Project Update

[Dataman]

I finally got some wu's on this project. Geez, it is another vbox project!!!   However this one uses only one cpu/wu and does not eat all my memory.   It is a single quorum project.   They should run in about 10 min (i7 8700) but all of mine got a comp error after ~6 min.   Each time one failed it caused BOINC to run benchmarks.   After several benchmark attempts it killed BOINC and ~5 sec later it killed Win10.   I would stay away from this one for the time being!!!

<core_client_version>7.12.1</core_client_version>
<![CDATA[
<message>
(unknown error) - exit code -182 (0xffffff4a)</message>
<stderr_txt>
2018-09-28 11:29:10 (7132): vboxwrapper (7.7.26197): starting
2018-09-28 11:29:11 (7132): Error creating VirtualBox instance! rc = 0x80004002
2018-09-28 11:29:13 (7132): Feature: Checkpoint interval offset (427 seconds)
2018-09-28 11:29:13 (7132): Detected: VirtualBox VboxManage Interface (Version: 5.2.8)
2018-09-28 11:29:14 (7132): Detected: Minimum checkpoint interval (600.000000 seconds)
2018-09-28 11:29:17 (7132): Create VM. (boinc_04e20f2618fc9048, slot#2)
2018-09-28 11:29:17 (7132): Updating drive controller type and model for desired configuration.
2018-09-28 11:29:21 (7132): Setting Memory Size for VM. (3072MB)
2018-09-28 11:29:22 (7132): Setting CPU Count for VM. (1)
2018-09-28 11:29:22 (7132): Setting Chipset Options for VM.
2018-09-28 11:29:22 (7132): Setting Boot Options for VM.
2018-09-28 11:29:23 (7132): Setting Network Configuration for NAT.
2018-09-28 11:29:23 (7132): Enabling VM Network Access.
2018-09-28 11:29:23 (7132): Disabling USB Support for VM.
2018-09-28 11:29:24 (7132): Disabling COM Port Support for VM.
2018-09-28 11:29:24 (7132): Disabling LPT Port Support for VM.
2018-09-28 11:29:24 (7132): Disabling Audio Support for VM.
2018-09-28 11:29:24 (7132): Disabling Clipboard Support for VM.
2018-09-28 11:29:25 (7132): Disabling Drag and Drop Support for VM.
2018-09-28 11:29:25 (7132): Adding storage controller(s) to VM.
2018-09-28 11:29:25 (7132): Adding virtual ISO 9660 disk drive to VM. (vm_isocontext.iso)
2018-09-28 11:29:26 (7132): Adding VirtualBox Guest Additions to VM.
2018-09-28 11:29:26 (7132): Adding network bandwidth throttle group to VM. (Defaulting to 1024GB)
2018-09-28 11:29:26 (7132): Enabling shared directory for VM.
2018-09-28 11:29:27 (7132): Starting VM. (boinc_04e20f2618fc9048, slot#2)
2018-09-28 11:34:06 (7132): VM failed to start.
2018-09-28 11:34:06 (7132): Powering off VM.
2018-09-28 11:34:06 (7132): Deregistering VM. (boinc_04e20f2618fc9048, slot#2)
2018-09-28 11:34:06 (7132): Removing network bandwidth throttle group from VM.
2018-09-28 11:34:06 (7132): Removing storage controller(s) from VM.
2018-09-28 11:34:39 (7132): Removing VM from VirtualBox.
2018-09-28 11:35:11 (7132): Removing virtual ISO 9660 disk from VirtualBox.

   Hypervisor System Log:


   VM Execution Log:


   VM Startup Log:


   VM Trace Log:

VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "Unregister(CleanupMode_DetachAllReturnHardDisksOnly, ComSafeArrayAsOutParam(aMedia))" at line 157 of file VBoxManageMisc.cpp

2018-09-28 11:34:42 (7132):
Command: VBoxManage -q unregistervm "boinc_04e20f2618fc9048" --delete
Exit Code: -2135228409
Output:
VBoxManage.exe: error: Cannot unregister the machine 'boinc_04e20f2618fc9048' while it is locked
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_INVALID_OBJECT_STATE (0x80bb0007), component MachineWrap, interface IMachine, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "Unregister(CleanupMode_DetachAllReturnHardDisksOnly, ComSafeArrayAsOutParam(aMedia))" at line 157 of file VBoxManageMisc.cpp

2018-09-28 11:34:47 (7132):
Command: VBoxManage -q unregistervm "boinc_04e20f2618fc9048" --delete
Exit Code: -2135228409
Output:
VBoxManage.exe: error: Cannot unregister the machine 'boinc_04e20f2618fc9048' while it is locked
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_INVALID_OBJECT_STATE (0x80bb0007), component MachineWrap, interface IMachine, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "Unregister(CleanupMode_DetachAllReturnHardDisksOnly, ComSafeArrayAsOutParam(aMedia))" at line 157 of file VBoxManageMisc.cpp

2018-09-28 11:34:55 (7132):
Command: VBoxManage -q unregistervm "boinc_04e20f2618fc9048" --delete
Exit Code: -2135228409
Output:
VBoxManage.exe: error: Cannot unregister the machine 'boinc_04e20f2618fc9048' while it is locked
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_INVALID_OBJECT_STATE (0x80bb0007), component MachineWrap, interface IMachine, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "Unregister(CleanupMode_DetachAllReturnHardDisksOnly, ComSafeArrayAsOutParam(aMedia))" at line 157 of file VBoxManageMisc.cpp

2018-09-28 11:35:11 (7132):
Command: VBoxManage -q unregistervm "boinc_04e20f2618fc9048" --delete
Exit Code: -2135228409
Output:
VBoxManage.exe: error: Cannot unregister the machine 'boinc_04e20f2618fc9048' while it is locked
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_INVALID_OBJECT_STATE (0x80bb0007), component MachineWrap, interface IMachine, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "Unregister(CleanupMode_DetachAllReturnHardDisksOnly, ComSafeArrayAsOutParam(aMedia))" at line 157 of file VBoxManageMisc.cpp

2018-09-28 11:35:11 (7132):
Command: VBoxManage -q closemedium dvd "C:\ProgramData\BOINC\slots\2/vm_isocontext.iso" --delete
Exit Code: -2135228409
Output:
VBoxManage.exe: error: Medium 'C:\ProgramData\BOINC\slots\2\vm_isocontext.iso' is locked for reading by another task
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_INVALID_OBJECT_STATE (0x80bb0007), component MediumWrap, interface IMedium, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "DeleteStorage(pProgress.asOutParam())" at line 1639 of file VBoxManageDisk.cpp
VBoxManage.exe: error: Failed to delete medium. Error code Unknown Status -2135228409 (0x80bb0007)
VBoxManage.exe: error: Medium 'C:\ProgramData\BOINC\slots\2\vm_isocontext.iso' is locked for reading by another task
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_INVALID_OBJECT_STATE (0x80bb0007), component MediumWrap, interface IMedium, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "Close()" at line 1648 of file VBoxManageDisk.cpp

2018-09-28 11:35:13 (7132):
Command: VBoxManage -q closemedium dvd "C:\ProgramData\BOINC\slots\2/vm_isocontext.iso" --delete
Exit Code: -2135228409
Output:
VBoxManage.exe: error: Medium 'C:\ProgramData\BOINC\slots\2\vm_isocontext.iso' is locked for reading by another task
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_INVALID_OBJECT_STATE (0x80bb0007), component MediumWrap, interface IMedium, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "DeleteStorage(pProgress.asOutParam())" at line 1639 of file VBoxManageDisk.cpp
VBoxManage.exe: error: Failed to delete medium. Error code Unknown Status -2135228409 (0x80bb0007)
VBoxManage.exe: error: Medium 'C:\ProgramData\BOINC\slots\2\vm_isocontext.iso' is locked for reading by another task
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_INVALID_OBJECT_STATE (0x80bb0007), component MediumWrap, interface IMedium, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "Close()" at line 1648 of file VBoxManageDisk.cpp

2018-09-28 11:35:15 (7132):
Command: VBoxManage -q closemedium dvd "C:\ProgramData\BOINC\slots\2/vm_isocontext.iso" --delete
Exit Code: -2135228409
Output:
VBoxManage.exe: error: Medium 'C:\ProgramData\BOINC\slots\2\vm_isocontext.iso' is locked for reading by another task
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_INVALID_OBJECT_STATE (0x80bb0007), component MediumWrap, interface IMedium, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "DeleteStorage(pProgress.asOutParam())" at line 1639 of file VBoxManageDisk.cpp
VBoxManage.exe: error: Failed to delete medium. Error code Unknown Status -2135228409 (0x80bb0007)
VBoxManage.exe: error: Medium 'C:\ProgramData\BOINC\slots\2\vm_isocontext.iso' is locked for reading by another task
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_INVALID_OBJECT_STATE (0x80bb0007), component MediumWrap, interface IMedium, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "Close()" at line 1648 of file VBoxManageDisk.cpp

2018-09-28 11:35:19 (7132):
Command: VBoxManage -q closemedium dvd "C:\ProgramData\BOINC\slots\2/vm_isocontext.iso" --delete
Exit Code: -2135228409
Output:
VBoxManage.exe: error: Medium 'C:\ProgramData\BOINC\slots\2\vm_isocontext.iso' is locked for reading by another task
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_INVALID_OBJECT_STATE (0x80bb0007), component MediumWrap, interface IMedium, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "DeleteStorage(pProgress.asOutParam())" at line 1639 of file VBoxManageDisk.cpp
VBoxManage.exe: error: Failed to delete medium. Error code Unknown Status -2135228409 (0x80bb0007)
VBoxManage.exe: error: Medium 'C:\ProgramData\BOINC\slots\2\vm_isocontext.iso' is locked for reading by another task
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_INVALID_OBJECT_STATE (0x80bb0007), component MediumWrap, interface IMedium, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "Close()" at line 1648 of file VBoxManageDisk.cpp

2018-09-28 11:35:28 (7132):
Command: VBoxManage -q closemedium dvd "C:\ProgramData\BOINC\slots\2/vm_isocontext.iso" --delete
Exit Code: -2135228409
Output:
VBoxManage.exe: error: Medium 'C:\ProgramData\BOINC\slots\2\vm_isocontext.iso' is locked for reading by another task
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_INVALID_OBJECT_STATE (0x80bb0007), component MediumWrap, interface IMedium, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "DeleteStorage(pProgress.asOutParam())" at line 1639 of file VBoxManageDisk.cpp
VBoxManage.exe: error: Failed to delete medium. Error code Unknown Status -2135228409 (0x80bb0007)
VBoxManage.exe: error: Medium 'C:\ProgramData\BOINC\slots\2\vm_isocontext.iso' is locked for reading by another task
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_INVALID_OBJECT_STATE (0x80bb0007), component MediumWrap, interface IMedium, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "Close()" at line 1648 of file VBoxManageDisk.cpp

2018-09-28 11:35:44 (7132):
Command: VBoxManage -q closemedium dvd "C:\ProgramData\BOINC\slots\2/vm_isocontext.iso" --delete
Exit Code: -2135228409
Output:
VBoxManage.exe: error: Medium 'C:\ProgramData\BOINC\slots\2\vm_isocontext.iso' is locked for reading by another task
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_INVALID_OBJECT_STATE (0x80bb0007), component MediumWrap, interface IMedium, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "DeleteStorage(pProgress.asOutParam())" at line 1639 of file VBoxManageDisk.cpp
VBoxManage.exe: error: Failed to delete medium. Error code Unknown Status -2135228409 (0x80bb0007)
VBoxManage.exe: error: Medium 'C:\ProgramData\BOINC\slots\2\vm_isocontext.iso' is locked for reading by another task
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_INVALID_OBJECT_STATE (0x80bb0007), component MediumWrap, interface IMedium, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "Close()" at line 1648 of file VBoxManageDisk.cpp

11:35:59 (7132): called boinc_finish(-182)

</stderr_txt>
]]>

[Dataman]

After some poking around the problem may have been caused by me running DBN Upperbound earlier. VM may have not properly terminated during those wu even though they completed and reported and I shut down the project. VM may have been running when nanoHUB tried to start it. It may also be why BOINC started them as single CPU wu's. BOINC got confused ... Win10 got confused ... and me too.  

I may give this project another go after a clean start of Win10. Not today however.

[Dataman]

Still Alpha but they now have a limited amount of work.

https://boinc.nanohub.org/nanoHUB_at_home/forum_thread.php?id=42

[Dingo]

I had problems with the application stopping with the error "Exit status   197 (0x000000C5) EXIT_TIME_LIMIT_EXCEEDED" but doing a few today and tthat seeems to be fixed.

[Dataman]

I got 100+ wu's yesterday with ~15% error rate. They are getting better but are not there yet. Credits are horrible. LOL

[Dataman]

Things are looking up here. Yesterday I ran about a 100 wu's. They seemed to have corrected the validation problem for the most part. There are still a lot of old "junk" wu's that keep being sent out. I ran some _4's yesterday that had failed 4 times and yep they failed again. They only send out ~10k wu's/day as they are having capacity problems. Credits suck ... taking in to account the failures I am getting ~1 credit/hr but ignoring the failures it is much better.

[Dataman]

The batches today are much improved. I've had only 1 comp error and a couple of the old garbage wu's that I immediately aborted. Next week if the work continues I will try running it with a GPU project and if that works I will add another CPU project. I don't think the latter will work because of the large RAM requirement of nanoHUB. I can only run 4 wu's. More than that wait for memory. You can limit the running wu's by:

<app_config>
<app>
<name>boinc2docker</name>
<max_concurrent>4</max_concurrent>
</app>
</app_config>

Anyway the adventurous among us may want to dip a toe in the water now.

[Dataman]

Today I finished a 13-day test run on nanoHUB. I ran it 24/7 on an i7 8700 with 16 GB RAM. Results were:

WU's run: 4071; valid: 3554; invalid: 59; error: 458; credits: ~9k (  )

Some Notes/Problems:

1. Little or no communication from the project. NONEXISTENT_ADMIN may as well be non-existent!
2. No description on what the project does. Lots of info about nanoHUB and what it does but no info about what this particular project does.
3. maxerr# = 5 causing bad wu's stay around for days while the unsuspecting crunchers run them over and over until they exceed the time limit (1/hr) and the maxerr limit.
4. Each wu used between 2 - 3 GB of RAM.
5. There is no way to limit the # of wu's or the number of cores used. On my PC it ran 4 wu's and used almost all the memory.
6. Successful wu's ran between 1.2 min to 41.1 min. Most were about 5-15 min.
7. My CPU ran hot and to the limit set at 81C. You could probably fry bacon on the RAM. (  )

VERDICT: nanoHUB needs a lot of improvement before it is palatable for most crunchers.

I removed the project from the machine as my curiosity about nanoHUB is satisfied.

Hope this is informative.

Now that I am finished  at nanoHUB I am going to  at LHC. 

[Dingo]

Thanks for the info Dataman, well presented and should be conveyed to the project.  I only ran 320 tasks and got 41 errors, mostly on Linux. It is all the errors that are the problem as all of them ran over an hour before stopping so I waisted 41 hours and no credit.  My credit is 1849 and I did 320 good tasks so that is 5.778125 credits per hour.

Will have to get better than that.  I will post tis on their forum as well.

[Daniel]

An article about nanoHUB@Home ...

Purdue's nanoHUB@Home project lets anyone contribute to cutting-edge nanotechnology research – no PhD required
https://www.itap.purdue.edu/newsroom/190903_nanoHUB.html