Is anyone else have trouble uploading and downloading from the server

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In the tech news, it said

July 12, 2005 - 19:30 UTC
Last night we had an extended lab-wide power outage to replace a (rather large) faulty breaker. This faulty breaker was part of the cause of two unexpected outages earlier this year. We've been told that during further examination three more potentially bad breakers were discovered. Not sure what this means exactly, except that we will eventually need another outage to fix all that. However, the nearby MSRI building (that stands for Math Sciences Research Institute, and is pronounced "misery") is wrapping up major renovation. So the lab has been planning some down-time anyway when our neighbors are added back to the grid. This may happen as soon as August.

On the way down last night, and on the way back up this morning, we reconfigured and tested our smart UPS system on the main BOINC data server (and BOINC web server). There was some weird behavior and confusion both times, but this was eventually sorted out, and now this system should safely shut down in the event of a power outage. Note that we had a work-around solution in place for months (that was also tested and proven to work), but it was not nearly as graceful as a smart UPS.

Their servers will be backed up for ~24 hours while they clear it up, also the result of everybody trying to connect at the same time.

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-Steve

Yes. I also have the same problem that I beleive occured due to the power outage. I've got four results sitting in the "Transfer" tab and the messages from the project server shows several failed attempts to upload the results back to the project. I don't know how to contact the folks at the project to let thme know. Any ideas?? Right now everything is at a stand still.

Carl Bishop
rcckq212@yahoo.co.jp
In Japan

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Carl Bishop

Any ideas?? Right now everything is at a stand still.

Just give it time. Their servers will eventually catch up.

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Here's an Installation Guide.
Try the Wiki for other questions.

I don't know how to contact the folks at the project to let thme know.

They'll sort out the servers in time, try a bigger work queue or joining some other BOINC projects for these times when the servers aren't happy.

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Life on earth is the global equivalent of not storing things in the fridge.

When I read about the planned outage, I set my queue to 'connect every 5 days which caused the client to draw down 7 work units (about 17.5 hours on my machine)The units were all processed well before the web pages were back up and two of them even uploaded theirselves. I am left with five obstinate ones that don't want to leave the nest. Meanwhile, other units are downloading, being processed and uploading (seemingly without problem)I know this doesnt answer your question but a quick skim through the threads seems to show that it is common at the moment. I hope that it will be resolved in a few days.

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Hi again. I'm very new to this but I can tell you that I have four results in the "tranfer" tab that can not seem to up-load. I've three more assignments working which I don't know if they can up_load after they are finished..???

I get "work" but, the work completed is not being UPLOADED and sen back to the Project.

I've run all my anti virus stuff (serveal differnt sources) and have found NO problems.

I don't know how to call or contact SETI tech assistance to explain this problem so I am stuck... Running assignment but not being able to have them uploaded and return to the project. Strange...

Anyone have a sugestion? Can anyone relay this problem to the SETI folks so I can get some HELP???

Carl Bishop (very new to this)
rcckq212@yahoo.co.jp
U.S. Guy woking and living in Japan

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Carl Bishop

Hi again. I'm very new to this but I can tell you that I have four results in the "tranfer" tab that can not seem to up-load. I've three more assignments working which I don't know if they can up_load after they are finished..???

I get "work" but, the work completed is not being UPLOADED and sen back to the Project.

I've run all my anti virus stuff (serveal differnt sources) and have found NO problems.

I don't know how to call or contact SETI tech assistance to explain this problem so I am stuck... Running assignment but not being able to have them uploaded and return to the project. Strange...

Anyone have a sugestion? Can anyone relay this problem to the SETI folks so I can get some HELP???

Carl,

Do you ever read the responses to your posts? Everyone is having problems right now. They are aware of the problem. Neither you or anyone else needs to call them.

Carl Bishop (very new to this)
rcckq212@yahoo.co.jp
U.S. Guy woking and living in Japan

Hi again. I'm very new to this but I can tell you that I have four results in the "tranfer" tab that can not seem to up-load. I've three more assignments working which I don't know if they can up_load after they are finished..???

I get "work" but, the work completed is not being UPLOADED and sen back to the Project.

I've run all my anti virus stuff (serveal differnt sources) and have found NO problems.

I don't know how to call or contact SETI tech assistance to explain this problem so I am stuck... Running assignment but not being able to have them uploaded and return to the project. Strange...

Anyone have a sugestion? Can anyone relay this problem to the SETI folks so I can get some HELP???

Carl Bishop (very new to this)
rcckq212@yahoo.co.jp
U.S. Guy woking and living in Japan

This is the help desk - staffed by volunteers.

It is quite common after an outage to have troubles uploading for up to 5 or 6 * the length of the outage. So, give it a few more days to sort out (most of my WUs that were completed during the outage finally went up today, I still have a couple hanging around on some of my machines).

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BOINC WIKI

I think we are all having some problems. My client is downloading units to process ok but the completed units are not uploading. Here's what I think the problem is.

The latest tech news is.

July 13, 2005 - 22:00 UTC
Around noon today the master science database server rebooted itself due to a fatal memory upset. This may have been caused by a kernel bug (as evidenced by certain signatures in the logs), and we are currently applying a patch that may prevent this from happening again. We already did some initial checking of the database and found that it survived the reboot, but once the machine is patched we have to do more robust checking of the tables before we can restart the splitters and the assimilator.
Since this is the science database most people won't notice the outage at first, as this only affects the creation of new workunits and the assimilation of signals into the science database. However, at the current burn rate we may run out of workunits before we get the server back on line.

As well, there is still a backlog of people trying to connect to our upload/download server, which has been buckling under the load since the outage earlier this week. This server is completely CPU bound, so we're looking into ways to lighten its load (perhaps splitting uploading and downloading to two separate machines, but we don't really have a good spare machine just yet).


If you read carefully you will notice that the problems are with the splitters and assimilator.

If you go to the status page and scroll to the bottom where the program descriptions are you will find :-

Sah_assimilator: Takes scientific data from validated results and puts them in the SETI@home master database for later analysis.

and

Sah_splitter: Reads tapes (or tape images on disk) containing raw telescope data and creates workunits for the BOINC/SETI@home clients. At least one needs to be running to produce work, and that's usually enough. If some are not running, it's probably because we are doing fine with less, and are keeping excess production down to prevent the upload/download disks from getting hit too hard.

Now scroll up to the program status column and you will see that the splitters are running normally (hence plenty of units to download), but the assimilator is currently disabled. Therefore I have to assume that the scheduler (which is running and does this(Scheduler: Determines what work is going to be sent to/received from requesting clients. If this is off, you cannot send any results or receive any workunits. )) is sending out units but not letting tham upload, because if it did then there would be a load of processed units sitting in the scheduler queue with nowhere to go. This would probably run the risk of the scheduler crashing and some work units could possibly be lost forever, or cause the nice chaps at berkerly a massive headache.

In short, sit tight dont worry, and watch the assimilator. Once it's back up and running the backlog should gradually disappear.

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I think we are all having some problems. My client is downloading units to process ok but the completed units are not uploading. Here's what I think the problem is.

The up- and download are different in that case, that the download is a simple HTTP download and the upload is done by a cgi program. This cgi program examine the incomming files and protect the upload. This needs more resources then the download.

There is work going on to find a solution, but with the restricted resources it is not so easy. So, at the moment there seems to be a time of upload problems after such a long outage.

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Greetings from Bremen/Germany
Jens Seidler (TheBigJens)

Thanks I appreciate your helping me understand this problem.
Carl Bishop

I think we are all having some problems. My client is downloading units to process ok but the completed units are not uploading. Here's what I think the problem is.

The latest tech news is.

July 13, 2005 - 22:00 UTC
Around noon today the master science database server rebooted itself due to a fatal memory upset. This may have been caused by a kernel bug (as evidenced by certain signatures in the logs), and we are currently applying a patch that may prevent this from happening again. We already did some initial checking of the database and found that it survived the reboot, but once the machine is patched we have to do more robust checking of the tables before we can restart the splitters and the assimilator.
Since this is the science database most people won't notice the outage at first, as this only affects the creation of new workunits and the assimilation of signals into the science database. However, at the current burn rate we may run out of workunits before we get the server back on line.

As well, there is still a backlog of people trying to connect to our upload/download server, which has been buckling under the load since the outage earlier this week. This server is completely CPU bound, so we're looking into ways to lighten its load (perhaps splitting uploading and downloading to two separate machines, but we don't really have a good spare machine just yet).


If you read carefully you will notice that the problems are with the splitters and assimilator.

If you go to the status page and scroll to the bottom where the program descriptions are you will find :-

Sah_assimilator: Takes scientific data from validated results and puts them in the SETI@home master database for later analysis.

and

Sah_splitter: Reads tapes (or tape images on disk) containing raw telescope data and creates workunits for the BOINC/SETI@home clients. At least one needs to be running to produce work, and that's usually enough. If some are not running, it's probably because we are doing fine with less, and are keeping excess production down to prevent the upload/download disks from getting hit too hard.

Now scroll up to the program status column and you will see that the splitters are running normally (hence plenty of units to download), but the assimilator is currently disabled. Therefore I have to assume that the scheduler (which is running and does this(Scheduler: Determines what work is going to be sent to/received from requesting clients. If this is off, you cannot send any results or receive any workunits. )) is sending out units but not letting tham upload, because if it did then there would be a load of processed units sitting in the scheduler queue with nowhere to go. This would probably run the risk of the scheduler crashing and some work units could possibly be lost forever, or cause the nice chaps at berkerly a massive headache.

In short, sit tight dont worry, and watch the assimilator. Once it's back up and running the backlog should gradually disappear.

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Carl Bishop

Thank you. I appreciate your helping me understand this problem better.
Carl Bishop

Hi again. I'm very new to this but I can tell you that I have four results in the "tranfer" tab that can not seem to up-load. I've three more assignments working which I don't know if they can up_load after they are finished..???

I get "work" but, the work completed is not being UPLOADED and sen back to the Project.

I've run all my anti virus stuff (serveal differnt sources) and have found NO problems.

I don't know how to call or contact SETI tech assistance to explain this problem so I am stuck... Running assignment but not being able to have them uploaded and return to the project. Strange...

Anyone have a sugestion? Can anyone relay this problem to the SETI folks so I can get some HELP???

Carl Bishop (very new to this)
rcckq212@yahoo.co.jp
U.S. Guy woking and living in Japan

This is the help desk - staffed by volunteers.

It is quite common after an outage to have troubles uploading for up to 5 or 6 * the length of the outage. So, give it a few more days to sort out (most of my WUs that were completed during the outage finally went up today, I still have a couple hanging around on some of my machines).

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Carl Bishop

Hi there,

I appreciate your comment. I think I understand better now and can relax and wait till the problems are cleared up and things catch-up and return to normal.

I read the responses when I return from work in the evening so there is a 10-12 hour period that I am not aware of the messages. I am very new to this project and how things operate so it was just my insecurity that got me concerned about the Up-load/down-load problems.

I appreciate your (and a couple of other folks) taking the time to provide simple and clear explainations of want is going on.

So, I've allowed new work and will let things crank!!!

Thanks Again.
Carl Bishop
Living & Working in Japan

Hi again. I'm very new to this but I can tell you that I have four results in the "tranfer" tab that can not seem to up-load. I've three more assignments working which I don't know if they can up_load after they are finished..???

I get "work" but, the work completed is not being UPLOADED and sen back to the Project.

I've run all my anti virus stuff (serveal differnt sources) and have found NO problems.

I don't know how to call or contact SETI tech assistance to explain this problem so I am stuck... Running assignment but not being able to have them uploaded and return to the project. Strange...

Anyone have a sugestion? Can anyone relay this problem to the SETI folks so I can get some HELP???

Carl,

Do you ever read the responses to your posts? Everyone is having problems right now. They are aware of the problem. Neither you or anyone else needs to call them.

Carl Bishop (very new to this)
rcckq212@yahoo.co.jp
U.S. Guy woking and living in Japan

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Carl Bishop

In short, sit tight dont worry, and watch the assimilator. Once it's back up and running the backlog should gradually disappear.

This still isn't making sense to me though...right now the status page says the assimilator is fine, and I've been able to upload most things, however there's this one file that's failed upload in excess of 60 times...and it's due Wednesday.

I have to wonder if there might be something wrong with that specific file for some reason, since everything else has uploaded fine--is there any way I can check that?

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In short, sit tight dont worry, and watch the assimilator. Once it's back up and running the backlog should gradually disappear.

This still isn't making sense to me though...right now the status page says the assimilator is fine, and I've been able to upload most things, however there's this one file that's failed upload in excess of 60 times...and it's due Wednesday.

I have to wonder if there might be something wrong with that specific file for some reason, since everything else has uploaded fine--is there any way I can check that?

I did think that once the assimilator was back on line, the backlog would disappear, however this is not the case. If you look through the posts you will see that you are not alone. All we can do is keep processing and hope the berkerly boys and girls can sort the problem out. as for credits, Ido like to see my improving position but meeting ET would be much more exciting!!!!

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