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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: BOINC Agent Support
Thread: Flash - based OS installs ... and FBoinc client impact on flash lifetime. |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 7
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Hi,
I have a PC at home running Ubuntu x86_64 (version 8.04). It has the Boinc client and manager installed from the usual Ubuntu repositories. This system boot from a flash usb pen and was installed on that same usb flash drive. I know that Flash memory does have a limited amount of write cycles, so I would like to know what is the impact on the lifetime of flash based systems running Boinc the client. To be more precise, is the Boinc Agent very disk intensive when it is running ? Best regards, Pedro |
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Sgt.Joe
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 4, 2006 Post Count: 7850 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Probably depends on the application. If the application checkpoints often, some do every minute, others only at much longer intervals, then the impact would be greater. At about US $10 for for a 4gb flash drive, I would not get too excited about the wear and tear on the drive. However, It would be interesting to see just how long one would last running 24/7 and on which applications. Flash memory is improving all the time and if you you have an industrial grade usb stick you should get a substantial time out of it. If I had to guess I would say at least a year. I have had several although I never did use one for BOINC, and most have lasted over two years with intermittent use, although I did have one fail at only 2 months. Probably defective.
----------------------------------------Cheers
Sgt. Joe
*Minnesota Crunchers* |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Hi,
Well, I have a backup made with dd command that mirrors both drives at a low level bit by bit copy. So the issue is not very problematic in that context, I can easily replace the usb flash and I make regular backups on it, so both usb sticks are up to date. Also the install I have is the one made with unetbootin on a live Ubunt CD. This install is less "hdd" intensive on the part of the OS. Actually I have a OpenSuSE 11.1 install on another PC with a regular filesystem with swap space and all and it is working great for the last 4 Months.... My concern is actually the BOINC client application. How "disk-write" intensive it actually is. The flash pen actually blinks at irregular time intervals of arround 25s more or less. But this machine in particular is my home network nas backup, so a lot of stuff is happening on the machine, I can not be sure it is the boinc client. That is why it would be good to know this. But like you said, I am not really concerned about this as the price point for flash memory is always dropping, the important is to have a ready to use replacement available. And when the active usb fails, put the backup in, by a new one and make a new backup. But it would be good to know the hdd intensity of the app, although the function of the program is calculation I do not expect a lot of hdd writes on this thing ... also it only occupies about 35MB on that system ... Regards, Pedro |
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Sekerob
Ace Cruncher Joined: Jul 24, 2005 Post Count: 20043 Status: Offline |
Hi,
----------------------------------------I've ran the BOINC data_dir for a number of month on the spare space of a Sandisk Cruzer [really bought for ReadyBoost]. I think due timing issues with a quad I had a slightly higher task fail rate than running from HD, mostly round about when it was boot time, so returned after the last rebuild with W7 to regular setup. During that period. BOINC's Write to Disk was set to 20 minutes i.e. a Rice job would not checkpoint every minute but only each time when the 20 minutes had passed from last checkpoint, if there was one to be made. Obviously with tasks that have longer checkpoint intervals it made no much difference. Note that I never had write fail reports. It did impact performance somewhat, particularly on the AutoDock based jobs. Maybe something to do with the internal benchmarking these jobs do beginning and end? edit: the more cores, the more space is needed. Some of the workfiles can grow to several hundred megabytes.
WCG
----------------------------------------Please help to make the Forums an enjoyable experience for All! [Edit 1 times, last edit by Sekerob at Dec 21, 2009 12:42:47 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Hi,
Nice info ! Thanks! I am not very familiar with the setup of the client, how can I control this write to disk time from the config files? Is this possible? if so how ? Regards, Pedro |
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Sgt.Joe
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 4, 2006 Post Count: 7850 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Hi, Nice info ! Thanks! I am not very familiar with the setup of the client, how can I control this write to disk time from the config files? Is this possible? if so how ? Regards, Pedro If you are using local preferences: In the BOINC manager look under advanced/preferences/disk and memory usage. Put 999 in the box labeled "Write to disk at most" If you are using global preferences, there should be a similarly label box. Put 999 in it. Cheers
Sgt. Joe
*Minnesota Crunchers* |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Hi,
Thanks a lot! I will try those preferences as soon as possible. They are just for the usb-flash installed OS, actually it is just a nas home server hence it is not the most productive cruncher of all. Anyway this will help I am sure. Regards, Pedro |
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