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SETI.Germany's 12th Annual BOINC Pentathlon (2021)

Gilthanis

Gilthanis

[H]ard|DCer of the Year - 2014
Joined
Jan 29, 2006
Messages
8,884
Last years thread - https://hardforum.com/threads/seti-germanys-11-annual-boinc-pentathlon-2020.1995136/

Welcome to the twelfth edition of the competition inspired by the Pentathlon in ancient Greece. SETI.Germany warmly invites all BOINC teams to participate. https://www.seti-germany.de/boinc_pentathlon/ The most important facts are listed below:
boinc_pentathlon2.png
from 05 May 2021 00:00 UTC
to 19 May 2021 00:00 UTC
5 disciplines
1 winner
boinc_pentathlon2unten.png
 
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I want to encourage all DC'ers to participate and hopefully contribute under the [H] banner.

The details of the announced disciplines will appear here, starting with the Marathon on 30 Apr 2021 at 0.00 UTC.
Looks like Sidock got leaked a week early as the Marathon project - https://www.sidock.si/sidock/forum_thread.php?id=114


The BOINC Pentathlon consists of 5 disciplines:

  1. Marathon (14 days) - Sidock - Team Page - Work units have their deadlines reduced to 2 days now until the end of Pentathlon
  2. Sprint (3 days) - NFS - Start: 15 May 2021 00:00 UTCEnd: 18 May 2021 00:00 UTC - Team Page
  3. City Run (5 days) - PrimeGrid - May 8 - May 13 - Team Page
  4. Cross Country (5 days) - Einstein - Start: 11 May 2021 00:00 UTC End: 16 May 2021 00:00 UTC - Team Page
  5. Javelin Throw (5 x 1 day, only each team's third best daily score counts) - WCG (Only MIP work units) - First time sign up click here and it will auto assign you to the team. If you have an account already you can join our team hereand click on "join now".
    1. Start: 06 May 2021 00:00 UTCEnd: 07 May 2021 00:00 UTC
    2. Start: 08 May 2021 00:00 UTCEnd: 09 May 2021 00:00 UTC
    3. Start: 10 May 2021 00:00 UTCEnd: 11 May 2021 00:00 UTC
    4. Start: 14 May 2021 00:00 UTCEnd: 15 May 2021 00:00 UTC
    5. Start: 18 May 2021 00:00 UTCEnd: 19 May 2021 00:00 UTC
May Dates and projects
5 - S
6 - S - W
7 - S - W
8 - S - P - W
9 - S - P - W
10 - S - P - W
11 - S - P - E - W
12 - S - P - E
13 - S - P - E
14 - S - E - W
15 - S - E - W - N
16 - S - E - N
17 - S - N
18 - S - N - W
19 - S - W

To make the Pentathlon as exciting and trouble-free as possible while at the same time maintaining a maximum of flexibility, all five projects are chosen by a small group of the organizers this year.



Projects are not eligible if they

  • cannot provide a sufficient number of workunits
  • do not support at least Windows and Linux
  • provide non-CPU-intensive (NCI) applications
  • are test-only projects
  • do not allow the creation of new accounts
  • do not support WebRPC
[H] Slack channel - https://join.slack.com/t/hardforum/shared_invite/zt-e1amiide-VVB9IK76b6EFNeOuSAdBxA
Let us know if it stops working.

Last year we finished in 10th place.
 
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Last year's projects were
Rosetta
Ibercivis
Universe
Amicable Numbers
Numberfields
If they continue the same process as years past, then those won't be options this year. I will update this post as rules get lined out and updates occur as well as the first post in this thread.
 
Do I need to apply all the tweaks you outlined? Or will installing and running the client be enough?
If the latter, you have my bow, I guess.
 
michalrz said:
Do I need to apply all the tweaks you outlined? Or will installing and running the client be enough?
If the latter, you have my bow, I guess.
Click to expand...

You can certainly just run and install the client. The videos above are more about advanced techniques that can be applied in different situations to maximize your points output but are in no way required to participate.
Please participate in any way that you choose to do so as any level of participation is WAY better than none in terms of our chances as a team to succeed in the contest.

A simple example of this would be as such. Say the contest runs for a period of 10 days. The points awarded are for completed results submitted to the server within this 10 day period so by simply installing and running the client for the 10 day period you can get 10 days of completed results. Bunkering is the basic way that you could potentially complete more than 10 days of work within that 10 day period. How does that work? Well to put it simply, all tasks for a project will have a certain period of time from when they are assigned to you till when you have to have them uploaded to the server. This gives you "X" amount of days to complete the task but it does not mean that you have to upload your results immediately you simply have to do so before the period the specific project gives you expires (after that the tasks is considered abandoned and would be cancelled and the server would assign it to someone else) So bunkering can allow you in some situations to do work ahead of time and simply not upload your results immediately. So say in the 10 day example you are running a project that allows you 5 days to complete a task. This in theory allows you to to in practice have work that you complete up to 5 days ahead of the 10 day contest period get counted within the 10 day period of the contest giving you 15 totals days of work completed (or at least submitted) within the 10 days of the contest. This is simply done by completing the work but not submitting it to the server as completed until the contest period starts. This is bunkering in a nutshell.

The other videos are basically expanding on the basic topic. In some situations for example, while you may have 5 days to complete a task you may find that you are not able to download enough work from the project at one time to have 5 days of work that you can do without uploading them before you can get more. A project may have a 5 day deadline, but you might only be able to download a days worth of tasks for example. In this case you could really only "bunker" for 1 day since you can't get more than 1 days work to complete prior to the start so the expanded techniques are ways that you can legitimately get around this that will allow you to get enough work to continue processing the tasks within the given time you are allowed to run the tasks. In many cases these more advanced techniques may not be required at all and simply telling the client to download 5 days of work and then turning off its ability to access the network is all that is needed to build that 5 day "bunker".

Sometimes it is easy and sometimes it requires a fair bit of work and planning. The videos are just an example of many of the various techniques that you can use in certain situation and in almost all cases you would not need or want to use all of them at the same time if you were wanting to use them at all.

Sorry this was meant to be simple but maybe it didn't end up that way :p

TLDR: just run the client and ignore the videos above unless they pique your interest enough to want to learn about using them and how. If you do then there are plenty of us here who would be happy to explain or answer any questions about it.
 
Thank you!
Okay, I think I get the bunkering thing. I probably won't be able to apply those tactics, because it'll have to be a set it and forget it kind of deal.
I've been registered since early 2017 as michalrz and contributed about 3 years of CPU time, but had to stop mid-2018 because I ran out of CPUs.

For this event I'll only be able to run my main rig in 12 hours on/12 off cycles due to costs.
Maybe in the future I'll be able to fold moar with a raspberry pi on solar power (future backup battery charging project).

I'll install the client right now and mark the calendar.

Edit: any particular project(s) I should choose?
 
michalrz said:
Thank you!
Okay, I think I get the bunkering thing. I probably won't be able to apply those tactics, because it'll have to be a set it and forget it kind of deal.
I've been registered since early 2017 as michalrz and contributed about 3 years of CPU time, but had to stop mid-2018 because I ran out of CPUs.

For this event I'll only be able to run my main rig in 12 hours on/12 off cycles due to costs.
Maybe in the future I'll be able to fold moar with a raspberry pi on solar power (future backup battery charging project).

I'll install the client right now and mark the calendar.

Edit: any particular project(s) I should choose?
Click to expand...

Well we do not officially know yet what the projects will be, but based on early leaks / rumors it seems likely that the project that will be the "marathon" component of the pentathlon of events will be SIDock@home, which is a project that has to do with Covid research. If you are planning to participate in any of the project and especially in a "set it and forget it" type of manner then the marathon would be the project to pick since it will be the only project that runs from the start till the end. Should this change we will be sure to announce it and also will announce all the projects as they become confirmed.
 
Another question - how phat of an Internet pipe do I need for this?
I only have 20/1, how much does this limit the performance?
 
michalrz said:
Another question - how phat of an Internet pipe do I need for this?
I only have 20/1, how much does this limit the performance?
Click to expand...

Almost none. Once it downloads the work units you crunch and it uploads the results. Not much bandwidth used, especially on WU that take a long time to crunch
 
michalrz said:
Another question - how phat of an Internet pipe do I need for this?
I only have 20/1, how much does this limit the performance?
Click to expand...
Bandwidth not an issue for the vast majority of projects. However, when making your account at projects, don't forget the 2nd most important thing to do and that is to join our team. I put links to our team page at the projects as they announce which projects are participating in the Pentathlon for convenience. Right now SiDock is the assumed Marathon project so it is safe to go ahead and create your account there and start working on it to make sure your rig is up to par.
 
Gilthanis said:
Bandwidth not an issue for the vast majority of projects. However, when making your account at projects, don't forget the 2nd most important thing to do and that is to join our team. I put links to our team page at the projects as they announce which projects are participating in the Pentathlon for convenience. Right now SiDock is the assumed Marathon project so it is safe to go ahead and create your account there and start working on it to make sure your rig is up to par.
Click to expand...
Oh I've joined back in 2017, wouldn't have it any other way :D
I'm actually running the client right now, I just limited the CPU time to just 20% for now. I'm ready for the 10th!
 
michalrz said:
Oh I've joined back in 2017, wouldn't have it any other way :D
I'm actually running the client right now, I just limited the CPU time to just 20% for now. I'm ready for the 10th!
Click to expand...
Right, but do you have an account with SiDock? If not, you will need to create one and attach to it for the Pentathlon Marathon portion. This is assuming that it is indeed still the Marathon option after Natalia spilled the beans.
 
Gilthanis said:
Right, but do you have an account with SiDock? If not, you will need to create one and attach to it for the Pentathlon Marathon portion. This is assuming that it is indeed still the Marathon option after Natalia spilled the beans.
Click to expand...
I shall do so and report back.
 
also don't forget to join the team once you have joined the project should be under: [H]ard|OCP
 
Gilthanis said:
Right, but do you have an account with SiDock? If not, you will need to create one and attach to it for the Pentathlon Marathon portion. This is assuming that it is indeed still the Marathon option after Natalia spilled the beans.
Click to expand...
Tried to join Sidock@home, says I need an invitation code?

nvm, got it figured out.
 
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DeeFrag said:
Tried to join Sidock@home, says I need an invitation code?

nvm, got it figured out.
Click to expand...
Sorry...just got back to the computer as I have been troubleshooting a phone issue all morning. Glad you got it worked out.
 
Right on, I'll see about getting some shit configured. I've just been letting it roar away at whatever random "OpenPandemics - COVID 19" they were serving up by default.
 
Come on [H]ordes! Please sign up here. So far we only have 11 members in the team

BTW, Sidock is now the official marathon run project. This is a good project to help our team if you don't want to frequently switch projects. Just set and forget.

Invitation code: Crunch_4Science
 
pututu said:
Come on [H]ordes! Please sign up here. So far we only have 11 members in the team

BTW, Sidock is now the official marathon run project. This is a good project to help our team if you don't want to frequently switch projects. Just set and forget.

Invitation code: Crunch_4Science
Click to expand...
No! Absolutely not! I refuse to sign up. (mostly because I tried this out a while back and was already signed up.) :p
 
OK, signed up, got 12 cores on, the other 12...working on that


how do we get the GPUs going on this?
 
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SIDock doesn't have GPU work but there will be a GPU project at some point in the Pentathlon I am pretty sure. The events are announced at intervals and we will be sure to post here when we hear more.
 
pututu said:
Come on [H]ordes! Please sign up here. So far we only have 11 members in the team

BTW, Sidock is now the official marathon run project. This is a good project to help our team if you don't want to frequently switch projects. Just set and forget.

Invitation code: Crunch_4Science
Click to expand...

I thought it didn't start yet?
 
I'm late as usual. I need to get the machine setup. I still have the quad opty I got from jebo_4jc (48 cores). I don't think these workloads were memory intensive, were they? As of now, I may only have 16GB to give it.

I also have to find an outlet :/
 
Outlaw85 said:
I'm late as usual. I need to get the machine setup. I still have the quad opty I got from jebo_4jc (48 cores). I don't think these workloads were memory intensive, were they? As of now, I may only have 16GB to give it.

I also have to find an outlet :/
Click to expand...
Awesome & thanks! That will do for sidock. Not memory intensive. Can run cpu on either Win or linux but I think linux generally have a slight advantage.
 
pututu said:
Awesome & thanks! That will do for sidock. Not memory intensive. Can run cpu on either Win or linux but I think linux generally have a slight advantage.
Click to expand...

Don't thank me yet lol.
I got a Windows VM already started for it, just need the app installs. i can look at linux distros but I'm not as familiar
 
jojo69 said:
so how do we bunker?
Click to expand...
See Gilthanis post #3 under the section "bunkering tactics". Since you can only bunker 2 tasks per thread, may require some learning curve if you are new to creating multi boinc clients, spoofing cpus or creating virtual machines. This is also explained in Gilthanis videos above. 4Maybe best to just run in the open and skip bunkering, whichever is convenient to you as I expect that there could be significant tasks awaiting validation. The sidock task requires quorum of two.
 
pututu said:
Oh, I meant to thank you for the effort that you are putting into this ;)
Click to expand...

I think I got the VM stuff going. Probably need to wait for refresh to see if I joined the Sidock team correctly. I did use the code: Crunch_4Science. I'll try to work on the server this weekend. Unfortunately, right now, it's only 2 cores.
1619847471243.png
 
Just a heads up to newer users joining in. The tactics for "maximizing" the challenges can be very daunting and time consuming. I don't want to scare you away from doing it as it really is good to learn the workings of BOINC clients and the projects involved. Many of us have picked up these tricks over the years. Not all of the tactics are appropriate for every situation/user/system/project/etc... If you are new to BOINC, I would suggest just getting the client set up and get familiar with the basic settings first. Run some work units for a day or two to see how it goes. Then delve into some of the more advanced tweaks and tactics. If you are a glutton for punishment, by all means ask for help or suggestions and someone will try to get you going.
 
I am hoping this guy doesn't break the camels back with the circuit it is on with various others.
PXL_20210501_150554013.jpg


All 4 Linux Mint VM's seem to be working still. Huzzah!
 
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