Prioritizing Processes?

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(PeteCresswell)

SP3.

I've got an IP cam monitoring app watching 4 cameras that pretty
much eats the processor - as in 85-100% CPU usage.

On the same box is my Tivo-On-Steroids media server (an app
called "SageTV").

Sometimes it's ok, but other times Sage stutters... a lot...
If I disable all the cameras, the problem goes away immediately.


The Question: Is there any way for me to assign priorities so
that SageTV gets more shots at the CPU and the IP cam monitor
gets fewer?
 
(PeteCresswell) said:
SP3.

I've got an IP cam monitoring app watching 4 cameras that pretty
much eats the processor - as in 85-100% CPU usage.

On the same box is my Tivo-On-Steroids media server (an app
called "SageTV").

Sometimes it's ok, but other times Sage stutters... a lot...
If I disable all the cameras, the problem goes away immediately.

The Question: Is there any way for me to assign priorities so
that SageTV gets more shots at the CPU and the IP cam monitor
gets fewer?
Click to expand...

Go into Task Manager, Processes tab, right-click on a process, change
its priority.

If you don't want to do that manually, up a program's priority by using
a shortcut that assigns it priority when it loads. I use SysInternals'
psexec.exe utility for that (by using its -priority switch) that lets me
load the specified program with low, belownormal, abovenormal, high, or
realtime priority. Just don't use realtime priority unless you want to
let ONLY that program run on your host.
 
From: "(PeteCresswell) said:
SP3.

I've got an IP cam monitoring app watching 4 cameras that pretty
much eats the processor - as in 85-100% CPU usage.

On the same box is my Tivo-On-Steroids media server (an app
called "SageTV").

Sometimes it's ok, but other times Sage stutters... a lot...
If I disable all the cameras, the problem goes away immediately.


The Question: Is there any way for me to assign priorities so
that SageTV gets more shots at the CPU and the IP cam monitor
gets fewer?
Click to expand...

I would suggest changing your modus operandi by splitting the two amongst two systems.
 
In David H. Lipman typed:
I would suggest changing your modus operandi by splitting the two
amongst two systems.
Click to expand...

I use Process Lasso on a number of my computers and it does a great job
of taming programs you want to be tamed. I don't know how well the free
one works, as I always used the commercial versions.

http://www.bitsum.com/
 
Per David H. Lipman:
I would suggest changing your modus operandi by splitting the two amongst two systems.
Click to expand...

It's a cost thing: both are 24-7 apps and I'm too cheap to shell
out the additional two hundred bucks a year for electric.
 
Per VanguardLH:
If you don't want to do that manually, up a program's priority by using
a shortcut that assigns it priority when it loads. I use SysInternals'
psexec.exe utility for that (by using its -priority switch) that lets me
load the specified program with low, belownormal, abovenormal, high, or
realtime priority. Just don't use realtime priority unless you want to
let ONLY that program run on your host.
Click to expand...

That BillW50's Process Lasso sounds like the ticket.

But the offending app runs as a Service and is auto-started.

Is that a deal breaker?
 
Per (PeteCresswell):
That BillW50's Process Lasso sounds like the ticket.
Click to expand...

FWIW, I tried the TaskMan thing but it threw "... Access is
denied"....

Control Panel | User Accounts | (my account) says that I'm a
"Computer Administrator".
 
From: "(PeteCresswell) said:
Per David H. Lipman:

It's a cost thing: both are 24-7 apps and I'm too cheap to shell
out the additional two hundred bucks a year for electric.
Click to expand...

One way or another, you pay.
 
(PeteCresswell) said:
Per (PeteCresswell):

FWIW, I tried the TaskMan thing but it threw "... Access is
denied"....

Control Panel | User Accounts | (my account) says that I'm a
"Computer Administrator".
Click to expand...

Because, as you mentioned in your other reply, the program runs as a
service, not as a user process.
 
(PeteCresswell) said:
Per VanguardLH:


That BillW50's Process Lasso sounds like the ticket.

But the offending app runs as a Service and is auto-started.

Is that a deal breaker?
Click to expand...

I didn't realize you were looking for either payware or nagware
solutions. There is a free version of Process Lasso but it is nagware.


http://bitsum.com/howfree.php

There was some problem with Process Lasso that had me quit using it.
I'll have to go through my e-mails to check what they said. Gotta
leave now so I'll look later.
 
In (PeteCresswell) typed:
Per BillW50:

Seems to be doing the job - at least it doesn't choke when I
change priorities.

We'll find out for sure tonite when all 4 cams are running and I
try watching PBS News Hour via SageTV.
Click to expand...

I don't know what you mean by changing priorities. But I would use
Process Lasso using all default settings. What this does is to leave
everything alone as long as you have enough CPU power to go around.

But when it does start taming is when one process hits the CPU very hard
and starts to affect other processes, it automatically lowers this
process and keeps it there until it behaves once again. Then it will
adjust it back to normal once again.

Now SageTV will probably work fine under Process Lasso control. But just
in case, you can tell Process Lasso to leave it alone and it will. And
SageTV should be flawless despite whatever else is going on.
 
In VanguardLH typed:
I didn't realize you were looking for either payware or nagware
solutions. There is a free version of Process Lasso but it is
nagware.

http://bitsum.com/howfree.php

There was some problem with Process Lasso that had me quit using it.
I'll have to go through my e-mails to check what they said. Gotta
leave now so I'll look later.
Click to expand...

Process Lasso gets updated like twice a week. And it only gets better
and better. I suppose one of these days the newer version won't be
better. But you can go back to an earlier one anytime you wanted too.

It would be interesting to know what you didn't like about it. Also it
might be true that whatever it was, it is now corrected. ;-)

I wasn't too impressed with Process Lasso years ago. So I basically
ignored it for years. Tried it again lately and I am very impressed. Now
it is a keeper for me. I was so impressed, I bought six licenses. And I
normally don't buy most shareware stuff. ;-)
 
(PeteCresswell) said:
SP3.

I've got an IP cam monitoring app watching 4 cameras that pretty
much eats the processor - as in 85-100% CPU usage.

On the same box is my Tivo-On-Steroids media server (an app
called "SageTV").

Sometimes it's ok, but other times Sage stutters... a lot...
If I disable all the cameras, the problem goes away immediately.


The Question: Is there any way for me to assign priorities so
that SageTV gets more shots at the CPU and the IP cam monitor
gets fewer?
Click to expand...

In Task Manager, you can click on a program and set Affinity.

If you have a quad core, you could steer the IP camera application
to use three cores, and allow SageTV to "freewheel" as before, then
see if preventing the IP camera application from running on one of
the cores, is enough to manage your problem.

Steering the SageTV to use the remaining core at that point,
probably won't help that much (assuming the IP camera app is
still steered to the other three).

You can also test overclocking the CPU a bit, to see if you can
make enough headroom for them all to play nicely together.
Overclocking requires careful testing, then cranking down the
settings a notch, for stable operation.

Another problem could be disk I/O - if the applications all
read/write to the same disk drive, if there is enough I/O,
that could also result in somebody dropping frames.

I don't use process priority too often for control. With
two tasks running 100%, it can change the ratio of cycles
each gets. I guess I like the affinity idea a bit better.

Paul
 
Per BillW50:
Process Lasso gets updated like twice a week. And it only gets better
and better. I suppose one of these days the newer version won't be
better. But you can go back to an earlier one anytime you wanted too.
Click to expand...

The price seems pretty reasonable to me: about twenty bucks for
home use and a year of upgrades, thirty for lifetime (at least
the lifetime of the publisher...) upgrades.

I think I'm gonna wait for the first nag screen to pop and then
buy it.
 
Per BillW50:
But when it does start taming is when one process hits the CPU very hard
and starts to affect other processes, it automatically lowers this
process and keeps it there until it behaves once again. Then it will
adjust it back to normal once again.

Now SageTV will probably work fine under Process Lasso control. But just
in case, you can tell Process Lasso to leave it alone and it will. And
SageTV should be flawless despite whatever else is going on.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that clarification. I had set the offending app to
"Below Normal" and Sage to "High". I'll change that to just
setting Sage to "Remove from ProBalance Restraint = True".

Does that sound right for telling Process Lasso to ignore Sage?
 
In
(PeteCresswell) said:
Per BillW50:

Thanks for that clarification. I had set the offending app to
"Below Normal" and Sage to "High". I'll change that to just
setting Sage to "Remove from ProBalance Restraint = True".

Does that sound right for telling Process Lasso to ignore Sage?
Click to expand...

Yes and yes.
 
Per David H. Lipman:

It's a cost thing: both are 24-7 apps and I'm too cheap to shell
out the additional two hundred bucks a year for electric.
Click to expand...

I don't think you mentioned what type of processor you have on your
machine. Is it single-core? If so, how about upgrading to quad-core?
 
Per Yousuf Khan:
I don't think you mentioned what type of processor you have on your
machine. Is it single-core? If so, how about upgrading to quad-core?
Click to expand...

It's quad core, but only 2 gigs of RAM (I cannibalized the other
2 for another box many moons ago and forgot all about it when I
made this my 24-7 box)... First thing, I'll put the missing 2
gigs back in.

Process Lasso has made a noticeable improvement.

I've identified a suspicious application too: a file-based backup
utility that always seems tb running when I see the problem. It's
a heavy hitter memory-wise, typically using a half gig when it's
doing it's thing. More spot checking will confirm or disprove
that suspicion.

Meanwhile, Window 7 seems tb on the horizon for other reasons and
I'm thinking maybe this could be a reason for moving a little
earlier to 7 and 8 gigs of RAM.
 
(PeteCresswell) said:
I've identified a suspicious application too: a file-based backup
utility that always seems tb running when I see the problem.
Click to expand...

That could be a backup based on something like Volume Shadow Service.
It could be tracking changes to the file system, to make it easier
to make a differential backup or the like.

Duplicate file system activity can also come from AV applications,
scanning files on read.

You could see if you could define some kind of exception,
for the area of the disk with the security footage sitting in it.
Or put all the security camera footage, on a disk not scheduled
or managed by the backup application.

Paul
 
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