Einstein@Home scheduler logs available on-line
3 Dec 2005 18:12:49 UTC
Topic 190285
(moderation:
To help new and old users, admins and troubleshooters to debug problems with their BOINC installation and with BOINC, I have put the (sanatized) Einstein@Home scheduler logs onto the following web page http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/sched_logs/ where they may be viewed. This can be very helpful to understand (for example) why a particular host machine is not getting any work.
Please use this thread to make suggestions about improving this system, or to ask questions about how to interpret the information in the scheduler logs.
The logs are organized by HOUR, with one directory per hour. Within each hour are sixty log files, one for each minute. I did this because otherwise the files would be too large for practical use.
To compare these scheduler-side logs with the BOINC client logs on your host machines, please remember that the timestamps on the scheduler logs are in the Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) time-zone. You will have to shift these by your computer's offset from UTC to compare timestamps.
In doing this comparison, you may want to set your computers time with high-precision (for example by using the Network Time Protocol, or NTP). This should allow you to make comparisons to within a few milliseconds.
The scripts that I have written will maintain the last week of scheduler logs on the web in real time. For technical reasons they are created after a 3 minute delay. Note that since multiple instances of the BOINC scheduler run simultaneously, the times in the logs may not increase monotonically.
Generally you will want to search though the logs for the records corresponding to your computer. The best way is to use your browser's FIND tool to locate the text [HOST#XXXXX] where XXXXXX is the number of your host. You can find this number on the 'Your computers' page.
Bruce Allen
Director, Einstein@Home
Einstein@Home scheduler logs available on-line
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Hi Bruce:
This jargon-laden stuff is hard for a civilian to follow. My BOINC SCREENSAVER has been displaying BOINC is idle for 2-3 DAYS NOW! IMPOSSIBLE, I say. What's up?
Jon Pinkus
Washington DC
202-296-5600
RE: Hi Bruce: This
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Jon,
You might want to kill that screensaver, because it's killing your workunits.
Just guessing, but do you have an ATI graphics card? Your WUs are showing the 0cx0000005 errorcode, indicative of a graphics error, which you'll see posted 100s of times on these boards as the Dreaded Graphics Bug. It's cause by an incompatability between the newer versions of Boinc and the present (read "OLD") version of the Einstein app, which pre-dates any Boinc version newer than 4.19.
Long story short, here's what you need to do.
1) Visit the website of your vidcard, either ATI or nVidia and download and install the most recent drivers for your vidcard.
2) Two options here.
..A) Disable the screensaver in display Properties....OR
..B) Download and install the 0.18 "beta" Einstein app here, and be careful to follow all the directions on the webpage.
Regards,
Michael
microcraft
"The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice" - MLK
Thank you, Michael. I'll try
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Thank you, Michael. I'll try to follow your suggestions. First, how do I determine which Vidcard I have -- in the Windows Control Panel? The thing is, I'd just joined, and the first rotation to the "celestial sphere" came up and operated fine for several days. Now it won't seem to come up. But I've also partitioned my "time" to the SETI and Climate Change projects, as well. Could the problem lie there, or is it definitely with my PC?
RE: Thank you, Michael.
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Jon,
Your problem is definitely the "graphics bug" and it's only a problem related to running Einstein 4.79 (the official Einstein application). BOINC will only run the Einstein screensaver when it is running the Einstein application. When BOINC is running another project, the other project's screensaver will be displayed. But, the "graphics bug" will only strike when Einstein is running.
As to your video card (also known as display adapter), you can find out what you have by opening your Windows "System" Control Panel, clicking the "Hardware" tab and then clicking on "Device Manager". Your video card will be listed under "Display adapters".
I use the Beta application (one of the options that Michael suggested) and it works very well (i.e. it fixes the "graphics bug" and is very stable). I recommend it.
However, you should be aware that a new science application is likely to be released soon. It will include the fixes that are in the Beta app and it will also do more intensive scientific calculations than v4.79. When the new application is released it will be automatically downloaded to users running v4.79. But, if you switch to the Beta app, you will not get the new application automatically - so you will have to "pay attention" and "switch back". Nothing real difficult, but something to keep in mind.
Stick
RE: Thank you, Michael.
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Jon,
I'm sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. By way of explanation, I had just about finished a detailed reply when we had a power outage at the house, and I've been in the basement since, sorting out and re-running some wiring.
Thanks to Stick for taking over. I'd like to add to his navigation instructions. Once you are in Device Manager, you'll see an entry for Display Adaptors. click on the "+" next to that entry and 1 or 2 (depending on whether it is set up for dual monitors) indented entries below. Double-click on the top (or only) indented entry and in the box that opens, select the "General" tab, where the manufacturer of your adaptor can be seen. You can follow the links for ATI and nVidia that I gave earlier. If the manufacturer is Intel, check here.
microcraft
"The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice" - MLK
Whenever you look at a host
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Whenever you look at a host in the database, there is a timestamp for 'last scheduler contact'. I have now made this an HTML link to the appropriate minute of the log files.
Director, Einstein@Home
RE: Whenever you look at a
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Dr. Allen,
Thank you very much!!! I'm sure that will prove to be extremely useful to us.
Regards,
Michael
microcraft
"The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice" - MLK
Before August 30, I could
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Before August 30, I could access my log from the date I started this project.
Now I only get logs from August 30 onwards.
Is there a way to review my total log?
That is when I using allprojectstats.
RE: Before August 30, I
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Due to server load and related performance problems, this facility is not in it's original form. Sorry.
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal