Server Stability Issues

[mikejaner]

Is anybody else having problems with Sage TV server running as a service on 2.1?
In a Server--Client relationship, I have had to restart both a couple of times since yesterday.

I also am getting issues where shows are not being recorded, and live TV is dropping out for no apparent reason.

Also I just had to restart because The Screen Savers just stopped on me, so when I rebooted Sage TV Server, and noticed it wasn't recording it anymore, I selected it in the Program Guide and got a screen which was a very fast alternating blur between The Screen Savers, and Smallville, which is supposd to be recorded at the same time.

I am thinking about switching back to 2.0

[edbmdave]

What I have seen is this.

When I run the server as a service, and it starts recording (just one show), it is running in the mid 90% for CPU utilization, and the machine is regularly spiking at 100%. As I am running a AMD 2800 with 1.5 G of RAM I know I am not underpowered. During this time, any Sage Client (Including the local UI) take a very long time to load and bring up the menu. I clocked one at 21 minutes. The machine appeared worthless when a second show started recording.

If I don't run as a service things seem more realistic. CPU utilization is around 15% with all three of my PVRs recording at the same time and I can get good response from the SageClients. I am submitting a bug report on this.

[kny3twalker]

edbmdave
something else has got to be wrong with your computer
mine runs at 0%
have you tried updating Java or reinstalling ?

the service works awesome
my complaint would be that SageTV takes 143MB of ram(currently) and the service uses(57MB)

thats too much

[mikejaner]

I have files a bug too. I am also seeing that the Sage Server does get a spike in CPU when these problems happen. Basically here are the problems I have seen so far in the Server--Client setup.

Starting LiveTV from the Program Guide sometimes will do nothing at all, then loose connection if I repeately click on the show, in anger of course.

While watching a show that is currenly being recorded at the same time a second show is being recorded, I once got what looked like the two shows being intermixed every other frame.

While watching Live TV, when the show ends, the video stops playing on the last frame, like I was watching a prerecorded show and didn't go back to the menu when it stopped. It should pause for a 10th of a second or so and start playback of the next show.

[mikejaner]

So, I switch my server and client back to 2.0.20, and everything is back to normal. I guess I will have to wait till a later release of the Beta, or the final of 2.1. My WAF went way down with this release.

[edbmdave]

Originally Posted by kny3twalker

edbmdave
something else has got to be wrong with your computer
mine runs at 0%
have you tried updating Java or reinstalling ?

the service works awesome
my complaint would be that SageTV takes 143MB of ram(currently) and the service uses(57MB)

thats too much

I did install Java 5.0 the day before 2.1 was released. Are you still running on 5.0 and seeing 0%? I hate the thought of reinstalling. I really wish there was a way to export my favorites, then re-import. I don't care to much about the material I have recorded. I have saved off (Archived) what I want to keep.

I have noticed that using the USB-UIRT is much better from my remote control. It is really crisp and responsive with 2.1.

One last question are you running the service under a dedicated userid or using "Local System"?

[edbmdave]

Argh. The often used, never desired, and not understood method of uninstalling and re-installing fixed the issue I had with the server CPU sitting in the 90%. Now when recording on all three PVRs, I am seeing about a 00-12% CPU. Yes that is really a 00%.

[mikejaner]

What did you uninstall and reinstall ebdmdave? Java 5.0 and Sage? I have a client also, so did you do that too? I am using java 1.4.2 as installed by Sage. I also am inporting my backed up wiz.bin. Did you start your config from scratch, or did you back up your wiz.bin like me and copy it to the new install?

[edbmdave]

I still have Java 5.0, I uninstalled and re-installed SageTV (not the client). I did go back to a version of my sage.properties and wiz.bin that were from the day before I installed 2.1 RC7.

Must of had some corruption somewhere....

All works now.

[edbmdave]

I don't think the service portion of SageTV is ready from prime time.

Background: My SageTV system is on and running with the exception of about 1 hour a month (this is my maintenance window). The 2.0 release was beautiful. Never a crash, never a lockup, never an abend or loss of UI.

With running the 2.1 release there are some bugs. I had the service running for over 60 hours during the first 48 of those hours, I seemed to get good recordings, everything seemed to be fine. Around 10pm yesterday I started watching some shows recorded during prime time Sunday. I record 14 different shows during this time, my three PVRs are happily going (normally). When I started watching them, I came starting seeing really bad stuttering of the video. Audio was fine. As I started going through them, all 14 shows were the same. First through. Restart the UI, maybe something is happening in the playback. Restarted the UI. No change. So then I went to another machine (a dedicated sageclient). Still same stuttering playback. Next thought, something wrong with the service. I pulled up the tasklist on my SageTV machine, The UI was eating up around 90% CPU and the SageTVService was not running. I went and checked, yes the service was enabled, but definately not running. Checked my SageTV directory for any history files.. None. Tried to start the service. Nothing. It did not start.

Ok, so now it is time to reboot. Rebooted, Service came up and was running, UI was down to about 9% CPU. Tried playing back one of the files, Still Stuttering. Deleted them as they really weren't watchable. The next show that recorded (a manual that I scheduled) recorded and played back fine.

So, SageTVService appears to have abended after somewhere between 50 -60 hours of running, and would not restart. The Client continued to running, but the CPU shot through the roof. (was it looking for the service, failing then, recovering and doing each operation itself? Shouldn't it fail, and revert back to local mode and be done with it?)

Also I too, am having the mysterious changing of properties when running Sage as a service and running the UI. I had gone in and set everything to VMR9 on my client. The next morning, it was all set back to default. I want the settings I choose for the server to remain constaint for the Server, and those I choose for the client to remain constant for the client. No arbitrary changing.

Not a positive experience. Love Sage. Being running it as a foreground application.

Another question should XP be optimized as a file server or database server when SageTV is running as a service.

[Hector]

I think there is a problem importing the wiz.bin file on some installations.

I am unable to use Sage as a service at all (detailed in this thread).

I tried a lot of things, but if I install 2.1 over 2.0 I can't get the UI to talk to the service at all. The service is running but I suspect it's not in a 'ready' state. However if I install 2.1 over 2.0 and but delete my wiz.bin and force Sage to create a new one the UI and the service seem to start up ok.

Hardly scientific, but it seems the problem is something about the existing wiz.bin in some installations. Best I can tell this is encrypted and there aren't any database tools you can validate it with.

As an aside it's hard to understand why user data is encrypted.

peace . . .

I still have Java 5.0, I uninstalled and re-installed SageTV (not the client). I did go back to a version of my sage.properties and wiz.bin that were from the day before I installed 2.1 RC7.

Must of had some corruption somewhere....

All works now.