Boinc Pentathlon

hanluc

hanluc

hanluc

Soldato
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boinc_pentathlon2015.png



This is a competition that has been running for the past few years hosted by Seti.Germany and this is the first time OcUK has entered. It runs for 14 days from the 5th to the 19th of May.
All credits granted between 05/05/2015, 00:00 (UTC) and 19/05/2015, 00:00 (UTC) will be taken into the BOINC Pentathlon validation. Please note that pending credits can not be taken into account!
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FAQ is here: http://www.seti-germany.de/boinc_pentathlon/27_en_FAQ.html

It involves running 5 different boinc projects within the time frame, one GPU, 4 CPU, lengths of challenges vary (see below) strategy is involved in when and how much we switch resources to other projects, the projects for the challenge are yet to be announced, they will consist of...





Marathon (CPU, full 14 days) WORLD COMMUNITY GRID Leaderboard Ended, finished 18th/27
All credits granted between 05/05/2015, 00:00 (UTC) and 19/05/2015, 00:00 (UTC) will be taken into the BOINC Pentathlon validation. Please note that pending credits can not be taken into account!

Sprint (CPU, 3 days) LHC@HOME Leaderboard Ended, finished 21st/27
All credits granted between 16/05/2015, 00:00 (UTC) and 19/05/2015, 00:00 (UTC) will be taken into the BOINC Pentathlon validation. Please note that pending credits can not be taken into account!

Swimming (CPU, 7 days) YOYO@HOME Leaderboard Ended, finished 21st/26
All credits granted between 10/05/2015, 00:00 (UTC) and 17/05/2015, 00:00 (UTC) will be taken into the BOINC Pentathlon validation. Please note that pending credits can not be taken into account!

City Run (CPU, 5 days) MALARIACONTROL Leaderboard Ended, finished 20th/27
All credits granted between 07/05/2015, 00:00 (UTC) and 12/05/2015, 00:00 (UTC) will be taken into the BOINC Pentathlon validation. Please note that pending credits can not be taken into account!

Cross Country (GPU, 5 days) EINSTEIN@HOME Leaderboard Ended, finished 13th/27
All credits granted between 09/05/2014, 00:00 (UTC) and 14/05/2014, 00:00 (UTC) will be taken into the BOINC Pentathlon validation. Please note that pending credits can not be taken into account!

Overall Leaderboard Ended, OcUK finished 19th/27

OcUK



Current list of team participants.
http://www.seti-germany.de/boinc_pentathlon/teams.php

PARTICIPANTS

andy_taximan
Ba
Biffa
hanluc
MGP
PDW
verbal
Voicon

Pentathlon daily bulletin
http://www.seti-germany.de/wiki/Pentathlon_-_Daily_Bulletin_of_Events
 
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Out of the choice of GPU projects (Asteroids@home, Einstein@Home, GPUGRID, MilkyWay@home, Moo! Wrapper, PrimeGrid, SETI@home)

I was thinking Einstein as it works well both on AMD and Nvidia cards.

Then there's 3 recommendations for CPU, maybe some from the DC Vault list?
 
OK I've entered us, I recommended

Einstein for GPU, Numberfields, asteroids and malariacontrol for CPU, there's no guarantee any of them will be included, it's down to what's most popular amongst all the teams.
 
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I've sent Ba a trust message.
PDW, Biffa are you in?

I've also had a brief look at what some of the other teams have been voting for, it looks a certainty that WCG will be included, whether that will be the marathon, sprint or whatever I've no idea. Malariacontrol is looking quite popular too. As for the GPU discipline it's looking like either Einstein or GPUGrid and possibly Milkyway
 
PDW said:
Count me in :)
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Great stuff! :)
If it turns out to be GPUGrid I won't be doing that one but I'll Fold to keep the team score up if that encourages folders to move to do GPUGrid for the duration.
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I really hope it's not GPUGrid myself as I only have a couple of old 570s, we did have quite a strong team on there but it just seems to be HaloJones on his own now. I'm going to start hitting Einstein to build up some pending credit and hope it's that one that gets chosen and likewise with WCG and Malaria for the CPU projects.

Is bunkering allowed/approved of ?
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Yes, well it's not disallowed/disapproved of, many teams in past pentathlons have done this.
Just keep us updated on what you want and when !
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I will, as soon as the projects are announced I'll let you all know, as for strategy I supposed it depends on how well we're doing when/if we switch projects, we can decide amongst ourselves.

PS. Have you moved house ? You now show as International in Van Der Waerden Numbers.
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Haha, no, I didn't noticed, amended. That project sure does use a lot memory, 2 gigs a core by my reckoning.
 
Voicon said:
How are we going to work this, do you want all my CPU's on WCG or spread out across others. Not done this before so not sure how the team works it?
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I thought we could play it by ear, at the moment the only project confirmed is WCG, so that currently is the only one to go for, I've switched my rigs over to it in hope that some of the work units pending now validate when the challenge starts, remember only works units validated in the time period count. If any other projects are confirmed before the start we can have a rethink, I am convinced that malariacontrol will happen, but when and for how long I don't know. Also if we are dead last, cut off from everyone else on a project then there's no point flogging a head horse, so that would be a scenario where we could all switch.
 
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andy_taximan said:
Flogging dead horses makes them more tender, just like steak
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I know there must be a positive in that statement but I just can't see it yet :D

PDW said:
So do you think I should move from Poem to Einstein just in case it turns out to be that GPU project (as it can't be Poem) ?
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That's what's I'm taking a punt on, don't know when the GPU one will start but I reckon 4 days crunching should be enough to get upto speed.
 
PDW said:
Decided to have a quick play with Milkyway in case that turns out to be one of the projects. All I've done at the moment is get it to use the GPU at 95+% load by running 2 WUs at a time.

I have no idea what changing the Frequency setting will do or how it will affect my chunks :eek:

Also "Make particles bigger or smaller when using uglier particles" is an unusual option in the preferences. I couldn't find anywhere to opt for just the pretty particles :(

On the plus side they did award me a badge just for turning up and completing 1 WU :D
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I don't know anything about those ugly particles :) Phil is the expert on Milkyway perhaps he can tell you if he reads this. I don't know what cards you have (as you are so secretive :p) but AMD double precision cards are king, I would say 7970/280x are the best cards for milkyway, my AMD 290s aren't supported.

EDIT:
Just tried my 7970 out now on milkyway, running 3 tasks at once, each work unit takes 68 secs for 106.88pts, which is a PPD of 407,401.

88 secs each, running 3 tasks on a 7950 .. both cards at stock. You may find that Nvidia cards are useless in comparison, if that's what you have.
 
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PDW said:
Why don't your 290s work, is that a Milkway app problem that they haven't bothered to fix or because they are as bad at DP as nVidia ?
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It's working now :) I used to get a message from the server saying my card wasn't supported. I looked into it after speaking to you and downloaded a app_info and the exe files manually though speed wise it's actually slower than my 7950 but I am ready if it gets added though I do think it's more likely to be Einstein or GPUGrid, I just hope it not the latter.
 
Bunkering, though sometimes frowned upon, is accepted in this challenge.

For those that don't know what bunkering is, it's a practise were work units are completed over several days, but not submitted to the work server until after the challenge starts.

To bunker :)... First increase your cache size so the server gives you more work.
Boinc client/tools/computer preferences/network usage ... increase minimum work buffer (max 10 days) and also additional work buffer if 10 days isn't enough. Though work server limits may overide.

Secondly stop the boinc client from reporting tasks..
Boinc client/Activity/Network activity suspended ... change back to 'always available' when you want to submit them.
 
PDW said:
Deadlines may be short but it seems to take a while for them to get validated.
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It's the same with all projects that need validating, at least if someone doesn't return the work units they're given out to someone else pretty quick.

So what is the PLAN ?

Do we all do a bit of both, do some swap over completely and some stay on WCG ?
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Well myself, I have 4 rigs, 3 will be on WCG and the other I plan to stock up on malaria work units Monday morning and see how it goes. I suppose it depends on how we're doing on each given project as to what we do. TBH we will do well if we can crack the top 20 on WCG.
 
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PDW said:
Or maybe another quick dip into VDWNumbers :p

Bad news - those 15 points we had, they've gone :eek:
Even though I checked the team list well after the entry deadline a few more have been added so finishing last in every category no longer guarantees us 3 points :(

Will just keep pushing WCG for now, see how many pages of pending WUs I can get up to !
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Lol you don't miss a thing, the VDWNumbers was just a test, I wanted to see if I could bunker two projects, but only release one. It wasn't so I could be no.1 (honest) :D

I hadn't noticed the other two teams added, 27 now. Maybe we should make that our goal, see if we can pick up *any* points :eek: :D
 
verbal said:
So are the six of us on list already bunkering?
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Well I am :) same projects as you.

I've got WCG and Einstein units (just in case) waiting to go. When will they announce the GPU project?
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I don't know, I would guess half way through but it's only as guess.

We could also do with some more members. :)
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Agreed, I thought there would be more but I did announce it late, may be when it gets going there will be more interest.
 
http://www.seti-germany.de/blog/category/boinc-pentathlon/

The third GPU Cross country discipline has been announced

Einstein@home :)

Starts Saturday.



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Anyone bunkering WCG/malaria workunits and Einstein should add (see EDIT2) to their hosts file to stop Einstein from reporting when reporting the other project's tasks.

EDIT: I've just realised that it still uploads, I need to find out the specific upload server address.
EDIT2: OK I've found 5 servers in my client_state.xml, I don't know if there are any more.

127.0.0.1 einstein1.aei.uni-hannover.de
127.0.0.1 einstein2.aei.uni-hannover.de
127.0.0.1 einstein4.aei.uni-hannover.de
127.0.0.1 einstein5.aei.uni-hannover.de
127.0.0.1 einstein6.aei.uni-hannover.de

I also added server 3 in for good measure and can confirm my einstein work units failed to upload.
 
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andy_taximan said:
Easier said then done lol, Cant get any WCG and what/were hosts file?
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In Windows, open notepad as administrator, then from notepad navigate to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc there's a file in there called 'hosts' open it and add the lines (see my post above for server addresses) save and restart your pc. Test it by pinging one of the server address (run cmd.exe/ ping einstein4.aei.uni-hannover.de (for e.g.) if it comes back 127.0.0.1 it's working, remove the lines or comment it out (add # in front) when you want to upload to Einstein.

I have way more WCG work past the start time, I wouldn't have thought a massive project like that would have ran dry because of the Pentathlon, like you said it's probably because it's the weekend.

I have noticed in Malaria it's best not to set your cache too high, If you get a "boinc can't complete in time" message in the event log then it's too high, I have mine at 3.3 days.
 
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