Not getting new work: "project is not highest priority"

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Profile Dirk Broer
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Message 1315339 - Posted: 15 Dec 2012, 0:38:28 UTC

When I update the project, having set Seti as only GPU project, I get this:

15-12-2012 01:25:18 | SETI@home | update requested by user
15-12-2012 01:25:19 | SETI@home | Sending scheduler request: Requested by user.
15-12-2012 01:25:19 | SETI@home | Not requesting tasks: project is not highest priority

Seti is set at 100%, other projects have 20% resources.
So I have nVidia and Ati/AMD systems waiting for hours on WU that never come.

Who invented the "project is not highest priority" parameters?
And can he/she recall them or set them a bit more lenient?
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Message 1315486 - Posted: 15 Dec 2012, 8:58:00 UTC

If your main project has a very high priority (say 1000), an SETI@Home has a very low priority then you may get such messages if BOINC thinks you have a fair balance of credit between the two. If you look on the resource share tab on the BOINC manager you will see a column "resource share", what are the figures against each of your projects?
The solution is to either increase the share (priority) given to S@H or reduce the share given to your main project. As far as I am aware this has to be done via the website, although some of the BOINC project managers might do it for you.
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Message 1315493 - Posted: 15 Dec 2012, 9:21:50 UTC - in response to Message 1315486.  

The solution is...

...to live with it. I see that regularly while I run Einstein on GPU only and Seti on CPU only, both using 800 resource share. There's one other CPU project with a zero resource share for when Seti has its monthly problems again. ;-)

But even when both Einstein and Seti work perfectly fine, I see my BOINC wait to go fetch work from Einstein first as that's the highest priority project, and BOINC giving Seti the finger, telling it it's not the highest priority project.

After Einstein has had a (BOINC induced) scheduler request, that fixes itself.

Increasing RS on Seti doesn't help. Eventually there comes a time that Seti isn't the highest priority and that it has to wait for the other (non-zero RS) projects to have had their scheduler requests, work requests etc.
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Message 1315508 - Posted: 15 Dec 2012, 10:07:57 UTC - in response to Message 1315486.  

If your main project has a very high priority (say 1000), an SETI@Home has a very low priority then you may get such messages if BOINC thinks you have a fair balance of credit between the two. If you look on the resource share tab on the BOINC manager you will see a column "resource share", what are the figures against each of your projects?
The solution is to either increase the share (priority) given to S@H or reduce the share given to your main project. As far as I am aware this has to be done via the website, although some of the BOINC project managers might do it for you.


You did not read my message. I stated clearly that Seti has the highest priority (100%), is the only GPU project running and that other projects have a resource of 20%. Why do I get the silly message "project is not highest priority" when it IS the highest priority?
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Message 1315512 - Posted: 15 Dec 2012, 10:16:14 UTC - in response to Message 1315493.  

Increasing RS on Seti doesn't help. Eventually there comes a time that Seti isn't the highest priority and that it has to wait for the other (non-zero RS) projects to have had their scheduler requests, work requests etc.


So essentially the only solution is to suspend/disable all other work in the hope that the scheduler might start to think that seti needs more work -if the scheduler does not see the suspended work as work that needs te be done first. How quick does the scheduler respond to this in terms of hours? In my experience the artificial intelligence of the scheduler needs to be either lowered or raised significantly in order to be able to live with it.
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Message 1315517 - Posted: 15 Dec 2012, 10:23:22 UTC - in response to Message 1315508.  

If your main project has a very high priority (say 1000), an SETI@Home has a very low priority then you may get such messages if BOINC thinks you have a fair balance of credit between the two. If you look on the resource share tab on the BOINC manager you will see a column "resource share", what are the figures against each of your projects?
The solution is to either increase the share (priority) given to S@H or reduce the share given to your main project. As far as I am aware this has to be done via the website, although some of the BOINC project managers might do it for you.

You did not read my message. I stated clearly that Seti has the highest priority (100%), is the only GPU project running and that other projects have a resource of 20%. Why do I get the silly message "project is not highest priority" when it IS the highest priority?

Resource Share != priority.
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Message 1315625 - Posted: 15 Dec 2012, 17:16:21 UTC - in response to Message 1315517.  
Last modified: 15 Dec 2012, 17:17:39 UTC

Resource Share != priority.


When there is only one GPU project active on my PC, it should not matter how high the resource share is. 100% boils down to 9.88%, as I have some 30 projects running on a given PC, but not all active at the same time. And I just want work for the GPU, where Seti at the moment has the only active resource share (others 1.98%, and set to both suspend & no work anymore).
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Message 1315667 - Posted: 15 Dec 2012, 18:31:47 UTC - in response to Message 1315512.  
Last modified: 15 Dec 2012, 18:33:08 UTC

So essentially the only solution is to suspend/disable all other work

No, the only solution is for the user to stop fiddling with the software, to try to decide for the software what it should do, instead of letting the software decide. Will you sit 24/7 at the monitor, monitoring what BOINC does?

So just let it go. Normally within the day Seti will be highest priority in fetching work again, and always at least before your complete cache ran out. You just need to have the patience.

By the way, resource share is just a value. All resource share values added up together is 100%. An RS value can be anything between 0 (zero) and 75 trillion (my guestimate). You want to call that percentages?
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Message 1315676 - Posted: 15 Dec 2012, 18:55:07 UTC - in response to Message 1315508.  
Last modified: 15 Dec 2012, 18:56:41 UTC

So what Boinc version is this on? with your computers hidden you're not helping yourself

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Message 1316000 - Posted: 16 Dec 2012, 13:40:41 UTC - in response to Message 1315676.  

Boinc 7.10.28 and 7.10.31 using Win7 and Win8 64bit. The solution appears to disable all other projects, even the CPU-only projects, in order to get Seti GPU work.
The 'priority', as spoken off in the log, appears to be the internal priority of the BOINC scheduler, and not the percentage of resources you set yourself.
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Message 1316007 - Posted: 16 Dec 2012, 13:47:38 UTC - in response to Message 1315667.  
Last modified: 16 Dec 2012, 13:48:03 UTC

Normally within the day Seti will be highest priority in fetching work again, and always at least before your complete cache ran out. You just need to have the patience.


My point is that I had PC's waiting hours for a GPU WU and not getting any, while Seti is set to be the only GPU project running on that PC. I just do not have that much patience.

By the way, resource share is just a value. All resource share values added up together is 100%. An RS value can be anything between 0 (zero) and 75 trillion (my guestimate). You want to call that percentages?


You say yourself "All resource share values added up together is 100%", so why not call that percentages when they add up to one?
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Message 1316014 - Posted: 16 Dec 2012, 14:02:46 UTC

The main problem is that BOINC was designed in the era when 99% of pc's only had one CPU, i.e. before P4 HT's, and no gpu processing.

Even then if you had more than one cpu, like a dual P3 and worked out that it more efficient doing one Seti task with one Einstein task rather that two of same project. BOINC was a pig to set up and run 24/7 without human intervention.

Unfortunately BOINC although it has had many modifications, it has not had a major re-write. There is not a BOINC2 and there doesn't look like there is going to be one.
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Message 1316015 - Posted: 16 Dec 2012, 14:04:13 UTC - in response to Message 1316000.  

Boinc 7.10.28 and 7.10.31 using Win7 and Win8 64bit. The solution appears to disable all other projects, even the CPU-only projects, in order to get Seti GPU work.
The 'priority', as spoken off in the log, appears to be the internal priority of the BOINC scheduler, and not the percentage of resources you set yourself.

There is a fix in Boinc 7.0.40, but it's not been proved to work yet:

client: fix bug where, when updating a project, we fail to request work even though higher-priority projects are marked as no-new-tasks or are otherwise ineligible for work fetch.


Claggy
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Message 1316024 - Posted: 16 Dec 2012, 14:36:59 UTC - in response to Message 1316015.  

Boinc 7.10.28 and 7.10.31 using Win7 and Win8 64bit. The solution appears to disable all other projects, even the CPU-only projects, in order to get Seti GPU work.
The 'priority', as spoken off in the log, appears to be the internal priority of the BOINC scheduler, and not the percentage of resources you set yourself.

There is a fix in Boinc 7.0.40, but it's not been proved to work yet:

client: fix bug where, when updating a project, we fail to request work even though higher-priority projects are marked as no-new-tasks or are otherwise ineligible for work fetch.

Claggy

It's been proved not to work.
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Message boards : Number crunching : Not getting new work: "project is not highest priority"


 
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