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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Completed Research
Forum: The Clean Energy Project - Phase 2 Forum
Thread: Windows update and checkpoint saving before a restart |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 27
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nittany85
Cruncher United States of America Joined: Apr 29, 2007 Post Count: 17 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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The CEP project can be frustrating in that it seems to have some jobs that go very long times before or between checkpoints. For example I have one job currently running that has almost 14 hours of CPU time spent with no checkpoint.
I manage this by checking the progress of any CEP project that I am running before I turn off my laptop. In order to save CPU time that could be lost by a shutdown I first Suspend the BOINC manager and then I use the Sleep command on my laptop. When I wake up my laptop from its sleep I then go back to the Run mode in BOINC. I have not seen this problem with other projects because they have more frequent checkpoints during execution. It would be nice if the CEP team could change its projects to allow more checkpoints during an individual work unit. For the case I mention above I have had to put my computer into Sleep mode twice over two days and the project has still not created a checkpoint to save the work in progress. |
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Yarensc
Advanced Cruncher USA Joined: Sep 24, 2011 Post Count: 134 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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They can't add more checkpoints without adding very long delays. In the middle of a job the file is very large, and it would need to stop computing for a long time to save that file each added checkpoint.
When Leave Application in Memory is checked it keeps the data saved in RAM when the WU is paused, however when you turn off the computer the contents of RAM are all lost (it needs constant electricity to hold that data). Since hibernation saves everything in RAM to the disk before turning off and then restores it when the computer is turned back on, you basically avoid the problem. I believe the reason why some people report this doesn't work is because BOINC keeps running a little after Windows/OSX/Linux/ect tries to hibernate which messes it up. This is probably why some people report that suspending BOINC a minute or two before hibernating solves their data lose problems. @cehunt Don't worry about the end date, the CEP scientists have said the end date is ever extending, whenever we finish a batch of WU's they just make a new one. So basically as long as they keep getting grant money, work will flow. |
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Speedy51
Veteran Cruncher New Zealand Joined: Nov 4, 2005 Post Count: 1220 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I manage this by checking the progress of any CEP project that I am running before I turn off my laptop. In order to save CPU time that could be lost by a shutdown I first Suspend the BOINC manager and then I use the Sleep command on my laptop. When I wake up my laptop from its sleep I then go back to the Run mode in BOINC. I tried suspending Boinc last night before I put my desktop into hibernation. However when I resumed my computer and suspended Boinc this morning my CEP2 task. Task started from its last checkpoint so I lost 2 1/2 to 3 hours work. I just thought I would share with you my experience using steps you described with my desktop. I find it strange because I used to be able to resume from hibernation without any issues at all. CEP2 task (s) would resume from where they left off. Yes I have got LAIM turned on.  |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
hi everyone. I seem to have an issue with CEP2 (though i'm not sure) and from what i've been reading, this thread is sort of relevant. If i am mistaking, please point me to the right direction.
----------------------------------------To my issue: There was an automatic restart on my laptop last night, and just now i noticed i have two CEP2 workunits that are counting down to 207(!!!) hrs each to completion, running in high priority, a bit short of 9 days. I;ve been on WCG for only a few months, but i've never had a WU this long. I read on the forum that CEP2 WUnits are having a 18 hr limit, so i was wandering, are these hours normal? I am going through this with my laptop, a quad i3. I don;t mind having it awake for ten days to finish this, i am just wandering if such a long time for a workunit to complete is normal. Thanks in advance -Fo- [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Feb 26, 2014 9:48:13 PM] |
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Yarensc
Advanced Cruncher USA Joined: Sep 24, 2011 Post Count: 134 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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The way that BOINC calculates the estimated time doesn't work very well with WCG because there are multiple different projects running here. Often when you have a long estimated time (although I've never seen one ever close to 207) it rapidly goes down during the middle/end of the job.
If it doesn't finish it'll cut off at 18 hours, just like you said, and report back to the CEP servers. Some of the molocules that are released to the grid are much more complicated than expected, which is why the limit is in place, so your computer doesn't waste time on one WU when you could have done 2 or 3. The 18 hour cut off doesn't change if the result is valid or not, so don't worry about your points/badges. |
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Loui_h20
Cruncher Joined: Aug 12, 2013 Post Count: 25 Status: Offline |
Going to turn off Hyperthreading and update Boinc so currently waiting on the last WU to checkpoint then finally suspend it. The WU is 10h 28m in so far and it's only on its 2nd check point!.... I am not losing all that work!!!!
----------------------------------------11:27:18....  And now Boinc installer wont reinstall Boinc even though it's asking and I'm pointing it to Boinc.msi file!!!!! " \BOINC.msi' is not a valid installation package for the product BOINC." WHAT????? In the end I had to use the "Windows_Installer_CleanUp_Utility" software to get back to normal. Now lets start these WU up one at a time! Okay! Every thing is back on track and back to normal!!!! Well normal for CEP2 anyway. Thought I edited this before I posted..... fixed. But really something did go a bit bonkers when I updated boinc on my work PC. Even when I pointed the installer to the msi file, without typing ;-), it still wouldn't run properly.  [Edit 8 times, last edit by Loui_h20 at Mar 9, 2014 4:01:16 PM] |
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tuna73
Cruncher USA Joined: May 14, 2008 Post Count: 3 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Perhaps it's because of the spelling difference between "BIONC" and "BOINC"??
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