Is there some way to be selective about when workunits get done ?

Questions and Answers : Windows : Is there some way to be selective about when workunits get done ?
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Profile Tom Austin
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Message 1729950 - Posted: 28 Sep 2015, 23:41:12 UTC

I have 94 work units to be done. Some must be done by October 14. Others can be done by mid November. My computer can only do a few work units each day. My problem is this : a lot of work units that start in just a few days away will expire in November. If this happens a lot of work units due in early October will not get done on time. Is there some way I can select which work unit gets done ? I'm not talking about two or three work units that will expire. I have about forty work units that are due to expire in mid October.

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Tom Austin
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Message 1729972 - Posted: 29 Sep 2015, 1:55:38 UTC - in response to Message 1729950.  

No. All of the estimates are handled by BOINC using various stats about your computer. Manipulating or interfering with the process will only serve to throw off these stats and cause BOINC to always over-fetch work.

Let them run their natural course. If BOINC thinks there's a chance of missing a deadline, it will automatically switch to Earliest Deadline First mode to process any in danger of not getting finished on time.
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Message 1730110 - Posted: 29 Sep 2015, 15:07:22 UTC - in response to Message 1729972.  

I thought about the problem after I went to bed.

I wanted to get all the work units that were to be done in October near the top of the que. So I highlighted all the November work units, clicked suspend, and all the work units that had to be done in October jumped to the top. I then re-enabled the November units so everything looked normal.

Having dealt with the Boinc manager since 2001 I knew there had to be a way. It's not the smartest piece of software in the world. I realize you suggested not monkeying around with the units, but I have noticed in the past that Boinc isn't terribly sophisticated. Especially when it crunched a unit that was two weeks past its due date, and I got bupkus for it because it had expired.
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Message 1730119 - Posted: 29 Sep 2015, 15:34:46 UTC - in response to Message 1730110.  

Scratch that solution. Everything goes back to the way they were when you click on "show all tasks". Rats. Still would have been nice if it worked.
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Message 1730130 - Posted: 29 Sep 2015, 21:33:09 UTC - in response to Message 1730110.  

Having dealt with the Boinc manager since 2001 I knew there had to be a way. It's not the smartest piece of software in the world. I realize you suggested not monkeying around with the units, but I have noticed in the past that Boinc isn't terribly sophisticated. Especially when it crunched a unit that was two weeks past its due date, and I got bupkus for it because it had expired.


Actually, it is much more sophisticated than people think. I've seen more people attempt to screw with the scheduling, which further throws off all the statistics and data, that BOINC never gets a chance to recover, then people complain about missed deadlines.

BOINC truly is set-it-and-forget-it. If you just leave it alone, it will do a great job with getting the work done. I've been crunching using BOINC since 2004/2005 and have never missed a deadline that wasn't due to me powering down a computer too long.
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Message 1730786 - Posted: 1 Oct 2015, 20:37:45 UTC - in response to Message 1729950.  
Last modified: 1 Oct 2015, 20:39:45 UTC

I have 94 work units to be done. Some must be done by October 14. Others can be done by mid November. My computer can only do a few work units each day. My problem is this : a lot of work units that start in just a few days away will expire in November. If this happens a lot of work units due in early October will not get done on time. Is there some way I can select which work unit gets done ? I'm not talking about two or three work units that will expire. I have about forty work units that are due to expire in mid October.

Thanks
Tom Austin



I think I have a solution to your problem. Do the following:

Start with [BOINC Manager]. Select [Tasks] tab. Left click on [Deadline]. Make sure that it sorted the tasks from the earliest deadline to the latest one. The little rectangle there will be pointing up. The sort will go by date AND time. I have Milkyway@home running in addition to SETI@home. I think the sort will always put the earliest deadlines at the top no matter which project they belong to. When new tasks are downloaded they will be sorted by date & time. BOINC Manager will then run the tasks accordingly.
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Message 1730798 - Posted: 1 Oct 2015, 20:47:36 UTC

...No it won't.
Read and understand what OzsFan says - BOINC uses a "first in - first out" system, and no sorting you do in the display will affect that.
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Message 1730803 - Posted: 1 Oct 2015, 20:50:19 UTC - in response to Message 1730786.  

No, BOINC will run tasks in FIFO order, first in, first out. Ordering tasks by their date and time in BOINC Manager does nothing other than show them in order of date and time. BOINC Manager is the graphical user interface, it allows you to easily control the BOINC client, which does all the hard work.

The scheduler built into BOINC does check all work in cache every second, runs a fast algorithm on all the work to check if everything will be able to run by deadline. But being able to do this correctly depends on whether the estimated run time of all tasks is approximately correct for the CPU/GPU in your system.

BOINC will learn by its own mistakes from all the work it cannot run now before the deadline, by asking less work next time. It'll also learn how long tasks generally take, and adjust the estimated time shown in BOINC Manager accordingly.
It does all this learning automatically and does it best if well left alone.

There is really no need to micromanage BOINC in any way. Doing so will only throw the learning capability in disarray and have its user complain that things don't work.
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Message 1730962 - Posted: 2 Oct 2015, 2:28:22 UTC

some ppl lol
I came down with a bad case of i don't give a crap
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Message 1741695 - Posted: 13 Nov 2015, 7:22:31 UTC

Tom Austin:

you were on the right track when you suspended the November units...just leave them suspended until the October units are processed - then release the November units...

i do this all the time to make sure the earliest due dates are met...

frank
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Questions and Answers : Windows : Is there some way to be selective about when workunits get done ?


 
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