We're continuing to have issues due to a database problem early last week and a botched attempt to fix it.

The problem is that the result and host tables in the database have grown large enough, and hosts have gotten fast enough that the lookup of result in process for a host and the enumeration of new results to send don't finish before the web connection times out either on the server or the client side. This resulted in hosts being assigned large number or results to compute without the transaction that tells them about these results being completed. The host. think it received no results would then contact the server for more results, which it would again not receive.

This isn't a hardware problem. The database currently fits in memory and the processors are fast. We've just crossed a threshold where each host computes fast enough that host queues and the result table have become large enough to cause this problem. To solve it, we've put per host limits on results in process back in place. But hosts that are having this problem will probably continue to have it until the average number of results per host has fallen to a workable level. That could take weeks.

For a more permanent fix, we plan do more work in each result by quadrupling the size of the workunits. But that fix will probably take months to implement and test.

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@SETIEric@qoto.org (Mastodon)

Thanks for the news, we will struggle through.

AS this problem only seems to occur when AP tasks are available, might it be possible to balance the rates of splitting. At the moment the AP tasks are being split much faster than the normal MB tasks.

Eric, thanks for the news!


By the way ..
In the *panic thread* in the NC subforum, some members report that they have *better* server contact via PROXY usage.
Maybe a S@h router need a reboot?


* Best regards! :-) * Sutaru Tsureku, team seti.international founder. * Optimize your PC for higher RAC. * SETI@home needs your help. *

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Thanks Eric.

Knowing that you are looking into it, on a Sunday night no less, is gratifying.

Does that explain why the Schedulers are currently (2115, 9/18/12 Berkeley time) down?

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Hello, from Albany, CA!...

I have 3 machines with more than 600 completed WU's that I can't report. Does this latest problem mean that these finished WU's will be considered as expired since they will not accept them at the server by expected due date? Should I just turn off my machines that have completed WU and wait for news as to when they will be accepted? I am wasting a lot of CPU power and electric trying to get more work and report finished WU's. I have been solely interested in ET research since 1999 and do not wish to do other Boinc projects.

I wish there was more explanations, like this latest post. If there were, it would take a lot of the frustrations out, and crunchers would stop B*tch**g so much.

I rarely have anything to say but I read the blogs. I would like to have a more firm date as to when the project is expected to run as efficiently as it did before Boinc software.

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Ah! so that's whats going on. Yesterday after reinstalling bonic, it took me 3 hrs to get any work units to download, the last of which completed downloading almost 24 hrs later... At the moment my laptop has 5 results ready to report & my desktop has a few waiting as well. Looking forward to testing chromes remote desktop while on holiday next week to check on my desktop's Bonic progress.

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A city destroyed by an earthquake is an opportunity to Rebuild, redeign & make it a better place to be. Better, stronger, faster like the 6 Million Dollar Man

THX Eric, for your time to post & your time that will bring a fix eventually. Using proxies doesn't change a lot over here either, the two main crunchers have run dry, one will save on electricity, the best one has been unleashed upon WCG, a very fine project also. I'll leave S@H on autopilot for now, checking the homepage of the project and the messageboards once a day will do for now. Crunching is a passtime, not a basic necessity.

Kind Belgian Regards ;)

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To boldly crunch ...

Thanks Eric for this news
Good luck to all the technical staff of Berkeley from the french team "BRIGADE DU COSMOS"
Hopefully there will not be too disgruntled
We must never forget that the SETI@home is a scientific non-profit project
So be indulgent with this kind of technical risks
Hope everything returns to normal fairly quickly

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Confirms a theory I had as to why proxy servers work - they send the data stream slower as they are sending to multiple other systems as well.
Should be able to configure my router QOS to send, say, 30K / sec max for seti program. For now at least though, finally found a good proxy.
Good luck with the fix - you are burdened by your success!

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Thank you Eric.

Can we all now just wait and not start filling these boards with "When is this going to be fixed threads"

If it takes months it takes months I for one will be happy to wait.

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We're continuing to have issues due to a database problem early last week and a botched attempt to fix it.

My concern is that the Scheduler timeouts started 4 weeks ago, and became a major issue about 3 weeks ago.
And that if you can find a good proxy, you don't get Scheduler timeouts.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Can we have a new switch in `SETI@home preferences` for - VLAR on GPU.
In the `Run only the selected applications` section,
that would overide the default seting and so reduce the calls to the servers,
for those like me that can crunch them on ATI (or any other GPU that can handle them)

So we are going to be having this same problem for months eh!!!.

Wow, at least we have an explanation but I am not sure I like the answers.
Couple months of this an I will be ready for the hospital... LOONEY BIN

Michael Miles

Eric, Thanks for the update and explanation of the problem. Understanding the issues reduces my frustration considerably.

I do hope that it won't be months before my fast machine gets any more work units.

So we are going to be having this same problem for months eh!!!.

Wow, at least we have an explanation but I am not sure I like the answers.
Couple months of this an I will be ready for the hospital... LOONEY BIN

Michael Miles

The bottom line is while we in our tens of thousands have built a new system gotten a new video card or just found time to tweak our systems,seti can not afford to hire a full time programmer to fix things and for the most part are running the same equipment they had last year. The new equipment is not nearly enough and no amount of tweaking is going to fix it for long.
With green bank coming on line soon it will become thousands of times more likely for seti to find a signal. Yet the funding through donations and endowments wouldn't pay the salary's for a good sized McDonald's.
For toughs complaining donate a dollar a month cheap to support any hobby,the minimum donation at the seti sight is $10 save up if you have to, it is going to stay broke until seti can catch up with new equipment.

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I agree with Dancer. If you havent put up, then hush up and wait.

Eric and the rest of the frustrated Berkeley Vols: Thanks for the info and praying your expertise wins out.

So we are going to be having this same problem for months eh!!!.

Wow, at least we have an explanation but I am not sure I like the answers.
Couple months of this an I will be ready for the hospital... LOONEY BIN

Michael Miles

If you want to help Seti along for the time being why don't you run Beta ? You'll still be crunching signals and it's for the good of the future of this system...

I do the same, it's no use complaining about things out of our (and the boys at the lab) control.

On topic : thanks Eric for the info, we'll wait it out and see what happens. Set my rigs to NNT and if it reports and I see the servers up I will surely be back !

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[/quote]If you want to help Seti along for the time being why don't you run Beta ? You'll still be crunching signals and it's for the good of the future of this system...

Where does one find this Beta?

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Where does one find this Beta?

Here: SETI@home/AstroPulse Beta

You'll have to add this project using BOINC Manager.

<Tools> <Add project or account manager...>

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