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Backup Projects

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Ghost0210:
I know I should probably email this to the Boinc_Alpha group, but I'm hoping that someone here that knows the Boinc code will know the answer (Boinc Alpha seems a bit busy at the moment anyway), and this has been bugging me for a while

I have a couple of backup projects that I use for times when Seti/Beta have no tasks available or are down etc. But why, when Boinc realises that it can't get any work from either of my main projects does it request a full cache from my backups projects?
It doesn't know how long the main projects are going to be down for so just fills its boots from the backup projects, with no manual intervention from me this ends up with me having a full cache when my main projects come back up so I still can't get any work from them.

Is there a specific reason why Boinc requests this full cache, or does the code that initiates the backup project to get work linked into the normal work fetch coding, so it just looks at the cache I've set and carry on requesting until it is full?
IMO it would make more sense if the backup projects were set to just request 1 sec's worth of work at a time, similar to when you first attach to a project?

Josef W. Segur:

--- Quote from: Ghost on 04 Aug 2010, 02:31:56 pm ---...
Is there a specific reason why Boinc requests this full cache, or does the code that initiates the backup project to get work linked into the normal work fetch coding, so it just looks at the cache I've set and carry on requesting until it is full?
IMO it would make more sense if the backup projects were set to just request 1 sec's worth of work at a time, similar to when you first attach to a project?
--- End quote ---

Yes, the "backup project" logic is only tied into the choice of which project to ask for work, beyond that BOINC treats the situation like any other work fetch event.

I agree it would be good to at least offer an option of only requesting 1 second of work for each idle resource. Set and forget systems or those with intermittent connection wouldn't want that enabled, I'm not sure which way the default should be. It wouldn't be difficult to add.
                                                                                    Joe

Ghost0210:
Thanks Joe,

I guess for the set and forget users and people still on dial up connections for example, having Boinc just ask for 1 sec of work for each resource could cause more issues than it would solve and that the current setting should possibly be kept as a default.
But for more advanced users I definately think that we should have the option to set which way this works, so we can avoid the situations where the backup projects effectively become the main projects for what could be extended periods.

I'll have a think about how to phrase this properly @ Alpha
Ghost

Ghost0210:
Wow,
Emailed Boinc Dev and DA agreed to doing a Work Fetch for Backup projects which is just enough to fill the idle resources:


--- Quote ---I think the right thing to do is to fetch only
enough jobs to fill up the idle devices,
i.e. don't queue extra jobs for backup projects.
I'll check this in.

--- End quote ---

 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Josef W. Segur:
Yep, a good idea well presented which is also easily implemented. It's changeset 22148.

I also agree with David that the Set and Forget types won't be using the backup project feature. Intermittent connections as for company computers etc. would be more likely to either have several projects with not much concern about which is active or be restricted to a single project and idleness with power savings would be desired when there's no work for that project.
                                                                                    Joe

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