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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: BOINC Agent Support
Thread: Using half of threads, boinc client issue? Settings? |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 14
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Seoulpowergrid
Veteran Cruncher Joined: Apr 12, 2013 Post Count: 823 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I just got my first dedicated server (link) with 8 cores / 16 threads with 16 gigs of ram and 3 hard drives in RAID 0 config w/Ubuntu 14 32-bit so once my MCM goal is made I can (hopefully) have it crunch CEP 24/7. I installed Boinc and got it running but only 8 of 16 threads are going.
----------------------------------------I typed boinccmd --get_host_info and it says #CPUS: 8 so it looks like it is not a hardware issue It downloaded 10 WUs and 8 of the 10 are "executing" with 2 "uninitialized" Do I need to adjust a config file to have all 16 threads go or did I make a mistake by getting 32 bit (so CEP2 will run without editing config file)?  |
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Alejandro Guariguata
Cruncher Peru Joined: Sep 4, 2014 Post Count: 12 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Have you tried reviewing the profile you have for the server?
you can manually update the project to make it have the latest profile you set on WCG.org, as a last resort you can force changes with the global_prefs_override.xml file, you can find the preferences here and the file explanation here , you should edit the <max_cpus>%d</max_cpus> option for maxing out the threads |
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Seoulpowergrid
Veteran Cruncher Joined: Apr 12, 2013 Post Count: 823 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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The profile I have for the server at "On multiprocessors, at most use:" was set at 16 and upped it to 64 so I'll never have to think about that setting again. I told the server to update but that has no solved the problem. I'll try editing the global_prefs_override.xml file.
----------------------------------------Edit: I copy pasted the <max_ncpus_pct>0.000000</max_ncpus_pct> from my local working linux box and added in <max_cpus>36.000000</max_cpus> to the file and moved it to the server. No change but also unsure how to force it to read the file. Edit: Looks like it did read the file as the queue went up to match the new settings but still have only 8 of 16 threads active. [Edit 2 times, last edit by Seoulpowergrid at Jul 28, 2015 5:20:15 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
NB: As of a few minor releases after 6.2.28 the client no longer listens to the ncpus value on the website profile, solely the % of processors. <max_cpus> does not exist... (seeing a typo ;). Your issue is, if BOINC just sees 8 at startup, that's what you get. Faking 16 ncpus will get your tasks to get only 50% CPU time, but 100% Elapsed, so your efficiency will be showing as lower than 50%. |
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Seoulpowergrid
Veteran Cruncher Joined: Apr 12, 2013 Post Count: 823 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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That explains why I didn't see <max_cpus> on my local ubuntu box ;)
----------------------------------------I do have cc_config.xml but since you crossed it out I take it this file isn't where the problem lies... Drat. Any idea on how to get the full threads out of this machine? |
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Byteball_730a2960
Senior Cruncher Joined: Oct 29, 2010 Post Count: 318 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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This may be a silly question, but is hyperthreading turned on?
Or is only one CPU/8 threads being used? |
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Seoulpowergrid
Veteran Cruncher Joined: Apr 12, 2013 Post Count: 823 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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There are no silly questions! I need some brainstorming so thanks for jumping in :) I am not sure how to check if hyperthreading is on or just 1 CPU is active. Can I do that remotely? Maybe some linux magic code?
----------------------------------------Edit: vcd683s your question was wonderful. the commend (boinccmd --get_host_info) gives me: timezone: 0 domain name: ubuntu IP addr: 127.0.1.1 #CPUS: 8 CPU vendor: GenuineIntel CPU model: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU L5520 @ 2.27GHz [Family 6 Model 26 Stepping 5] CPU FP OPS: 1813652343.300522 CPU int OPS: 3753405168.668848 CPU mem BW: 1000000000.000000 OS name: Linux OS version: 3.13.0-59-generic and I ran the lscpu command and got: CPU(s): 8 On-line CPU(s) list: 0-7 Thread(s) per core: 1 Core(s) per socket: 4 Socket(s): 2 So the OS seems both CPUs, sees the 4 cores per, but threads per core is 1. Edit: I've filed a ticket with the company and quickly got a reply back that they'll look into it. I'll post replies if anything develops. Thanks everyone! [Edit 2 times, last edit by Seoulpowergrid at Jul 28, 2015 8:08:18 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Brain "Storm" it is as you raced right passed 1/2 of what I wrote without reading, for one I left the strike out line in on purpose to document that it's not in app_config.xml [IMO] ;O)
If the feedback from the cloud-device is 8 CPUs, it is 8. Do server MBs use hyperthreading at all? Tom's HWS answered "In the old days, yes, the MoBo also had to have HT support. But now, that's not a problem, HT works on all MoBos." Don't think you're allowed to go into the BIOS to switch on hyperthreading (Infosheet says it has HT thoguh http://ark.intel.com/products/40201/Intel-Xeo...6-GHz-5_86-GTs-Intel-QPI). |
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Byteball_730a2960
Senior Cruncher Joined: Oct 29, 2010 Post Count: 318 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Nice! I'm glad that we are making some progress here!
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Seoulpowergrid
Veteran Cruncher Joined: Apr 12, 2013 Post Count: 823 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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I know, I was referring to global_prefs_override.xml. Both that and cc_config.xml file were blank except for the intro "This is a minimal configuration file..." so I copy-pasted the code from a 64-bit linux box I have running CEP2; the WU queue went up but that was the only change. As you mentioned ncpus is not hyperthreading so I'm not messing with that.
----------------------------------------Yeah, from Googling it looks like I can't access the BIOS remotely and your Intel link and info from Tom's shows HT is legit. The CPU is from 2009 so maybe the HT support wasn't fully there then, but the product page I linked to previously is clearly marked with CPUs and threads so it has to exist. Tech support got back to me with "I think it's just a matter of enabling hyperthreading in bios..." and later "All advanced features are enabled. Please note that, upon looking at the screen, you have a failing drive" >_< lscpu is still giving me: CPU(s): 8 Thread(s) per core: 1 but... dmidecode -t processor | grep -E '(Core Count|Thread Count)' Core Count: 4 Thread Count: 8 Core Count: 4 Thread Count: 8 So it looks like I have HT but don't have it. The process of elimination is getting me closer! I'm running out of time today so I'll try rebooting the server and/or boinc later and see if that fixes it. Maybe a boinc uninstall/reinstall is after that. I'm still wondering if it has something to do with 32-bit vs 64-bit (my first posting) but can't find data to support that theory. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Seoulpowergrid at Jul 28, 2015 9:33:37 AM] |
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