@puwaha, @patrike
question for you if you don't mind. I understand your argument for using 24hr averages (and preferably even longer) vs instant and having running switching no more often than once an hour or so. I'm still to see the results - I used to run switching every 1-5 minutes with a high threshold for switching, like 30-40% (call it 1/1/30). I need to run it for the whole day or 2 to make a conclusion. But here's a problem that surfaced right away when using 24hr/1hr pattern (i'll call it 24/1/10) - bad pools. So if I run 1/1/30 and the pool is bad, which can be manifested in multiple ways, for instance AM keeps restarting a miner saying that the process is not running (though accepted # keeps ticking) or no accepted blocks are coming in, then the pool will potentially quickly drop off the top of the profitability table and AM will happily switch to (hopefully) a non-corrupted pool. Now if the same problem arises during my 24/1/10 configuration, I'm potentially screwed for hours - the best AM miner can do here (I wish it could be more intelligent dealing with multiple restarts, except just stop trying after X times and stopping the miner in the process) is to keep restarting the miner, which does no good, since it keeps going back to the same corrupted pool. Have you run into something like this before (btw, it seems that lots of pools are having problems in the last couple days)? How would you deal with it?
If I do any profit switching, I'm typically doing a pool group, not online services like zpool, MPH, etc. Online services switch too much for my tastes.
Now, for a service being down, there are rule actions like Miner command. This has options like "Change pool", or "Change Pool Group" that might help you. There's also a rule action to apply template. I would have a good reliable pool to mine a single coin as a template ready to go, or do the Change Pool or Pool Group action setup on all your miners as a fall back. It's better to mine a good reliable coin for a few hours until you get a chance to check out the problem with the Online Service than to have your miner sitting idle.
Kindof lost me here, whats the difference between a pool group and MPH or Zpool? I thought these were "pool groups"
PS: I find it quite useful to monitor the # of accepted blocks in the last 3-5 minutes and if that number stalls force profit switching and restarting the rig. HOWEVER, and that might be another question, it seems that AM has a "miner not running, restarting" routine that's run outside of the rules framework and I can't figure out how to intercept it and, potentially, force it to run a profit switching before restarting the miner - have you ever dealt with that one?
AM's whole point is to try to keep your rigs doing what they do best... mining. You can get really complex with your automation, or keep it simple. That part is up to you.
If your mining software stalls or crashes, your should troubleshoot why that is happening. Maybe the mining software is buggy, you might have driver issues, a bad riser, or power supply issues? Trying to force AM to compensate for these problems will always have you going down a rabbit hole of trying to resolve edge cases.