Writing a Log file

[Greg]

Does LOR write a Log file out or does it just display in the status screen? I have had some errors but never got a chance to write them down the last 2 nights and would like to see them in a physical log (text file) if possible.

[k6ccc]

It doesn't directly, but push the button for "Copy log", then paste it into a text editor (like Notepad), or your favorite word processor. Easy.

[Greg]

The problem is, The error kicked me out of the status monitor. Once I got back in all the info was gone. In my haste to get the show back online (I had a crowd of people) I didn't do a screen grab, of copy the log.

[Tim Fischer]

The problem is, The error kicked me out of the status monitor. Once I got back in all the info was gone. In my haste to get the show back online (I had a crowd of people) I didn't do a screen grab, of copy the log.

I had the exact same thing happen tonight, and lost the error for the same reason.

Something about a Winsock error with the listener. I'm not using the listener for DMX, only E1.31 (but I have a US485B for the LOR network so I don't think I have the other bug that DevMike talked about)

[Greg]

Tim,

I think I managed to get a screen grab and the log copied tonight. Same error as last night and around the same time. I am not sure it occured during the same sequence or not.

I am attaching the screen grab. Here is the error message associated with the error.

LOR Monitor has encountered a problem and needs to close. Sorry for the Inconvience.

The LOR log states:

DMX Listener error 3: Comm Winsock Error / 10054: The connection is reset by remote side

I am using the comListener for both E1.31 and Dmx.

Running LOR Version 3.6.0

CPU

Running XP Pro SP3

AMD Athlon 64 Processor

2.39 GHZ 960 MB Ram

Show has run on this computer for last 4 years.

[Guest wbottomley]

I'm getting that error several time a night. It resets itself and all is well.

[Tim Fischer]

I haven't looked at the logs tonight, but the show hasn't ground to a halt like yesterday (yet anyway) so that's a good thing. Particularly since I was gone until after 8pm.

[Greg]

Same thing happened although a different time and different sequence. I was out of town and had to VNC in to restart the show. William how does your show restart itself? Is there a setting I'm missing for that?

[Guest wbottomley]

I haven't had to restart the show... but the dmx listener restarts itself automatically when errors appear.

[Greg]

Ok, I see. I looked at my log and I see the same thing DMX Listener restarts itself, this happens several times throughout the course of the show. However it seems that on the instance I am having trouble it does not restart the listener and the show simply stops. The LOR control panel actually seems to disable the show. If I get a chance today I will try to dig a little deeper into the problem.

[LOR Staff]

10054 indicates that a receiving device sent a RST packet. In general, that means the device itself was having a problem and was notifying the world that it was going to disappear for some time.

It could also be sent by a switch/router if, for whatever reason, it could not move an incoming packet to the correct outgoing physical port. For example if a packet is destined for a particular MAC, but that MAC can't be found in that device's table.

[Greg]

Mike,

Thanks for the explanation. I noticed today that a DMX device had intermittent communication today. I removed the device from the DMX network temporily. Would you say this could have been the problem and do you foresee the device not being there causing any further problems until I can get it fixed?

[LOR Staff]

Ok, we are getting down into the nitty gritty of IP communications, and while I know a lot, I'm no network engineer. I could be leaving BIG parts out of this, or could be explaining it wrong.

The 10054 could definitely be related to that. For example, the switch knows that MAC n is on physical port x. A packet comes in from the computer for MAC n (it has previously cached the value), and the switch tries to move it to port x. Problem is, the comm link from that switch to that device on port x is down (due to the intermittent communication). The switch will then send back a RST to the listener to let it know 'Hey.... You tried to send a packet to MAC n, but there is no route to MAC n from here.'.

Now, the computer has a packet that needs to go to an IP (note the difference IP not MAC). The RST has cleared the MAC from the computers table, so it sends a broadcast ARP message asking 'What is IP's xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx MAC'. The ARP packet flows through the whole network and hits the correct switch/router.

Now, is the device UP or DOWN?

If it's up, the switch or router is going to send an ARP response back saying "IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is available on MAC (switch MAC) with MAC (device MAC)". The tables all update, and communication is restored.

If it's down (and I'm not sure about this at all, since we are now picking the toes off the nits), I believe the IP stack will mark the IP out of service, and then only periodically poll if it's back up (rather than with every packet for IP x). That prevents weird broadcast storms where everybody is asking everybody else, "Where is IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx?"

[Greg]

Mike,

Thanks for the explanation while I also am not a network engineer it clears things up a bit. So here is how it went tonight. No Winsock error tonight. I did run into another error but I don't think it is related to the previous mentioned. I will be looking into both tommorrow when I have some light ot work with. Just a note I did reboot the computer after I unplugged the device. I don't think that would matter since LOR will still try to send packets to that device but it was worth a try.

[Greg]

Mike,

I reinstalled the device and everything was fine. I still got the winsock error but it was able to find the device and worked through it. however I did get (Cannot allocate new play event node) followed by an out of memory error for the rest of the songs in the show. It completly shut the show down. I'm not sure what triggered this error, I only have Zara and a small RDS program running on the same PCU. Any suggestions on this one.

[LOR Staff]

Do you have the log file and the exact message?

[Greg]

Yes, I will try to upload the portion where the error showed up

error log 12-4-12.txt

[LOR Staff]

Got it. Thanks. Gonna bounce this around with Bob and see what we come up with.

You may want to check and see if you have 'Compressed Sequences' turned off. If so, turn them on and see if that helps.

http://www.lightoram...d_sequences.htm

I personally would then force a single instance of your show to run to get all the compressed sequences created before your actual show. Reboot the computer and see what happens tonight.

[Greg]

Mike,

I am not running compressed sequences. When I have that turned on, some of the sequences clip on the front. These are sequences from previous years so I am assuming that is what is causing that issue. The other thing I will mention to you is that I use a phone request line, when a call is received it re-writes the the schedule file and runs the appropiate sequencs then reverts back to the default schedule at the end of the sequence currently running. I ran this the past 2 years with no problems. It ran fine up until the DMX error last week. (about 2 weeks) I don't think they are related but thought i'd pass that info along also.