Invalid global preferences problem
8 Sep 2016 10:01:32 UTC
Topic 200935
(moderation:
Update: Thanks to the help of Richard Haselgrove we were able to pinpoint the problem in the BOINC server code. I circulated a fix to this problem to all projects. If you still get this problem after you updated your preferences you need to contact all your projects and ask them to fix their scheduler.
We are seeing problems with global preferences send by some hosts to our server. Those preferences are not valid XML because they are usually missing a </venue> tag. I adjusted our scheduler to ignore such invalid preferences and send a message to the BOINC Client (that most probably led you here). With the data that is accessible to use we are not able to pinpoint the problem. So we would like to ask everyone receiving those messages from our server to supply some information to help us find the root cause of this problem.
A short term fix for you is to update the preferences here on Einstein@Home which will propagate a valid set of preferences to all of your hosts but that does not mean that the problem is fixed. If the problem is in the BOINC Client this will most likely resurface after some time. In this event we would like to know what BOINC version you were using after fixing the preferences and which BOINC projects you where attached to within this time.
You can check if your hosts are affected by this if you go to your Account dashboard then click on each of the hostnames listed in the lower right and then click on the time of last contact (Last time contacted server:) or add a /log to the URL in your browser. If you see a message like this you are affected by this problem:
2016-09-08 09:35:13.8272 [PID=19551] [debug] [HOST#11767746] MSG(high) Invalid global preferences supplied, please check https://einsteinathome.org/community/forum/19 on how to fix that.
I can see this on some of my
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I can see this on some of my hosts:
https://einsteinathome.org/host/7192129
Win10 x64, BOINC v7.6.22
WCG, E@H, vLHC
MW@H (no work for several months), Poem (no work for several months)
https://einsteinathome.org/host/11767814
Win10 x64, BOINC v7.6.33
WCG, vLHC
E@H (no work for a few months), MW@H (no work for several months), Poem (no work for several months), GPUGRID (no work for several months)
https://einsteinathome.org/host/12375043
WinXP 32, BOINC v7.6.22
WCG, E@H
vLHC (no work for a few months), GPUGRID (no work for several months)
Let me know what else you need...
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https://einsteinathome.org/ho
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https://einsteinathome.org/host/12341842
Just noticed it on this host while attaching it to E@H. It used BOINC 7.6.31, I just upgraded to 7.7.0, didn't help... It's an Odroid C2 with Ubuntu 16.04, running POGS and WUprop till now, nothing else attached...
koschi
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The Client just propagates the preferences it gets from other projects. So potentially every host of yours can be the faulty one or at one time introduced the faulty preferences to your projects. So it would be interesting to see if now that you fixedit, the problem will resurface. For that to happen you need to update preferences at another project and then check if you see the messages in the Einstein logs. I hope we can pinpoint a specific Client version that invalidates the preferences when sending them to other projects.
I have updated all projects
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I have updated all projects and still getting this problem.
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Mumak wrote:I have updated
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You have to make sure that the new preferences are propagated to all projects and all clients. Do you have a project that is attached to all of your hosts and is not Einstein? Preferably WCG. Update your preferences there. Those should then propagate on all your hosts, all your projects and also to Einstein@Home. If our server is still complaining we can look into which Client versions you are running to look for the root of the problem there. My current suspicion is that something is wrong with 7.6.22 because I saw that version a lot regarding this specific error.
Yes, I have WCG on all
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Yes, I have WCG on all machines. Please see the configurations I posted above.
Most of them are BOINC v7.6.22, one is v7.6.33.
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I just saw your message and -
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I just saw your message and - according to your advice - tried to update the prefs from WCG.
While editing the prefs there I saw that one of my hosts has a default profile and the second one has a home profile that was never filled. Instead a school profile was active in WCG but not assigned to any of my hosts.
After I assigned the default profile to both hosts and updated all projects the error disappeared - at least for now.
I'm getting the message on 2
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I'm getting the message on 2 of 4 computers.
Computer's : ID: 12015020, ID: 12124739, Both HP computers around 1 year old or so.
Still getting downloads. WU's still running and completing. No invalids.
The other 2 computers not getting message.
Just passing this along in case it helps in any way.
Christian Beer wrote:We are
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This is interesting? unusual? something? whatever....
I use a thumb drive to move my xml between computers. They basically are all copies of the same XML.
I've just looked at 2 machines that I run here on Einstein. Both have almost exact copies of the XML, only the number of work units allowed to run on the CPU cores is different since 1 has 16 cores and the other has 20. The 20 core gets your mentioned error in the event log. The 16 core doesn't. Both run the same version of BOINC 7.6.22.
Since the XML is the same in both with only the value for max concurrent different, I would think the problem isn't with the xml but some place else.
As far as project. Seti@home, Seti@homeBeta, Einstein@home
For 2 other computers that run only Seti@home and Einstein@home I also get the error message. Both of those run BOINC 7.6.22
Here is the Xml for the machine that does not get the error message
<app_config><app><name>einsteinbinary_BRP6</name><gpu_versions><gpu_usage>0.3</gpu_usage><cpu_usage>0.5</cpu_usage><max_concurrent>8</max_concurrent></gpu_versions></app><app><name>einsteinbinary_BRP4G</name><gpu_versions><gpu_usage>0.5</gpu_usage><cpu_usage>0.5</cpu_usage></gpu_versions></app><app><name>einstein_O1AS20-100F</name><max_concurrent>2</max_concurrent></app><app><name>hsgamma_FGRPB1</name><max_concurrent>8</max_concurrent></app></app_config>Here is the xml of the one that gets the error
And here is the xml from the 2 machines that only do seti and einstein, no cpu work but still get the error
<app_config><app><name>einsteinbinary_BRP6</name><gpu_versions><gpu_usage>0.3</gpu_usage><cpu_usage>0.5</cpu_usage><max_concurrent>12</max_concurrent></gpu_versions></app><app><name>einsteinbinary_BRP4G</name><gpu_versions><gpu_usage>0.5</gpu_usage><cpu_usage>0.5</cpu_usage></gpu_versions></app><app><name>einstein_O1AS20-100F</name><max_concurrent>2</max_concurrent></app></app_config>Any irregularity in the boxes is due to this website not the actual xml. Seems like the website doesn't like to box everything when asked to. I gave up after a while....
Zalster
(No subject)
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OK, time to bite on this one. I'm getting the 'invalid preferemces' message on one (only) of my seven active computers - host 8864187. But that isn't where the trouble started. The oldest copy of global_prefs.xml is datestamped 28/09/2016 18:49 (UTC+1), and here it is.
{global_preferences}
{source_project}http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/{/source_project}
{source_scheduler}http://einstein5.aei.uni-hannover.de/EinsteinAtHome_cgi/cgi{/source_scheduler}
{max_ncpus_pct}100{/max_ncpus_pct}
{cpu_usage_limit}100{/cpu_usage_limit}
{run_on_batteries}0{/run_on_batteries}
{run_if_user_active}1{/run_if_user_active}
{run_gpu_if_user_active}1{/run_gpu_if_user_active}
{idle_time_to_run}3{/idle_time_to_run}
{suspend_if_no_recent_input}0{/suspend_if_no_recent_input}
{suspend_cpu_usage}0{/suspend_cpu_usage}
{work_buf_min_days}0.01{/work_buf_min_days}
{work_buf_additional_days}0{/work_buf_additional_days}
{cpu_scheduling_period_minutes}60{/cpu_scheduling_period_minutes}
{disk_interval}60{/disk_interval}
{disk_max_used_gb}100{/disk_max_used_gb}
{disk_min_free_gb}0.001{/disk_min_free_gb}
{disk_max_used_pct}50{/disk_max_used_pct}
{ram_max_used_busy_pct}100{/ram_max_used_busy_pct}
{ram_max_used_idle_pct}100{/ram_max_used_idle_pct}
{leave_apps_in_memory}1{/leave_apps_in_memory}
{vm_max_used_pct}75{/vm_max_used_pct}
{max_bytes_sec_down}0{/max_bytes_sec_down}
{max_bytes_sec_up}0{/max_bytes_sec_up}
{daily_xfer_limit_mb}0{/daily_xfer_limit_mb}
{daily_xfer_period_days}0{/daily_xfer_period_days}
{dont_verify_images}0{/dont_verify_images}
{confirm_before_connecting}0{/confirm_before_connecting}
{hangup_if_dialed}0{/hangup_if_dialed}
{venue name="home"}
{max_ncpus_pct}100{/max_ncpus_pct}
{cpu_usage_limit}80{/cpu_usage_limit}
{run_on_batteries}0{/run_on_batteries}
{run_if_user_active}0{/run_if_user_active}
{run_gpu_if_user_active}1{/run_gpu_if_user_active}
{idle_time_to_run}3{/idle_time_to_run}
{suspend_if_no_recent_input}0{/suspend_if_no_recent_input}
{suspend_cpu_usage}25{/suspend_cpu_usage}
{work_buf_min_days}0.1{/work_buf_min_days}
{work_buf_additional_days}0.25{/work_buf_additional_days}
{cpu_scheduling_period_minutes}60{/cpu_scheduling_period_minutes}
{disk_interval}60{/disk_interval}
{disk_max_used_gb}8{/disk_max_used_gb}
{disk_min_free_gb}4{/disk_min_free_gb}
{disk_max_used_pct}10{/disk_max_used_pct}
{ram_max_used_busy_pct}15{/ram_max_used_busy_pct}
{ram_max_used_idle_pct}50{/ram_max_used_idle_pct}
{leave_apps_in_memory}1{/leave_apps_in_memory}
{vm_max_used_pct}0{/vm_max_used_pct}
{max_bytes_sec_down}0{/max_bytes_sec_down}
{max_bytes_sec_up}0{/max_bytes_sec_up}
{daily_xfer_limit_mb}0{/daily_xfer_limit_mb}
{daily_xfer_period_days}0{/daily_xfer_period_days}
{dont_verify_images}0{/dont_verify_images}
{confirm_before_connecting}1{/confirm_before_connecting}
{hangup_if_dialed}0{/hangup_if_dialed}
{/venue}
{venue name="school"}
{max_ncpus_pct}100{/max_ncpus_pct}
{cpu_usage_limit}100{/cpu_usage_limit}
{run_on_batteries}0{/run_on_batteries}
{run_if_user_active}1{/run_if_user_active}
{run_gpu_if_user_active}0{/run_gpu_if_user_active}
{idle_time_to_run}3{/idle_time_to_run}
{suspend_if_no_recent_input}0{/suspend_if_no_recent_input}
{suspend_cpu_usage}25{/suspend_cpu_usage}
{work_buf_min_days}0.1{/work_buf_min_days}
{work_buf_additional_days}0.5{/work_buf_additional_days}
{cpu_scheduling_period_minutes}60{/cpu_scheduling_period_minutes}
{disk_interval}60{/disk_interval}
{disk_max_used_gb}0{/disk_max_used_gb}
{disk_min_free_gb}1{/disk_min_free_gb}
{disk_max_used_pct}90{/disk_max_used_pct}
{ram_max_used_busy_pct}50{/ram_max_used_busy_pct}
{ram_max_used_idle_pct}90{/ram_max_used_idle_pct}
{leave_apps_in_memory}0{/leave_apps_in_memory}
{vm_max_used_pct}75{/vm_max_used_pct}
{max_bytes_sec_down}0{/max_bytes_sec_down}
{max_bytes_sec_up}0{/max_bytes_sec_up}
{daily_xfer_limit_mb}0{/daily_xfer_limit_mb}
{daily_xfer_period_days}0{/daily_xfer_period_days}
{dont_verify_images}0{/dont_verify_images}
{confirm_before_connecting}0{/confirm_before_connecting}
{hangup_if_dialed}0{/hangup_if_dialed}
{/venue}
{mod_time}1475084831{/mod_time}
{venue name="work"}
{preset}custom{/preset}
{run_on_batteries}0{/run_on_batteries}
{run_if_user_active}0{/run_if_user_active}
{run_gpu_if_user_active}1{/run_gpu_if_user_active}
{idle_time_to_run}3{/idle_time_to_run}
{suspend_if_no_recent_input}0{/suspend_if_no_recent_input}
{suspend_cpu_usage}0{/suspend_cpu_usage}
{start_hour}0{/start_hour}
{end_hour}0{/end_hour}
{leave_apps_in_memory}0{/leave_apps_in_memory}
{cpu_scheduling_period_minutes}60{/cpu_scheduling_period_minutes}
{max_ncpus_pct}100{/max_ncpus_pct}
{cpu_usage_limit}100{/cpu_usage_limit}
{disk_max_used_gb}0{/disk_max_used_gb}
{disk_min_free_gb}1{/disk_min_free_gb}
{disk_max_used_pct}90{/disk_max_used_pct}
{disk_interval}60{/disk_interval}
{vm_max_used_pct}75{/vm_max_used_pct}
{ram_max_used_busy_pct}50{/ram_max_used_busy_pct}
{ram_max_used_idle_pct}90{/ram_max_used_idle_pct}
{work_buf_min_days}0{/work_buf_min_days}
{work_buf_additional_days}0.25{/work_buf_additional_days}
{confirm_before_connecting}0{/confirm_before_connecting}
{hangup_if_dialed}0{/hangup_if_dialed}
{max_bytes_sec_down}0{/max_bytes_sec_down}
{max_bytes_sec_up}0{/max_bytes_sec_up}
{net_start_hour}0{/net_start_hour}
{net_end_hour}0{/net_end_hour}
{daily_xfer_limit_mb}0{/daily_xfer_limit_mb}
{daily_xfer_period_days}0{/daily_xfer_period_days}
{dont_verify_images}0{/dont_verify_images}
{/venue}
{/global_preferences}