Back on line after some repairs... (Jul 24 2014)

Message boards : Technical News : Back on line after some repairs... (Jul 24 2014)
Message board moderation

To post messages, you must log in.

AuthorMessage
Profile Matt Lebofsky
Volunteer moderator
Project administrator
Project developer
Project scientist
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 1 Mar 99
Posts: 1444
Credit: 957,058
RAC: 0
United States
Message 1547030 - Posted: 24 Jul 2014, 21:22:58 UTC

We had a few extra minor planned outages this week (nothing as severe as I warned on the front page) for repairs down at the colocation facility where most of our servers are kept. Quite simply, they needed to replace some backup power circuits that were "out of tolerance" (i.e. not up to high standards for availability in case other circuits failed). In theory we didn't really need to bring servers services down, because most of them have multiple power supplies spread over different circuits. But (1) we used this as an exercise that all of our system will indeed stay afloat if power was suddenly cut to one of its supplies (all systems passed this test!) and (2) we have some systems which only have one supply, and thus had to be moved onto safer power for the repairs. Also (3) if the databases and servers are off, the systems are pulling much less power, thus lessening the impact when power was moved around during the procedure.

Anyway, everything went smoothly, we're back on line (still recovering a little bit as I write this sentence). As you were :).

- Matt
-- BOINC/SETI@home network/web/science/development person
-- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude
ID: 1547030 · Report as offensive
Profile HAL9000
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 11 Sep 99
Posts: 6534
Credit: 196,805,888
RAC: 57
United States
Message 1547101 - Posted: 25 Jul 2014, 1:55:04 UTC

It is good to hear when things go well.
As always, Thanks for taking the time to give us an update.
SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[
ID: 1547101 · Report as offensive
Profile Gary Charpentier Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 25 Dec 00
Posts: 30970
Credit: 53,134,872
RAC: 32
United States
Message 1547147 - Posted: 25 Jul 2014, 4:09:37 UTC

Thanks much for taking the time to write the update Matt.
ID: 1547147 · Report as offensive
Claggy
Volunteer tester

Send message
Joined: 5 Jul 99
Posts: 4654
Credit: 47,537,079
RAC: 4
United Kingdom
Message 1547170 - Posted: 25 Jul 2014, 5:10:26 UTC - in response to Message 1547030.  

Thanks for the explanation Matt,

Claggy
ID: 1547170 · Report as offensive
Thomas
Volunteer tester

Send message
Joined: 9 Dec 11
Posts: 1499
Credit: 1,345,576
RAC: 0
France
Message 1547172 - Posted: 25 Jul 2014, 5:14:52 UTC - in response to Message 1547101.  

It is good to hear when things go well.
As always, Thanks for taking the time to give us an update.

+1
Thanks Matt :)
ID: 1547172 · Report as offensive
Profile Julie
Volunteer moderator
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 28 Oct 09
Posts: 34060
Credit: 18,883,157
RAC: 18
Belgium
Message 1547245 - Posted: 25 Jul 2014, 6:59:29 UTC

Thanx for the update Matt:)
rOZZ
Music
Pictures
ID: 1547245 · Report as offensive
kittyman Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 9 Jul 00
Posts: 51477
Credit: 1,018,363,574
RAC: 1,004
United States
Message 1547255 - Posted: 25 Jul 2014, 7:06:28 UTC

Thanks for the info, Matt!
The colo continues to be a fine home for the Seti servers, indeed.

Meow!
"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

ID: 1547255 · Report as offensive
Profile Uli
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 6 Feb 00
Posts: 10923
Credit: 5,996,015
RAC: 1
Germany
Message 1548735 - Posted: 28 Jul 2014, 2:39:35 UTC

Thank you Matt!
Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt
ID: 1548735 · Report as offensive
Speedy
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 26 Jun 04
Posts: 1643
Credit: 12,921,799
RAC: 89
New Zealand
Message 1554066 - Posted: 9 Aug 2014, 2:16:12 UTC

Thanks for the news post Matt, things have certainly been going well since this service happening housed at Colo.

I have one question in regards to when sending data to Colo to be split, is the data downloaded on a computer through an Internet browser like we download Boinc and is the data compressed or is it transferred with no compression? Example tape 17au08ac is 10.29 GB
ID: 1554066 · Report as offensive
Michael Gamble
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 8 Sep 99
Posts: 67
Credit: 39,033,066
RAC: 6
United States
Message 1587802 - Posted: 16 Oct 2014, 14:23:11 UTC

I have been with SETI for a long time and my one issue is heat. I am presently running an Intel 6 core machine and thinking of going to their new 8 core box. BUT that is over a grand and I hate to toast it with SETI. Is there anything at all that can be done about the heat that SETI creates? It is the application that generates the heat and you are one of the programming gurus so fix it already!
Any day above ground is a great day!
ID: 1587802 · Report as offensive
Profile Bernie Vine
Volunteer moderator
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 26 May 99
Posts: 9957
Credit: 103,452,613
RAC: 328
United Kingdom
Message 1587827 - Posted: 16 Oct 2014, 15:47:49 UTC - in response to Message 1587802.  

I have been with SETI for a long time and my one issue is heat. I am presently running an Intel 6 core machine and thinking of going to their new 8 core box. BUT that is over a grand and I hate to toast it with SETI. Is there anything at all that can be done about the heat that SETI creates? It is the application that generates the heat and you are one of the programming gurus so fix it already!

You might do better asking in the Number Crunching forum, that is where the technical "gurus" mostly hang out.
ID: 1587827 · Report as offensive
MarkB
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 19 Jul 14
Posts: 1
Credit: 426,424
RAC: 0
United States
Message 1588921 - Posted: 19 Oct 2014, 19:13:39 UTC

I keep getting Communication Deferred over and over when trying to connect. Do I need something?
ID: 1588921 · Report as offensive
JIM

Send message
Joined: 17 Jul 09
Posts: 18
Credit: 1,774,986
RAC: 3
United States
Message 1588927 - Posted: 19 Oct 2014, 19:26:08 UTC - in response to Message 1588921.  

I keep getting Communication Deferred over and over when trying to connect. Do I need something?


The project was down for a while. Every time your computer would try to contact it would get no answer and then back off for 1 hour. That’s when you would get the communication deferred” message.
ID: 1588927 · Report as offensive
Profile BladeD
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 9 Aug 11
Posts: 13320
Credit: 1,603,919
RAC: 2
United States
Message 1589002 - Posted: 19 Oct 2014, 22:39:22 UTC

Anyone knows what was the problem?
ID: 1589002 · Report as offensive
Bill Butler
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 26 Aug 03
Posts: 101
Credit: 4,270,697
RAC: 0
United States
Message 1589072 - Posted: 20 Oct 2014, 2:12:02 UTC - in response to Message 1587802.  

Hi Michael,

Checking your hardware I see you have 12 virtual CPU's + an NVIDIA GPU.

The project started using the Intel GPU too. So, if your PC is like mine, it will it will have an Intel GPU for your PC's video. So you could be running 14 simultaneous work units. I will ignore that possibility here.

So, by default, if you do nothing else, you likely are running 13 simultaneous work units. Nice - very nice indeed! You get tons of work done, lots of credit! But, like you say, and like I do too, you get lots of heat. In this case more heat than you want.

And that is by default. I assume you do not use an app_config.xml file to further boost the number of simultaneously running workunits > 13.

In your online BOINC configuration, you can tell the system to NOT use your NVIDIA GPU. That will knock 1 simultaneous work unit off.

You should be able to use the optional app_config.xml file to reduce the number of simultaneous work units running. But I have not tried that.

So, you might start by checking how many simultaneous work units you actually have running. On the BOINC Manager Screen, choose the tab Tasks. Count how many work units (Tasks) are running. Then reduce that number to the point your CPU doesn't run so hot.

You may also be able to reduce that number by configuration changes in your online account SETI@home preferences.

There are some times during the hot Summertime I shut down cuz' I am afraid I'll smoke the PC. So, I understand the problem.

Hope this helps!

--BB
"It is often darkest just before it turns completely black."
ID: 1589072 · Report as offensive
Profile BilBg
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 27 May 07
Posts: 3720
Credit: 9,385,827
RAC: 0
Bulgaria
Message 1589241 - Posted: 20 Oct 2014, 12:36:16 UTC - in response to Message 1587802.  

Is there anything at all that can be done about the heat that SETI creates?

You may:
- use better cooling
- use TThrottle


It is the application that generates the heat and you are one of the programming gurus so fix it already!

There is nothing to "fix" - any optimized computing will heat the computing device (CPU/GPU/...)

Try to encode a video in AVC (x264 codec)
http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/

Try a 'heavy' game

Try Linpack
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?201670-LinX-A-simple-Linpack-interface

(all the above will heat)
 


- ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)
 
ID: 1589241 · Report as offensive
Dena Wiltsie
Volunteer tester

Send message
Joined: 19 Apr 01
Posts: 1628
Credit: 24,230,968
RAC: 26
United States
Message 1604338 - Posted: 23 Nov 2014, 1:22:55 UTC

Newer chip sets draw less power and are faster. My Mac Pro draws about 65 watts with no load and adds about 8 watts per thread of load. Server grade hardware is designed to take the heat load full time. My G5 Mac tower was purchased in 2006 and ran SETI full time for 8 years with the only hardware failure being the hard drive. It still functions todays but it is so slow. By the way, make sure that every 6 months to a year you blow the dust out of it. The dust will kill it fast if you get to much build up.
ID: 1604338 · Report as offensive

Message boards : Technical News : Back on line after some repairs... (Jul 24 2014)


 
©2024 University of California
 
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.