Ability to stagger start/pause

[ibsteve2u]

CEP2 from World Community grid checkpoints...erratically.  As a Windows user, I have monthly "Patch Tuesdays" to worry about.  I  can't do anything about the computational time lost because of lack of control over checkpointing, but if BOINCTasks would permit a "staggered start-up" of the tasks in project 'Y'...

Or, more reasonably, if you could select a group of tasks and say "Pause these, and then resume them individually at 'X' minute intervals", I could avoid/reduce the performance hit from the synchronized I/O, I/O contention, and the consequential I/O waits for hard drive/RAID sets access.

[fred]

CEP2 from World Community grid checkpoints...erratically.  As a Windows user, I have monthly "Patch Tuesdays" to worry about.  I  can't do anything about the computational time lost because of lack of control over checkpointing, but if BOINCTasks would permit a "staggered start-up" of the tasks in project 'Y'...

Or, more reasonably, if you could select a group of tasks and say "Pause these, and then resume them individually at 'X' minute intervals", I could avoid/reduce the performance hit from the synchronized I/O, I/O contention, and the consequential I/O waits for hard drive/RAID sets access.

This is very very project specific. Did you try BOINC V 7?
One problem: If you stop individual tasks, other task start to run....  So this probably won't work.
But can you tell me more what is the problem exactly.

Did you try to resolve this on the WCG forum and the BOINC forum?

[ibsteve2u]

I only run one project per system (with the exception that I might run a GPU project while CPU cores are devoted to a different project). 

And the subject has been raised with the project, but appears to be impossible to address due to the design of the project and the third-party software that it incorporates.

I thought it might be possible to tick the # of CPU cores allowed up at a set interval ("On multiprocessor systems, use a most X% of the processors").

[fred]

I thought it might be possible to tick the # of CPU cores allowed up at a set interval ("On multiprocessor systems, use a most X% of the processors").

This may work:

You have to know how batch files work.

Make a copy of http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Client_configuration
You can use this <ncpus>1</ncpus> <ncpus>2</ncpus> to set 1 or more cores.

Now create a batch file .bat file.

Execute the following in the batch file:
Copy cc_config.xml (one core) to cc_config.xml.
Use Boinccmd http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Boinccmd_tool to read the cc_config.xml file (--read_cc_config).

Now add the batch file to the Windows tasks manager and specify a time.

Or start the batch file manually sequentially.
Batch start 1 core.
Wait 1 minute.
Batch start 2 core.

[ibsteve2u]

Yes, that would certainly work, particularly if I don't run BOINC as a service and prevent the BOINC client from automatically starting at system start.

Although I had hoped to avoid expanding the number of "control" processes beyond the three of the BOINC client and your quite useful BoincTasks and TThrottle, I appreciate your time and advice.  Since I rather prefer the "central control" model of BoincTasks, I will probably use a combination of rules and SysInternals products to control BOINC client startup and their respective cc_config.xml files rather than increase the distributed complexity by relying upon TaskManager on an individual basis across all of my systems. (With the caveat of "whatever it takes" to make Microsoft"Patch Tuesdays" and power events that outlast my UPS systems less traumatic).

Again, thank you for your time and advice.