checkpoints for long WU

[InHuMan]

Hello,
I have a problem. I would like to compute for RNA, but currently there are only XXL tasks available and there are no checkpoints. This is not acceptable for me (And I know I am not the only one), because I have to sometimes turn off my PC or just reboot. So I would like to ask how difficult would be to add feature to save WU state every couple of hours? I do not care if these checkpoints takes 1 GB of space. It would still be better than waste hundreds hours of CPU time. I think it should not be too hard to implement this, just take every variable or object and save i to disk. Or is there a reason why this is not possible? Maybe I could do required modification by myself. Is there a source code available I can study and modify?

[Dunuin]

Try running RNA in a virtual machine. You will loose some speed because of the emulation but then you can save snapshots.

[Michael H.W. Weber]

Try running RNA in a virtual machine. You will loose some speed because of the emulation but then you can save snapshots.

Exactly. And this is currently the only possibility to have checkpointed WUs in RNA World.

Michael.

[Silverdrake]

I've seen advice to run it under a virtual machine several times, yet nowhere can I find instructions on how to do this.

[barblovesroses]

I too keep seeing the suggestion to run RNA in a VM. I have VM on my computer that I installed so that I could run Test4Theory@home but that runs automatically from within the project and I don't have to do anything other than install virtual box on my computer.

I am not a techy person so I really do not know how to use virtual box for anything else so setting anything else up within it would be scary as heck for me and I would feel like I'd need some pretty great instructions or someone to walk me thru it to set anything else up inside it if I were going to put RNA world in it too.

So to me the suggestion of Just run RNA world inside a virtual machine is like telling me to learn to speak greek or latin by the end of next week...it just isn't going to happen easily.

I think a lot of people forget that not all of the BOINC participants are not programmers when they make suggestions such as this one because such things are not always easy to put into place for everyone.

[Dunuin]

1.) download and install Virtualbox
2.) download debian (64bit Netinst ISO)
3.) open Virtualbox and create a new vm called "rnacruncher" using the debian image (20GB HDD, 1GB RAM + 2GB RAM per CPU-Core, number of virtual cores = number of real cpu cores)
4.) follow the debian installation instructions
5.) start your "rnacruncher" vm
6.) in debian open the terminal and type in "sudo apt-get install boinc" to install boinc
7.) open the boinc-client and add your projects
Congratulation, you should now have a working BOINC-VM without checkpointing

Checkpointing:
8.) on your real computer open notepad, type in

Code: Alles auswählen

C:
cd \Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\
VBoxManage controlvm rnacruncher pause
VBoxManage snapshot rnacruncher edit previous --name deleteme
VBoxManage snapshot rnacruncher edit current --name previous
VBoxManage snapshot rnacruncher take current
VboxManage controlvm rnacruncher resume
vboxManage snapshot rnacruncher delete deleteme

and save it as "checkpointing.bat".
9.) Use windows own "scheduled tasks" or "z-cron" to run that checkpointing.bat every hour or day.
Every time you run that BAT the current state of the VM will be saved and you can switch back to that state later.

Finished. Its not very detailed but a hint in the right direction.

[cesium_133]

Yeah, had the same basic question... but I have no virtual anything... or GPU stuff... so, simply...

I've restarted my computer a couple of times for a new OS and updates. When I get back on BOINC, most, but not all, of my work on a single XXL WU I now have is gone. Specifically, the % finished, time logged, and time to go are mostly reset. I don't know much on checkpoints, save points, or all that, and WU@Home makes no sense to me. I just need to know... does BOINC have my results (maybe by trickle-up), or at least the suite we use at least? Are they saved? Would like help on it, and what I might look for next time so I needn't type this again :p Thx, folks... Cesium...

[ChristianB]

Yeah, had the same basic question... but I have no virtual anything... or GPU stuff... so, simply...

I've restarted my computer a couple of times for a new OS and updates. When I get back on BOINC, most, but not all, of my work on a single XXL WU I now have is gone. Specifically, the % finished, time logged, and time to go are mostly reset. I don't know much on checkpoints, save points, or all that, and WU@Home makes no sense to me. I just need to know... does BOINC have my results (maybe by trickle-up), or at least the suite we use at least? Are they saved? Would like help on it, and what I might look for next time so I needn't type this again :p Thx, folks... Cesium...

For the RNA World project there is currently no checkpointing or saveing implemented and more specifically even not possible on the application level. There is also no trickle-up mechanism! So if you have to reboot your computer regularly you should stop crunching for RNA world for the moment. There may be a non-tech solution for this in the future but not at the moment.

[barblovesroses]

1.) download and install Virtualbox
2.) download debian (64bit Netinst ISO)
3.) open Virtualbox and create a new vm called "rnacruncher" using the debian image (20GB HDD, 1GB RAM + 2GB RAM per CPU-Core, number of virtual cores = number of real cpu cores)
4.) follow the debian installation instructions
5.) start your "rnacruncher" vm
6.) in debian open the terminal and type in "sudo apt-get install boinc" to install boinc
7.) open the boinc-client and add your projects
Congratulation, you should now have a working BOINC-VM without checkpointing

Checkpointing:
8.) on your real computer open notepad, type in

Code: Alles auswählen

C:
cd \Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\
VBoxManage controlvm rnacruncher pause
VBoxManage snapshot rnacruncher edit previous --name deleteme
VBoxManage snapshot rnacruncher edit current --name previous
VBoxManage snapshot rnacruncher take current
VboxManage controlvm rnacruncher resume
vboxManage snapshot rnacruncher delete deleteme

and save it as "checkpointing.bat".
9.) Use windows own "scheduled tasks" or "z-cron" to run that checkpointing.bat every hour or day.
Every time you run that BAT the current state of the VM will be saved and you can switch back to that state later.

Finished. Its not very detailed but a hint in the right direction.

I'm really trying to follow these instructions but its like when get into each step you need and additional set of steps to follow to accomplish the tasks needed to get from part a to part b to part c to part d. For instance when it came to burning the ISO file info, I had no clue that I'd have to change the file name to just .iso as it was downloaded from the internet which was ..iso.crxxxxxxx(can't remember right now) in order to download that file onto my computer. And once that file was downloaded there were no further instructions on what to do with it that I could find. I tried opening the file and I came up against the need to know what kind of program the computer needed to use to open the files again.

Is there someone out there who could walk me through the rest of the process? My husband spent most of his career as a computer operator and programmer (now retired) and even he is frustrated with this and doesn't know where to go next to try to figure out what to do with this. I"m stuck!!!

[Dunuin]

You don't have to burn the ISO. Virtualbox will ask for a drive/file to install the os from. Then just select the iso file.

It's really not that difficult to run a VM. Just watch some of the tutorials on youtube.

[Silverdrake]

I'm running Win XP Home (SP 3). Will these VM instructions work for me?