Increased HDD I/O Activity w/ Version 7.6.(x?)

Message boards : Questions and problems : Increased HDD I/O Activity w/ Version 7.6.(x?)
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Larry

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Joined: 18 Sep 15
Posts: 1
United States
Message 64352 - Posted: 18 Sep 2015, 18:57:08 UTC

I have noticed "new" regularly cycled (~1 Hz) HDD I/O activity on my machines since upgrading to Ver. 7.6.9 from 7.4.36 that occurs regardless of BOINC project status (i.e. project/task suspension). Closing BOINC Manager 7.6.9 is the only solution I have found to cease this cyclic HDD I/O activity.

Increased HDD I/O activity concerns me relative to its implication of reduced HDD MTBF, or increased probability of HDD failure for me (especially on my older machines). In fact, I have downgraded my older machines to BOINC 7.4.42 for the time-being to avoid this [perceived as new on my part] HDD "thrashing."

Do you know what the reason is for this increased HDD I/O activty in BOINC 7.6.(9)?
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Richard Haselgrove
Volunteer tester
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Joined: 5 Oct 06
Posts: 5077
United Kingdom
Message 64353 - Posted: 18 Sep 2015, 19:07:40 UTC - in response to Message 64352.  

Did you install the 'plain vanilla' BOINC v7.6, or the "with added VBox" version?

There has been some concern expressed about hard disk activity when VBox-style projects are active, and it's being looked into. But apart from that, I haven't heard of any specific issues related to disk activity.

(BTW, the VBox activity complained of consists of re-reading a log file, to see if it's changed. Usually it hasn't, so in most cases - except on the oldest of drives - it's probably being read from cache anyway. Don't most HDD activity indicators signify activity on the interface, rather than in the internal mechanics?)
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Crystal Pellet

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Joined: 23 Apr 12
Posts: 41
Netherlands
Message 64392 - Posted: 21 Sep 2015, 7:48:05 UTC - in response to Message 64353.  
Last modified: 21 Sep 2015, 7:52:39 UTC

(BTW, the VBox activity complained of consists of re-reading a log file, to see if it's changed. Usually it hasn't, so in most cases - except on the oldest of drives - it's probably being read from cache anyway. Don't most HDD activity indicators signify activity on the interface, rather than in the internal mechanics?)

Hello Richard,

In my opinion that vbox.log from the slot directory is written every second with ~32kB disk-i/o's per second.
I think it's copied every time from slots/X/boinc_xxxxxxxxxx/Logs/vbox.log to avoid a lock when reading from that last vbox.log directly.
You also can see that the size of the vbox.log in the slot is flipping regularly between 0 kB and ~64kB.
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SekeRob2

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Joined: 6 Jul 10
Posts: 585
Italy
Message 64397 - Posted: 21 Sep 2015, 8:04:01 UTC - in response to Message 64392.  

Is there not recent discussion on this in the alpha mail list [Rom-JacobK exchange]? See no check-ins on GitHub, but it was diagnosed.
Coelum Non Animum Mutant, Qui Trans Mare Currunt
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Message boards : Questions and problems : Increased HDD I/O Activity w/ Version 7.6.(x?)

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