tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69231943751022719362024-03-15T02:11:59.297+11:00MarkJ @ BOINCMark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.comBlogger616125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-14610251439683440182024-03-02T20:16:00.000+11:002024-03-02T20:16:16.308+11:00And we're back. Partially.<b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Both Ryzen 5900X machines running Rosetta beta work when its cool enough.<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Have been running Einstein work when its cool enough.<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />Off<br /><br /><br /><b>Other news</b><br />As you would have gathered most of the farm has been off since the end of last year due to the heat. We've had a few cooler days as we come to the end of summer so I have managed to fire up some of the farm and get going again. For the moment it will be sporadic running as the weather permits.<br /><br />The Ampere Altra is unable to complete installation of Debian Bookworm so its stuck at the moment. It installs everything up until it runs into trying the Grub bootloader and that fails. I raised a bug with Debian but haven't heard anything from them. Google suggests its something to do with being in UEFI mode, but that doesn't help.<br /><br />I don't have any new hardware plans at the moment for the farm apart from the Raspberry Pis.<br /><br />Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-60242434216917010682023-12-30T22:34:00.001+11:002023-12-30T22:36:08.139+11:0030th of December 2023<b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Off<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Off<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />On and off depending on how hot it gets.<br /><br /><br /><b>Blackout killed UPS</b><br />We had a blackout a fortnight ago. That cost me a CyberPower 650VA UPS that only had to power the internet cable modem and ISP's router. It appears to have totally killed the battery inside and it wouldn't power on. I have purchased another one (they are cheap) but if the power goes off for more than an hour it seems its too stupid to shut itself down and totally drains the battery. It has a lead-acid battery so if they get below about 50% that is the end of the battery.<br /><br />Fortunately most things were off or in the case of the raspberries were idle.<br /><br /><br /><b>Debian 12.3 point release</b><br />Following the issues with the Debian 12.3 point release they decided to stop the release. A day later they did a 12.4 point release which included an updated kernel that didn't have the ext4 corruption issue. They then followed that up with another kernel update a few days later due to issues with WiFi drivers.<br /><br />Raspberry Pi OS still seems to be running an effected kernel that has the ext4 data corruption issue.<br /><br /><br /><b>Parts orders</b><br />I mentioned in my last post about getting Contact Frames (or Secure Frames) for my Ryzen 7900's. I decided to get Thermal Paste Guards instead. I've ordered them so should be able to complete the builds in the new year.<br /><br /><br /><b>Altra server issue</b><br />I decided to upgrade my Ampere Altra to debian bookworm. Unfortunately the installer fails with a "grub install dummy" failed message. This seems to be related to booting in UEFI mode, which it seems to be booting in, so I am not sure if I need to create legacy boot media for it. I'll make another attempt when the house is empty due to the noise that the server makes.<br />Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-27086902130970890292023-12-10T15:25:00.005+11:002023-12-10T15:33:48.823+11:0010th of December<p><b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Off<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Off<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />Running overnight.</p><p>For more information on the Raspberry Pis see <a href="https://marksrpicluster.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Marks Rpi Cluster</a></p><p><b> </b></p><p></p><p></p><p><b>File corruption bugs</b><br />Debian discovered the kernel they are pushing out in their 12.3 point
release (kernel 6.1.64) has an ext4 file system corruption bug. It was
fixed in the 6.1.66 kernel but Debian haven't updated to it yet.</p><p></p><p>OpenZFS also has a file corruption bug which is fixed with OpenZFS 2.1.14 (or 2.2.2 if you are running a 2.2 version). Strangely Debian have put OpenZFS 2.1.14 into the bookworm-backports repo. One would have thought they would include it in the Debian 12.3 point release that came out on the 9th of December or offered it as a security fix for bookworm.</p><p>The bad news is I have a few servers with the effected version of OpenZFS. However to get it one needs to be rewriting files on the disks too fast for the underlying device(s) which I don't do. I have applied the Debian 12.3 point release to a number of machines so I likely have the ext4 issue. I haven't seen any problems so far, so maybe it is only an issue under some combination of conditions.</p><br /><p><b>Other news</b><br />I still haven't assembled the Ryzen 7900 machines. I need to get a couple of Contact Frames (sometimes called Secure Frames) for the CPU socket before I install them.</p><p>I went on a cruise for a few weeks so the farm was off during that period. Most of the farm is off due to hot weather at the moment. Yesterday hit 39 degrees C. Unfortunately this is one of the joys of an Australian summer coupled with global warming.<br /></p><p><br /></p>Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-80598890160913958602023-10-28T12:14:00.003+11:002023-10-28T12:14:39.493+11:00Hiatus<p>I've had the larger crunchers powered off to try and save my electricity bill. It doesn't seem to have had much effect as the last bill was almost $900 for the quarter.<br /></p><p>This week it was cool for a few days so I got all of the x64 machines going. For the CPU only machines (a pair of Ryzen 5900X) I ran a few hours FGRP5 work. Most of the Einstein work is now GPU-based so I fired up the GPU crunchers (four Ryzen 3600 with a GTX3060Ti in each) and had them running for a day. The farm is back off as things warm up again.</p><p>The Raspberry Pis continue to crunch. For more information on them see <a href="https://marksrpicluster.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Marks Rpi Cluster</a></p><p> </p>Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-23738412615085815532023-08-13T19:36:00.002+10:002023-08-13T19:42:46.569+10:0013th of August<p>Suffering from "bill shock" as they call it. My last electricity bill was over $800 for the quarter, so I haven't had the farm running apart from the Raspberry Pi's. See <a href="https://marksrpicluster.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Marks Rpi Cluster</a> for details on it.<br /></p><p>I have even taken to unplugging the 2.5G network switches to try and reduce power consumption, although I don't think they use much power, its the Ryzen 5900X and the GPU machines that consume the most. The Chia storage servers also contribute to my electricity use although I haven't plugged a meter in to see how much they actually use. The power board is under a wire rack that they are sitting on so its difficult to get to.<br /></p><p>I received the parts for the Ryzen 7900 builds but haven't got to them yet. They are slated to replace the 5900X machines. The good news is the Ryzen 7900 uses less power than the 5900X. Also I don't need to use (or power) a discreet graphics card. Apparently the CPU features list is too long for BOINC, so we need an updated BOINC client and updated server software, which is one reason why I haven't replaced them yet.</p><p><br /></p>Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-8397222630365153192023-06-25T21:24:00.002+10:002023-06-25T21:24:46.821+10:0025th of June<b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Running Einstein BRP4G work overnight.<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Off<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />Running Asteroids@home and Einstein.<br /><br /><br /><b>New CPU only build</b><br />I've ordered parts to make a couple of CPU only machines to replace the Ryzen 5900X's. The new ones are Ryzen 7900, 64GB of DDR5-5200 memory, 2TB WD Black M.2 and an ASUS Prime B650 motherboard. I'll reuse the existing case and power supply.<br /><br />The main reason for the upgrade is they have a 65 watt TDP, which should reduce my power bills a little. I was originally looking at the Ryzen 7900X but they have a 170 watt TDP which is more than the current machines. I expect it will take a week or two for parts to arrive.<br /><br />I was going to get my regular online shop to build it but when I added an after market CPU cooler their website decided to charge me another $50 for assembly. I complained but they were unwilling to reduce the build price. It already had a CPU cooler so its not really an extra part to assemble. In the end I decided to assemble it myself and save the cost of a new case and power supply as well. This will be my first AM5 build.<br /><br /><br /><b>Milkyway no longer using GPU</b><br />The Milkyway project have finished their research using the Separation GPU app and decided to stop using it. They will publish their findings in due course. They still have a multi-threaded Nbody CPU app (it uses up to 16 cores). That means they only have a CPU based app so I added Milkyway to the CPU only crunchers and removed the project from the Nvidia GPU machines.<br /><br />Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-23024962052680148302023-06-12T12:45:00.002+10:002023-06-17T11:29:27.274+10:0012th of June<b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU Only</u><br />Two Ryzen 5900X running Einstein work.<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Off.<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />Running Einstein BRP4 work.<br /><br /><p><b>Debian 12 (Bookworm) release</b><br />The Debian project released their latest version of the operating system. Early signs were promising when I tested the beta version. At the moment I can't install the Nvidia drivers (which worked fine on the beta). There were 150 known bugs when they released on the 10th of June. The CPU only machines have been updated without any issues. I think the problem is the drivers are still listed as part of the testing release as a search for package nvidia-kernel-dkms on debian.org lists the (older) Bullseye version as being stable, however we are now on Bookworm.<br /><br />Ntp is no longer included, they've switched to using systemd-timesyncd instead. If you try to install ntp it will install ntpsec instead. I was already using ntpsec on some machines so switching to it wasn't an issue for me.<br /><br />Pi Hole doesn't work. It comes up and says Bookworm is an unsupported operating system when you try to install so we will need them to provide an updated version.<br /><br />Raspberry Pi OS despite using the 6.1 kernel that Bookworm is using is still based on Debian Bullseye, so it needs updating.<br /><br /><br /><b>Electricity prices</b><br />Electricity prices are going up on the 1st of July by approx 20-25% so I probably won't be using the Nvidia GPU machines much. I still need to organise replacements for the Ryzen 5900's as well. I think the replacements should use less power.<br /><br /><br /><b>Update 13 June 2023</b><br />Pi Hole has been updated and now supports Debian 12 (Bookworm).</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Update 17 June 2023</b><br />I worked out why the nvidia-driver wouldn't install. It seems parts of it are in the non-free archive, which I had selected via /etc/apt/sources.list, but other parts are in the contrib archive. It will install if you have both listed but not if you only have one of the them.<br /></p>Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-30605777240691844192023-05-07T13:53:00.000+10:002023-05-07T13:53:09.283+10:007th of May<b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Both Ryzen 5900X's doing Einstein and Universe@home work in the mornings<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Off<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />All running Einstein BRP4 work<br /><br />For news on the Raspberry Pis see <a href="https://marksrpicluster.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Marks Rpi Cluster</a><br /><br /><br /><b>Other news</b><br />Its still warm during the day but nights are getting cooler as its Autumn in Sydney at the moment. I have been running the Ryzen 5900's first thing in the morning so they can warm the place up before the sun takes over.<br /><br />I am waiting for the larger DDR5 memory modules to become available (and the prices to drop) before starting a couple of Ryzen 7900 (non-X) builds. My Ryzen 5900X machines have 4 x 16GB memory modules but with DDR5 they don't recommend using 4 sticks of memory as they have timing issues, they recommend either dropping the memory speed or only using 2 sticks.<br /><br />I saw some tech news items talking about Ryzen 7900X3D's catching fire, with reports MSI has already issued a BIOS update to prevent overclocking. No news yet if this issue also effects the other CPU's in the Ryzen 7000 series. As with new tech (new CPU's and DDR5 memory) it is best to wait until they iron out the issues before buying.<br />Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-86074678734893171242023-04-10T12:15:00.002+10:002023-04-10T12:15:50.347+10:00Easter weekend 2023<p>After a 4 month hiatus we're back to crunching. The main issue was with the weather being hot and I won't use air conditioning. My discounted electricity rate also went from a 21% discount down to 5% and
the rates also went up around 20% so I am being frugal with my crunching. </p><p>Since I was gone the Pi's have mostly been running, but even they had a break for almost a month. If you want to read about them see <a href="https://marksrpicluster.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Marks Rpi Cluster</a></p><p> </p><p><b>Current config</b><br />As of writing (10th of April 2023) the farm consists of:<br />2 x Ryzen 5900X machines<br />1 x Ampere Altra<br />4 x Ryzen 3600 with RTX 3060Ti GPUs<br />and Marks Rpi Cluster.</p><p> </p><p><b>Future upgrades</b><br />Last time I posted I was looking at updating the Ryzen 5900X machines to Ryzen 7900X machines. Since then AMD have released the non-X CPUs which are faster than the 5900X but have a 65 watt TDP (they actually use more). My current thinking is maybe getting the non-X CPU's instead, but it still needs a new motherboard for the AM5 socket and DDR5 memory which isn't cheap.<br /><br />Nvidia released their 4000 series of GPU's which are disappointing. Apart from using much more power the pricing is also somewhat higher so I will probably skip this entire generation of GPU's and see what comes next.</p>Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-48278383964956577202022-12-22T23:28:00.000+11:002022-12-22T23:28:32.722+11:0022nd of December<b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Idle. Have been running early mornings.<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Off<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />All running Einstein BRP4 work.<br /><br />For news on the Raspberry Pis see <a href="https://marksrpicluster.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Marks Rpi Cluster</a><br /><br /><br /><b>Other news</b><br />I have been running the Ryzen 5900X machines early in the morning for the Universe@home project. They are an astronomy project studying black holes at the moment. The 5900X can do their work units between 30 minutes and 1 hour when running 24 at a time.<br /><br />I had another look at the cost of upgrading the Ryzen 5900X to Zen 4 and its still rather expensive. In addition there doesn't seem to be any 32GB DDR5 memory modules available that can do 6GHz which is the sweet-spot for Zen 4. There are a few 16GB modules but they don't recommend using 4 memory modules due to timing issues. Another concern is the power consumption that a Zen 4 CPU will use and the additional cooling needed.<br /><br />Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-61327812870480578902022-11-13T13:04:00.001+11:002022-11-13T13:04:06.806+11:0013th of November<b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Off.<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Off.<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />Running overnight.<br /><br />For news on the Raspberry Pis see <a href="https://marksrpicluster.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Marks Rpi Cluster</a><br /><br /><br /><b>Other news</b><br />As you can see all the big crunchers are off. Its summer in Sydney so it can get hot. While I have air conditioning I won't use it to cool the farm, I would rather turn the farm off. Not only is this better for the environment but it also saves my electricity bill.<br /><br /><br /><b>Intel ARC </b><br />I had a quick look at the Intel ARC A770 but decided not to get one. The Linux support for them hasn't landed in Debian yet and performance is about the same as the RTX 3060 Ti, which I already use. To do a firmware update one has to use the Intel Management Engine, which of course is only available on Intel based motherboards. Lastly BOINC and the BOINC-based projects don't currently support them. This should improve over time but I think its too early to get one.<br />Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-60322990241403656032022-10-09T21:50:00.002+11:002022-10-09T21:54:47.633+11:009th of October<b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Running Universe@home part time.<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Off<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />Running Einstein@home BRP4 work.<br /><br />For news on the Raspberry Pis see <a href="https://marksrpicluster.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Marks Rpi Cluster</a><br /><br /><br /><b>Ryzen 7000 availability</b><br />I priced an upgrade for my Ryzen 5900X machines. I would need a new CPU (Ryzen 7900X) at $949, Noctua NH-U12A cooler at $199, ASUS X670-P motherboard at $499 and lastly 64GB of DDR5-5600 memory at $599. Giving a total of $2,246 in AUD.<br /><br />I would aim for faster memory as the sweet spot for the Ryzen 7900X is 6GHz and that would cost more of course, assuming I could even find it. Oh and then there are NVMe drives.<br /><br />As I see it we aren't quite there yet. DDR5 memory is too expensive, not much faster than DDR4 and in too small capacities. You can't even get PCIe gen 5 NVMe drives at the moment. Its going to take a while for the 6.0 kernel to get into a stable Linux release giving the necessary driver support. I think I will have to wait a bit longer.<br /><br />Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-88025160258459169242022-09-22T12:30:00.002+10:002022-09-22T12:30:41.955+10:0022nd of September<b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Off<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Off<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />All running einstein BRP4 work<br /><br />For news on the Raspberry Pis see <a href="https://marksrpicluster.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Marks Rpi Cluster</a><br /><br /><br /><b>Bill shock</b><br />I've been limiting the larger crunchers from use to keep the electricity bill under control. At the moment its been the Pi's running 24/7 with bursts of activity from the x64 machines on weekends.<br /><br /><br /><b>RTX 4090 announced</b><br />Nvidia announced their Ada Lovelace architecture high-end graphics cards (RTX 4090 and 4080). They can use up to 600 watts, so I won't be looking at them. I currently have a number of RTX 3060 Ti cards but if Nvidia keep increasing power consumption I will move to their lower powered models. They haven't announced the rest of the range so I don't expect to be upgrading any time soon, besides the existing Ampere architecture cards are now being discounted quite heaviliy.<br /><br /><br /><b>Other news</b><br />I'm still waiting for AMD Zen 4 to be available at the retailers so I can work out how much its going to cost to upgrade the Ryzen 5900X machines. Given the price of DDR5 memory at the moment I may wait a while for prices to drop.<br /><br />Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-79141740457259487702022-08-23T20:46:00.001+10:002022-08-23T20:47:27.583+10:0023rd of August<b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Off. Had the Altra running on the weekends.<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Have been doing Einstein and Milkyway on and off.<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />All running Einstein BRP4 work.<br /><br />For news on the Raspberry Pis see <a href="https://marksrpicluster.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Marks Rpi Cluster</a><br /><br /><br /><b>Other news</b><br />There hasn't been any work from Rosetta@home so the Ryzen 5900X's have been off. I had the Altra running for a couple of hours on weekends doing Einstein BRP4 work.<br /><br />The Raspberry Pis have doubled with an additional BitScope Edge Cluster 12 being added.<br /><br />Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-66348259802578443492022-07-31T17:51:00.002+10:002022-07-31T17:52:58.810+10:0031st of July<b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Off. I had the Altra running Einstein BRP4 work earlier today.<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Three running Einstein FGRP5 work.<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />All running Einstein BRP4 work.<br /><br />For news on the Raspberry Pis see <a href="https://marksrpicluster.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Marks Rpi Cluster</a><br /><br /><br /><b>Other news</b><br />As you would gather from my other blog the Rpi's have moved into an EC12 which had me occupied doing the assembly and some reconfiguration of support nodes.<br /><br />The Altra had a bit of a run so it did a bunch of Einstein BRP4 work units. The x64 machines didn't get to run as Rosetta doesn't appear to have any work available unless I want to run Virtual Box work units.<br /><br />There is talk of the newer Nvidia cards using up to 800 watts, so I will probably be skipping them. You would think Nvidia would be reducing power consumption as they switch to smaller manufacturing nodes, but they appear to be getting worse.<br /><br />Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-31629688397346937812022-07-09T19:11:00.001+10:002022-07-10T10:58:26.450+10:009th of July<p><b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Off. Altra has been running today.<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />All running Einstein and Milkyway work. <br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />Pi4's running Einstein BRP4 work.<br /><br /><br /><b>Other news</b><br />I had the Altra running for a few hours today. Its been chipping away at the Einstein BRP4 work. I hope to have it going again tomorrow.<br /><br />I am waiting on more information of AMD 7000 series CPU's. I expect to upgrade the Ryzen 5900X machines to 7900X machines, but it looks like that will mean new CPU, Motherboard and Memory. Rumour has it they'll be announced in September.<br /></p><p>Debian have just done a 11.4 point release, so a few updates to apply to the farm. Most of it seems to be the Nvidia drivers along with a kernel update.<br /></p>Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-38882583434099412832022-06-26T17:23:00.000+10:002022-06-26T17:23:24.229+10:0026th of June<b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Off<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Had two running Einstein FGRP5 work overnight<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />Pi4's running Einstein BRP4 work. Pi3's running Einstein BRP4 over the weekend<br /><br /><br /><b>Other news</b><br />I had the Altra going for a couple of hours so it did 156 work units in that time. It is rather noisy so I don't run it for long periods.<br /><br />No work from Rosetta@home (unless I want to run their Python Project - Which I don't) so the Ryzen 5900X machines stayed off.<br /><br />Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-88217231185081075092022-06-12T23:09:00.000+10:002022-06-12T23:09:05.029+10:0012th of June<b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Off<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Running Einstein FGRP5 work overnight<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />Running Einstein BRP4 work<br /><br />For news on the Raspberry Pis see <a href="https://marksrpicluster.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Marks Rpi Cluster</a><br /><br /><br /><b>Switch upgrade</b><br />I got a couple of new 2.5GbE switches. They are Dlink X106XT switches. They have a single 10GbE port and 5 x 2.5GbE ports. They are an un-managed switch but one can prioritize a particular 2.5G port via a switch on the back. It has an annoying LED strip on the front. Unfortunately one can't turn it off but can have it display a white colour instead of the RGB. The 10GbE port is intended to be used as an uplink port so you can integrate them within a 10G network and get the best performance.<br /><br />I had a QNAP 5 port 2.5GbE switch but the Dlink should be able to push the network speed a bit more. I've removed the QNAP switch. My compute nodes all have 2.5GbE network cards installed.<br /><br /><br /><b>Other news</b><br />I had the Altra running for an hour or so today. It only takes an hour to do Einstein BRP4 work units, so I let it run for a bit and churn out 78 work units. It has an Ampere Altra 80 core (ARMv8) CPU running at 3GHz. I keep two cores available for other tasks.<br /><br />Rosetta@home is out of work at the moment so no point running the Ryzen 5900X machines.<br /><br />Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-35644433290855320132022-05-29T16:23:00.002+10:002022-05-29T16:35:16.368+10:0029th of May<b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Off. Have been doing some Rosetta work.<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Running Einstein and Milkyway work.<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pi's</u><br />Running Einstein BRP4 work.<br /><br />For news on the Raspberry Pis see <a href="https://marksrpicluster.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Marks Rpi Cluster</a><br /><br /><br /><b>Zen 4 news</b><br />The information about Zen 4 is sounding quite promising with motherboard makers and AMD making some announcements at Computex 2022. I will look at upgrading the Ryzen 5900X machines to the equivalent Zen 4. We're still waiting for more details from AMD about CPU specs. Interestingly AMD have said the CPU's will have integrated graphics as well as supporting PCIe 5 and DDR5 memory.<br /><br />Initially there won't be anything that uses PCIe 5, apart from maybe some M.2 SSD's but that will change over time. The CPU socket has changed to AM5 so that will require a new motherboard and newer DDR5 memory. There is also talk of M.2 SSD's getting bigger, probably to the 22110 size (110mm length) to support PCIe5.<br /><br /><br /><b>Energy pricing</b><br />We have been warned to expect electricity prices to increase up to 140% this year as the wholesale electricity prices have jumped. Energy efficiency is certainly on my mind these days. They are also expecting natural gas prices to increase although not as much. Unfortunately my home doesn't have a north facing roof so adding solar panels wouldn't help much, not to mention I have a fairly small roof area so couldn't fit many panels.<br /><br />Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-91315215401724745732022-05-08T21:47:00.000+10:002022-05-08T21:47:02.077+10:008th of May<b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Off<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Two running Einstein and Milkyway work.<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />Running Einstein BRP4 work.<br /><br />For news on the Raspberry Pis see <a href="https://marksrpicluster.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Marks Rpi Cluster</a><br /><br /><br /><b>Work mix</b><br />Rosetta ran out of work so nothing for the CPU's to do. Einstein continues to have limited work for GPU's. GPUgrid doesn't seem to have any work. Milkyway seem to have sorted out their server issues and is providing GPU work when requested, not withstanding their bug where if you report and request work at the same time it doesn't give any work.<br /><br />Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-88381797867529881892022-04-24T19:32:00.000+10:002022-04-24T19:32:14.614+10:0024th of April<b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Had the Ryzen 5900X machines doing Rosetta@home for a day.<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Had all machines doing Einstein@home and Milkyway@home.<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />All running Einstein@home.<br /><br /><br /><b>Work mix</b><br />The weather allowed for running Rosetta@home on the Ryzen 5900X machines so I did a burst of work for them. I had a couple of the Nvidia GPU machines doing Rosetta on their CPUs.<br /><br />I also had the Nvidia GPUs doing Einstein@home and Milkyway@home work on the RTX 3060 Ti's. Sometimes Einstein doesn't give GPU work when requested. I assume this is caused by their running out of signal candidates for the FGRP5 work and having lots of GPU equipped hosts asking for work.<br /><br />Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-25581080752303229342022-04-10T15:58:00.003+10:002022-04-10T15:58:59.370+10:0010th of April<b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Off<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Off<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />All running Einstein@home BRP4 work<br /><br />For news on the Raspberry Pis see <a href="https://marksrpicluster.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Marks Rpi Cluster</a><br /><br /><br /><b>Work availability</b> <br />We're still running from time to time, depending on the weather. In a break from the rain its sunny and hot with more rain forecast for later in the week. The Pis have been running constantly. I had the Altra running for a couple of hours yesterday doing Einstein BRP4 work.<br /><br />The other machines have generally been off because they are excluded (by the project) from doing BRP4 work. I usually use the Nvidia GPU machines to run the Einstein FGRP5 search but there isn't much work available for them or from GPUgrid.<br /><br />Milkyway which I also run on the Nvidia GPUs has been having server issues where it says it doesn't have any work but the server status page shows there to be plenty.<br /><br /><br /><b>Storage server update</b><br />I got the parts mentioned in my previous blog post and assembled it. I had to buy an over-priced 2nd hand GT 710 graphics card off eBay so I could have a display. The GT 710's have been replaced by the GT 730, hence the eBay purchase.<br /><br />I assembled the new motherboard and swapped out the existing one. Everything else got reused in the new build. I didn't even install the operating system I just put the old M2 SSD into the new motherboard and off it went. The only thing I had to install was the Nvidia drivers.<br /><br />I couldn't get the 32GB memory sticks to work so I used the memory from the old machine (4x16GB sticks). It seems none of the machines I have recognize the 32GB sticks.<br /><br />Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-19035964778610303862022-03-20T19:37:00.000+11:002022-03-20T19:37:39.474+11:0020th of March<b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Off<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Two doing Einstein, weather permitting<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />Nine Pi4's running Einstein.<br /><br />For news on the Raspberry Pis see <a href="https://marksrpicluster.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Marks Rpi Cluster</a><br /><br /><br /><b>Storage server update</b><br />In my last post I mentioned I was looking at updating the storage servers. I gave up looking for a Xeon E-2300 and instead have ordered an ASUS X570-Pro motherboard, Ryzen 5600X CPU and a Noctua cooler. I'll move PCIe cards from the old machine and I have memory. The Xeon E-2300 series and the Ryzen both have a 128GB memory limit, the difference is I can get the Ryzen and its cheaper.<br /><br />I went with the Pro motherboard as it gives an extra M.2 slot and an extra PCIe x16 slot over the X570-P motherboard. I need to add a graphics card to the machine which only leaves 2 PCIe slots left for the SAS controller and 10GbE network card.<br /><br />I tested 32GB ECC memory sticks in an X570-P machine (with a Ryzen 3600) and it wouldn't post. I changed to 16GB sticks and they worked. There is an option buried in the BIOS to enable ECC mode.<br /><br />Given the Ryzen 3600 didn't recognise the 32GB memory sticks I decided to get a Ryzen 5600X in the hope it will. Its also a little faster than a Ryzen 3600 while still being a 65 watt part. Both the X570-P and X570-Pro motherboards have 4 memory slots. I have to use 4 x 32GB sticks to get to 128GB of memory. To get ECC memory support I have to use an X series CPU. The ones with graphics (the G series) don't support ECC memory, hence the need for a graphics card.<br /><br />Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-57984967054456882992022-02-26T22:54:00.000+11:002022-02-26T22:54:12.426+11:0026th of February<b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Off<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Off<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />Off<br /><br /><br /><b>Other news</b><br />Its not quite as bad as it seems. I have been doing bursts of work between the hot weather. It has also been raining heavily for the last week. The Nvidia GPU machines have been doing Einstein and Milkyway work when they can. I even managed to fire up the Ampere Altra for a couple of hours today (doing Einstein BRP4 work). The main limitation with the Altra is the noise it makes.<br /><br />Last week saw Einstein@home run out of BRP4 work so all the Pis ended up with the Gamma Ray work which takes around 27 hours a work unit on a Pi4. I haven't tried running these on the Altra as I cannot commit to have the machine running for 14 hours which is my estimate on how long they'll take. They could be quicker as the Altra has faster memory (DDR4 @ 3.2Ghz) and more memory channels than a Pi4.<br /><br /><br /><b>Storage servers</b><br />In unrelated news I am looking for replacement motherboards/CPUs for the storage servers. The existing ones work but I am hoping for something more modern. One of them currently has an i3-8100 (4c/4t) and is limited to 64GB of memory.<br /><br />The Xeon E-2578 with an ASUS P12R-E motherboard and 128GB of DDR4 @ 3.2GHz memory looked promising but there doesn't seem to be stock anywhere.<br /><br />Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923194375102271936.post-38368743677778601002022-02-12T23:25:00.003+11:002022-02-12T23:25:53.065+11:0012th of February<b>Farm status</b><br /><u>CPU only</u><br />Running Rosetta work<br /><br /><u>Nvidia GPUs</u><br />Two running Rosetta (CPU) work<br /><br /><u>Raspberry Pis</u><br />Pi3's idle. Pi4's running Rosetta work<br /><br /><br /><b>Playing catch-up</b><br />As mentioned in my last post I had the Nvidia GPU machines running, when the weather permitted. There were a couple of hot days where everything was off and it got to 32 degrees C. Rain and cooler weather returned and I had them trying to get their Einstein credits to similar values.<br /><br />The two oldest RTX 3060 Ti machines are on 10.9M credits each so the newer ones were running non-stop trying to catch up. The newest had got to 10.7M credits when I last checked today and the other reached 10.9M credits.<br /><br /><br /><b>Rosetta on all cores</b><br />Well not quite all cores. Rosetta suddenly has lots of work so I have most of the machines running it at the moment. The Ryzen 5900X machines have 48 tasks (24 each) going and two of the Nvidia GPU machines have 24 tasks (12 each). They usually take 8 hours to run.<br /><br />Mark G Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875735039768056705noreply@blogger.com0