On Dec 3 I will remove the beta status for the new app ("camb_boinc2docker") which means everyone who meets the system requirements will get the new jobs by default (currently only those of you who have selected "Run test applications" in your C@H preferences are getting them).

To ensure a smooth upgrade, please take a look at the requirements and FAQ. The most important things are having Virtualbox installed and enabling VT-x/AMD-v extensions. Thanks everyone!

Hi Marius,

Exciting news! Docker is a quick and robust system and your BOINC2Docker wrapper a great way for this and future apps to use BOINC.

The problems that I see at the moment are:

1 A fair amount of CPU time-wasting. I hope that the present jobs are just quick tests, and that "real" CMS@Home jobs would run for at least an hour, so that the time added by starting up the VM and starting Docker are reduced.
2 CPU Priority. At present, using ALL Available CPUs at Normal priority makes the typical computer very sleepy, perhaps there could be added controls "run jobs at low priority" and "use at most n processors for THIS project (maybe defaulting to 50%) so that users can have more confidence trying this system?

Thanks Phil! Both of your points are very good, and things I plan to get solved at some point, although for now I think it is fine to remove the beta status while still working on their solution.

A fair amount of CPU time-wasting. I hope that the present jobs are just quick tests, and that "real" CMS@Home jobs would run for at least an hour, so that the time added by starting up the VM and starting Docker are reduced.

The reason the jobs are short currently is because there is no checkpointing / resume, so by keeping them short not a lot of work is lost should the user need to interrupt the computation. I played around with checkpointing / resume when we had the beta server and the majority of feedback was negative; jobs were hanging, it took a lot of resources, etc... I think its a solvable problem, just needs more work and testing, which I plan to do. Until then jobs will stay short (but note they are by no means "test" jobs, the results are just as useful).

CPU Priority. At present, using ALL Available CPUs at Normal priority makes the typical computer very sleepy, perhaps there could be added controls "run jobs at low priority" and "use at most n processors for THIS project (maybe defaulting to 50%) so that users can have more confidence trying this system?

Yep, this is a problem on Windows and is actually a Virtualbox problem which I've heard will be fixed at some point. For now there is this solution, which unfortunately is not the most user-friendly, but at least it works. Actually, I think I will write a new FAQ item more clearly explaining the Windows/priority issue. My guess is this will be the biggest issue for everyone come Dec 3.

You can also use "Prio" to reduce the CPU priority to "Low" on these jobs:
http://www.cosmologyathome.org/forum_thread.php?id=7323&postid=20564#20564

When I try to enable the VM application on one of my computers (which has enough memory) but not on the other one (which does not have enough memory to allow VM), I get these warning messages:


Warning: Creating default object from empty value in /root/projects/cosmohome/html/inc/prefs_project.inc on line 349

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /root/projects/cosmohome/html/inc/prefs_project.inc:349) in /root/projects/cosmohome/html/user/add_venue.php on line 78
Return to Cosmology@Home main page


The new settings are not saved. How can I fix this?

Robert, thanks, I see the error also. Can you confirm that what you're doing is "Your Account -> Project Prefs -> Add Separate Prefs for X -> Add Prefs" ?

For me at least, despite the error, the settings are actually saved, can you double check this is not the case for you too?

Finally, you shouldn't need to manually disable the VM app for your lower-memory computer, camb_boinc2docker is set to need 2GB of memory, if BOINC detects your computer doesn't have that, it won't run it on there.

Will work on the fix.

Will work on the fix.

Ok, should be fixed now.

Sorry, some minor delays on my end so the app is still in beta status, I will probably actually remove it some time over the weekend, a few days later than originally said, sorry.

Hi Marius,
Thank you for the update.
Regards,
Phil1966