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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: Suggestions / Feedback
Thread: Why such short deadlines? |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 18
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wcggeri
Cruncher Joined: Sep 9, 2006 Post Count: 5 Status: Offline |
Is there any reason why deadlines are so short as compared to the ones given by other projects?
I had to abort several times because I could not meet the deadline without leaving my PC on 24/7. Is leaving it on 24/7 the only way to be able to participate to that project? |
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Sekerob
Ace Cruncher Joined: Jul 24, 2005 Post Count: 20043 Status: Offline |
Actually i've been baffled by the Earliest Deadline First and why the scheduling was behaving the way it was including the need to cancel a few until i read the full unofficial BOINC Wiki pages. They present various formula how to determine the Contact period /Work buffer size, which has always got to be less than the shortest deadline. Amazing how within a few days all stabilised and only work is pulled that can be handled according the work schedule and the weight of the various projects and all within deadline.
----------------------------------------Some other DC's still have 4 days, as had WCG for a brief period but upped to 7 after discussions to tune it to a work week for e.g. traveling members so they could let their machine(s) running while away for the workweek, hook up in the weekend and flush and obtain new work. Here a link to the workschedule logic: Work Scheduler
WCG
----------------------------------------Please help to make the Forums an enjoyable experience for All! [Edit 1 times, last edit by Sekerob at Sep 9, 2006 12:25:57 PM] |
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wcggeri
Cruncher Joined: Sep 9, 2006 Post Count: 5 Status: Offline |
Thanks for the link. It looks pretty useful. However I'm still left wondering why WCG deadlines are/were shorter than the ones of all the other projects I'm involved in. I've noticed the longer deadline though so I'll give it a try again.
Thanks again. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
To improve efficiency (more science for less crunching) WCG reduced the initial replication to 3. This means that when one of the copies isn't returned quickly, it is a long time before an extra copy is sent out to complete the work unit. If the work units were allowed to run for a month, then people would have "pending validation" results hanging around forever.
The WCG staff checked the statistics carefully, and determined that nearly everyone could return work units within several days. The deadline was set at 7 days as a compromise for those people who aren't connected to the net constantly. The balance is working well, after some initial skepticism. Other projects treat work units differently, with different quorum and validation procedures. What works for WCG may not be ideal for other projects, and some (ones that don't validate) can let work units run for a very long time. And some projects have massive work units, and no choice about setting a distant deadline. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Hi wcggeri,
Here is a little story about my friend, Bill, who was having trouble meeting the deadline too. I don't know if your situation and computer usage patterns are the same as Bill's but perhaps they are. Bill gets up in the morning and turns his computer on. He surfs the web a little and takes care of email while he has his breakfast and prepares for work. Then he turns off his computer to conserve electricity and goes to work. 10 hours later he's back from work. He turns his computer on, surfs a little, does his email, plays a game or 2, etc. At 9 PM he turns the computer off to conserve power and goes to bed. Bill complained to me that he couldn't complete WCG work units before the deadline. I suggested to Bill that BOINC was not getting enough CPU time while the computer was running and that maybe the computer needed to run longer, not 24/7 but a little longer. First thing we did was check his "Do work while computer in use?" and "Do work only after computer is idle for:" settings in his profile. He had the first set to NO and the second set to 20 minutes. That prevented BOINC from doing any work until he was inactive for 20 minutes. We set the time to 2 minutes and it helped a lot. Still, he missed a few deadlines. Next we setup his computer to run for 2 hours after he goes to bed or leaves for work then go into hibernation. This extends the amount of time BOINC is allowed to work but it still conserves power. Now he does not miss deadlines. Also, if you can't run 24/7 then you should definitely be using a small work unit cache. Set your "Connect to network about every..." setting to .1 or less. You want it low enough so that BOINC does not cache work units. The reasoning is that if you cannot run 24/7 then you don't want work units sitting in your cache while the deadline ticks away. It's better, in your case, if BOINC waits until the current work unit is almost complete before it downloads another work unit. |
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wcggeri
Cruncher Joined: Sep 9, 2006 Post Count: 5 Status: Offline |
The WCG staff checked the statistics carefully, and determined that nearly everyone could return work units within several days. The deadline was set at 7 days as a compromise for those people who aren't connected to the net constantly. Okay but among the people who could return work units within several days, what was the proportion of people who left their computer mostly on? It's just that 'not having to leave your PC on' is one of the arguments I give my friends and acquaintances when I want to promote distributed computing. That didn't work with WCG. Now the deadline is longer so the point is moot but see what I mean? Now maybe the point wasn't to get as many people as possible. That's another story. |
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wcggeri
Cruncher Joined: Sep 9, 2006 Post Count: 5 Status: Offline |
Hi Dagorath,
Thanks for the advice. I've checked my settings and they were pretty similar to the ones you gave me - I guess it was the default ones. I've lowered them anyway. Well my computer is on quite a lot - I mean I'm not exactly in the same situation as your friend - but seeing as I'm 'active' when it is, work isn't really done. But I'll see if things get better. :) |
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Sekerob
Ace Cruncher Joined: Jul 24, 2005 Post Count: 20043 Status: Offline |
Hi wcggeri, that's a sadly cynic statement
----------------------------------------Now maybe the point wasn't to get as many people as possible. That's another story. It's of course, goes without saying, entirely opposite.....IBM is supporting for this network to become the biggest non-profit live-science distributed computing network in the world. Dont know which client u'd advise your friend/acquaintances, but if running UD agent, there is no work buffering other than the current work unit, not even the 0.1 days that BOINC would i.e. 2.4 hours before finishing the current, getting the next work unit. If installing UD agent and the throttle set to for instance 95% (default is 60%), they'd easily work their way thru one, plus the deadline is 3 Calendar weeks or 2 CPU weeks. Very unlikely you'd got to worry about expiration. take care and thanks for getting your friends on board ciao
WCG
----------------------------------------Please help to make the Forums an enjoyable experience for All! [Edit 3 times, last edit by Sekerob at Sep 10, 2006 10:03:27 AM] |
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wcggeri
Cruncher Joined: Sep 9, 2006 Post Count: 5 Status: Offline |
That it is Sekerob but I do think the point is to get different people from different countries with different capabilities and different habits. It bothered me a little to see that WCG wasn't accessible to me.
That's good to know. I can advise UD for people who do not want to get involved in other projects then. Thanks for your answer. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
wcggeri,
What is your CPU speed? Do you have anything running that might be throttling your CPU back to keep it cool (I'm thinking maybe a Yahoo widget or similar)? Also, if you're active all the time while your computer is running then BOINC will get 0 CPU time if your "Do work while user active" setting is NO. Try setting that to YES if it isn't already. And set your screensaver to use "blank screen" rather than a graphic, the graphic ones waste CPU power. |
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