What is "an exclusive app?"

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Steven Gaber

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Message 1800607 - Posted: 4 Jul 2016, 8:41:19 UTC
Last modified: 4 Jul 2016, 8:45:12 UTC

A whole bunch of tasks had the following heading: GPU suspended - an exclusive app is running

What does that mean?

Only two S@H tasks were running, none of the other projects.

S.Gaber
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Grant (SSSF)
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Message 1800608 - Posted: 4 Jul 2016, 8:48:59 UTC - in response to Message 1800607.  

I'm guessing you've entered an application in the BOINC Manager's Options, Exclusive applications section.
That application is running, so BOINC has suspended crunching.
Grant
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Steven Gaber

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Message 1800772 - Posted: 4 Jul 2016, 20:54:11 UTC - in response to Message 1800608.  

I'm guessing you've entered an application in the BOINC Manager's Options, Exclusive applications section.
That application is running, so BOINC has suspended crunching.


Grant: Thanks for the response.

Ah, yes I see that Seti@Home Version 8 windows is running in exclusive applications. I was not aware that a change had been made. If I remove that from this option, I would not want the removal to affect my normal crunching operations or reset my S@H project. Would it do this?
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Message 1800868 - Posted: 5 Jul 2016, 4:27:21 UTC - in response to Message 1800772.  
Last modified: 5 Jul 2016, 4:28:50 UTC

There are 2 sections, "Suspend processor & network usage when these applications are running" and "Suspend GPU usage when these applications are running".

If Seti were in the first one I would expect it would start, then stop, then start, then stop & so on.
With it in the second one, Seti would crunch on the CPU, but not crunch anything on the GPU.

The only reason for having anything entries in there is if running Seti (or another BOINC project) causes a particular programme to perform poorly. By listing the programme in there, each time that programme runs, Seti (or the other BOINC project) would stop (or it would just stop crunching on the GPU for the second option). When you exit the programme, Seti would resume.
I'd remove whatever is in there & see how the system goes. You can always put it back if necessary.
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Message 1801418 - Posted: 8 Jul 2016, 1:19:03 UTC - in response to Message 1800607.  

A whole bunch of tasks had the following heading: GPU suspended - an exclusive app is running

What does that mean?

Only two S@H tasks were running, none of the other projects.

S.Gaber


An exclusive app is an application that You want to run as if there were no scientific applications running at all in the background.

I.e. if your game or a video or whatever application is experiencing any king of lag or stutter or having any kind of anomaly you can say it is an exclusive app and the Boinc system will give it a way to run without any Boinc app disturbing its execution. Kind of keeping the user experience at th highest definition level of any (and not including some of the major commercial) standards.

That is one of the mechanisms to keep peoples computers responsive and still productive.
To overcome Heisenbergs:
"You can't always get what you want / but if you try sometimes you just might find / you get what you need." -- Rolling Stones
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Steven Gaber

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Message 1801668 - Posted: 9 Jul 2016, 1:54:27 UTC - in response to Message 1800868.  

There are 2 sections, "Suspend processor & network usage when these applications are running" and "Suspend GPU usage when these applications are running".

If Seti were in the first one I would expect it would start, then stop, then start, then stop & so on.
With it in the second one, Seti would crunch on the CPU, but not crunch anything on the GPU.

The only reason for having anything entries in there is if running Seti (or another BOINC project) causes a particular programme to perform poorly. By listing the programme in there, each time that programme runs, Seti (or the other BOINC project) would stop (or it would just stop crunching on the GPU for the second option). When you exit the programme, Seti would resume.
I'd remove whatever is in there & see how the system goes. You can always put it back if necessary.


Thanks Grant and Petri for your explanations.

For some reason, the condition I described has gone away spontaneously and the BOINC tasks are running as usual.

The only thing I did that differed from my normal routine was to do some editing of a document in Word and DropBox for about 3 hours. Could BOINC have reverted to the exclusive app mode autonomously when the GPU or CPU were busy with that editing activity? I was not aware that I made any changes to the options.

At any rate, thanks again for sharing your knowledge of distributed computing and for taking the time to explain it to clueless guys me.

Steve G
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Message 1801684 - Posted: 9 Jul 2016, 3:08:56 UTC - in response to Message 1801668.  
Last modified: 9 Jul 2016, 3:09:55 UTC

Could BOINC have reverted to the exclusive app mode autonomously when the GPU or CPU were busy with that editing activity? I was not aware that I made any changes to the options.

I can't see how as you have to manually select the Exclusive Application section from the manager & then select the applications to put in there.

If you have "Suspend when computer is in use" or "Suspend GPU computing when computer in use" or "Suspend when non-BOINC CPU usage is above xx%" in your account settings I would expect different messages informing you of why computing has been suspended.
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Message 1801892 - Posted: 10 Jul 2016, 6:30:02 UTC - in response to Message 1801684.  
Last modified: 10 Jul 2016, 6:30:44 UTC

Could BOINC have reverted to the exclusive app mode autonomously when the GPU or CPU were busy with that editing activity? I was not aware that I made any changes to the options.

I can't see how as you have to manually select the Exclusive Application section from the manager & then select the applications to put in there.

If you have "Suspend when computer is in use" or "Suspend GPU computing when computer in use" or "Suspend when non-BOINC CPU usage is above xx%" in your account settings I would expect different messages informing you of why computing has been suspended.


Maybe I made a mistake while paging through option and preferences, then undid it, again by mistake?

Given my ineptitude with such things, that's not an unrealistic scenario.

I don't know. It's a mystery to me.

However it happened, by mistake or design, I'm glad everything is back to normal.

I'm also glad I discovered, merely by accident, that my stats were once again available to me, but this time on FreeDC, not on plain old BOINCStats as they were before.

Thanks again.
Steve G.
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Message 1801937 - Posted: 10 Jul 2016, 15:05:42 UTC - in response to Message 1801892.  
Last modified: 10 Jul 2016, 15:13:34 UTC

However it happened, by mistake or design, ...

This can't be "by design" as user have to manually add/remove the exclusive_app / exclusive_gpu_app
(by manually editing cc_config.xml or by BOINC Manager Menu - Options -> Exclusive applications (which automatically edits cc_config.xml))

Check your cc_config.xml for lines like this:
<exclusive_app>filename.exe</exclusive_app>
<exclusive_gpu_app>eurotrucks2.exe</exclusive_gpu_app>


Note:
exclusive_gpu_app is Not the SETI@home or other projects' GPU app
exclusive_gpu_app is meant to Stop GPU Computing by BOINC while some game or video player is running

 
 


- ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)
 
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Steven Gaber

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Message 1802155 - Posted: 11 Jul 2016, 23:23:46 UTC - in response to Message 1801937.  

However it happened, by mistake or design, ...

This can't be "by design" as user have to manually add/remove the exclusive_app / exclusive_gpu_app
(by manually editing cc_config.xml or by BOINC Manager Menu - Options -> Exclusive applications (which automatically edits cc_config.xml))

Check your cc_config.xml for lines like this:
<exclusive_app>filename.exe</exclusive_app>
<exclusive_gpu_app>eurotrucks2.exe</exclusive_gpu_app>


Note:
exclusive_gpu_app is Not the SETI@home or other projects' GPU app
exclusive_gpu_app is meant to Stop GPU Computing by BOINC while some game or video player is running

 

Thank you, Bilbg.

I will check my config.xml file for exclusive_app and exclusive.gpu entries.

But I don't think I have made any changes to the config files, at east not intentionally. I doubt I've ever even accessed the config file since setting up this computer, which is pretty much dedicated to crunching BOINC 24/7/365. The only games I play on it are occasional hand of Free Cell. Once in a while I do some technical editing on it either in Word or DropBox, but not often.

But I'll check it out.

Thanks.
Steve G.
Oldsmar, FL USA
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Message boards : Number crunching : What is "an exclusive app?"


 
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