CPDN main project

Upload server uploadcomlab is now working.

There was no CPDN credit export to the stats sites on 12 and 13 May, but on 14 May the credit export started again.

SAP project and SAP HADAM models from the CPDN main project

There is a temporary but serious problem with the SAP server. CPDN SAP-HADAM models come from this server. When SAP models contact the server they will produce BOINC manager messages like this or similar:

15/05/2008 10:35:34|CPDN Seasonal Attribution Project|Fetching scheduler list
15/05/2008 10:35:39|CPDN Seasonal Attribution Project|Master file download succeeded
15/05/2008 10:35:45|CPDN Seasonal Attribution Project|Sending scheduler request: Requested by user. Requesting 0 seconds of work, reporting 0 completed tasks
15/05/2008 10:35:50|climateprediction.net|Scheduler request succeeded: got 0 new tasks
15/05/2008 10:35:50|climateprediction.net|You used the wrong URL for this project
15/05/2008 10:35:50|climateprediction.net|The correct URL is http://climateprediction.net/
15/05/2008 10:35:50|climateprediction.net|You seem to be attached to this project twice
15/05/2008 10:35:50|climateprediction.net|We suggest that you detach projects named climateprediction.net,
15/05/2008 10:35:50|climateprediction.net|then reattach to http://climateprediction.net/
15/05/2008 10:35:50|climateprediction.net|Already attached to a project named climateprediction.net (possibly with wrong URL)
15/05/2008 10:35:50|climateprediction.net|Consider detaching this project, then trying again
15/05/2008 10:35:50|climateprediction.net|Message from server: Invalid or missing account key. Visit this project's web site to get an account key.

Please do not detach! You have not really got an extra account and you are not really attached twice.
Please do not reset the SAP or CPDN project!
Please do not abort your SAP HADAM models from CPDN or SAP!
CPDN needs your SAP models - only last week a new experiment using these HADAM models was launched!
Please suspend your SAP HADAM models for the time being.
If you are already getting messages like what I've quoted, please if possible suspend BOINC network activity until the problem is solved.
Milo will be doing everything he can to resolve the problem on Friday.

SAP

Milo has fixed the immediate problem of the SAP redirect to CPDN that didn't work as planned and produced the dreadful BOINC manager messages quoted in the above post. If you have messages like that, please ignore them and don't do what they suggest!

The SAP website and forum are now running but the SAP server status page looks as if the SAP server won't accept trickle and zip file uploads at the moment.

The problem of the SAP redirect to CPDN doesn't appear to have been really solved. Thyme Lawn has posted a fix on the SAP forum here .

And he has now modified those instructions. The link in the above post is still correct.

SAP

This afternoon Milo managed to get into the Physics department. He has cancelled the SAP server redirect to the CPDN server and upgraded the server software. The SAP server is now completely up and running, though Milo can't guarantee its future reliability.

It should now be possible to run SAP models again and allow them to send trickles and uploads to the server.

CPDN main project

The CPDN server (climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk) has been unstable since about 1000 UTC today. Milo did sort out the initial problem by restarting the HTTP server, but most connections have been failing for the past couple of hours. This is likely to be the case until at least Monday morning.

The current problems will affect all scheduler requests (i.e. trickles, reporting completed results and work requests). Uploads will continue to work as they are sent to different servers.

The other CPDN projects (BBC Climate Change Experiment, Seasonal Attribution Poject and CPDN Beta) are unaffected.

CPDN and original Beta project

The original CPDN Beta project has been closed for many months. But on Friday 27 June some of its former crunchers had all their original Beta credits transferred to CPDN. This is a mistake as these credits will all have been transferred before. So when Tolu corrects the error these extra credits will be taken away.

CPDN main project

Upload server uploadcomlab was down from late on Saturday but is now fixed. This will have affected trickles from some but not all computers.

On Sat 28 June the CPDN credits export to the stats sites did not take place and may not today. Milo will check this on Monday.

At the moment there are no HADCM models available for download. If you need a new model and cannot download one, you can either wait until Milo fills the HADCM work queue again or select HADSM/HADAM/both in the project preferences of your account.

Seasonal Attribution Project

Milo has been told that the SAP server will be taken down tomorrow (Thursday). It needs a new disk and reinstallation of its OS. Milo may not be able to get it up and running again until next Tuesday.

Seasonal Attribution Project

Correction to previous news item about the SAP server. Milo's now been told that the new disk and OS will be installed on Tuesday 22 July instead, but the server will be down before that for backups to be made. Milo apologises for the change of plans, but he has no control over when this work is done.

SAP HADAM models downloaded from the CPDN main project since May 2008 will not be affected. But CPDN members still running SAP HADAMs created before May 2008 will find that these models cannot trickle or upload zip files while the SAP server is down. If you have one of these older HADAMs you could suspend it from Monday 21 July and process other tasks instead, or suspend BOINC network activity. Check SAP server status here.

BBC project

The BBC forum has recently been down intermittently along with members' account and model web pages. On a few separate days in July the BBC server has not exported credits to the stats sites. Tolu is looking into the problem.

If this happens again, BBC members who need to post about their models are welcome to register separately on the CPDN independent forum and post there.

BOINC 6.2.14 has been released to the public. Congratulations to Rom, the Berkeley team and all the alpha testers! There are CPDN forum threads with more details and further links here and here. As this is a major new version it's important for CPDN members to read Mike's post and Jorden's FAQ before deciding whether and how to upgrade.

CPDN main project

The daily CPDN credit export to the stats sites did not take place on Friday 1 or Saturday 2 Aug. Milo has now done this manually. On Sunday we should see our missing credits on the stats sites.

BOINC 6.2.14

An unexpected bug has appeared for some crunchers who have upgraded to BOINC 6.2.14. The recommended version has reverted to 5.10.45 until a new version of BOINC 6 is released, probably within a few days. The bug has not been found in the Mac command-line version. It happens most commonly with Vista. It can affect members of all projects, not only CPDN. The BOINC team are not recommending that everyone with 6.2.14 should necessarily uninstall it. Please post here or on the boinc_dev forum if you need advice.

What is the problem?

It only affects members who have selected 'Run only when the computer is idle/not in use' in their project account BOINC preferences or local preferences.

After exiting from BOINC and then restarting it, or after a computer reboot, BOINC 6.2.14 never stops running. It does not recognise mouse or keyboard activity and runs constantly.

What should I do?

* Check the current recommended version here.

* If you still have BOINC v.5, keep it at the moment or upgrade to 5.10.45 which will be good for CPDN for a long time.

* If you have already upgraded to 6.2.14 and are not experiencing the bug, keep it. When a new version of BOINC 6 is released, upgrade to it.

* If you have 6.2.14 and experience the problem of BOINC refusing to stop, you can either

a) temporarily tolerate the problem and in the BOINC Manager Activity menu select Suspend while you are using the computer, or

b) uninstall 6.2.14 and downgrade to 5.10.45 until a new version of BOINC 6 is released.

How can I uninstall 6.2.14?

* First back up the complete contents of the BOINC Data folder. Find the location of this folder in the BOINC 6 FAQ then use your usual backup method. Do not back up the BOINC folder.

* To uninstall BOINC on Windows, Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs > select BOINC > Remove. The Data directory will be migrated back into the BOINC directory. This is done so you can return to BOINC 5.10 without needing to move a lot of files by hand. This back-migration may take from minutes to an hour or two.

* Now install 5.10.45. You should not need to restore your backup, which was a precaution. BOINC should start running your tasks/models.

CPDN main project

The CPDN server program that exports credits to the stats sites is not working properly. I will not make repeated news posts about this problem which may continue until Milo, who knows about the situation, has time to fix it. CPDN and CPDN Beta2 are giving us our credits correctly and we will eventually receive them on the stats sites. Many thanks to all members for your patience.

On Monday 4 Aug we received (on the stats sites) our credits for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Tuesday 5 Aug there was no CPDN credits export.

SAP

There have also been long delays in the exports of SAP credits to the stats sites.

A new version 6.2.16 has been released which fixes the above bug:

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php

See the earlier post about installing 6.2.14 and read the caveats carefully before using 6.2.16.

Any news on the stats export?

Hi Zombie

Sorry I didn't see your post earlier. The CPDN stats export program still works automatically only when it wants to. We tell Milo about this every day we notice the problem and he runs the export manually. He knows that a fix is needed.

Tolu has been very busy. He has released new BOINC6-compliant versions of the following CPDN models:

HADSM3 slab for Windows, Linux and Mac
HADAM3 for Windows and Linux

The BOINC6-compliant HADCM3 coupled models are still being beta-tested.

BOINC6-compliant means that when we upgrade to BOINC version 6, whether we install in 'protected' (service) mode or in 'unprotected' (screensaver) mode, we will be able to see the graphics and screensaver of these models.

While we finish our current BOINC5-compliant models, we can only see their graphics if we have BOINC version 5 or install BOINC6 in unprotected screensaver mode.

All currently available CPDN model version can be seen on the applications page. Versions numbered 5.** are not BOINC6-compliant, ie their graphics can only be seen in BOINC6 screensaver mode. Versions numbered 6.** are BOINC6-compliant ie their graphics are viewable in both BOINC6 installation modes.

The BOINC6-compliant model versions are backwards-compatible; this means that if we decide to keep BOINC version 5 we will be able to see the graphics of these new model versions. So we are not yet obliged to upgrade to BOINC6.

Information about BOINC6

Further information about BOINC6 can be found in the BOINC FAQs. The most useful FAQ items for BOINC6 are The Big BOINC Answer thread, and here (to read after installation) and here. There is also a preview of the BOINC6 protected/service installation process here. If you wish to install in screensaver mode ie not as a service, the preview is also useful.

Many of these FAQs are also available in German, Dutch, Czech, French and Spanish by clicking on the flags at the top of the page.

Please note that BOINC6 installs itself in two folders in two different locations, one for BOINC itself and the other for Data, which includes all project and model/task data. The Big BOINC Answer Thread lists the default BOINC6 locations for Windows, Linux and Mac computers.

BOINC6 Backups

Before upgrading to BOINC6, make a backup of the complete contents of your Boinc folder! Here are the READMEs about backups.

After upgrading to BOINC6, when we back up our models, we only back up the complete contents of the Data folder, not the BOINC folder. The backup methods described in the READMEs also work for backing up this new Data folder. A Data folder backup must be restored to the Data folder in the same location as before.

If you make a backup when you have BOINC5 and need to restore a crashed model after upgrading to BOINC6, please ask for advice on a CPDN forum. To avoid this situation it is a good idea to back up the BOINC6 Data folder soon after your BOINC upgrade.

Please complete your current models before downloading new ones!

New experiment for CPDN!

Tolu has released BOINC6-compliant versions of HADSM3MH for Windows, Linux and Mac. The models are for a new research project to study the mid-Holocene climate. They are 4-phase 60-year slab models with one phase for mid-Holocene conditions. You can select these models in the CPDN preferences section of your acccount. They are 33% longer than the current HADSM slab models which are still available.

The researchers for this project are Helene Muri, Myles Allen and Hiro Yamazaki of the Dept of Atmospheric Physics in Oxford, Gideon Henderson from the Dept of Earth Sciences in Oxford and Paul Valdes from the Dept of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol.

We will add links to threads about the mid-Holocene models as more information becomes available.

Please see previous News posts on the CPDN forums about precautions to take with all slab models particularly at phase changes.

CPDN main project

CPDN trickles haven't generated credit for two days. The problem should be fixed tomorrow but these credits probably won't show on the stats sites until Wednesday.

Reminder

If you think you have a defective model, please report it on a CPDN forum. If we do diagnose a defect we may be able to contact members running a task from the same workunit and help them avoid wasted crunching time.

BOINC6 versions

Many computers with Windows and BOINC versions 6.2.14 and 6.2.16 are crashing models immediately after download with error code -185 and the message 'Can't get shared memory segment name: shmget() failed'. This problem is happening with HADAM, HADSM and HADCM models (and also with tasks from some other BOINC projects). You can see the code and messages for finished models on their web page; click + beside 'stderr out' to see these extra details.

Check your version of BOINC by right-clicking on the BOINC icon in the notification area, bottom right of the screen, and selecting About Boinc Manager.

Members with these earlier BOINC6 versions should upgrade as soon as possible to v. 6.2.18 which contains a fix. Download it from here. Please see previous posts in this news thread for links to information about BOINC6.

BOINC5 versions are not affected by this problem.

CPDN main project and Beta

Milo says
This is good news for CPDN and the programmers.

It would be a good idea for members to keep BOINC network activity suspended most of the time this week and only enable it when you are present and can see whether your trickles and files do upload. We realise that many multi-project crunchers cannot do this.

You can check CPDN server status here and Beta server status here.

CPDN main project

The CPDN database including the CPDN-BOINC forum has been down this morning for maintenance. Trickles and file uploads should not have been affected but the awarding of credits and their export to the stats sites may be delayed.

Edit: The BBC database and forum also appear to be down.

Update to the above post:

BBC and CPDN trickles and uploads are failing. Milo has had to turn off all BOINC services for both projects so the database isn't updated while he makes a copy of it. If possible please suspend BOINC network activity until the server status page is available and shows the upload server programs working.