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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: BOINC Agent Support
Thread: Cores setting: run during day with one and during night with eight |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 8
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chaarmann
Cruncher Joined: Apr 1, 2007 Post Count: 3 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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What's the best way to achieve that on Ubuntu 11.10?
I want to run with one core (maybe 2) of my AMD 8-core-processor in my server during the day from 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM. The reason is that my computer fan is becoming very noisy when the CPU runs with 8 cores in the living room which upsets my family. In the night, I want to run with all 8 cores, because everybody sleeps and cannot hear the noise. I looked at the preferences on the web page and in the boinc-manager and couldn't see any option for that. The closest is to run only during the night. So I need your help in setting it up somehow. Here are some Ideas. Which one is the best? Idea 1: Research for hidden options in the configuration files and maybe I have not recognized a possibility described there. Then I would be glad if you can tell me. Idea 2: Write a shell-script to stop the "boincmgr" process, configure the numbers of processors in the "cc_config.xml" and restart boincmgr. Then make entries in the crontab for the beginning and end of every night which execute this script. It would be nice if you can tell me the options for the boincmgr and the part to configure in the cc_config.xml for this case. I read all the options, but it's a little bit overwhelming and I want to make sure to shut down boinc nicely and not to corrupt ongoing work. Idea 3: Somehow run 2 different "World Community Grid" projects in one BOINC manager (or run 2 BOINC-manager), each with its different settings. Then I would confgure to use 1 CPU core all the time on the first running all the time, and configue to use 7 CPU cores on the second running only in the night. But I have no idea to accomplish that (maybe symbolic links, duplicate boinc directories, different environment variables for each manager?). Can you tell me? I am very happy if you can help me out. I am doing mainly cancer research which I think is very important, and I don't want my CPU to be idle during the day. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Hi,
----------------------------------------What you want has been discussed before and can be achieved by scripting commands through the boinccmd tool. Set up 2 global_prefs_override.xml files, call them e.g. day_prefs.xml and night_prefs.xml, and copy these at the desired times over global_prefs_override.xml and use boinccmd to read in the prefs again. The manual how to use the tool: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Boinccmd The command in question would then be: boinccmd --read_global_prefs_override BOINC has a function to slow down computing too so the fans do not rev up. E.g. set the CPU time during day to e.g. 25% and night 100%. Experiment to find at what percent the fans start kicking in. Of course the client needs to be set to "Run Based on preferences". 8 cores at 25% do more than 1 core at 100% and things will probably still be cooler. --//-- [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Feb 7, 2012 9:46:47 PM] |
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Byteball_730a2960
Senior Cruncher Joined: Oct 29, 2010 Post Count: 318 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I am not sure if this is the right solution for you but how about switching to water cooling or an aftermarket fan (if you haven't already).
Due to where I live, my room temps during the day would hit 40celcius plus during summer. I could only run 3 cores at most, and all six at night once I had run the aircon for a while. Water cooling allows me to run 24/7 whatever the season. I know that this involves spending some cash which I was happy to do as I wanted my machine to run WCG 24/7. You may not want to do that. |
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chaarmann
Cruncher Joined: Apr 1, 2007 Post Count: 3 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Dear SekeRob,
Thank you very much for your help. I did as you suggested and all works well. Also you were right that using 8 cores with 25% is less noisy and cooler than using only 2 cores with 100%. Thanks for this tip! Can this effect be improved somehow? I have seen from the graphic in the System Monitor that the usage of 25% of 8 cores goes in waves and is not a flat line. (All cores have an exactly overlapping wave: starting from 0%, going up to to 100%, going down to 0% again and then staying some time a 0% until going up to the next peak). Wouldn't power saving kick in and further decrease the heat dissipation if the wave could be somehow configured to be a flat line, staying at 25% with all 8 processors? Do you have an idea how to do that? For other people with the same problem, here is the detailed description how I did it: Runnig BOINC on Ubuntu 11.10 with different setting for a time span: 1.) In BOINC Manager, under menu entry "tols --> computing preferences", tab "processor Usage", I entered 100% of the processors and 100% CPU time and pressed ok-button. Then I went with the file manager Nautilus (as root) to the directory "/etc/boinc-client" and copied "global_prefs_override.xml" to "global_prefs_override_night.xml". 2.) Then back in BOINC, I entered 25% CPU time, hit ok and copied the file again, but as "global_prefs_override_day.xml". 3.) Now I executed "scheduled tasks" (alias Gnome-schedule) as root and made 2 entries. The first that starts every evening has the command: cd /etc/boinc-client; cp global_prefs_override_night.xml global_prefs_override.xml; /usr/bin/boinccmd --read_global_prefs_override The second that starts every morning has the command: cd /etc/boinc-client; cp global_prefs_override_day.xml global_prefs_override.xml; /usr/bin/boinccmd --read_global_prefs_override These commands copy the corresponding settings over the default settings. |
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Dark Angel
Veteran Cruncher Australia Joined: Nov 11, 2005 Post Count: 721 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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That's how the BOINC throttling works. It's time based not load based, which is how the system allocates load generally anyway, so it will run the process for n seconds out of every x seconds.
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chaarmann
Cruncher Joined: Apr 1, 2007 Post Count: 3 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Dear vcd683s,
Thank you for your suggestion. B Before I bought the PC, I was under the impression that the fan would be less noisy. If you use watercooling, isn't there a fan, too? How do you do it without? With a big water tank outside? Reading your answer I am thinking about retrofit it somehow. What hardware would you suggest? Spending cash is no problem. This is the hardware of my PC: Enermax ETS-T40-TB be Quiet! Straight P. BQT E8 550W Case: CoolerMaster Sileo 500 Graphic: Gigabyte HD5450 SL Processor: AMD FX-8120 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 I have read that you need a suitable mother board, because with water cooling instead of a fan, the heat is reduced at a single point, the CPU only, and not at the chips directly around the CPU which can cause them to fail. Do you think my motherboard is suitable? |
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rilian
Veteran Cruncher Ukraine - we rule! Joined: Jun 17, 2007 Post Count: 1453 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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i'd just update cc_config.xml file with <ncpus>1</ncpus> and <ncpus>8</ncpus> and run boinccmd -- read config file on the needed time
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Byteball_730a2960
Senior Cruncher Joined: Oct 29, 2010 Post Count: 318 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Hi chaarmann,
I bought the Antec Kuhler 920 for my system. It may be a little too much for the system but I would rather spend a little more and have the extra buffer. The cooler will fit your socket (AM3+), and I think your case is big enough too. The setup is one fan + radiator + one fan. This means that it sticks out into the case a bit. You just need to check that it will not interfere with your memory or stuff. My case is quite big, so it is not a problem. The only problem I see is that when I bought it, there was only windows software to control the cooler. I don't know if there is a linux version now. I would say that you should see what is on the market for you and make a decision. It was a great decision for me and I run much smoother and quieter than before. The fans do run and they sometimes get a little noisy but much much quieter than the stock fan. |
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