I can't get my Windows node to add the Universe@Home project and I have been trying for days! Is there anything I am missing? I tried the command line and the GUI and nothing... I always get communication error. My Linux machine is crunching fine Universe@Home
Not sure. I had been adding a few Linux hosts during the past few days and it always succeeded right away. Did maybe the initial download of the Windows version of the BHspin application fail? I don't have a Windows computer at Universe myself.
BTW, U@h's Linux application performs roughly twice as fast (or even faster?) compared to the Windows application on the same hardware. That's certainly a case of missing optimizations in the Windows application version.
Also, how to bunker? You're talking about delaying result submission until they start counting points, correct? What are the configs to delay submission?
What
@voodoo5_6k said, and:
The basic way of bunkering is to fetch some amount of work, then prevent network communications, get the work done, and re-enable network communication when desired. (There are several ways to prevent network communication: Most commonly it's done by setting "Activity -> Suspend network activity" in boincmgr, or the equivalent in boinctasks/ boinctui/ boinccmd. Or you set a bogus HTTP proxy address in boinc's "other options". Or you assign the IP address 127.0.0.1 to the the project server's hostname in /etc/hosts or in a local DNS server of yours. Or you block the project server in a firewall. Or you pull the Ethernet plug.¹)
A more advanced way of bunkering is to fetch work, then get the work done
and the results files transferred but suppress the
reporting of the results all the while, and finally trigger the reporting when desired. The background: When a task was completed, the application saves its results into files (six files per result in case of the BHspin application), then the boinc client uploads these files to the project server, and after that's done, the client issues a "scheduler request" to the project server in which it reports all currently completely uploaded results. Only after that report can the project server act on the results, i.e. validate them. (In case of Universe@Home, the validation happens by comparing results of the same workunit which came in from two different hosts. That is, your result can only be validated after some other computer, commonly called "wingman", reported its corresponding result too.)
Since about the 2nd day of the Pentathlon, the Universe@Home server's internet link is at or very near its limit for file uploads to the server. Therefore, it's difficult to upload a large amount of result files at once, like it would need to happen with the "basic way" of bunkering. Hence, at least everybody who performs some substantial bunkering should rather implement the "more advanced way" of bunkering.
Though if you suppress communications like I described at the "basic way", you would prevent both the uploading and reporting. Letting the uploads through but retain the reports can be done in a few, more involved, ways:
- Block access to the scheduler server of the project, e.g. by an entry in /etc/hosts, but leave access to the upload server(s) of the project functional. This is only possible at a small number of boinc projects (those which have a separate host name or even host address for the scheduler), but Universe@Home is one of these few projects where this works.
- A method which works with most (perhaps all) projects is to perform several settings in the client, then enable network activity and let it upload, then disable network again and revert the settings. What settings and other preparations need to be done somewhat depends on the particular project. Among else, to do this right, one should suspend the project in the client for the duration of the uploads. Hence, a downside of this method is that the client can't compute while it uploads files.
- For completeness, another method would be to use a boinc client which was compiled from customized source code. I never tried that myself. There are only few users in the entire boinc community who use one or another source code modification of the client, and I don't know if any of them made modifications specifically for the purpose of enabling uploads while retaining reports.
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¹) As
@voodoo5_6k noted, there is furthermore the method of pseudo-blocking the transfers by configuring a very low upload rate. I never used that method myself, because a) it is obviously much less reliable than the other ways, b) with a bit of planning, this method can be avoided and one or more of the other methods used.