Question on Project Reset

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Profile Cliff Harding
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Message 1408944 - Posted: 28 Aug 2013, 19:04:28 UTC

Since the recent problems that my i7/950 machine is still recovering from, it seems that all of my AP CPU tasks are in hi-pri mode. The question is, if I reset the project will the servers return the lost work units with the same deadlines or will it issue new deadlines?


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Profile William
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Message 1409233 - Posted: 29 Aug 2013, 8:24:36 UTC

What's wrong about them being in EDF?

It might time them out. You get new 'sent by' dates, but I don't think you get an extension of the deadline.
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Profile Cliff Harding
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Message 1409274 - Posted: 29 Aug 2013, 11:23:14 UTC - in response to Message 1409233.  

What's wrong about them being in EDF?

It might time them out. You get new 'sent by' dates, but I don't think you get an extension of the deadline.


There's nothing wrong with EDF perse, and it does happen from time to time, but I don't want the machine to be in EDF for the 1~1.5 month unless it's absolutely necessary. With the machine being down for several days the CPU tasks were extended by 2~2.5 hrs. each, from approx. 11~11.5 to 13~13.5 hrs. placing all CPU tasks in EDF. In EDF mode my GPUs are being starved, working at 50% ( 1 task ea.), because of CPU over allocation necessary to handle EDF. As far as the CPU tasks are concerned, in EDF mode with the extended times instead of 12~14 tasks being returned daily, it is not down to 6~7 depending on the percentage of cores allocated. Thus the whole machine has become less effective. I've also put the machine in NNT until EDF is no longer in effect.

The purpose of the question was to determine, if the deadline is extended because of the reset, then the machine can then return to nominal operations and possible timeouts are no longer a concern.


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Josef W. Segur
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Message 1409388 - Posted: 29 Aug 2013, 16:39:23 UTC

There is code in the resend logic which may extend the deadline, but it only applies to tasks already past half of the original deadline. IOW, your AP tasks with deadlines on Sept 8 and 9 might possibly get extended deadlines. But I've noticed cases where that didn't work as expected.

With 166 AP tasks in progress, however, ideally a project reset would result in 100 of those resent for GPU processing and the remainder to CPU. That would probably cure the EDF even if the deadlines were not extended. But to approach that ideal you'd need to reduce your cache settings to about half a day so the GPU requests would stop before hitting the 100 limit, the resend code is old and won't deliver CPU tasks until the GPU request has been fulfilled. With the shortened cache you'd get a mix, then you could gradually increase the cache settings until all the resends were complete.

If the downtime has left an <on_frac> and/or <active_frac> of much less than 1 in the <time_stats> section of the host's client_state.xml, I suggest shutting BOINC down and editing those values to 0.999 or so. They're used by both the client and servers to adjust estimates of total runtime.
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Richard Haselgrove Project Donor
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Message 1409406 - Posted: 29 Aug 2013, 16:59:46 UTC

Even with the new fast download link, it would be kinder on both the project and your ISP to backup the 8MB datafiles for the tasks you have at the moment, and replace them after the reset.
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Message 1409435 - Posted: 29 Aug 2013, 17:52:30 UTC

I once tried to get the deadline extended for an AP task. Didn't work, the server decided to expire the task.

Instead of resetting the project you could edit the deadlines in client_state.xml so that BOINC thinks it has more time to complete the tasks. It won't change the deadlines the server sees but I think your computer should be able to complete the work it currently has on board before deadline.

In client_state.xml there are lines like this:

<report_deadline>1379398369.000000</report_deadline>

Changing the first '3' to '4' makes the client think it has a few more months to complete the work.

(As always when changing client_state.xml, suspend network comms and make a backup copy first.)
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Profile Cliff Harding
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Message 1409530 - Posted: 29 Aug 2013, 21:38:47 UTC

The project reset worked with all CPU tasks that were in the EDF timeframe returned with a later deadline. I had 7 GPU tasks that immediately went into EDF, but with 2 x per GPU that won't last long with the last 3 running now. The earliest CPU deadline is now 21 Aug.


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Profile betreger Project Donor
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Message 1409550 - Posted: 29 Aug 2013, 22:35:25 UTC - in response to Message 1409530.  

The earliest CPU deadline is now 21 Aug.

How does that work, today is 29 Aug?
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Profile Cliff Harding
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Message 1409589 - Posted: 29 Aug 2013, 23:43:22 UTC - in response to Message 1409550.  

The earliest CPU deadline is now 21 Aug.

How does that work, today is 29 Aug?


Talk about typos, unfortunately there's no spell check for this, the deadline should have said 21 Sept.


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Message boards : Number crunching : Question on Project Reset


 
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