Differences in percentage of time BOINC client is running
7 Sep 2006 10:32:56 UTC
Topic 191803
(moderation:
I have BOINC running on four computers in my workplace. I found out that in two of those the % of time BOINC client is running is between 1 & 5 whereas for the other two it is about 85% , even though I have set the same preferences ( run always ) for all four. Can anybody please explain the reason behind this and also suggest ways to increase the running time.
Differences in percentage of time BOINC client is running
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BOINC is by design a leftovers user. It runs _all_ the time that other tasks are not running.
So you question is actually not a BOINC question at all, but rather the question of what it is that these machines are running, and whether you actually want it running, and how to turn it off.
For your three Windows XP machines, you can just type type ctrl-alt-delete to bring up Windows Task Manager, click the processes tab, then click on the CPU column once or twice to get the tasks sorted in order of decreasing momentary usage. While some things may pop up in the list momentarily, most should stay at tiny numbers. The big ones are your target.
You can also sort on the CPU time tab, but this is resources used since task began, and since that moment is not the same for all tasks, this is not a direct comparison. It still can be quite useful.
Even in XP, sometimes tasks fire up and just keep using lots of time not getting anything done you want. Some actual examples from my XP machine:
1. mixer.exe--sometimes after I use an audio ap, this just keeps using lots of time
2. spoolsv.exe--often after I print over the network from my XP machine to a the HP 4100 laser printer hosted on a Windows 98 machine, the spoolsv.exe task keeps consuming lots of CPU until I kill it or reboot. When it does so, it also is generally generating limit rate network traffic!
3. FireFox--certain things on certain web sites (mostly advertisements) make Firefox consume much more CPU than normal--10% or more forever, not just in spurts. Usually closing the offending tab gets it back, though if I have lots of tabs open, just killing the browser and starting up a fresh copy is quicker.
On Win98, I'm not aware that Microsoft ships something that gives you task-specific resource consumption this readily. But there are third-party aps, some free and some pay. A free one I learned of here which runs nicely on my XP machine is Process Explorer from Sysinternals. If there is a Win98 version, you might like that. Be aware that it uses a couple of percent on my P4, so don't run it while you are not looking at it.
A last point on Win98 is that sometimes the BOINC application CPU logging gets seriously off. I've seen it go to double counting its own work, and also to zero counting. Rebooting generally fixes this.
Good luck.
Just to clarify here a
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Just to clarify here a little:
The Percent BOINC Client Running is a measure of how much the BOINC CC is running as fraction of real wall/calendar time. IOW, if you shut your machine off or disable BOINC for any length of time, this metric will tank the next time you connect to the project servers. For example, I had shut one of my machines down while I was out of town for a couple of weeks back at the beginning of August. Normally, it runs 24/7 and comes in around 90-95 percent. When I got back and fired it back up, the percentage had dropped to 65% and is only back up to 85%, even though it has been on continously since then.
The Percent Time Work Allowed is an indication of how busy your machine is with other tasks when BOINC is running. Generally speaking, this metric is more or less independant of the Client Running one.
WRT Archae86 comments:
Keep in mind these are for figuring out why your Time Work Allowed is lower than you think it should be. Typically the CC burns so little time compared to the science app and virtually everything else that runs as to have almost no impact on this metric.
As far as your question goes, I don't think there is anything you can do to influence the Client Running metric other than to leave the machine up and running BOINC for an extended period of time.
HTH,
Alinator
You said that the percentage
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You said that the percentage of time BOINC client is running is with respect to real/calender time. But none of the computers in my account runs more than 10 hrs a day. Then how come I get a figure of ~ 85% in two of my computers?
Well, that's a good question,
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Well, that's a good question, and unfortunately I don't have a good answer for it at the moment. ;-)
I've just done some rooting around on the main BOINC site and the Unofficial BOINC WIKI, but haven't found anything satisfactory yet. :-(
All I can say at this point is this is how it seems to work on my 24/7 crunchers but I haven't run a part-timer (like a laptop for example) in awhile, and as you say for 10 hours a day ~40% should be the max for the running percentage.
I'll keep digging and see if I can come up with more info. ;-)
Alinator
@Alinator: Well, my desktop
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@Alinator: Well, my desktop would qualify as a "part-timer" atm... I think it never runs for more than 12-14 hours a day. But still the page says the following:
% of time BOINC client is running 92.7722 %
If your theory was 100% correct it shouldn't be more than 60% or so I think... so there's probably sth else that comes in the equation. Prob is, I have no idea what it is... does someone else?
Yep, something's strange
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Yep, something's strange here. Maybe John McLeod (aka JM7) will see this and reply. He does a lot of work on the BOINC Scheduler code, and would know for sure what the story is with this metric.
I'm going to ask over on SAH NC as well. Will post back if I find out anything.
Alinator
% of time BOINC client is
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% of time BOINC client is running 99.4311 %
While BOINC running, % of time work is allowed 99.9817 %
Average CPU efficiency 0.513307
These 3 entries are multiplied to get the final adjustment value. Multiplying the first 2 may get you closer to the uptime expected for your part time host.
It takes a few weeks for the numbers to stablize. If the host is new the adjustments may not be finished yet.
BOINC WIKI
BOINCing since 2002/12/8
@ KK: Yep, that make sense
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@ KK: Yep, that make sense for how the Scheduler uses the parameters for figuring if/how much work to send. However I think the question was more about how the Client Running parameter is defined.
@ Atanu: I haven't found/heard a definitive answer yet, but here's a link to some anecdotal evidence it's the real Wall/Calendar time the machine is on *and* the BOINC client is running. Look at the BOINC log snippet in the OP.
Although, that still doesn't explain why your's seem to be so far out of the ballpark.
Alinator
DUHHHHH, Alinator!!!! Forgot the link. :-O
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=33790
The way I read the 3 numbers
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The way I read the 3 numbers John mentioned is as follows:
% of time BOINC client is running is fraction of wall clock time that BOINC CC actually runs. This may be roughly the same as computer's uptime if you run BOINC CC as service or anything less if you run BOINC CC only when an user is logged in or something else. So, if you're running BOINC as a service and your computer is on 10-14 hours per day, this number should be somewhere around 50%.
While BOINC running, % of time work is allowed is fraction of time, when BOIC CC (if running) is allowed to run project binaries. If I'm not much mistaken, the only way of getting this number considerably lower than 100% is to have set some restrictions for Do work while computer is running on batteries?, Do work while computer is in use? and Do work only between the hours of. I guess that this number can never be exactly 100% due to running benchmark every now and then (and during benchmark, work is suspended).
Average CPU efficiency shows how much of CPU time scientific app gets when actually running. This number indicates how much CPU time is actually left for BOINC apps. It depends on other activities on the computer. If you're using you computer heavily, then this can be as low as less than 10%. My guess is that if your computer is mainly used for normal tasks such as playing music, playing DVD/DivX movies, text editing, occasional game, then it'll normally be well above 50% and possibly above 90%. Naturally it will never be 100% as there's always a fraction of CPU time consumed by OS itself. A fraction of time is also consumed by any antivirus and/or firewall software.
Back to Atanu's original question: it might be that low percent of BOINC running time on those two computers is due to either computers are actually off or BOINC is not installed as a service. If BOINC is set only to run as screen saver, then it can get very low run time. If BOINC is set only to run when a particular user is logged in, then it won't run if some other user is logged in.
My preference is to install BOINC as a service everywhere. If I get only a partial 'yes' from computer user/owner, then I set it to run science apps only when not in use. Which means it'll get a bit more run time than when set to run as screen saver but will still cause only minor impact on target machine. It also means I can manage that client (using some GUI RPC client such as BoincView) most of time.
Metod ...