Create a "Watchdog" - is there a Sage Service network API

[timg11]

(sorry, I should have posted this in "SageTV v7 Customizations" - is there a way to move it?)

I occasionally have cases where the computer hosting my Sage server will get into a non-functional mode and I'll miss bunch of shows. It may not fully crash and reboot, but simply become non-responsive.

I can't simply ping the server from another machine, since the server sleeps when there are no active recordings going on.

I'd like to build a "watchdog" out of a Raspberry Pi. The idea is to co-locate it with the sage server, monitor the server's DC power state with a GPIO (opto isolated), and poll the sage service status over the network. For starters, the Watchdog can text me if it sees a problem. (i.e. power on, but service unresponsive) Ultimately, I can make a Pi GPIO output drive the reset button on the sage server also.

On the software side I'm looking for a "presence detect" that the Watchdog Pi can poll to verify the Sage Service is running. Is there a simple API or port for the Sage Service I can try to connect to? Is the Sage Service API documented anywhere? I just need something simple to verify the service is running.

[troycheek]

The Web UI plugin might help. It runs as part of Sage and creates access to Sage via a generated webpage that be accessed with a web browser or command line tool like wget. If wget can retrieve the webpage, then the server and the Sage service are running. If wget can't retrieve the web page, then the server isn't powered up OR the server is powered but the service isn't running, and you should be able to tell which is which by what error message wget returns.

Warning: Current version 3.0 of the Web UI doesn't work for some of us and we're not quite sure why yet.

[timg11]

Which version is most likely to work with SageTV V7.1.9? Is it also available through the SageTV plugin UI? Or is there a different procedure to install?

[stuckless]

Chances are you have the sagex apis installed. If you enter

http://server:port/sagex/api

in a browser, you should get a help page on the sage services api. If you want to test if a server is responsive, you could do something simple like...

http://server:port/sagex/api?c=GetServerAddress&encoder=json

There is some additional documentation here.
https://github.com/stuckless/sagetv-...sing-sagex-api

[timg11]

What is the default port for SageX? The server does not respond on port 80.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by timg11

What is the default port for SageX? The server does not respond on port 80.

same as the webserver 8080. Also make sure you have sagex-services plugin installed (it might already be installed, but if not, then it'll need to be installed)

[timg11]

I'm looking at my Installed Plugins page (All), and it shows sagex-api by stuckless version 7.0.23.9 (Update available). It appears to be installed and running.

When I put <http://192.168.1.n:8080/sagex/api> into a browser from another computer, it times out. When I try http://localhost:8080/sagex/api on the sage server machine it says "Unable to connect. Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at localhost:8080."

The plugin is running on the Sage Server, not the HD300, right?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by timg11

I'm looking at my Installed Plugins page (All), and it shows sagex-api by stuckless version 7.0.23.9 (Update available). It appears to be installed and running.

When I put <http://192.168.1.n:8080/sagex/api> into a browser from another computer, it times out. When I try http://localhost:8080/sagex/api on the sage server machine it says "Unable to connect. Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at localhost:8080."

The plugin is running on the Sage Server, not the HD300, right?

It runs on the server. Do you have the Jetty Plugin installed? It will require Jetty as well, but if you already have web ui install, or bmt, then jetty will be installed.

[timg11]

I had Jetty installed but it was disabled (not sure why - maybe it was causing problems way back when?)

It is 2.3.0.14.

I enabled it, and now when I try http://localhost:8080/sagex/api I get:

HTTP ERROR: 404
Problem accessing /sagex/api. Reason:
NOT_FOUND
Powered by Jetty://


So maybe there is enough functionality now available to tell me if the Sage Service is up?

[troycheek]

Originally Posted by timg11

Which version is most likely to work with SageTV V7.1.9? Is it also available through the SageTV plugin UI? Or is there a different procedure to install?

It's available through setup/plugins/general and it's called SageTV Web UI or something like that. Versions 2.43, 3.1 (2.43 in all but name), and the experimental 3.1.1 all work for me. 3.0 is the version that doesn't work for some of us.

I use the Web UI for everything because I never got sagex-api to work on my system. I just tried installing it again and got it to respond only after restarting the Sage service. (I initially didn't restart because the plugin didn't suggest it. This may have been my problem before and I should have known better.) This is way over my head, but I did get a proper response to the GetServerAddress command that stuckless suggested.