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

[gyverlb]

Sorry, we just had a couple minutes of downtime again. bitcoind 0.8.1 seems to be a real cpu and memory hog sometimes, never saw such issues with 0.7.2. Going to try to free up more resources on the server where it runs.

1. Ability to sort workers alphabetically

Yeah, I'll probably make that the way it is sorted.

2. Display my reward of each mined block on the Blocks (Income) page

That's coming.

There's a problem with some very large (in bytes) transactions slowing bitcoind RPC interface (getblocktemplate mainly) currently, p2pool users are battling with it. I find the latest git version is twice faster (but still slower than the average we are accustomed to).

[mdude77]

Sorry, we just had a couple minutes of downtime again. bitcoind 0.8.1 seems to be a real cpu and memory hog sometimes, never saw such issues with 0.7.2. Going to try to free up more resources on the server where it runs.

1. Ability to sort workers alphabetically

Yeah, I'll probably make that the way it is sorted.

2. Display my reward of each mined block on the Blocks (Income) page

That's coming.

There's a problem with some very large (in bytes) transactions slowing bitcoind RPC interface (getblocktemplate mainly) currently, p2pool users are battling with it. I find the latest git version is twice faster (but still slower than the average we are accustomed to).

I don't think it's size related.  I think it's time related.  Like there's a leak somewhere or something.  Mine starts low and slowly gets larger.

M

[gyverlb]

Sorry, we just had a couple minutes of downtime again. bitcoind 0.8.1 seems to be a real cpu and memory hog sometimes, never saw such issues with 0.7.2. Going to try to free up more resources on the server where it runs.

1. Ability to sort workers alphabetically

Yeah, I'll probably make that the way it is sorted.

2. Display my reward of each mined block on the Blocks (Income) page

That's coming.

There's a problem with some very large (in bytes) transactions slowing bitcoind RPC interface (getblocktemplate mainly) currently, p2pool users are battling with it. I find the latest git version is twice faster (but still slower than the average we are accustomed to).

I don't think it's size related.  I think it's time related.  Like there's a leak somewhere or something.  Mine starts low and slowly gets larger.

M

bitcoind getmininginfo result:

Code:

{
    "blocks" : 236952,
    "currentblocksize" : 49792,
    "currentblocktx" : 122,
    "difficulty" : 11187257.46136079,
    "errors" : "This is a pre-release test build - use at your own risk - do not use for mining or merchant applications",
    "generate" : false,
    "genproclimit" : -1,
    "hashespersec" : 0,
    "pooledtx" : 1693,
    "testnet" : false
}

Notice the pooledtx? There are lots of transactions waiting to go into a block. And I use aggressive settings (latest git with minrelaytxfee set to 0.005) to filter low fees transactions: blockchain.info reports more than 2300 tx totalling 13MB. So ordinary bitcoind installations are suffering right now.

[DrHaribo]

Thanks for the info, guys.

I also see bitcoind driving one CPU core at 100% for 1-3 seconds. That happens several times per minute. Looking at the log before and as it happens, the only thing I see is new transactions being received.

And yeah, memory usage is much much higher than it used to be.

Maybe I should try the latest from git. I don't like running code that hasn't seen much testing, though.

[gyverlb]

Thanks for the info, guys.

I also see bitcoind driving one CPU core at 100% for 1-3 seconds. That happens several times per minute. Looking at the log before and as it happens, the only thing I see is new transactions being received.

And yeah, memory usage is much much higher than it used to be.

Maybe I should try the latest from git. I don't like running code that hasn't seen much testing, though.

The on-disk storage format didn't change.
As a p2pool user with BitMinter as backup pool I didn't have any hesitation testing the current git HEAD.

If I were in your shoes, I'd make a backup copy of the blockchain with rsync (maybe using its --bwlimit parameter to avoid stressing your storage) in a backup dir while compiling the new bitcoind.
Archive the old bitcoind, move the new over.
Once these steps are done, stop bitcoind, rsync one last time (should be very fast) to make sure you have a consistent backup and start the new bitcoind.
Useful bitcoin.conf parameters for a pool owner who wants to minimize downtime:

Code:

checkblocks=72
checklevel=1

bitcoind startup is much quicker (defaults are 288 and 3 IIRC).

Any problem with the new bitcoind: stop and start the old one. Any on-disk corruption by the new bitcoind, stop, restore backup, start. Syncing a few hours/days worth of blocks should be fast.

[gyverlb]

(latest git with minrelaytxfee set to 0.005)

I might have been mistaken: the git HEAD version uses satoshis for this parameter (which means it probably is faster than 0.8.1 even with defaults parameters). I converted it to satoshis and my latency is back to <0.10s.

[gyverlb]

(latest git with minrelaytxfee set to 0.005)

I might have been mistaken: the git HEAD version uses satoshis for this parameter (which means it probably is faster than 0.8.1 even with defaults parameters). I converted it to satoshis and my latency is back to <0.10s.

Scratch that, Prattler analysed the bitcoin sources and I was right initially (which means my very good latencies were because my bitcoind didn't include any transactions in its memory pool...).

[GuiltySpark343]

Can you please add Idle Worker Notification to Bitminter?

Yep, that's coming soon.

Goody! Can you also add payout notification via email as well? 

[FanDjangoBTC]

Down again?

[DrHaribo]

Goody! Can you also add payout notification via email as well? 

It's on my list.

Down again?

I just restarted the mining backend to get an update in. Now it can recover by itself from some types of failure. It should also be better able to handle stormy internet weather disrupting communications between bitminter servers in different data centers.

More stability improvements coming soon..

[Xanthon]

Apologies for the downtime.

One of the servers ran into low memory issues. Seems everything is happening today at once. I'll be working to improve stability during the next few days.

Hey DrHaribo,

I've been testing around with several mining pools over the past 3 weeks and have now decided to stay with bitminter permanently.

The few main factors that gave me my decisions are:
1. You are always around to answer questions. From the site itself, it's obvious how dedicated you are to this pool.
2. Your statistic page is beyond amazing. Amazing.
3. Merged NMC mining.

You are doing a great job and I think I should at least made it known to you that someone here is appreciating all your work.

PS: I can't seem to stay permanently logged on the site. Is it an intended feature? Since google login bugs out sometimes and I have to try multiple times to get myself logged.

[silicont]

I too am impressed with DrHaribo's pool, efforts and presence.   It's been a stable environment, and truly "bitcoin mining made easy".  I'm pretty impressed with the miner client, which I tried because I couldn't get cgminer to run for days on end.  Although since I found cgwatcher, I'm back to cgminer.

Keep up the great work.

[haveagr8day]

Apologies for the downtime.

One of the servers ran into low memory issues. Seems everything is happening today at once. I'll be working to improve stability during the next few days.

Hey DrHaribo,

I've been testing around with several mining pools over the past 3 weeks and have now decided to stay with bitminter permanently.

The few main factors that gave me my decisions are:
1. You are always around to answer questions. From the site itself, it's obvious how dedicated you are to this pool.
2. Your statistic page is beyond amazing. Amazing.
3. Merged NMC mining.

You are doing a great job and I think I should at least made it known to you that someone here is appreciating all your work.

PS: I can't seem to stay permanently logged on the site. Is it an intended feature? Since google login bugs out sometimes and I have to try multiple times to get myself logged.

From my experience, it only keeps you logged in for as long as your browser is open, or a few hours, whichever comes first. It would be nice for it to stay logged in, but Google sign-in makes it relatively easy still.

[matt4054]

I will join the crowd for the kudos do DrHaribo's great work and support. I leave most of my hashrate here. And the unlucky days are over ;-)

I also had a look at BitGamesInc, a link that he tweeted a couple of days ago, it looks very promising too. Mining for micro-payments, I was wondering who would be the first to make it in a viable way. It looks like they did!

[DrHaribo]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it

And yeah, web sessions timing out is intentional. It's a long timeout though, much longer than most sites that handle money. I know it's annoying to get logged out of the livestats. Maybe I can get that to keep working, but still time out sessions so someone else can't cash out your bitcoins if you forgot to log out.

[Jcw188]

Wow what a little run of good luck there!  Nice job guys!

Also, looks like maybe realasicminer is on his way out?  They have been cutting back here in the last couple days I think.  Also what happened to testtest?  Used to be 700,000 mh/s there at number 1/2 on the hash list.

[veleten]

too much of  a downtime lately
working on something or the server acts up ?

[daddyfatsax]

Website is down now.

[induktor]

Website is down now.

Yep... site down

[veleten]

also
the amount of blocks over 95 % is beyond anything reasonable
just count the number of them and compare to the amount of blocks under 5 %
ud be surprised