MRE wrote:

I've read dozens of posts, and there are a variety of explanations about the
existing situation.

I, like many others, seem unable to download new BOINC seti units, and I
cannot send any old SETI units either.

What I can't get to grips with, is why this is happening, how long it's
likely to be for, and if it really means that old SETI is now dead.

Looking at http://cricket.berkeley.edu:8885/inr-668-interfaces.html and the latest note on:

http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/
###
July 19, 2004
We have brought up an additional transitioner to try and cut through the backlog we have accrued. Since the beginning of the project we have already processed 2.7 million results. For comparison, the beta project had only processed 6 million through the whole life of that project to date.

July 19, 2004
Sometime between 5pm and 12am PDT, the splitters seem to have stopped producing new workunits. We have restarted the splitters and they are back to creating new workunits.

July 17, 2004
A server bug was preventing new results from being created in response to failed results. If 2 out of 3 results for a WU succeeded and the 3rd failed, the 2 successful results would not be validated or credited. This is now fixed and the system will issue new results for all workunits in this state.
###


They're still struggling a little to cope with the pent-up crunching a lot of people are throwing at them. They've also had past hardware problems and a delayed upgrade that forced them to make various rearrangements to the servers. The old s@h server status page hasn't been updated for some time... (Server 'borrowed' for boinc?)

I would guess that when their original boinc server system maxed out or stalled, they tried various fixes working through each new bottlekneck in the server systems. Each small period going offline has caused more and more users to 'panic' and so set ever higher WU cache numbers. So boinc has been forever maxing out under the deluge of WU requests. Hence:

"We have brought up an additional transitioner to try and cut through the backlog we have accrued."

In the last few _days_, they've transferred nearly half the number of WUs transferred for the last _5_ _years_ of s@h.

That is some very good going!

After this, there servers will be almost bomb proof for months to come. It's then just a question of planned disruptions for further system development.


Hang in there... Various strange errors can be expected until the server side problems are cleared. You PC setup should be ok and pick up a new WU when it can get through to a server. Or try accessing one of the public queues if on s@h classic.

I'm still transferring a trickle of WUs ok for example.

It's been a faithful screensaver to me for 5 years. I still hope to reach my
personal milestone of 1000 old units, before switching both my computers to
BOINC. But I don't understand any of the explanations you guys and gals have
given.

The last news from s@h was that "s@h classic" was to continue for a while yet. The boinc overload may well have forced them to temporarily steal resources away from s@h classic.

Please clarfiy for me, and sooth my feverish brow.

Keep crunchin' (:-))

We apologise for any disruption in service (;-))

Try Helen for your furrowed brow (:-))
http://home.columbus.rr.com/theehlens/


Disclaimer:

The above is 'educated' conjecture. I am in no way associated with the s@h staff or developers. I'm just a happy cruncher with a few spare CPU cycles.


Have fun,
Martin