

Tom95134 Send message Joined: 27 Nov 01 Posts: 205 Credit: 2,704,952 RAC: 2,387	Message 1078707 - Posted: 18 Feb 2011, 9:21:28 UTC - in response to Message 1078481.
	It's raining pretty hard all week, especially today. <snip> - Matt The California Tourist Bureau is going to be mad at you for telling people it rains out here. ____________
	ID: 1078707 ·

Andy Lee Robinson Send message Joined: 8 Dec 05 Posts: 615 Credit: 36,751,680 RAC: 2,211	Message 1078715 - Posted: 18 Feb 2011, 9:49:25 UTC - in response to Message 1078660.
	Air Conditioners cool the air by removing the moisture from it. Thus, on rainy days there is more in the air (hence A/C cannot remove moisture fast enough to cool properly). err.. air conditioners work by removing heat from the air. Moist air has a higher specific heat capacity, thus requires more energy. Dehumidification is a byproduct as the cooled air can't hold as much water vapour and it condenses out. This releases latent heat which also requires energy to remove. Getting a dehumidifier is almost the same as adding more air conditioning, unless you use a few buckets of silica gel. If it's raining outside, the temperature outside is usually lower and should therefore make the a/c more efficient as the refrigerent can give up its heat more effectively as it condenses back to its liquid phase. I'm not sure that the difference in efficiency amounts to more than a couple of percent.
	ID: 1078715 ·

RottenMutt Send message Joined: 15 Mar 01 Posts: 929 Credit: 182,506,816 RAC: 197,015	Message 1079438 - Posted: 19 Feb 2011, 16:29:54 UTC - in response to Message 1078715.
	the air in the 'closet' should be dry with the AC constantly running, as long as they keep the door shut. if you duct the hot air from behind the racks to the AC return duct you will dramatically improve efficiency! it is easier to remove heat from hot air. ____________
	ID: 1079438 ·

Helli Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 15 Dec 99 Posts: 692 Credit: 66,776,470 RAC: 2,195	Message 1079440 - Posted: 19 Feb 2011, 16:37:11 UTC - in response to Message 1078481.
	It's raining pretty hard all week.... I wished you mean Workunits.... ;-) Helli ____________
	ID: 1079440 ·

Andy Lee Robinson Send message Joined: 8 Dec 05 Posts: 615 Credit: 36,751,680 RAC: 2,211	Message 1080208 - Posted: 22 Feb 2011, 0:09:02 UTC - in response to Message 1079438.
	the air in the 'closet' should be dry with the AC constantly running, as long as they keep the door shut. if you duct the hot air from behind the racks to the AC return duct you will dramatically improve efficiency! it is easier to remove heat from hot air. If the room is sealed then humidity won't be a problem, but it would be far better to unload and bypass the AC and duct the air straight outside, or to where it may be useful elsewhere on campus, for example helping to heat a swimming pool or go into a heat sink that can be drawn upon in winter. Continuous 10kW+ plus AC costs is not a small amount of energy to just throw away.
	ID: 1080208 ·

Jeff Mercer Send message Joined: 14 Aug 08 Posts: 89 Credit: 60,291 RAC: 0	Message 1080241 - Posted: 22 Feb 2011, 2:32:44 UTC
	Hi Matt. Just wanted to tell you that everything is running GREAT ! I'm having no problems getting work, and no problems sending the completed work back to the project. GOOD WORK on fixing all the problems, and THANK YOU !! As to the air conditioning problems, just pipe the heat into my house ! I'm geting one HECK of a snow storm at the moment, and a little extra heat would be nice !!
	ID: 1080241 ·

Helli Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 15 Dec 99 Posts: 692 Credit: 66,776,470 RAC: 2,195	Message 1080318 - Posted: 22 Feb 2011, 11:49:21 UTC - in response to Message 1080241.
	Hi Matt. Just wanted to tell you that everything is running GREAT ! I'm having no problems getting work, and no problems sending the completed work back to the project. ... Yupp, if i were you and needed only 3 Workunits a Day i also were satisfied. :D Helli ____________
	ID: 1080318 ·

RottenMutt Send message Joined: 15 Mar 01 Posts: 929 Credit: 182,506,816 RAC: 197,015	Message 1080375 - Posted: 22 Feb 2011, 15:50:04 UTC
	w00t! we made it thru the weekend, good job. ____________
	ID: 1080375 ·

-BeNt- Send message Joined: 17 Oct 99 Posts: 1234 Credit: 10,116,112 RAC: 0	Message 1081585 - Posted: 26 Feb 2011, 8:27:23 UTC
	Wait wait wait......you made a post that doesn't contain "failure" and people getting worried.....something is wrong in the lab, quick dial the beeper number I think someone needs to check on Matt! STAT! (I'm glad you can post 'mundane' news for a change) ____________ Traveling through space at ~67,000mph!
	ID: 1081585 ·

Message boards : Technical News : It's Raining Again (Feb 17 2011)