Want to run 100% CEP2 WUs? Here's how...

[sabre23]

I cannot put up decent points via CEP2 WU's.
Because of power outage I have to shut down my pc 4-5 times in a day which costing hours of CPU cycles going in wastage. (Damn checkpoint system of CEP2)
Guess i have to shift back to SN2S and FA@home after challenge period.

 

[Peter1986C]

The current challenge is an "all projects" one, actually. BTW, you could maybe choose to hibernate the computer instead of shutting it down? I do not know whether the computer does a hard or proper shutdown though since I do not know wheter you have a backup battery system in between the power grid and computer.

Anyway, nobody forces you to run CEP2 units. Many just run the other stuff. We will understand.

BTW, maybe [Ion] or T_ski are willing to crunch in your name during the upcoming CEP challenge with a part of their resources. Just send them a PM to ask about it. I know they did this before.

 

[sabre23]

The current challenge is an "all projects" one, actually. BTW, you could maybe choose to hibernate the computer instead of shutting it down? I do not know whether the computer does a hard or proper shutdown though since I do not know wheter you have a backup battery system in between the power grid and computer.

Anyway, nobody forces you to run CEP2 units. Many just run the other stuff. We will understand.

BTW, maybe [Ion] or T_ski are willing to crunch in your name during the upcoming CEP challenge with a part of their resources. Just send them a PM to ask about it. I know they did this before.

I thought that it was CEP2 challenge only.

but beforehand i was trying to run multiproject only but it is throwing a unique problem which i stated few days ago in the forum {i.e. When i set my Profile to run FA@Home, SC2S and CEP2 together then I do not get any WUs of CEP2 stating that i do not meet the minimum bandwith requirement of this project ;64KB/s; But when i created new profile with only CEP2 i got WUs without any problem}

This is why i was saying that i will shift to previous setup from 23rd.

 

[Norton]

I thought that it was CEP2 challenge only.

but beforehand i was trying to run multiproject only but it is throwing a unique problem which i stated few days ago in the forum {i.e. When i set my Profile to run FA@Home, SC2S and CEP2 together then I do not get any WUs of CEP2 stating that i do not meet the minimum bandwith requirement of this project ;64KB/s; But when i created new profile with only CEP2 i got WUs without any problem}

This is why i was saying that i will shift to previous setup from 23rd.

The current challenge is All projects (CEP2 will be in October). However, you are free to use the challenge time to try to see how your rig(s) will handle CEP2 or just run your rig as you normally would.

There may be some adjustments regarding how CEP2 saves it's progress to improve the checkpoint issue but I don't know what they are atm. I do you how you feel... lost progress on about a dozen CEP2 jobs yesterday when I tripped over the extension cord for my power strip and it pulled out of the outlet

 

[Arjai]

I just set up the SuperCache, with a 14 day trail, like mentioned in OP.

I am still burning through FAH WU's right now. I am running ver 5.2.1251.0, and the UI is very simple.

First, set up a Boinc partition. I have an i5, 4 logical cores with a 10GB partition used only for BOINC. You will need to uninstall BOINC, and Re-Install, to point it to the new partition. Mine is Drive G:.

Once you have installed SuperCache, and rebooted. Run it. Select your partition from the list. Select 'Action', from the menu at the top. Select Cache from the drop down. Pick 'Start.

The new window will give you some options. Leave the top slider alone. Second one, slide down to 4K. Check the 'Deferred Write' box. Slide the slider up to 'Infinite'.

My cache was set up to 3.51GB, out of 8 total. It is using 3.41 of that cache due to the 4k blocks. I may up the first slider, for a larger memory allotment, later.

Right now the cache is writing a bit to the HDD every 2 1/2 minutes, roughly.

I will update this post after the FAH's are done, and I am spooled up on CEP2's. Probably tomorrow morning; Possibly in the evening, after work.

**Now, an hour later, the writes to HDD are just over 3 minutes. As though it is learning on the go. Nice

*Update 10/5* Ok, after a couple days of learning this thing, SuperCache, it is working nicely. I changed the color of the 'Write%' line to a bright yellow. Now I can tell when it writes to the HDD. Currently I am running 2 FA@H and 2CEP2's. There are times it goes 13 minutes between dumps to the HDD but, I think, because of the 2 FA@H WU's there are random short writes mixed in, every so often. Once those finish, I should get a more accurate assessment. Then I will have 4 CEP2's running and I will be able to time the dumps to disc without FA@H's interfering. I still have 2 of them in the mix that should run overnight and then I will be 100% CEP2. And will have 8 days of data to play with. Overall, quite pleased with this software. Also, I have upped the cache to 4.93GB. All seems well there, as I bounce around 7.2 to 7.4 GB usage, out of 8 total. Time there will tell if it works or slows me down. Oh, it also does not have a problem with sleep mode. I can close it up, travel around, wake it up and it handles it without a hiccup! Nice!

 

[Arjai]

Well, last night I had a bit of a bunch up. Running 4 CEP2's, SuperCache of 4.93 GB and uploading about 6 finished jobs.

Turns out that was just enough to freeze things up. It unlocked itself a few moments freeze, repeat. So, I suspended all the WU's, Let all the uploads happen, then adjusted the SuperCache down to 3.99GB.

All seems fine now. 6.7 to 6.9 GB out of eight runs smoothly, so far. I have not timed the dumps to disc at this setting, however it is still doing a fine job of saving the writes for minutes at a time then dumping for between 1 and 8 seconds. I have a slow 5400 rpm drive so, those times are accentuated.

More to come...

**update 10/8** Ok, this morning. Put it to sleep to pack up for the coffee shop. 3.99GB cache, 2 done 4 running. Get to the coffee shop and the SuperCache is writing for ten minutes straight as the for running jobs go through re-starting, numerous times only to error out. Meanwhile, while the HDD is running at 100%, SuperCache is non responsive. I finally gained control and decided to change up some stuff, in the hopes of being a bit more stable.

Currently I have set BOINC to 75% CPU, meaning I am running three WU's with a new setting of 3.33GB cache. Since I use this computer for everyday use in addition to crunching, I need some space in memory for it to smoothly do what I want it to. CEP2 needs at least 1 GB in the cache to function well. 4BG has proven to slow things down and freeze for long-ish periods. It seems that in order to save the thrashing of my HDD, 12 to 20+ writes per minute, I need to compromise. If I could up the RAM any more I could definitely run four CEP2's with SuperCache w/out trouble. Or if this was only used for crunching I could also run all four, no problems. But, as it stands I need this for more than that.

In the couple hours since the change, I have downloaded twenty songs from NPR and now am listening to them, writing this, no hitches. Ram has 1.8GB of free space, fourth core is open for me and my stuff, and 3 CEP2's are crunching along. Oh, AND, my drive light is getting a nice rest! Once this runs for a bit, in this configuration, I may try to run four again, for my overnight crunching. Since, I am then not using it. Then in the morning, change it back to the current 75%. We'll see how the next 24 goes!

 

[Arjai]

The change to three, while surfing and such, has been great. It also has run overnight with four WU's with no problems.

If I haven't already stated this, I think this Super Cache thingy is great. I would recommend it to anyone that is concerned about the writes to HDD or SSD. I find that, on average, I can go over ten minutes between flushes, sometimes WAY over.

Don't know what else to say. I have found my happy medium, I wish I had more room for RAM but, I am making do with what I have, well.

 

[agent00skid]

On my A6 I went ahead and just plopped WCG data folder into a RAM drive.

4GB RAM drive seems to only be just enough for 3 active CEP2 units though.

Also 4GB for RAM drive and then the 3 WU's in memory is a bit much for my 8GB kit.

 

[Arjai]

On my A6 I went ahead and just plopped WCG data folder into a RAM drive.

4GB RAM drive seems to only be just enough for 3 active CEP2 units though.

Also 4GB for RAM drive and then the 3 WU's in memory is a bit much for my 8GB kit.

Mine too. I had trouble with a Ram Drive, Data Ram's, not having a dynamic image save. It would write over the last image instead of inserting the data into a growing file. It took a couple of hours but, eventually the jobs would fail.

That is why I tried this SuperCache, free 14 day trail, to run during the CEP2 challenge. See the link a few posts up.

 

[agent00skid]

Since I only have 3 threads and immediate upload, I have enough room in the 4GB RAM drive for all the data, so I don't have to use the HDD as secondary storage. Lucky me!

 

[Arjai]

Since I only have 3 threads and immediate upload, I have enough room in the 4GB RAM drive for all the data, so I don't have to use the HDD as secondary storage. Lucky me!

I'm on a laptop, and have to pack it up and move around. I would lose everything unless it saved to HDD. Unfortunately, that didn't work. But this SuperCache? It seems as though it was built FOR me!!

 

[agent00skid]

It did seem to work with the save to drive on shutdown. Though it does take it a wee bit of time to dump the 4GB.

 

[Arjai]

It did seem to work with the save to drive on shutdown. Though it does take it a wee bit of time to dump the 4GB.

LOL, "Wee Bit".