SETI server backing off downloads problem
SETI server backing off downloads problem |
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Questions and Answers : Web site : SETI server backing off downloads problem
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I'm sure everyone has probably had the same problem at one point or another.. Boinc isn't doing any SETI work due to downloads stalling and the retry time being rather long. | |
ID: 1266059 ·  | |
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John McLeod VII Volunteer developer Volunteer tester  Send message Joined: 15 Jul 99 Posts: 22343 Credit: 437,061 RAC: 263  | |
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It depends on when you are trying to download. If it is soon after the end of the weekly outage, most downloads fail. If it is later in the week, most downloads succeed. | |
| ID: 1266282 · | |
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So that's a vote of no confidence in the idea of halving concurrent TCP attempts on the server then? XD | |
| ID: 1266434 · | |
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So what if you want to fill your cache for a 4 or 8 core CPU? What if you want to fill it extra for the 4 GPUs in your system? What if you do not have high-speed internet? What if you are still on pay-per-minute dial-up, just because you do not have any other choice in your part of the world? <cc_config> <options> <max_file_xfers>2</max_file_xfers> </options> </cc_config> The default of the above is 8, you can put it back to 2 or 1 if you want to. Me? I'll let BOINC figure it out. If it can't get work here, it'll retry and retry until it can. In the mean time, the downloads from Einstein will still come in. :) ____________ Jord - BOINC FAQ Service - BOINC User Wiki Real is just a matter of perception. | |
| ID: 1266451 · | |
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Those situations are irrelevant though mate, as if the server is overloaded you can have 20 connections for download and won't necessarily get anything to fill your cache. | |
| ID: 1266912 · | |
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ah actually SETI-specific limitation is needed obviously not BOINC global >.< | |
| ID: 1267006 · | |
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John McLeod VII Volunteer developer Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 15 Jul 99 Posts: 22343 Credit: 437,061 RAC: 263 | |
Those situations are irrelevant though mate, as if the server is overloaded you can have 20 connections for download and won't necessarily get anything to fill your cache. Yes. If every computer is asking for a connection at the same time, the server has to spend all its time telling almost everyone to go away and try again later. Better is to not have them all hit the server at the same time in the first place. ____________   BOINC WIKI | |
| ID: 1267310 · | |
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John McLeod VII Volunteer developer Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 15 Jul 99 Posts: 22343 Credit: 437,061 RAC: 263 | |
ah actually SETI-specific limitation is needed obviously not BOINC global >.< There is a server side setting for minimum backoff. This is set per project. If the project does not respond the client makes a decision on when to try next. If the connection goes through correctly, the client sets a very short backoff (one minute if I recall correctly). If things are going badly the backoffs approximately double until some cap is reached. It used to be 2 weeks, and has crept down slowly over the years. ____________ BOINC WIKI | |
| ID: 1267311 · | |
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I can appreciate that, but my point is that we can possibly avoid being told to back off by only serving one download per user at any given time and preferably having all clients only ask for one download at a time, to further reduce incoming waste. | |
| ID: 1267465 · | |
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John McLeod VII Volunteer developer Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 15 Jul 99 Posts: 22343 Credit: 437,061 RAC: 263 | |
I can appreciate that, but my point is that we can possibly avoid being told to back off by only serving one download per user at any given time and preferably having all clients only ask for one download at a time, to further reduce incoming waste. In bad times, that is still over a hundred thousand computers all hitting the servers at once. ____________ BOINC WIKI | |
| ID: 1267709 · | |
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Again, if all those computers are asking for 2+ connections each simultaneously, that is double, triple or god knows how many times more connections than actually need to be served for SETI users to get their WU's and results in less of those 100,000+ users getting a usable connection.. | |
| ID: 1268625 · | |
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Perhaps Andrzej simply means why does Boinc (or SETI@Home) try and download 8 WU's at at time and therefore have 8 waiting and backing off. | |
| ID: 1269975 · | |
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John McLeod VII Volunteer developer Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 15 Jul 99 Posts: 22343 Credit: 437,061 RAC: 263 | |
Perhaps Andrzej simply means why does Boinc (or SETI@Home) try and download 8 WU's at at time and therefore have 8 waiting and backing off. One at a time helps when the server is overloaded. A few at a time optimizes band width when it isn't. ____________ BOINC WIKI | |
| ID: 1270112 · | |
One at a time helps when the server is overloaded. A few at a time optimizes band width when it isn't. Totally agree, however isn't the server overloaded most of the time and isn't that the point? After being on holiday I have just restarted 2 of my crunchers, one is currently trying to download 22 Wu's all at different % of progress. Why doesn't ONE complete BEFORE moving on to the next 21. There are another 11 that have not started, why, what is the magic formula that says how many can be downloaded at once. ____________  | |
| ID: 1270137 · | |
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John McLeod VII Volunteer developer Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 15 Jul 99 Posts: 22343 Credit: 437,061 RAC: 263 | |
One at a time helps when the server is overloaded. A few at a time optimizes band width when it isn't. BOINC != SETI@Home. Most of the projects do not have this problem. ____________ BOINC WIKI | |
| ID: 1270193 · | |
One at a time helps when the server is overloaded. A few at a time optimizes band width when it isn't. So are you saying that it is Boinc that works that way and ignores the project that made Boinc possible? Is there no way to make Boinc download one task at a time, then move onto the next? Not sure what the B in Boinc stands for then Seems shortsighted. ____________ | |
| ID: 1270209 · | |
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John McLeod VII Volunteer developer Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 15 Jul 99 Posts: 22343 Credit: 437,061 RAC: 263 | |
One at a time helps when the server is overloaded. A few at a time optimizes band width when it isn't. David Anderson has indicated an unwillingness to put project specific code into the client. If there is a general fix it might make the cut. ____________ BOINC WIKI | |
| ID: 1270237 · | |
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Thanks for the insight! I can understand the point of view that BOINC does nothing project-specific, so asking for it to limit SETI downloads to one at a time is unreasonable. It would be a major change to BOINC, made especially for SETI (or any other projects with the same backing off problems though I'm not involved with / haven't seen any).. hmmm.. | |
| ID: 1270322 · | |
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John McLeod VII Volunteer developer Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 15 Jul 99 Posts: 22343 Credit: 437,061 RAC: 263 | |
Thanks for the insight! I can understand the point of view that BOINC does nothing project-specific, so asking for it to limit SETI downloads to one at a time is unreasonable. It would be a major change to BOINC, made especially for SETI (or any other projects with the same backing off problems though I'm not involved with / haven't seen any).. hmmm.. The setting is global. ____________ BOINC WIKI | |
| ID: 1270532 · | |
Maybe we could convince him to make the max_file_xfers config setting apply per-server and not globally? or is it already...? Mine is set to: <max_file_xfers>20</max_file_xfers> <max_file_xfers_per_project>10</max_file_xfers_per_project> ... so not everybody wants "one at a time", most people will be angry if some new BOINC version decides to limit them to "one at a time" ____________   - ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :) | |
| ID: 1270678 · | |
Questions and Answers : Web site : SETI server backing off downloads problem
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