Options
MAX Media Server - anyone having network issues ?
LegacyUser
Posts: 0
in AMX Hardware
i have a couple of installations of MAX and i am trying to pin down some occasional network problems. these problems may not relate to MAX, but i am running out of things to eliminate from the trouble shooting process.
so my question is; is anyone else having a degree of problems around a MAX installation ?
my searches of this forum have found very little information (none). if you know of areas on the forum that cover MAX issues could you please provide a link, it may be my domestic blindness that can't see any MAX posting, or maybe the systems are running perfectly for everyone but me.
any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
so my question is; is anyone else having a degree of problems around a MAX installation ?
my searches of this forum have found very little information (none). if you know of areas on the forum that cover MAX issues could you please provide a link, it may be my domestic blindness that can't see any MAX posting, or maybe the systems are running perfectly for everyone but me.
any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
0
Comments
This is more of an inquiry for personal gain as we are currently trying to decide between Kaleidescape or MAX and we are starting to lean towards MAX.
Jeff
there is a gigabit switch on the Video Network side only. So from the Max Server to the AVMs. this side of the network appears to be fine. for example, even if i get some bother with the AMX controller and MAX server, a PC running WinMax can still control the Max Server and associated AVMs. so i am fairly happy with that side of the network.
on the Control Network Side there is only a 10/100Mb switch. i will call them a Generic Switch, as the brands probably change names from country to country.
on three other installations:
we have installed the AMX Enet 24 port Gigabit switch. all devices are running thru the AMX switch (this is supported). these networks are more stable than the first one mentioned, which doesn't have an Enet 24 installed.
one customer within these latter three installs has a tendency to turn of the Max Server when he isn't using it and the noise gets to him. this creates other problems, but is not a true reflection of trying to assess the stability of the network. but it doesn't help me either
I have had a very tough time with the MMS-12S. Whether or not my problems are network related is still to be sorted out. My particular problem is the Touch Panels will stop displaying cover art. This can only be fixed by doing a complete system shutdown including the Master. It has become extremely irritating to both my customer and me. Ive had to install a remote power distribution piece that allows me to disconnect power to the MAX and the Master to complete a Hard Reboot. Once this is done the system is good for about a month. If I telnet to the MMS it shows the Daemon is running. The guys at AMX have been great (thanks Gary and Wylie), but the problem still haunts us. BTW, we installed a Cisco Gigabit Switch for Video Distribution. System has 7 AVM's and 1 AOM (4 outputs) they work beautifully when all watching movies at the same time.
today's particular installation has 5 AVMs and 1 AOM (four zones) on an MMS12S.
it's been running well for a month or so (or more). yesterday (sunday) the house internet failed. this seemed to then create problems for other networks (control) within the house.
two weekends in a row i've encountered dead ADSL cable modems and a shaky network at two vastly distant homes. after some reseting the modems finally come good. each time i've also reset all of the data switches, which then seems to clear the network.
i appreciate the suggestions folks. anything new would be valued. i am hitting a bit of a wall about what to do with these networks. there could be so many causes.
i almost want to take the whole installation to my home and watch it for a month. because i know my home network if fine, never crashes. but the customers may not appreciate this type of fault finding
i how now proven that AMX controllers have a flaw in their network services.
my report on this has been passed along to my suppliers, who have verified this finding. i expect it is being passed along the chain to AMX as i write. it needs paramont attention.
i strongly recommend that we all stop chasing our tail until AMX addresses the issue.
I think the cover art issue may be something else if you are using the AMX UI module. If so, I have a fix. Telnet into the master and turn diagnostics on. If you you see any "invalid zone" messages from the MAX UI, press the button with channel code 30 on your panel ... if, like me, you edited that button out of the panel file, fake it in diagnostics by emulating the device. This forces the UI module to update it's zone list with the MAX server. I put my own routine as an event on the UI module's interface; if I see the invalid zone message, I use a DO_PUSH to run that button code. There is a bunch of programming under that button, and I'm sure the exact code to do the fix can be isolated further, but I didn't feel it worth the effort. This particular problem was driving me insane, and Wily over at AMX helped me narrow it down and come up with the solution.
I have worked with roughly 12 different Kaleidescape installations (a couple of them being Beta installations) with absolutely no issues, can't say the same for any Max or other DVD hard drive system I've been involved with.
this is very much the problem i am getting. you may not be able control the avms, or aoms either, and that you can't change zones (system page in the default panel UI).
i found that WinMax still accesses the Max Server fine and can control output zones. you probably don't need to reboot the max server, as it's the controller that fails.
when this happens, uploading a blank project into the controller and letting it reboot a couple of times, then restoring the original program mostly works. seems to possibly need to remove/clear some persistent variables.
hi dhawthorne:
the "invalid zone" issue is what creates the situation funkyskier mentioned. i had built into my program a regular zone number check... if it was reported incorrectly for too long then the system would reboot, hoping to clear the problem. the 'channel code 30' is another attempt to get around the problem.. that the three of us here are seeing.
but what both these things are a side effect of what i found and mention in this thread...
AMX Hardware | Panel dropped offline | Page 2
http://amxforums.com/showthread.php?t=958&page=2
that is, a network error on one port may affect another port.
do either of you use any URL entries in your AMX network ? that is, a text URL that requires a DNS lookup, not simply an IP number. i don't specificly mean the master-to-master list, but within a controller program, or maybe a dynamic image in a panel.
I alwayus use static IP's on NetLInx devices. I have had too many instances of the system breaking because it lost connection with the DHCP server. At least with static IP's they will still talk to each other, even if not to the rest of the network. This doesn't solve connectivity issues, but it does cut back on them.
the 'do_push channel 30' doesn't fix the problem for us. by the time this corruption has occurred, nothing will ever recover the comms module. i've been told about it before, but it doesn't work. the comms module gets totally corrupted/unreliable. the master has to be rebooted.
thanks again for the insight. i am still curious as to any domain names you might be calling thru URLs, if any. i don't need to know what they are, just if DNS requests are being made, from any device (controller or panel). for example, a time sync server, RSS feed, traffic camera, weather, CDDB (except from Max), monitoring or VPN even.
if you aren't using any domain names at all, that's also quite relevant.
all appreciated.
this appears to fix the intermittent MAX network errors that have been discussed in this thread.
many thanks to the people who helped track this one down.