| Index | Recent Threads | Unanswered Threads | Who's Active | Guidelines | Search |
 |
World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: BOINC Agent Support
Thread: Question about running boinc at higher priority to use all available resources? |
| No member browsing this thread |
|
Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 11
|
|
| Author |
|
|
wolfman1360
Senior Cruncher Canada Joined: Jan 17, 2016 Post Count: 176 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
So I'm noticing on WCG that a machine with 8 threads is only getting 5 or 6 days of work rather than 7 and change. Said machine doesn't have anything else running in the background that I can think of. It's running windows, though, however...
----------------------------------------Is there anything in the config file that I can edit to make boinc run at higher priority? I only use this on boinc so any help is appreciated. I'm seeing two options in the help files but not sure which, if either, apply to me. <lower_client_priority>0|1</lower_client_priority> (assuming I would pick 0)? <no_priority_change>0|1</no_priority_change> from what I read I would change this to 1, but I still am not understanding if this makes Boinc itself run at higher priorities than everything else? Any help is appreciated.
Crunching for the betterment of human kind and the canines who will always be our best friends.
AWOU! |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
<process_priority>N</process_priority>, <process_priority_special>N</process_priority_special>
The OS process priority at which tasks are run. Values are 0 (lowest priority, the default), 1 (below normal), 2 (normal), 3 (above normal), 4 (high) and 5 (real-time - not recommended). 'special' process priority is used for coprocessor (GPU) applications, wrapper applications, and non-compute-intensive applications, 'process priority' for all others. The two options can be used independently. List-add.pngNew in 7.6.14 |
||
|
|
KerSamson
Master Cruncher Switzerland Joined: Jan 29, 2007 Post Count: 1680 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
So I'm noticing on WCG that a machine with 8 threads is only getting 5 or 6 days of work rather than 7 and change. At first, I would take a look on the other applications running on your machine. All "WCG only" hosts I operate are over 99% time efficiency; i.e. only few minutes per day the CPU does not compute for the WCG sciences. Cheers, Yves |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Is there lots of work awaiting validation? Depending on when things validate, you could actually have more than 8 days validate in 24 hours from time to time. You don't get credit until it validates.
|
||
|
|
mmonnin
Advanced Cruncher Joined: Jul 20, 2016 Post Count: 148 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
You mean you're getting 5-6 days towards badges each day? Credit towards badges requires valid work. Maybe some invalids or some work pending credit possibly?
----------------------------------------If it's your main windows computer other processes and daily use can known down the BOINC utilization by several %.  |
||
|
|
wolfman1360
Senior Cruncher Canada Joined: Jan 17, 2016 Post Count: 176 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
You mean you're getting 5-6 days towards badges each day? Credit towards badges requires valid work. Maybe some invalids or some work pending credit possibly? If it's your main windows computer other processes and daily use can known down the BOINC utilization by several %. Yes, this is exactly what I mean. This isn't my main windows machine. The only other process running on said machine is my screen reader (https://www.nvaccess.org/ ) but it's not at all active unless I'm using the machine, and even then the percent is usually in the single digits. I will play with process priority, too. It could be, as you said - lots of things need to be validated. So, when said validation occurs and if the device isn't connected to boinc any more, for instance, will it still counts toward the total amount for that device with the days run being updated? Or will it count towards a later date (e.g. today I might see 08:23?) I hope I explained that properly!
Crunching for the betterment of human kind and the canines who will always be our best friends.
AWOU! |
||
|
|
KerSamson
Master Cruncher Switzerland Joined: Jan 29, 2007 Post Count: 1680 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
You don't need to play with the process priority. BoincManager is doing the job pretty well.
----------------------------------------You have two ways to observe the system efficiency: 1/ On-line: use BoincTasks (you have first to install the tools within your network resp. on your host) 2/ Off-line: based on your member history, assess the average granted computation time per day and per week. In all cases, a (or a couple of) single day(s) is not representative, since the validation of some WUs can take "longer" (because of replication or verification). Cheers, Yves |
||
|
|
OldChap
Veteran Cruncher UK Joined: Jun 5, 2009 Post Count: 978 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
Depending on the project running I notice that <no priority change>1</no priority change> in your cc.config can improve efficiency a little by letting the Kernel do the work BUT this is in Linux. I don't know much about Windows crunching
----------------------------------------I presume your preferences Have 100% processors and 100% cpu time set Perhaps you might consider running a linux host for crunching and a windows VM to run that other program BoincTasks would let you see cpu efficiency in running  |
||
|
|
mmonnin
Advanced Cruncher Joined: Jul 20, 2016 Post Count: 148 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
A 3rd recommendation for BOINCTasks from me. I use it to monitor all my PCs. If the computer is doing nothing the length of the task it should be showing like 98-99%.
---------------------------------------- |
||
|
|
wolfman1360
Senior Cruncher Canada Joined: Jan 17, 2016 Post Count: 176 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
Depending on the project running I notice that <no priority change>1</no priority change> in your cc.config can improve efficiency a little by letting the Kernel do the work BUT this is in Linux. I don't know much about Windows crunching I presume your preferences Have 100% processors and 100% cpu time set Perhaps you might consider running a linux host for crunching and a windows VM to run that other program BoincTasks would let you see cpu efficiency in running Hi, Have considered running linux. Haven't dabbled in it much, and in theory if I did that I would just like to install it, set it up and forget on most machines with the ability to be able to check on progress now and again. I guess using a console everything would be typed in manually over ssh if I wasn't at the computer? I may get a cheap linode just to play with this, if I can figure out how to go about setting it up since I hear linux can have definite advantages.
Crunching for the betterment of human kind and the canines who will always be our best friends.
AWOU! |
||
|
|
|