Crazy weekend. On Friday we were having problems with our download file server which ultimately a reboot fixed. That sort of thing hasn't happened in a while. We'll keep a close eye on it.

But then later on the BOINC database started thrashing. Simple queries were taking way too long, and other queries were traffic jammed behind those, etc. Several things were tried remotely, including a "reorg" (i.e. compression) of the result/workunit tables to no avail.

It wasn't until this morning when me, Jeff, Eric and Bob met and discussed the game plan. Basically, during database issues in the recent past certain MySQL configuration changes were made. We reverted some of these changes today as well as compressed/backed up the entire database and that seemed to help. We're still catching up as I type this missive.

Meanwhile among other things recently donated by Sun Microsystems we got a "parts machine" which we could cannibalize to help upgrade jocelyn (our replica database server). The hope is that jocelyn will become so powerful as to make it worth being the master database again. We plugged in a daughter board adding two CPUs but only then discovered the CPUs were different speeds than the original so it wouldn't boot. Fair enough. We took the daughter board out, and now jocelyn doesn't want to see the network anymore. Jeff and I are messing around with that now. The project doesn't need the replica to run, but it's better to have it, and we're once again finding ourselves frustrated with a random and pointless problem. Guess I won't be working on the splitter today.

- Matt

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-- BOINC/SETI@home network/web/science/development person
-- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude

Thanks for the update Matt.

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Getting the following when requesting work:

6/11/2007 6:29:41 PM|SETI@home|Sending scheduler request: To fetch work
6/11/2007 6:29:41 PM|SETI@home|Requesting 516364 seconds of new work
6/11/2007 6:29:46 PM|SETI@home|Scheduler RPC succeeded [server version 509]
6/11/2007 6:29:46 PM|SETI@home|Deferring communication for 11 sec
6/11/2007 6:29:46 PM|SETI@home|Reason: requested by project
6/11/2007 6:29:46 PM|SETI@home|Deferring communication for 1 min 0 sec
6/11/2007 6:29:46 PM|SETI@home|Reason: no work from project

Time is PDT...

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.

Hello, from Albany, CA!...

We took the daughter board out, and now jocelyn doesn't want to see the network anymore. Jeff and I are messing around with that now. The project doesn't need the replica to run, but it's better to have it, and we're once again finding ourselves frustrated with a random and pointless problem. Guess I won't be working on the splitter today.....

Dude, that could be a message pict up by SETI from either several million light years back.... or front !

More power to you super dedicated and supperer smart nerdy geeks !

PS: This all should be understood as a compliment !

May the powers of the Universe be with you always.....

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I don't know what you guys did but it worked!!! Just managed to upload a couple and finished downloading a bunch I had stuck in transfers. THANKS!!!!

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PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

I don't know what you guys did but it worked!!! Just managed to upload a couple and finished downloading a bunch I had stuck in transfers. THANKS!!!!

I believe they just used a bigger hammer.

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For some reason I can upload and receive downloads, But I can't report so far lately, Earlier I could report of course.

6/11/2007 8:44:47 PM|SETI@home|Sending scheduler request: Requested by user
6/11/2007 8:44:47 PM|SETI@home|Requesting 1456516 seconds of new work, and reporting 3 completed tasks
6/11/2007 8:46:14 PM|SETI@home|Scheduler request failed: HTTP internal server error
6/11/2007 8:46:14 PM|SETI@home|Deferring communication 1 hr 38 min 43 sec, because scheduler request failed

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

I finally did get some work this evening for one fast machine that was out of work since yesterday but I am still having many many problems getting more work for my other machines.Here's a little snippet of some of my latest attempts for work:

6/11/2007 11:11:22 PM|SETI@home|Sending scheduler request: To fetch work
6/11/2007 11:11:22 PM|SETI@home|Requesting 1256065 seconds of new work
6/11/2007 11:11:42 PM|SETI@home|Scheduler RPC succeeded [server version 509]
6/11/2007 11:11:42 PM|SETI@home|Deferring communication for 11 sec
6/11/2007 11:11:42 PM|SETI@home|Reason: requested by project
6/11/2007 11:11:42 PM|SETI@home|Deferring communication for 1 min 0 sec
6/11/2007 11:11:42 PM|SETI@home|Reason: no work from project
6/11/2007 11:12:42 PM|SETI@home|Fetching scheduler list
6/11/2007 11:12:47 PM|SETI@home|Master file download succeeded
6/11/2007 11:12:52 PM|SETI@home|Sending scheduler request: To fetch work
6/11/2007 11:12:52 PM|SETI@home|Requesting 1256845 seconds of new work
6/11/2007 11:13:22 PM|SETI@home|Scheduler RPC succeeded [server version 509]
6/11/2007 11:13:22 PM|SETI@home|Deferring communication for 11 sec
6/11/2007 11:13:22 PM|SETI@home|Reason: requested by project
6/11/2007 11:13:22 PM|SETI@home|Deferring communication for 1 min 0 sec
6/11/2007 11:13:22 PM|SETI@home|Reason: no work from project
6/11/2007 11:14:22 PM|SETI@home|Sending scheduler request: To fetch work
6/11/2007 11:14:22 PM|SETI@home|Requesting 1257606 seconds of new work
6/11/2007 11:14:32 PM|SETI@home|Scheduler RPC succeeded [server version 509]
6/11/2007 11:14:32 PM|SETI@home|Deferring communication for 11 sec
6/11/2007 11:14:32 PM|SETI@home|Reason: requested by project
6/11/2007 11:14:32 PM|SETI@home|Deferring communication for 1 min 0 sec
6/11/2007 11:14:32 PM|SETI@home|Reason: no work from project
6/11/2007 11:15:32 PM|SETI@home|Sending scheduler request: To fetch work
6/11/2007 11:15:32 PM|SETI@home|Requesting 1258234 seconds of new work
6/11/2007 11:15:47 PM|SETI@home|Scheduler RPC succeeded [server version 509]
6/11/2007 11:15:47 PM|SETI@home|Deferring communication for 11 sec
6/11/2007 11:15:47 PM|SETI@home|Reason: requested by project
6/11/2007 11:15:47 PM|SETI@home|Deferring communication for 1 min 0 sec
6/11/2007 11:15:47 PM|SETI@home|Reason: no work from project
6/11/2007 11:16:47 PM|SETI@home|Sending scheduler request: To fetch work
6/11/2007 11:16:47 PM|SETI@home|Requesting 1259107 seconds of new work
6/11/2007 11:17:07 PM|SETI@home|Scheduler RPC succeeded [server version 509]
6/11/2007 11:17:07 PM|SETI@home|Deferring communication for 11 sec
6/11/2007 11:17:07 PM|SETI@home|Reason: requested by project
6/11/2007 11:17:07 PM|SETI@home|Deferring communication for 1 min 0 sec
6/11/2007 11:17:07 PM|SETI@home|Reason: no work from project


I hope that you all can get some more work served up tomorrow so I can get my machines to get a healthy cache of extra work units built back up again.

OMG!! There's a glossary on the server status page!! When did that happen?? Keep up the good work team!! And thanks, Matt for taking time to keep us updated!

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OMG!! There's a glossary on the server status page!! When did that happen??

Last year, maybe earlier?

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Grant
Darwin NT

Don't mean to be rude here but maybe you folks need to shut SETI down and go over all systems until you get them working. Seems better to be without for a week instead of wasting time trying to get work uploaded or downloaded and reported or whatever.

Just to make it clear. My thoughts on this has not and does not have anything to do with my Team Mates.

I think as people get tired of trying to get work or upload/download they will look to other projects.

You ask for money/hardware and that is good for people that have it to give. I for one don't. I feel I am doing what I can just to pay the bills to keep my PC's up and running. But I will not waste time on a project that seems to spend more time down then up. It has been about 2 months of unreliable service beginning May 1st.

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I have started thinking on those lines too.

My computer is left running 24 hours a day, primarily so that SETI can use it.
There seems little point in paying the extra electricity bill if the project is broken.

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Equal rights for equal responsibilities.
Equal opportunities for equal abilities.

It might be a good idea to set a WU buffer, so you will have works to do during downtime.

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I don't speak the language. What is a "WU"?

And how do I set up a buffer for it?

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Equal rights for equal responsibilities.
Equal opportunities for equal abilities.

WU is a short cut for the words "Work Unit"

As far as a buffer, I am not sure unless he is talking about how many WU's you get. If that is what he is refering to then it's hard to keep a buffer if you can't connect to replace the WU's that are done. I have even set my PC's to use just 1 CPU and I still run out of work and I have other projects attached as well.

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WU is a short cut for the words "Work Unit"

As far as a buffer, I am not sure unless he is talking about how many WU's you get. If that is what he is refering to then it's hard to keep a buffer if you can't connect to replace the WU's that are done. I have even set my PC's to use just 1 CPU and I still run out of work and I have other projects attached as well.

in the general preferences you can set how much amount of WU to download as buffer for certain amount of time(under "Network usage" - "Maintain enough work for an additional XXX days"), however it requires a 5.10 BOINC client, which is still in the beta stage.

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I don't speak the language. What is a "WU"?

And how do I set up a buffer for it?

WU is Work Unit, which is each "chunk" of data that is downloaded, processed, and sent back.

To change it, go into General Preferences and change the "Maintain enough work for an additional
(Requires 5.10+ client.)" part to how ever many days worth of data you want to have downloaded.

I did have this set to the default, which was like .25, but just changed it to 5 days just in case this happens again :)

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...
And how do I set up a buffer for it?

Go to your account/ General preferences

Network usage
Computer is connected to the Internet about every
(Leave blank or 0 if always connected.
BOINC will try to maintain at least this much work.) X days

If you would like to have enough WUs for the time Berkeley have probs and fixed you can 'write' here 2 or 5 days. (max 10)
This is for all BOINC- Versions

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login to your account - preferences - general prefs - network usage
I have mine set to 1 day for connect, and 3 days for buffer.

Also, I've seen this mentioned in other threads, and I just do not get it - what has my electric bill got to do with boinc?? My bill is paid regardless, and it has also been pointed out ad-nauseum that there are OTHER projects to do when SETI is out / down ... they(the SETI team) are doing the best they can, if anyone wants to take your micro-management skills down to UCB and work for free, all the power to ya!
Otherwise please just sit back and enjoy the ride, try to lighten up a bit :)

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like take off eh! to The Great White North

Don't mean to be rude here but maybe you folks need to shut SETI down and go over all systems until you get them working. Seems better to be without for a week instead of wasting time trying to get work uploaded or downloaded and reported or whatever.

Maybe that is a good idea. Or it could be a bad one. How would they know if they have it stable unless people are actively using it? What may not show up during their "rebuild" may only show up when over a million clients are trying to get and return work.

I think as people get tired of trying to get work or upload/download they will look to other projects.

Well, that is the point. SETI never claimed to have 100% uptime. As a matter of fact, they said there'd be days like this and they suggest attaching to other projects to keep your CPUs busy.

You seem to be implying that all the projects are in competition with one another for CPU power, and if one project doesn't make their users happy, they'll go elsewhere, similar to customers at a store. I believe that as long as science is getting done, either here or at another project, the science community wins all around, and that's what is important.

You ask for money/hardware and that is good for people that have it to give. I for one don't. I feel I am doing what I can just to pay the bills to keep my PC's up and running. But I will not waste time on a project that seems to spend more time down then up. It has been about 2 months of unreliable service beginning May 1st.

2 months of sporadic problems, but they've been running well (generally speaking) for about 5 years. I'd say that's a pretty good ratio of uptime.

Joining SETI@Home is a volunteer thing. Paying the bills is a user-made choice as a side effect of joining the project. It's understandable that one would want to keep their computers busy, but you're still assuming the project has made announcements that they will always have work. They never did. They have stated the opposite. Your computers running idle is also a side effect of running the project based upon those stipulations. You must expect that there will be times when no work is available. If you feel that this is unacceptable, then you should not have joined. I don't mean to sound rude when I say that, but it needs to be pointed out, as some people seem to forget or insist on having a higher expectation.

Paying your bills is just one part of the equation. How is the project supposed to pay it's bills without any kind of funding? If they can't pay for the space or the electricity, or the internet access, we all have nothing to crunch.

Not everyone can afford to contribute, and no one should feel bad for not being able to. But rationalizing that you are doing all you can just because you are crunching and paying your bills isn't going to keep the project alive. Having higher expectations of the project when they clearly need more funding isn't going to keep them alive either, and then there'll be no project to volunteer for.

I say all this just for something for everyone to think about. I'm not trying to point specific fingers at anyone, or trying to make people feel bad, or make anyone angry. I just think people need to stop and think about the bigger picture before they start rationalizing things to themselves and making higher demands which will only set themselves up for disappointment.

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