[1050 TH] BitMinter.com [1% PPLNS,Pays TxFees +MergedMining,Stratum,GBT,vardiff]

[DrHaribo]

Hmm. So cgminer tries GBT first, and if it sees no Stratum header it stays on GBT?

In order of priority, cgminer will try to mine on stratum first, gbt second and getwork if all else fails, based on what order I think mining should occur. As far as I'm concerned, it's up to the pool operator to decide what they think is most important to prioritise. If you want to put a stratum redirect header in your GBT based pool, that's entirely your choice, knowing that cgminer will then use stratum preferentially. You can see the way cgminer prioritises the different protocols based on what I think is best for miners and pools, and the rest is up to you.

Generally I would like to support all 3 options and let the user choose.

I was wondering if by putting a Stratum header on getwork responses but not on GBT responses I have made a choice for the user.

[lenny_]

I just mined a block #210275
Total income (minting + fees): 25.52300001 BTC
CDF: 34.7%
https://bitminter.com/block/btc/00000000000000351a6ff160ad066d99eeaf812f936c776c9fd0055120adb39d
 

[DrHaribo]

It's testing time again!

GBT and getwork testing on port 9000. Stratum testing on port 3334.

Stratum in production will go on port 3333 with 5050 as an option if 3333 is a problem for you.

There's an X-Stratum HTTP header in all responses on port 9000. Looks like cgminer has a --fix-protocol option that makes it not switch to Stratum. But it seems to use getwork in that case. Any way to force GBT? Until the pool supports the more advanced GBT features, I think it makes sense to tell the miner where the Stratum port is.

What's new on testports:

• Stratum: brand new
• GBT: add workaround for bug in cgminer prior to 2.9.4
• var diff: max diff 16

Already 5 Stratum connections active. If you are mining with a Stratum or GBT capable bfgminer/cgminer/poclbm then please join in and help test this.

For Stratum connect to: stratum+tcp://mint.bitminter.com:3334
For GBT or getwork: http://mint.bitminter.com:9000
(you may need to force your miner to use GBT or getwork, whichever you want to try)

[hahahafr]

Stratum in production will go on port 3333 with 5050 as an option if 3333 is a problem for you.

I donated 1 BTC to 15SSRJdHfhjcRU7woXR9sYKPUXNS4ScaaB. Thank you Doc!

[Fefox]

It's testing time again!

GBT and getwork testing on port 9000. Stratum testing on port 3334.

Stratum in production will go on port 3333 with 5050 as an option if 3333 is a problem for you.

There's an X-Stratum HTTP header in all responses on port 9000. Looks like cgminer has a --fix-protocol option that makes it not switch to Stratum. But it seems to use getwork in that case. Any way to force GBT? Until the pool supports the more advanced GBT features, I think it makes sense to tell the miner where the Stratum port is.

What's new on testports:

• Stratum: brand new
• GBT: add workaround for bug in cgminer prior to 2.9.4
• var diff: max diff 16

Already 5 Stratum connections active. If you are mining with a Stratum or GBT capable bfgminer/cgminer/poclbm then please join in and help test this.

For Stratum connect to: stratum+tcp://mint.bitminter.com:3334
For GBT or getwork: http://mint.bitminter.com:9000
(you may need to force your miner to use GBT or getwork, whichever you want to try)

so far cgminer 2.9.5 is running fine on 3334 with stratum 

[mdude77]

I have my miners pointing at stratum now.  I miss the stats.  I assume this is production testing, so I still get paid for my work?

M

It's testing time again!

GBT and getwork testing on port 9000. Stratum testing on port 3334.

Stratum in production will go on port 3333 with 5050 as an option if 3333 is a problem for you.

There's an X-Stratum HTTP header in all responses on port 9000. Looks like cgminer has a --fix-protocol option that makes it not switch to Stratum. But it seems to use getwork in that case. Any way to force GBT? Until the pool supports the more advanced GBT features, I think it makes sense to tell the miner where the Stratum port is.

What's new on testports:

• Stratum: brand new
• GBT: add workaround for bug in cgminer prior to 2.9.4
• var diff: max diff 16

Already 5 Stratum connections active. If you are mining with a Stratum or GBT capable bfgminer/cgminer/poclbm then please join in and help test this.

For Stratum connect to: stratum+tcp://mint.bitminter.com:3334
For GBT or getwork: http://mint.bitminter.com:9000
(you may need to force your miner to use GBT or getwork, whichever you want to try)

[DrHaribo]

I have my miners pointing at stratum now.  I miss the stats.  I assume this is production testing, so I still get paid for my work?

Yeah, this is a case of that ugly thing called "testing in production".

So yes, you get paid, and work done on the test port shows in most statistics but not current hashrate (worker page, top50 list, etc). But if you refresh the workers page after 10-15 seconds you can see the number of accepted proofs of work go up.

36 Stratum connections at the moment. Everything running smoothly.

I do see the test port reporting statistics wrong, not always counting Stratum users for the current number of users and workers in the pool. I'm working on fixing that. You can't see the wrong numbers now, but I need to fix it before this goes live on the regular port.

[DrHaribo]

Thanks for testing, guys! Just restarted with some tweaks to var diff and logging, and fixed the stats issue.

Testing continues. Let me know if you have any issues at all on the test port. So far things are running very well and I'm considering setting this up on the main port very soon.

I forgot to mention the new version also has some decent reduction in CPU usage. It will be interesting to see the effect all these changes will have on CPU usage and reject rates.

[mdude77]

Thanks for testing, guys! Just restarted with some tweaks to var diff and logging, and fixed the stats issue.

Testing continues. Let me know if you have any issues at all on the test port. So far things are running very well and I'm considering setting this up on the main port very soon.

I forgot to mention the new version also has some decent reduction in CPU usage. It will be interesting to see the effect all these changes will have on CPU usage and reject rates.

Running good here.  One thing I'm seeing is the server can't seem to decide what difficulty to give.  Largest miner is ~2.6GH/s.  At startup, it's on difficulty 2.  Then it switches to 1.  Then it switches back to 2.  Right now it's on one.

I'm also confused why cgminer is submitting shares that are under difficulty.

M

[juhakall]

Thanks for testing, guys! Just restarted with some tweaks to var diff and logging, and fixed the stats issue.

Testing continues. Let me know if you have any issues at all on the test port. So far things are running very well and I'm considering setting this up on the main port very soon.

I forgot to mention the new version also has some decent reduction in CPU usage. It will be interesting to see the effect all these changes will have on CPU usage and reject rates.

Running good here.  One thing I'm seeing is the server can't seem to decide what difficulty to give.  Largest miner is ~2.6GH/s.  At startup, it's on difficulty 2.  Then it switches to 1.  Then it switches back to 2.  Right now it's on one.

I'm also confused why cgminer is submitting shares that are under difficulty.

M

It's changing between 2 and 4 for me. Reject rate is ~1.5% ~1.9%.

[-ck]

Worth revisiting the stratum vardiff discussion and conclusions over the next 4 pages of forum starting here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28402.msg1357099#msg1357099

[juhakall]

Rewards page isn't working correctly anymore, it seems to assume a 50 BTC block reward for the expected average.

[mdude77]

Thanks for testing, guys! Just restarted with some tweaks to var diff and logging, and fixed the stats issue.

Testing continues. Let me know if you have any issues at all on the test port. So far things are running very well and I'm considering setting this up on the main port very soon.

I forgot to mention the new version also has some decent reduction in CPU usage. It will be interesting to see the effect all these changes will have on CPU usage and reject rates.

Please add stratum to the main port.  I miss the statistics.

M

[DrHaribo]

Running good here.  One thing I'm seeing is the server can't seem to decide what difficulty to give.  Largest miner is ~2.6GH/s.  At startup, it's on difficulty 2.  Then it switches to 1.  Then it switches back to 2.  Right now it's on one.

It's changing between 2 and 4 for me. Reject rate is ~1.5% ~1.9%.

Yes, some users will be on the boundary between two difficulties. This currently gives a lot of rejects in cgminer. But they do no harm and they will disappear in a later cgminer version when it starts using the new stratum way of handling difficulty.

Stratum was recently changed to better handle changing difficulty. We'll have to expect it can take some time before everyone have changed their implementations.

Rewards page isn't working correctly anymore, it seems to assume a 50 BTC block reward for the expected average.

Oops, will look into this.

Please add stratum to the main port.  I miss the statistics.

Coming right up.

[Fefox]

Stratum on the main port looks good so far with cgminer 2.9.5,

In case anyone is wondering why cgminer is still showing LP you have to restart it before it detects the stratum

Congrats on the upgrade Doc!

[DrHaribo]

All the new changes are now live on the regular ports. Testport has shut down for now.

Variable difficulty ("var diff") settings: minimum 1, maximum 16, and default at 2 when your hashrate is unknown. The maximum will be increased when ASICs come out. The server will adjust your difficulty aiming for 20 submitted proofs of work per minute.

Port 8332 has getwork with difficulty 1 for now. This means you can still use leases from hashpower.com - var diff will be activated for getwork once hashpower supports var diff.

Port 8332 also has GBT with var diff.

Port 3333 and 5050 has Stratum with var diff. New work pushed at 30 second intervals.

If you want to use GBT or Stratum you may want to update your miner config and/or restart bfgminer/cgminer/poclbm to get it running with a new protocol.

BitMinter client will get support for other protocols later. It runs getwork with rollntime now and will use var diff once activated on the server.

Let me know if you have any questions or experience any problems.

Congrats on the upgrade Doc!

Thanks! That was a lot of work and many changes that just went live. Good to finally finish all that and see it running smoothly (knock on wood).

[mdude77]

Please add stratum to the main port.  I miss the statistics.

Coming right up.

Woohoo!  Stats again!

M

[DrHaribo]

Sorry for the web server barely being able to move. There's a DDoS attack in progress.

[loshia]

Doc,
Are you restarting pool? A lot of rejects and 503 open id login error?

PS: I just saw your post..Is DoS affecting mining or just web is attacked?

[DrHaribo]

Seems a change on the server is causing miners to sometimes run crazy. Working on it.