boinc settings>computing preferences>tasks checkpoint to disk at most every_seconds
25 Aug 2015 11:59:50 UTC
Topic 198202
(moderation:
Re: boinc settings>computing preferences>tasks checkpoint to disk at most every_seconds:
Does this setting on boinc have anything to do with the efficiency with which I run Parks GPU tasks? Also, what generally is the full meaning of this setting. I have never been clear on that. Thanks group.
merle
What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.
— Salman Rushdie
boinc settings>computing preferences>tasks checkpoint to disk at
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It means that tasks are not allowed to write to your hard drive more often than the set value, e.g. if it's set to 60 seconds then task must wait at least 60 seconds between writes to the hard drive.
If you set this value to high then tasks can't checkpoint as often as they might be able to otherwise and you risk losing a lot of progress on the task if the tasks are stopped and removed from memory. It could be because you exit Boinc, reboots the machine or the power cuts out to mention a few.
I myself have it set to 300 seconds or 5 minutes as I don't want tasks to write to my disk too often but the standard value of 60 seconds should also be fine.
RE: Does this setting on
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See boinc wiki a goldmine for all things boinc. E@H BRP6 does seem to respect the preference set, and we have seen it set as low as 1 sec!
As Holmis suggests it is a balance, and setting it higher means the application spends less time checkpointing and (a tiny bit) more time crunching. The checkpoint files are small for BRP6 about 24K so it is not a big overhead.
I notice you have some AMD 79xx hosts and these "should" be able to run more than one GPU task at one time. Have you tried setting "GPU utilization factor of BRP apps" to 0.5? (or 0.33)
I changed this value to 300
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I changed this value to 300 to avoid too much wear on my SSDs.
Whether check pointing affects efficiency I don't know. If the app needs to halt the computations and read everything from GPU memory to CPU memory in order to write to the disk it could have an effect. My guess is that check points are written at "natural breaks" in the application and don't interrupt the calculations.
Thanks folks, Now I know what
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Thanks folks,
Now I know what to do in my case.
merle
What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.
— Salman Rushdie
RE: I changed this value to
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I saw the results of a test done a LONG time ago that said 900 seconds, 15 minutes, was more efficient than any other setting, if you wish to tweak it. It was at Seti and a much older version of Boinc, so things could have changed since then, but that is the setting I still use.
I now have my setting for
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I now have my setting for checkpoint to disk for 60 seconds. I do that because I use my computers sometimes for other things and don't want to get penalized too much for turning my machine on and off. Other than the up to 60 seconds I lose is there additional time lost because of some overhead lost in starting and stopping my machine? I am talking about time lost while in boinc or Einstein, not about overall time lost because of OS shutdown and startup.
Thanks.
PS. My cpu is normally running at less than 45%. It's used just for feeding two gpu's.
merle
What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.
— Salman Rushdie
RE: I now have my setting
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There is no such setting. The application checkpoints no more frequently than it chooses to, and I know of no setting to petition it to adjust more frequently to your preference.
The key words to consider in that setting are "at most". I think most of the Einstein applications as they run on most computers checkpoint rather less frequently than once a minute of elapsed time, anyway.
There may be considerable variation in checkpoint frequency among the Einstein applications. With luck someone knowing more on that point will come along and enlighten both of us.
RE: RE: I now have my
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Thanks archae86
merle
What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.
— Salman Rushdie
I added a 0 to mine years ago
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I added a 0 to mine years ago (600) for all the projects I run.