Strange thing happened when I moved recordings..

[Jesse]

Hi,

In an effort to add storage and finally get comskip working on my clients I decided to add some drives to my server and move some existing recordings onto them.

I first backed up my entire sagetv folder and all the recordings on the first drive I was moving recordings from. I then added the new recording drive using unc paths. I shut down the sage gui and service and moved a few files (3 or 4). Looked good. They still showed up as recordings and a quick test showed that that they would play. I shut down sage again and moved the recordings (about 270 GB). When I fired it all back up it looked ok. Nothing appeared to be missing except for four shows that ended up in the vid library. I figured I could live with that.

I then looked at the setup menu.... Sage showed 352.4 GB of available video disk space, 478.52 GB of used video disk space and 464.57 GB of used library space (of which approximately 29 GB were the four shows that ended up in the library, the balance of 435 GB being ripped DVD's). When I check the disk space in windows the three recording drives show used space of H: 217 GB, I: 200 GB and J: 278 GB for a total of 695 GB of used space. Windows shows free space of H: 62 GB, I: 79 GB and J: 187 GB for a total of 328 GB of free space.

So windows shows total disk space of 1023 GB while sage shows only 860 (352.4 + 478.52 +29(now in library)).

Any ideas where I went wrong??

Jesse

[Jesse]

Hi,

So I decided to drop back and punt. I moved my backup of my sage folder back in and changed the folder names in the recording directories as appropriate. I then fired up sage and other than two new recordings everything was back to square one.

I try again. The existing drives are G, H, and I. The new unc path drives are J and K. I add J to the list of recording drives and shut down sage and the service. I "move" the files and fire sage back up. Everything looks perfect. Available space, Used space and Library space are unchanged. The recordings all show up and the few I test appear to play just fine. So now I go in to detailed setup and delete the G drive recording directory and find that all the diskspace numbers have changed. Available has gone from 435.79 GB to 351.51 GB, Used has gone from 747.86 GB to 470.47 GB and Library has gone from 440.85 to 464.57. If I add the G drive back into the recording directory things go back to where they should be.

Deciding to live dangerously I go ahead and move the files from the H and I drives (one drive at a time). Several files end up in the imported videos folder with my DVD's and by the time I have removed the H and I drive recording directories sage is showing 271.73 GB Available (probably close, but it was too late to keep fooling with it), 281.83 GB Used, and 510.19 GB in the Library.

Anyone know how or why this may be happening? Anyone know how I can get the files that ended up in the library back into "recordings?" Anyone know how I can get sage to give me some accurate diskspace info?

As for the unc paths I am now wondering if I may have done something incorrectly. I started by sharing the drives. In detailed setup I then added them by navigating to "network" and then navigating to "Jukebox" (my server's name)\Sage0(J)\SageRecordings. So in the detailed setup list of recording directories it shows up as something like \\Jukebox\Sage0(J)\SageRecordings. Would this be the correct way of doing it?

Thanks for any help.

Jesse

[Opus4]

Are you running in service mode? If so, the service has to log in as a user w/a password who has read/write access permission for the UNC paths. Even for non-service mode, double check permissions.

Also check this FAQ for a new property setting in v6.2 to help retain recordings when they are moved.

- Andy

[Jesse]

Ahhhh, it sounds like the cavalry riding in..

Hi Andy,

Yes, I do use the service. I set up a special admin level user, with a password, to run the service. Forgive my ignorance, but is there more access or permission to grant to an admin level user other than just being an admin user? I will definitely double check that I set it up as admin when I get home.

I am using the latest release version (6.1.9). Do you think it would help to upgrade to the RC and try repairing the file connections as per the FAQ you linked?

Thanks for your help.

Jesse

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Jesse

Yes, I do use the service. I set up a special admin level user, with a password, to run the service. Forgive my ignorance, but is there more access or permission to grant to an admin level user other than just being an admin user? I will definitely double check that I set it up as admin when I get home.

I don't know... I was just tossing something out to check & it may not even be the solution to your issue.

You could always use debug logging to see what it says about any recording file errors it sees at startup.

I am using the latest release version (6.1.9). Do you think it would help to upgrade to the RC and try repairing the file connections as per the FAQ you linked?

If those recordings are important for you to retain in the recordings list instead of having them become imported, then v6.2 is worth trying for this purpose.

- ANdy

[Jesse]

Hi,

From bad to worse.

The user ID that runs the service is an admin, so permissions should not be an issue.

I tried for the fist time this morning to watch live tv. I get two or three seconds and it locks hard. It also missed some recordings last night. Dont know if it could not record or just deleted them.

I am going to roll back to my pre filemove backups and move the files back. I will then update to the RC and move the files again without using UNC paths. Some searching reminded me that the last time I tried this I had the same issue with live tv playback.

Jesse

[bcjenkins]

Jesse,

Would you mind posting your Sage.properties from the server? Also, would you explain how you have your disks set up? Is this a single disk or are you using something to span them together?

Thanks

B

[Jesse]

Hi B,

I am afraid I no longer have the properties files from after the file move. After I moved the files back to their original locations and rolled back to my pops and wiz backups I trashed all the stuff generated during the file move. I suppose I could try moving everything again.

The discs are actually two raid-1 arrays on a 3ware controller. Should that matter?

I know the problem must be some error in the way I configured things, I just cant sort out what it might be. I have a feeling that Andy is right and it has something to do with permissions. I did verify that the user logon for the sagetv service is an admin user. I did share the arrays and made sure I selected "allow network users to change my files." Next I tried disabling simple sharing in windows and explicitly allowed "full control" to the logon for the sagetv service. I allowed sharing and full control on both the root of each drive and the folder on each drive where the recordings are stored. Could the names I gave I gave the drives or folders be the problem? The drives are named Sage0 (J) and Sage1 (K). The folders are "SageRecordingsJ" and "SageRecordingsK". Was there something more I should have done regarding sharing/permissions?

Inspite of all that sagetv was unable to playback live tv and apparently could not make recordings either. While I did briefly test playback on numerous recordings, my wife discovered that approximately 10 minutes into playback of a recording sage would freeze. This happened a few times while our sons were trying to watch some recordings. She was, however, able to get sage back to the main menu without a hard reset. She did find that sage would playback our ripped DVD's no problem. The DVD's are on their own shared drive that is not mapped through unc paths (no need for comskip on these).

Hopefully something here will provide a clue to my problem.

TIA

Jesse

[bcjenkins]

So

\\server\share1
\\server\share2

User on the server is same name and password as user on the client. From the client you can connect to the server shares and create files. From the server you can connect to the server shares and create files.

Thanks.

B

[Jesse]

Hi B,

\\server\share1
\\server\share2

Are you suggesting that I specify the path to the recording drives as \\Jukebox\SageRecordingsJ, rather than navigating to \\Jukebox\Sage0(J)\SageRecordingsJ?

...User on the server is same name and password as user on the client...

No. I did not realize that this was a requirement. I will try adding a new user and password to the clients and give it a try.

From the client you can connect to the server shares and create files.

Well, I did not try. I just assumed that the client was telling the service to do the recording etc. on the shared drives.

From the server you can connect to the server shares and create files.

Sure, I created the "SageRecordings" folders on the the shared drives using windows explorer. Should I have tried doing this through "my network places" rather that just accessing the local drive?

Thanks again,

Jesse

[bcjenkins]

You can browse, but I always specify.

\\server\share1\dir1
\\server\share2\dir2

are fine.

The client user/password could explain the issue with comskip.

On the server is click on start --> run; type in \\server\share1\dir1 and make sure you can create a file. Do the same from the client.

In NT (XP) local file permissions are different than network file permissions if even for the same folders.

B

[Jesse]

Hi,

Thanks for the help. I will test and report back after the holiday weekend (will be at the inlaws).

Jesse

[Jesse]

Hi,

A little tinkering based on B's suggestions has lead me to what I think is the problem. I will need to test and confirm to be sure.

Dumb question of the day: Do I need to set up a unique admin user name and password specifically for the service to "run as," or can I just use the general admin user name and password that I would normally log on as? For the service to access the UNC paths don't I just need to avoid having it run as the defualt "LocalSystem?"

TIA

Jesse

[bcjenkins]

Your service needs to be an admin user with a password. Make sure the same user and password are what you are using on the clients. It is easiest that way.

B

[Jesse]

Hi,

Your service needs to be an admin user with a password. Make sure the same user and password are what you are using on the clients. It is easiest that way.

Ok, I finally got a chance to start working on this again. My server, the sagetv service and both my clients are now using the same admin user name and password. I was able to access, create, delete and modify files on the drives in question from the server as well as both clients.

In the past I had always used a unique admin user name (with p/word) for the sagetv service. Because it was an admin level user I figured access to local drives should not be problem and it was'nt. There was no problem until I tried using the unc paths. Because of the things Andy and B suggested I tried acutally logging on with the user name I use for the service and accessing the drives. When I navigated to my network places there was nothing there!!?? So I go to System/Computer Name and see that I have not joined my local workgroup. I had assumed that joining a workgroup/network was a global setting for a computer. Apparently this is a user specific setting? Seems like this must be the problem: How is the service going to access drives via the network if it is not a part of the network? So now we have just one user name and password for the server and the service and it is a part of the workgroup.

I will try moving some files tonight.

Thanks

Jesse

[Jesse]

Hi,

I have not had much time to tinker with this, but I did get about a half dozen files moved as well as getting comskip updated and re-configured. Sage has also used the new drive to store some new recordings. So far it all seems to be working fine. I am going to try moving a large batch of recordings over next.

The big question will be how will things go when I remove the old recording directory. That is when things seem to get really strange.

Jesse

[Jesse]

Hi,

I moved a few more files tonight and ran into some problems. While watching one of the recordings I moved I had video and audio freeze up. I was able to hit stop and get out of it. I tried watching it again and it froze right away. I moved the recording back to it's original drive and played it back without any problems. I tried another recording and managed to capture a debug log of the freeze. I hit stop and did get to the multi-function stop screen (sage mc) but was not able to get any further and had to do a hard reset.

Attached are the logs. Any help is appreciated.

Jesse

[gplasky]

To me it looks like you have a job stuck in the queue of Dirmon for comskip or howevery you run it. It probably never finished the job ob the file you just moved and now it keeps trying to run it where it doesn't exist. I would make sure all of your comskips jobs are out of the queue or delted before moving those files.


Gerry

[Jesse]

Hi,

I tried playing back the same file I captured the logs for but used the default STV and no comskip. The file made it almost all the way to the end before locking up. The log is attached.

Could this have something to do with my network? I know that there was a recording going on last night when I had the playback failure while this morning there was nothing recording until near the very end of the file I was playing back (ie around the time playback froze). Since both the file being recorded and the file being played back are utilizing the same drive, via unc path, then are they not both utilizing my network. It does not seem to me that moving two SD files through my gig-e network should be a problem, but what do I know

As always, any help is very much appreciated.

Jesse[ATTACH]Attachment 5858[/ATTACH]

[Jesse]

To me it looks like you have a job stuck in the queue of Dirmon for comskip or howevery you run it. It probably never finished the job ob the file you just moved and now it keeps trying to run it where it doesn't exist. I would make sure all of your comskips jobs are out of the queue or delted before moving those files.


Gerry
__________________
Big Gerr

Hi Gerry,

Thanks for your help.

The odd thing is that the only folder that comskip/comskip monitor watches is the folder I moved the recordings into. There could not have been any comskip processing of these files until I moved them to the new location.

Any thoughts?

Thanks again.

Jesse