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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Official Messages
Forum: News
Thread: July 2022 Tech Team Update |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 13
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Cyclops
Senior Cruncher Joined: Jun 13, 2022 Post Count: 295 Status: Offline |
A new article has been published on the WCG website, with an update from our tech team on the state of the BOINC platform and what it means for workunit distribution.
https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/about_us/article.s?articleId=773 |
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Sgt.Joe
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 4, 2006 Post Count: 7546 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Thanks for the update. It was informative. These updates are appreciated. Please have them come out more often, even if it is only a few sentences.
----------------------------------------Thank you. Cheers
Sgt. Joe
*Minnesota Crunchers* |
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TPCBF
Master Cruncher USA Joined: Jan 2, 2011 Post Count: 1928 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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A new article has been published on the WCG website, with an update from our tech team on the state of the BOINC platform and what it means for workunit distribution. Well, it would probably help a lot to improve the signal-to-noise ration on teh forum if you would actually update the home page of the web site when you have any news. https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/about_us/article.s?articleId=773 According to the home page, the last update was on 6/21, stating that web site and forum were restarted, which obviously a plethora of folks just didn't understand... Ralf  |
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Grumpy Swede
Master Cruncher Svíþjóð Joined: Apr 10, 2020 Post Count: 2068 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I sure don't know what people all over the forum are so riled up about? This is a big transition/migration, of a huge project and system. The original date for the restart under Krembil in Canada was April 22, but keep in mind firstly that it is a small team that handles it all, and secondly that this is not a standard BOINC system, but a very much IBM built and fiddled with system, with "Websphere" also in the midst of it all. The documentation of what IBM has done over the years with the system, is probably not the best either. So, lots and lots of trial and error, involved in the transition/migration also.
----------------------------------------I for one, am not surprised at all that they are running into issue after issue with such a complex system. One very knowledgeable guy, well versed in BOINC, once during this transition said, when I commented that the system didn't seem to be very easy to migrate: "I doubt that any programming team, designing a bespoke system that they expect to run in one place and one place alone, has 'migratability' high on their priority list." So, "patience", and more "patience" is the keyword during this very complicated transition/migration. We're getting closer and closer to a full restart. [Edit 2 times, last edit by Grumpy Swede at Jul 13, 2022 7:44:50 PM] |
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Unixchick
Veteran Cruncher Joined: Apr 16, 2020 Post Count: 835 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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great update. If you need to test the stats stuff on a user, I won't cry if my stats get wiped.
looking forward to more WUs. |
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TPCBF
Master Cruncher USA Joined: Jan 2, 2011 Post Count: 1928 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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I sure don't know what people all over the forum are so riled up about? This is a big transition/migration, of a huge project and system. The original date for the restart under Krembil in Canada was April 22, but keep in mind firstly that it is a small team that handles it all, and secondly that this is not a standard BOINC system, but a very much IBM built and fiddled with system, with "Websphere" also in the midst of it all. The documentation of what IBM has done over the years with the system, is probably not the best either. So, lots and lots of trial and error, involved in the transition/migration also. Naja, alter Schwede... I for one, am not surprised at all that they are running into issue after issue with such a complex system. One very knowledgeable guy, well versed in BOINC, once during this transition said, when I commented that the system didn't seem to be very easy to migrate: "I doubt that any programming team, designing a bespoke system that they expect to run in one place and one place alone, has 'migratability' high on their priority list." So, "patience", and more "patience" is the keyword during this very complicated transition/migration. We're getting closer and closer to a full restart. Well, for one, we are 3 month past the 2 months projected migration time. Yes, I am aware that IT projects almost always exceed their projected deadline, but 150%, that's a pretty bad sign. And what also should be considered is that this transition (and its scope) was known since the announcement last year. That adds another 5 months (give or take) to the project. At first, I thought that the mostly stupid web site "make over" was actually the work of the Krembil folks (apparently, it was not), so something went already out of track at that time and should have raised some red flags. And I am not sure how much of the problem(s) actually lies with Websphere, beside any possible issues with the web site and the forum. The basic BOINC stuff should be unrelated to that, and that seems to be the main part where there is currently still a wrench (or two) in the sprocket... Ralf |
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Robokapp
Senior Cruncher Joined: Feb 6, 2012 Post Count: 248 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I sure don't know what people all over the forum are so riled up about? This is a big transition/migration, of a huge project and system. The original date for the restart under Krembil in Canada was April 22, but . you seem to have answered it. we are now double the expected time and have no end in sight. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Robokapp at Jul 13, 2022 11:23:58 PM] |
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Bryn Mawr
Senior Cruncher Joined: Dec 26, 2018 Post Count: 331 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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I sure don't know what people all over the forum are so riled up about? This is a big transition/migration, of a huge project and system. The original date for the restart under Krembil in Canada was April 22, but . you seem to have answered it. we are now double the expected time and have no end in sight. It is fairly clear to see that IBM dropped Kemble deep in the sticky stuff and when they opened the can of worms a lot of them wriggled out for a good meal. Well they’ve caught most of the worms, untangled the knots and laid them out straight, now they just have to herd the cats back into their cages and we can be off :-) |
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phillipspencer
Advanced Cruncher France Joined: Apr 9, 2015 Post Count: 71 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I agree with Grumpy Swede and Bryn Mawr on this. All credit to Krembil for picking this up. It has not gone smoothly or as planned for them but they have stuck with it and appear close to fully live system.
Having worked on upgrading and transitioning from legacy systems for many years, I have seen more than my share of worm cans, code knots and unherded cats. No matter how you plan for what you expect, it is the unexpected and straight-out weird that gets you and you are left wondering "why on earth did they do that?" Often, it was a "quick and easy fix" at the time that was not properly documented and then forgotten as people moved on. I know we are all impatient to get crunching again and communication could have been better but Krembil deserve praise for persisting even if their time-frame was over-optimistic. |
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Mike.Gibson
Ace Cruncher England Joined: Aug 23, 2007 Post Count: 12120 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Sometimes, unused fields in package software contain rubbish which has built up and then comes to light when a new user takes over. This happened a lot when Santander took over Abbey National in UK.
Always expect the unexpected! |
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