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Thread 'Running time of Work Units'

Thread 'Running time of Work Units'

Questions and Answers : Getting started : Running time of Work Units
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stratos412

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Message 63031 - Posted: 27 Nov 2020, 7:47:40 UTC

Hello to the community.

I am new to this project and I took my first to tasks.
I am running the tasks on a Linux Mint 20 machine (Intel Core Duo @2.13GHz)
https://www.cpdn.org/show_host_detail.php?hostid=1508505

My question is that the two work units of ''UK Met Office HadAM4 at N216 resolution'' have a deadline on the 08/NOV/2021 and a estimation running time to complete them about 34days.
Is this running time to complete them correct or not?

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Les Bayliss
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Message 63032 - Posted: 27 Nov 2020, 8:49:35 UTC - in response to Message 63031.  

Hi stratos

08/NOV/2021 is a time way out in the future, that helps (used to help), prevent BOINC from having problems with scheduling the very long (weeks), tasks from here, mixed with the much shorter tasks from other projects.
It can be ignored for the purposes of running.

The time limit to watch out for, is downloading, then not starting a task for weeks/months.
The researchers can simply close a batch of tasks after giving them long enough, which will prevent uploading any further results.

I've been running this lot in about half that time, but it would depend on what else is being run at the same time.

One place where you may have problems; these models use large amounts of memory, and you don't have nearly enough.
You'll probably have a lot of disk thrashing.

And they like to have up to 4 gigs of L3 cache per model, or they slow right down.
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stratos412

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Message 63033 - Posted: 27 Nov 2020, 9:30:42 UTC

Thanks for your help.

So is it worth running these tasks? As you can see it's a pretty old PC (Intel Core Duo @2.13GHZ, 4GB RAM).
I am using both cores to run tasks, I usually select tasks that require small-medium amount of CPU/ RAM resources.
So, if I run one task of "UK Met Office HadAM4 at N216 resolution" and I more different project task (i.e. Asteroids), will I have any issues?
(i.e. task fail issues or RAM issues for the climate project task)
About run time, will it take about 34 days or more?
One more question, how often project make checkpoints?
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Les Bayliss
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Message 63034 - Posted: 27 Nov 2020, 10:21:22 UTC - in response to Message 63033.  

How many to run is a perennial question.
It's different for each computer/combination of projects.
You just have to work it out over time, and then decide.

The only way to find out about specific issues is to try it for a while and see what happens.

Yes, 34 days is likely.
Back in the early days of the project, when a simpler model was used, and computers were slower, 6-7 months was normal.

Each type of model checkpoints differently.
You can see for the ones that you're running by:
Click on a model (in Tasks)
To the left, click on Properties.
Near the top of the drop down list, there are 2 entries for checkpoints.
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stratos412

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Message 63035 - Posted: 27 Nov 2020, 10:38:46 UTC

Thanks for your help. I will try and see.
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ProfileDave Jackson
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Message 63047 - Posted: 28 Nov 2020, 12:54:49 UTC

I can say from experience with a core2duo that the time estimated is certainly in that ball park. I was running one till just a few months ago when I replaced it with a Ryzen7.
Please do not private message myself or other moderators for help. This limits the number of people who are able to help and deprives others who may benefit from the answer.
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Questions and Answers : Getting started : Running time of Work Units

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