Virtualbox hogs machine

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Harri Liljeroos

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Message 103804 - Posted: 2 Apr 2021, 12:28:10 UTC - in response to Message 103800.  

This a problem for me also. I have a 8/16 core CPU and I have limited the number of available CPUs to 14 of which 2 goes to supporting my 2 GPUs. So that's 12 of 16 CPU cores running mostly VB tasks. I keep the LHC sixtrack in the mix whenever they are available. I have removed all max_concurrent lines from my app_config to keep the cache levels in control (1+0.1 days). This setting keeps the machine mostly responsive and only occasionally I see some lag. When I have to do something on the machine I temporarily reduce the number of CPUs by 2 until I'm finished.
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Profile Dave
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Message 103806 - Posted: 2 Apr 2021, 20:12:56 UTC - in response to Message 103805.  

Some years ago when climate@home was running. (It was during a long gap in CPDN work) I ran their tasks which ran using VB. My machine would become very sluggish and slow to respond unless I made sure only one out of two cores was running. I haven't used VB but it looks like without certainly more knowledge than I had then it wasn't straightforward if you wanted to use the machine for other things. That particular project never (in my opinion) really got beyond beta or possibly alpha quality so I don't really know if the problems were project related or not. Doubtless at some point there will be a gap in CPDN work and I will have another play and see what happens. But it sounds as if similar issues are still around.
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Harri Liljeroos

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Message 103808 - Posted: 2 Apr 2021, 21:53:14 UTC - in response to Message 103805.  

I believe that the problem is with the max_concurrent for an app. You could try project_max_concurrent as it seems to not give that king of over download effect.
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Message 103816 - Posted: 3 Apr 2021, 10:51:45 UTC

There are 2 project settings available on projects that are running newer server versions.
Max # of jobs for this project
Max # of CPUs for this project


Magically, these settings are available for most projects that I normally limited via app_config.xml or similar. I now use Max # settings to limit my clients appetite for Virtual Box wu's.
In my version of stress free operations I set Max # of jobs to 1 and only one task a time is downloaded and run. Choose your own stress free #.
Max # of CPUs could be handy for greedy multi-threaded apps.
The Max # settings are available at least on these projects and likely others if I were to continue checking.

✅ LHC@home preferences
✅ LHC@home dev preferences
✅ MLC@Home preferences
✅ QuChemPedIA@home preferences
✅ RakeSearch preferences
✅ YAFU preferences
✅ Kryptos@Home preferences
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Richard Haselgrove
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Message 103817 - Posted: 3 Apr 2021, 11:36:04 UTC - in response to Message 103816.  
Last modified: 3 Apr 2021, 11:48:28 UTC

Thanks for that. For the second time in a week, that's something that's crept into the BOINC code, and I have no memory of it. In this case, it's been in the code-base since Jul 31, 2016 - the 'dark ages' of BOINC, after Rom Walton left and nobody was left to watch over the store. I hope this one works - I had to fix the last one.

It's a slight sadness that this has been implemented at the Project level. You couldn't use it, say in the example in this thread, to limit LHC to four VBox tasks, but run sixtrack on the 20 remaining cores. You'll still have to use the app_config.xml file for that - or ask LHC to split itself into two distinct projects.

Edit - or run two separate clients on the same machine, with two different preference sets: any VBox app but 4 CPUs max, and sixtrack with 20 CPUs max.
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Message 103818 - Posted: 3 Apr 2021, 12:13:57 UTC - in response to Message 103817.  

Richard Haselgrove wrote:
I hope this one works
It works as I think it was intended for me where I've used it. I no longer see a list of semi-proccessed VM jobs waiting for available resources.

Richard Haselgrove wrote:
Edit - or run two separate clients on the same machine, with two different preference sets: any VBox app but 4 CPUs max, and sixtrack with 20 CPUs max
You're onto something there. That would be the way to do it. Might also come in handy for other situations that are only brewing in the back of my mind right now.
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Richard Haselgrove
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Message 103820 - Posted: 3 Apr 2021, 13:34:09 UTC - in response to Message 103818.  
Last modified: 3 Apr 2021, 13:35:18 UTC

I have a tried-and-tested configuration for running two clients and two separate managers to control them, if you want to borrow it. I don't use it in normal running (barely worth it on a quad core), but it's quite tricky to set up, so it's nice to have "one I prepared earlier".

Edit - Windows only, before you ask. But the principle would still apply.
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Message 103821 - Posted: 3 Apr 2021, 14:32:00 UTC - in response to Message 103820.  

I have a tried-and-tested configuration for running two clients and two separate managers to control them
I think that configuration is worth it's own thread but you could PM the info if you prefer. I can't say that it won't show up somewhere on the net at some point :)
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Richard Haselgrove
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Message 103823 - Posted: 3 Apr 2021, 15:19:36 UTC - in response to Message 103821.  
Last modified: 3 Apr 2021, 15:23:56 UTC

It's not secret - I'm sure I've posted it here before. Here goes.

First client and first manager are absolutely standard installations. My default locations are

D:/BOINC
D:/BOINCdata

- YMMV, adjust accordingly.

In the cc_config.xml file for that instance, set

<allow_multiple_clients>1</allow_multiple_clients>
in the <options> section. May need a restart, certainly at least 'read config files' - I can't remember.

To start the second client, make a one-line batch file with

D:\BOINC\rh_boinc_test --allow_multiple_clients --allow_remote_gui_rpc --redirectio --detach_console --gui_rpc_port 31418 --dir D:\BOINCdata2
and to attach a Manager to it

start D:\BOINC\boincmgr.exe /m /n 127.0.0.1 /g 31418 /p password
Those live on my test machine desktop.

Notes:
1) I have a second copy of boinc.exe in my program directory, called rh_boinc_test.exe. That lets me run two different versions at once - you could just re-use the same one.
2) I have a gui_rpc_auth.cfg password set for the first instance. The second will pick up the same password. And a copy in the second directory.
3) The gui_rpc_port has to be not 31416, but the same in both batch files.
4) The second data directory has to be kept separate from the first. Note D:\BOINCdata2
5) Remember you have two separate clients to shut down in an orderly fashion, if you need to.
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Message 103824 - Posted: 3 Apr 2021, 16:03:55 UTC - in response to Message 103823.  

I have a second copy of boinc.exe in my program directory, called rh_boinc_test.exe. That lets me run two different versions at once
Thanks for all this info and escpecially that part. Back of my mind is getting noisy again.
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robsmith
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Message 103832 - Posted: 3 Apr 2021, 17:46:00 UTC - in response to Message 103830.  

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Message boards : Questions and problems : Virtualbox hogs machine

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