1) Message boards : News : do you have any experience with running a VM based application in BOINC? (Message 42418)
Posted 3052 days ago by Profile Raptures Riot
With the limitations Richard has noted, my personal experience is:
1) The volunteer must commit to running VMs when they create an account.
2) VMs run normal priority so they tend to crowd out other polite project tasks (and the user) if running near CPU or memory limits.
3) VMs, of course, reserve resources up front (particularly memory) and don't share it with the user.
4) VM's use resources just to build the VM. It would be nice if a constructed VM could be used over and over once allocated.

None the less, I've committed to running for CERN because I'm interested in their research.
2) Message boards : Number crunching : Error--no project URL in task state file...Computer crash (Message 42206)
Posted 3078 days ago by Profile Raptures Riot
After an automatic reboot from a crash, the task state file is often empty. This leads to the above error. And there is no checkpoint information. I'm running a Windows 10 Pro x64. An in-process task will then show 0% progress and will begin over. However, the BOINC manager will show an elapsed time. I've found that resuming such a task usually results in a validation failure. I abort it to begin a fresh task.

I thought elapsed time was also contained in the task state file. I'm clueless how it's recovering that information. These tasks seem to checkpoint fairly often so my inclination is to believe the file was active at the time of crash and was left blank.

Is this task lost because of the crash state? Is there a way to preserve the task state file upon a crash?
3) Message boards : Number crunching : Energies have become nan (Message 26643)
Posted 4268 days ago by Profile Raptures Riot
Thank you Retvari for your reply. I'm making small changes to try and improve my reliability. The card's <less than ideal> gaming configuration is a valuable point and I have learned something.
4) Message boards : Number crunching : Energies have become nan (Message 26639)
Posted 4269 days ago by Profile Raptures Riot
My candid feeling is that the 6.16 (Cuda 42) is an agressive routine. My 470's are running at stock voltages and frequencies. Some potential adjustments (especially for the inexperienced of us) could shorten the life of these cards and reduce our contributions to this project. The previous coding ran nearly flawlessly for me. I take these suggestions to heart, but also with a grain of hesitation. I, for one, am not so experienced to acheive high success on this Grid while compromising future potential. It is, as it always is, to each their own. Caution is always best. I may be wrong, but I am always willing to learn.
5) Message boards : Graphics cards (GPUs) : NOELIA WUs getting "stuck" (Message 26636)
Posted 4269 days ago by Profile Raptures Riot
I am getting a lot of 'Energies have become nan' the same as many others. This usually occurs 3 or 4 hours into the calc. I'm presuming 'nan' means 'indeterminate' which is a legitimate conclusion to the model. Therefore I do not understand why the calculation ends in an error. Please, if this result is useful info, can a 'completeded successfully' be awarded? There seems to be some disenchantment in the forums over this topic. I know everyone here is dedicated and respectful and we try real hard for results. Let's understand why 'nan' can be a good 3 letter word.
6) Message boards : Graphics cards (GPUs) : Error units PAOLA (Message 26316)
Posted 4303 days ago by Profile Raptures Riot
Agreed to take the bad with the good. Just had a 1E2I fail after 7 hours. I get occassional driver crashes and permanently frozen displays with the 4.2's. All 4.2's seem 'touch and go' regardless of the author. Any further refinements would be much appreciated.


//