Hi everyone! I'm using R 2.0.1 for Mac OS X in a classroom with 40 eMacs running Mac OS X version 10.3.6. These Macs are network based, meaning that the students log in to an XServe G4 where their user accounts and home directories are stored. The problem that I'm having each time a group of students (usually 7 to 10) use R is that the whole system get incredibly slow. The response time for opening an application while the students are running R is around 5 minutes. If a student wants to log into the system while others are running R, it can take up to 10 minutes for the student to get logged in. Everything gets very slow that it's almost impossible to work. When I look at the server Graphs, the CPU usage of the first CPU is always 100% when these students are using R. The second CPU is left at 15%. When these students quit R, then everything's is back to normal again. The usage of both CPUs go back down to between 5-10%. Is there anyone out there using R in a university like this? Does anyone have an idea what this might depend one or maybe a solution? I can provide some more information if anyone wants, if you think you can help me. Thanks in advance /Sam [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
It appears you wouldn't get much improvement at all even if the 2nd CPU were used at 100%. Five R sessions can easily overwhelm one CPU. I think you need (a lot) more CPUs than 2 to solve your problem. Possible solutions: 1. Install R on each eMac. Since you have 40 of them, you might want to put together a script to do this. 2. Get some boxes that can run Windows. On Windows, you can run R from a CD/zip drive/USB drive. (So you could burn 40 CDs and have everyone run their R session on their box.) As far as I know the same is not true for GNU/Linux and Mac OS. HTH, b. -----Original Message----- From: Sam Parvaneh Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 6:11 AM To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch Subject: [R] help wanted using R in a classroom Hi everyone! I'm using R 2.0.1 for Mac OS X in a classroom with 40 eMacs running Mac OS X version 10.3.6. These Macs are network based, meaning that the students log in to an XServe G4 where their user accounts and home directories are stored. The problem that I'm having each time a group of students (usually 7 to 10) use R is that the whole system get incredibly slow. The response time for opening an application while the students are running R is around 5 minutes. If a student wants to log into the system while others are running R, it can take up to 10 minutes for the student to get logged in. Everything gets very slow that it's almost impossible to work. When I look at the server Graphs, the CPU usage of the first CPU is always 100% when these students are using R. The second CPU is left at 15%. When these students quit R, then everything's is back to normal again. The usage of both CPUs go back down to between 5-10%. Is there anyone out there using R in a university like this? Does anyone have an idea what this might depend one or maybe a solution? I can provide some more information if anyone wants, if you think you can help me. Thanks in advance /Sam [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> From: bogdan romocea > > It appears you wouldn't get much improvement at all even if > the 2nd CPU > were used at 100%. Five R sessions can easily overwhelm one CPU. I > think you need (a lot) more CPUs than 2 to solve your problem. > > Possible solutions: > 1. Install R on each eMac. Since you have 40 of them, you > might want to > put together a script to do this. > 2. Get some boxes that can run Windows. On Windows, you can run R from > a CD/zip drive/USB drive. (So you could burn 40 CDs and have everyone > run their R session on their box.) As far as I know the same is not > true for GNU/Linux and Mac OS.If one can run Linux off a (live) CD, why wouldn't it be possible to do the same for R? (Burn a Quantian DVD and you can boot a x86 box from it to run R.) If I'm not mistaken, it shouldn't be a problem running R off a USB pen drive or CD under Linux. I can give it a shot tonight (if I can find the time). Andy> HTH, > b. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Sam Parvaneh > Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 6:11 AM > To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch > Subject: [R] help wanted using R in a classroom > > > Hi everyone! > > I'm using R 2.0.1 for Mac OS X in a classroom with 40 eMacs > running Mac > OS > X version 10.3.6. > These Macs are network based, meaning that the students log in to an > XServe G4 where their user accounts and home directories are stored. > > The problem that I'm having each time a group of students > (usually 7 to > > 10) use R is that the whole system get incredibly slow. > The response time for opening an application while the students are > running R is around 5 minutes. > If a student wants to log into the system while others are running R, > it > can take up to 10 minutes for the student to get logged in. > Everything gets very slow that it's almost impossible to work. > When I look at the server Graphs, the CPU usage of the first CPU is > always > 100% when these students are using R. The second CPU is left at 15%. > > When these students quit R, then everything's is back to normal again. > The > usage of both CPUs go back down to between 5-10%. > Is there anyone out there using R in a university like this? > Does anyone have an idea what this might depend one or maybe a > solution? > I can provide some more information if anyone wants, if you think you > can > help me. > > Thanks in advance > /Sam > > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide! > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide! > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > >
Re-reading your email carefully, I'm not absolutely sure whether the multiple R processes are all running on the server, as I first assumed. If they are, then it seems to me that the solution is to get the R processes running on the clients. On my OS X box, "R" is a link to the R script located on an NFS mounted file system: [166]% ls -l /usr/local/bin/R lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 42 9 Dec 12:25 /usr/local/bin/R@ -> /statsrvr/apps/R/R-2.0.1/darwin/bin/R [167]% df -k | grep statsrvr statbox:/APPS1 9830344 9161202 659312 93% /private/automount/statsrvr/apps statbox is a Solaris machine. So, R is "installed", by which I mean all of its files are located on, a server, but when I run it, it runs locally. So I think should be able to arrange things so that each student's R session runs on the eMac in front of him, instead of on the server. -Don At 12:11 PM +0100 1/17/05, Sam Parvaneh wrote:>Hi everyone! > >I'm using R 2.0.1 for Mac OS X in a classroom with 40 eMacs running Mac OS >X version 10.3.6. >These Macs are network based, meaning that the students log in to an >XServe G4 where their user accounts and home directories are stored.Do they actually log in to the XServe, or do they login to the eMac and have their home directories mounted on the eMac?> >The problem that I'm having each time a group of students (usually 7 to >10) use R is that the whole system get incredibly slow. >The response time for opening an application while the students are >running R is around 5 minutes. >If a student wants to log into the system while others are running R, it >can take up to 10 minutes for the student to get logged in. >Everything gets very slow that it's almost impossible to work. >When I look at the server Graphs, the CPU usage of the first CPU is always >100% when these students are using R. The second CPU is left at 15%. > >When these students quit R, then everything's is back to normal again. The >usage of both CPUs go back down to between 5-10%. >Is there anyone out there using R in a university like this? >Does anyone have an idea what this might depend one or maybe a solution? >I can provide some more information if anyone wants, if you think you can >help me. > >Thanks in advance >/Sam > > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > >______________________________________________ >R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list >https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html-- -------------------------------------- Don MacQueen Environmental Protection Department Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Livermore, CA, USA