| Index | Recent Threads | Unanswered Threads | Who's Active | Guidelines | Search |
 |
World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: BOINC Agent Support
Thread: Restored C:\ProgramData\BOINC but got new hostid/Device anyways |
| No member browsing this thread |
|
Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 7
|
|
| Author |
|
|
hchc
Veteran Cruncher USA Joined: Aug 15, 2006 Post Count: 805 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
I reinstalled a Win10 Pro 64-bit (1809 = 17763) Desktop that had Device = 4964376. I installed the BOINC client, and before it even connected to the Internet, I copied over from backup the old C:\ProgamData\BOINC folder in its entirety.
----------------------------------------I previously had luck a couple weeks ago doing this, and a new device ID was not created; however, today, no matter what I try, a new Device = 5346018 keeps getting replaced in both client_state.xml and client_state_prev.xml files. It's driving me nuts, and I don't know why this process worked perfectly a couple weeks ago when I migrated from HDD to SSD, but it's not working today. I know that the WCG BOINC back-end is custom, so there's no standard "merge device" functionality, but this question is more to the power users here who have successfully restored from backup before and not had duplicate devices created. Is it because this time I didn't first abort all the outstanding tasks or wait for the "In Progress" ones to expire and age off? I'm more than willing to try to wait until April 2 or so until all tasks have expired. Or even until mid-April when the tasks have been completely moved out of the current database. (Yes, I'm that OCD about keeping device stats for one box together.)
|
||
|
|
hchc
Veteran Cruncher USA Joined: Aug 15, 2006 Post Count: 805 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
I cleared out the entire ProgramData directory and only left the account_world....xml file and the client_state.xml file, and I used a clean template and only included the one tag to force it to update everything. It looked something like this:
----------------------------------------<client_state> I think this would have worked for 99% of BOINC projects except WCG doesn't conform to this de-duplication method. Instead, I found this: https://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Host_identification_and_merging Alternate identification method at World Community Grid WCG uses a different method to recognize existing devices to prevent duplicate registrations. The server compares the following host information: user name (network name of host) domain_name (The default on Windows is "WORKGROUP") ip_addr (the ip of the client on the local network) operating system name processor vendor memory The most recent record that matches these attributes (if found) will be re-used. It will cancel any results currently assigned to the client, and then issue new work. This is because a user might be trying to clear out some work that was causing some form of trouble. If any of this information is hidden through for instance setting the <suppress_net_info> flag in the cc_config.xml file suppressing the IP address or domain_name, the method fails and will create a new device registration. I made sure that this box is identical in specs and internal IP address on my LAN via DHCP as it was just a couple days ago. it is. Yet because the new hostid was created this morning, no matter what I do, it assigns the new hostid instead of the old hostid. The only thing I can think of is: 1. Have a tech delete device: 5346018 2. Try and wait until after April 2 when all work units have aged off. Maybe April 12 or so. Then try again. I am hell bent on having this box use its original hostid, and it would be nice if WCG used the standard de-dupe algorithm using the <hostid> tag in client_state.xml.
[Edit 1 times, last edit by hchc at Mar 23, 2019 5:11:15 PM] |
||
|
|
hchc
Veteran Cruncher USA Joined: Aug 15, 2006 Post Count: 805 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
SekeRob made several good posts in this thread from 2012: https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg...ead,33401_offset,0#383846
----------------------------------------I'm gonna try to suppress the IP/domain/workgroup by setting <suppress_net_info>1</suppress_net_info> in cc_config.xml and see if that forces it to use the <hostid> tag in client_state.xml instead of the WCG custom method of matching off computername, workgroup/domain, memory, local IP, etc. Will report back.
|
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
With Windows, was there something in the registry that was deleted when you did the reinstall of Windows? I haven't used Windows in long time by I thought BOINC stored some information in the registry...
|
||
|
|
hchc
Veteran Cruncher USA Joined: Aug 15, 2006 Post Count: 805 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
I give up. Waited ~3 weeks for all tasks to age off Results Status for both device IDs, and first copied the desired client_state.xml with the existing host_id, same IP, hostname, workgroup, etc., and it still matched me with the duplicate host id, I presume because it was the most recent matching CPU/RAM/OS/IP specs.
----------------------------------------There is no way to override this process using client_state.xml with the desired host ID. Now I am stuck with fragmented stats (obviously the sky is falling right?) for the same physical computer and no way to delete the errant deviceID/hostID and no way to merge both devices together. I hope that this will be discussed in the BOINC Conference in July 2019 so that WCG implements the standard BOINC back-end "Merge" and "Delete" functions, as we have been waiting for this feature set since 2012 and possibly earlier. I remember reading discussion on the BOINC GitHub repo that 7.16 of the client will do away with reporting possible PII like internal IP address, workgroup/domain, etc. I wonder if more back-end changes to legacy WCG customizations can be retired to give us merge/delete Device management, por favor.
[Edit 3 times, last edit by hchc at Apr 18, 2019 10:35:03 AM] |
||
|
|
Sgt.Joe
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 4, 2006 Post Count: 7684 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
Yes, I know this can be frustrating, but it is not the end of the world. I have gone through a number of machines, harddrives, power supplies, motherboards and other assorted hardware failures. Just one of the hazards of running some machines 24/7 or using "free" (old) components. It would have been nice to get the same machine ID from having the hard drives fail, but since that is not the case, I live with it. When the motherboard fails, I know it will be a different machine ID no matter what. If I really wanted to track a particular machine, I would have devised a system, but I am not that obsessive/compulsive about keeping track of every last detail. I am happy enough just keeping track of my active machines. I applaud you for contributing even though you find this shortcoming very much not to your liking. Keep up the good work.
----------------------------------------Cheers
Sgt. Joe
*Minnesota Crunchers* |
||
|
|
katoda
Senior Cruncher Poland Joined: Apr 28, 2007 Post Count: 170 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
Just my two cents, did you try to increase rpc_seqno in client_state.xml file? I had a similar situation like yours and the reason was that apparently I had an obsolete version of config files of that specific device - rpc_seqno from my file was lower than actual value and old hostid was refused. Increasing rpc_seqno solved the issue.
---------------------------------------- [Edit 1 times, last edit by katoda at Apr 22, 2019 6:30:23 PM] |
||
|
|
|