SMP Client Just Failed [Needs a little bit more tweaking]

[ReAp3r-G]

hey guys

i'm not sure why but my SMP client just failed and is no longer working, i tried uninstalling it and deleting all files and folders which are related to the SMP client

i have tried uninstalling and reinstalling time and time again, but the MPICH version of the SMP client refuses to give that message saying "If you see this twice, MPICH is working"...did not see that but instead i got an error stating that it couldn't connect to the computer, for example it says "couldn't connect to ComputerX, connection refused"

haven't actually dealt with such a problem before, i've had the SMP client fail numerous times before but simply uninstalling and reinstalling the client will fix the situation, but now it doesn't really help at all

not sure what's going on but any help is appreciated...all is not lost however since i'm still running the GPU client

thanks again in advance!

p.s.

this client is the 6.22 beta or something...and my system is stable the last time i checked, the SMP client has worked all the while, only JUST failed...

[computron9000]

admittedly, i know next to nothing about this particular case. my guess is that you have registry entries that linger and don't get deleted through the uninstall process. uninstall all the garbage, delete the entries in the registry, and install as though you are "new". that should work.

[Geatian]

Looks like the 6.22 SMP Beta client expired on Feb 2nd. Change the date on your computer to before that and it should start fine. It would be nice if they released a new client now, but I don't see one on their official download page yet.

Edit: Oh wait, scratch that. Here's SMP Beta client 6.23: http://www.stanford.edu/~kasson/folding ... 32-x86.exe
Not sure what is changed besides a new expiration date, though.

[ReAp3r-G]

thank you for the suggestions and the link

hopefully it'll work out, many thanks again guys!

[Patonb]

You literly just drop the 6.23 in to the folder.

[jeffry55]

Looks like the 6.22 SMP Beta client expired on Feb 2nd. Change the date on your computer to before that and it should start fine. It would be nice if they released a new client now, but I don't see one on their official download page yet.

Edit: Oh wait, scratch that. Here's SMP Beta client 6.23: http://www.stanford.edu/~kasson/folding ... 32-x86.exe
Not sure what is changed besides a new expiration date, though.

The only 6.23 folding client I saw at the website is the Windows console "standard" folding client. The Windows SMP is still a Beta version 6.22 which expires today.

[Shinare]

I saw a huge hit on my PPD today so I looked at my farm, and all but two were locked up. Not sure what that was about, but I reset them all and they all went back to folding. Its going to be a slim day for me today. I wonder if its related to this?

I guess tomorrow my few windows smp clients are going to puke? That's going to suck. Thats 3k or 4k ppd gone.

[farmpuma]

The only 6.23 folding client I saw at the website is the Windows console "standard" folding client. The Windows SMP is still a Beta version 6.22 which expires today.

Just below the 6.22 listings in the white background is a download icon for the "Drop-in binary for current Windows SMP console client (6.23)" Right above the revived 5.91 SMP client which just flat works sooo much better than the 6.22 for those of us who touch the client on every work unit download and upload.

To Shinare,
The old SMP client will finish the current work unit and then just fail to download a new one until you update it with the drop in binary.

[ReAp3r-G]

so how do i use this drop in binary? i mean i can run it just like that but is it SMP or just standard single core client? i can't use the -smp tag in the command line because it'll give some error

p.s.

the install.bat can execute but it'll give the error as stated above in the first post, right now i'm just running the drop in binary as is...any suggestions?

[ReAp3r-G]

been trying to reinstall the SMP client but i've been getting these two error messages (i dropped in the binary BEFORE running install.bat)

Stopping MPICH2 Process Manager, Argonne National Lab.
MPICH2 Process Manager, Argonne National Lab stopped.
MPICH2 Process Manager, Argonne National Lab removed.
CreateService failed:
The specified service has been marked for deletion. (error 1072)
account (domain\user) [Vista1\ReAp3r G]:
password:
confirm password:
Password encrypted into the Registry.
Unable to connect to 'Vista1:8676',
sock error: generic socket failure, error stack:
MPIDU_Sock_post_connect(1228): unable to connect to Vista1 on port 8676, exhaust
ed all endpoints (errno -1)
MPIDU_Sock_post_connect(1275): unable to connect to Vista1 on port 8676, No conn
ection could be made because the target machine actively refused it. (errno 1006
1)
Press any key to continue . . .

^^^this is exactly what i got when i dropped the binary in BEFORE running the install.bat file

MPICH2 Process Manager, Argonne National Lab installed.
account (domain\user) [Vista1\ReAp3r G]:
password:
confirm password:
Password encrypted into the Registry.
Credentials for Vista1\ReAp3r G rejected connecting to Vista1
Aborting: Unable to connect to Vista1
Press any key to continue . . .

^^^this is also what i got after retrying the install.bat file

the problem doesn't seem to go anywhere and the error messages just cycle and come back to the same deal.

not sure what is wrong but since the problem started days ago, i've been losing PPD's quite badly

[jeffry55]

I was thinking the binary file was something that changed the expiration date of the 6.22 SMP client to allow it to continue to run.

[ReAp3r-G]

I was thinking the binary file was something that changed the expiration date of the 6.22 SMP client to allow it to continue to run.

it should be, but any attempt to reinstall the SMP client is met with such error messages...never had such a problem, and all of a sudden when running the batch file it gave such preposterous errors that i've never seen before, usually like i said in my first post, a simple uninstallation and reinstallation is all that is needed to get my SMP client up and running again, but that isn't the case

i say it again, running the batch file gives me such errors that have never appeared before...putting in the binary file doesn't help neither

[lou15214]

If you're using VISTA, right click on the downloaded 6.23 file and check file properties to see if it says that the file came from another computer, give it the appropriate permission and try re-installing.

[ReAp3r-G]

If you're using VISTA, right click on the downloaded 6.23 file and check file properties to see if it says that the file came from another computer, give it the appropriate permission and try re-installing.

i've just tried that, nothing really happened...it spat the same error at me, saying the computer refused connection and all that jazz (refer to above posts for error message, for those who have just read this thread)

i'm not sure what's causing it, but it was definitely working fine before, that's as much as i could say unfortunately the drop-binary was giving that "this file is from another computer etc. etc. etc." and i unblocked it for both the 6.22 installer and the drop-in 6.23 binary...

[Flying Fox]

You mentioned this again in another thread, so I re-read this again. Only idea that pops up now is Firewall settings?

[ReAp3r-G]

Apparently a simple restart was all it took to reset the installing error and I'm back into production

Thanks for the concern Fox

I'm testing out my system stability at the moment, once the client is up to speed I'll move it over for UGN to use

[Gerbil Jedidiah]

I'm testing out my system stability at the moment, once the client is up to speed I'll move it over for UGN to use

Woot!

[Flying Fox]

Apparently a simple restart was all it took to reset the installing error and I'm back into production

Thanks for the concern Fox

I'm testing out my system stability at the moment, once the client is up to speed I'll move it over for UGN to use

Keep an eye on the production. We don't want the SMP client to impact the GPU client too much after all.

[ReAp3r-G]

Keep an eye on the production. We don't want the SMP client to impact the GPU client too much after all.

When I had the SMP client running along side the GPU client in addition to the PS3 folding its guts out I was able to hit 4000+ PPD, at least on alternate days...

Other days i'd get somewhere above 2500 PPD...both clients are set to use 100% CPU but when I take a look at the CPU usage using the Task Manager and Vista sidebar gadget it's only using 50% actual CPU cycles, so i don't think they're interfering with one another

All's good Fox, will update soon under the UGN thread

[Flying Fox]

Other days i'd get somewhere above 2500 PPD...both clients are set to use 100% CPU but when I take a look at the CPU usage using the Task Manager and Vista sidebar gadget it's only using 50% actual CPU cycles, so i don't think they're interfering with one another

Sounds odd. 50% use in Task Manager means only one core is used (I'm assuming we are talking about the E4400 in your sig). Are you running with the -smp switch?

[ReAp3r-G]

Sounds odd. 50% use in Task Manager means only one core is used (I'm assuming we are talking about the E4400 in your sig). Are you running with the -smp switch?

great...

Do I have to wait for the currently running work unit to finish before I input that switch line?

[Flying Fox]

Sounds odd. 50% use in Task Manager means only one core is used (I'm assuming we are talking about the E4400 in your sig). Are you running with the -smp switch?

great...

Do I have to wait for the currently running work unit to finish before I input that switch line?

If you don't want to trash it, relaunch it with -oneunit so that it quits after finish thing. Then you can use a different command line. The 6.23 beta -configonly mode gives you the ability to input "default" parameters on the command line so you can put -smp there. I do the same and leave -oneunit for myself from time to time when I know I won't be folding in the following day or so.

What's the ppd just folding the GPU client alone?

[ReAp3r-G]

If you don't want to trash it, relaunch it with -oneunit so that it quits after finish thing. Then you can use a different command line. The 6.23 beta -configonly mode gives you the ability to input "default" parameters on the command line so you can put -smp there. I do the same and leave -oneunit for myself from time to time when I know I won't be folding in the following day or so.

What's the ppd just folding the GPU client alone?

Yeah the last thing I want is to trash the newly fixed SMP client...

Well the GPU usually runs ~50% with the setting at 100% within the client itself...I sure do hope there's no such -smp switch for that

PPD for the folding client alone is about 1200PPD, yes pathetic I know, take a look at the card I'm running and it'll answer most if not all your questions

I get about 2000PPD with the PS3 combined...well lemme go put in that switch to stop it after it's done with this unit

[farmpuma]

Your 4670 'should' be capable of about ten percent more than the 1500 PPD of the reference 3850 due to your cards increase in core clock speed. This is a theoretical maximum based on a system which is doing nothing but GPU folding. Any normal system usage will reduce GPU production and for gaming it's usually best to stop GPU folding and then restart it when finished gaming.

Running any other client along with the GPU client is a balancing act which will require some tweaking. JPinTO recommends setting the GPU client to Normal or High priority in the advanced options and setting the SMP client to Low priority.

Running the latest GPU client and driver versions is generally a plus, and I believe the ATI GPU client was recently updated.

---- edit ----

Oops, it seems I may be mistaking a proposed GPU client update with an actual release as all the GPU clients currently list a release date of 26 November 2008. However, it's always a good idea to check the High Performance Clients download page on a regular basis.

[ReAp3r-G]

The current unit for the SMP has been done and sent on its way...

Now after placing the -smp switch I noticed that there isn't any work unit to be grabbed by the client...it's been retrying up to 6 times so far, I'm gonna just let it be for now and head for classes...will come back later and check on the status of the client...

So far so good I suppose

I'll try that high priority thing soon...is it better however to pause when gaming rather than shutting down completely (the GPU client)?

[farmpuma]

I've been having the same problem with the SMP work unit server - 171.64.65.64. I tried at ~9:35 EDT after seeing the same failure about an hour earlier. It's odd, because the server status shows it sending out work units on both ports with a low activity level cpu status and a moderate net status. Then again, it wouldn't be the first time the server status page gave me misleading information. Note: The longer your system tries to get a work unit, the longer it will wait between tries. I have had mixed results from "hammering' on the server by manually stopping and restarting the client after each failure message.

Yep, it sounds like you are on the right track and we are just seeing an overly busy work unit server.

I'm not sure about pause verses shut down. I think my son said he still saw game slow downs while using pause, but I will check with him when I see him on IM.

[ReAp3r-G]

I think my client managed to grab a work unit *phew*...

Oh and another thing, I've already set my priority in the GPU client to slightly higher...should I change the core priority in the SMP client as well? It's set at the default value of [idle]...that should be OK right?

edit:

I just noticed the start time of my SMP client and it's been over an hour and it hasn't increased 1% yet

Very very odd...but one good thing is that the system appears to be stable...hasn't crashed since the client got started on the WU it grabbed at 15:06 GMT

[Flying Fox]

Oh and another thing, I've already set my priority in the GPU client to slightly higher...should I change the core priority in the SMP client as well? It's set at the default value of [idle]...that should be OK right?

It should be ok. Idle is the lowest you can set. You can confirm by looking at Task Manager. Right click on the EXE themselves, move to Set Priority and you will see what the current priority the process is being run at.

I just noticed the start time of my SMP client and it's been over an hour and it hasn't increased 1% yet

Very very odd...but one good thing is that the system appears to be stable...hasn't crashed since the client got started on the WU it grabbed at 15:06 GMT

Are both cores busy at 100% then? If so, that's the ppd dropoff that I was talking about. Monitor the production of both the SMP and GPU clients and make sure that both are not down significantly and that you can make deadlines.

[ReAp3r-G]

Guess I was celebrating too early, the client started going haywire when I messed about the priority settings and it just kept downloading and downloading new WU's but never getting started...

All it said was a1 not compatible with variable processors (????)

Stopping MPICH2 Process Manager, Argonne National Lab.
MPICH2 Process Manager, Argonne National Lab stopped.
MPICH2 Process Manager, Argonne National Lab removed.
MPICH2 Process Manager, Argonne National Lab installed.
account (domain\user) [Vista1\ReAp3r G]:
password:
confirm password:
Password encrypted into the Registry.
launch failed: FAIL
launch failed: FAIL
Press any key to continue . . .

and ^^^ that's what I got trying to reinstall the client...

and adding insult to injury, restarting the PC doesn't help neither...

[Flying Fox]

Doing LinuxSMP under VMs may be your answer.