Drive (Aug 11 2011)

Okay, we didn't fix the HE connections problem, but are getting closer to understanding what's going on. Basically our router down at the PAIX keeps getting a corrupted routing table. We reboot it, which flushes the pipes, but this only "evolves" the issue: people who couldn't connect before now can, but people who could connect before now cannot, or people don't see any change in behavior. This is likely due to a mixture of: (a) low memory on this old router, (b) our ridiculously high, constant rate of traffic, and perhaps also (c) a broken default route.

We're looking into (c) at the moment, and solving (a) may be far too painful (we don't have easy access to this router, which is a donated box mounted in donated rack space 30 miles away). So I've been arguing that we need to deal with (b) first, i.e. reduce our rate of traffic.

Part of reducing our traffic means breaking open our splitter code. Basically, one of the seven beams down at Arecibo has been busted for a while, thus causing a much-higher-than-normal rate of noisy workunits. We've come up with a way to detect busted beam automatically in the splitter (so it won't bother creating workunits for said beam) but this means cracking open the splitter. This is a delicate procedure, as you can really screw things up if the splitter is broken - and usually needs oversight from Eric who is the only one qualified to bless any changes to it. Of course, Eric has been busy with a zillion other things, so this kept getting kicked down the street. But at this point we all feel this needs to happen, which should reduce general traffic loads, and maybe clear up other problems - like our seemingly overworked router facing HE unable to handle the load.

Of course, it doesn't help we're all bogged down in a wave of grant proposals and conferences, and I'm having to write a bunch of notes as part of a major brain dump since I'm leaving for two months (starting two weeks from now). I'll be on the road (all over the Eastern North America in September, all over Europe in October) playing keyboards/guitar with the band Secret Chiefs 3. It's been a crazy month thus far getting ready for that.

- Matt

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-- BOINC/SETI@home network/web/science/development person
-- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude

Thanks for the update Matt,

Another idea is to penalise hosts more heavily that are producing invalid work on an app version, Hosts with Fermi GPU's running non-Fermi apps springs to mind,

Claggy

Thanks for the update Matt, and thanks to the SETI@home crew for all your long hours of hard work ... Best Wishes Byron.

Thanks for the update Matt.

Maybe we should start a drive to fund a new replacement router.
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Thanks for the update Matt.

Maybe we should start a drive to fund a new replacement router.

Thanks for the update.

While cleaning up the work units is important, that is at best a temporary patch.

You said donated rack space and router. Are you saying if the donated router was replaced the rack space donation would go away? Or is the rack space such that no other box will fit? Just trying to get the political angle if any sorted.

Another question that comes to mind is the box on the latest version of software from the manufacturer? Perhaps an update for this has been issued and it needs to be flashed.

[edit]Isn't that box a gig router? Shouldn't it be able to handle 10X the traffic (routing table) it is now getting? RAM failure?
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I'll be on the road (all over the Eastern North America in September, all over Europe in October) playing keyboards/guitar with the band Secret Chiefs 3. It's been a crazy month thus far getting ready for that.

I'll be on the road (all over the Eastern North America in September, all over Europe in October) playing keyboards/guitar with the band Secret Chiefs 3. It's been a crazy month thus far getting ready for that.

Matt, Thanks for all you've been doing to keep S@H running.

Europe in October - must keep my eyes open and try to get my ears filled.
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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Thanks for the update Matt,

Another idea is to penalise hosts more heavily that are producing invalid work on an app version, Hosts with Fermi GPU's running non-Fermi apps springs to mind,

Claggy

I have been crunching with SETI@home on and off for a while now. Whenever there was major issues that brought the project down, these guys (Matt et. al.) always pulled through to get the project up and running again, whether it be sooner or later. I have faith that they will pull through this problem as well.

It's a shame there are not more donations both financially and in terms of hardware. So sad to see a good program go underfunded. If I ever run into a lot of money, you can bet I would make a large donation to the project.
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"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible". Hebrews 11.3