Server crashed while I was a way; please help me understand why

[Marc_G 95]

Hi folks,

 

I was away from Sunday to late last night. Several Live TV recordings were scheduled. They didn't happen, including some of the wife's shows. uh oh.

 

When I got back, Emby server wasn't running. The log ends when it tried to start a recording of Supergirl. Please see log attached.

 

The log just ends there. Server apparently exited and didn't come back up.

 

I'm running the server as a process so that it is always there no matter who is logged into the server, but nobody else was using the PC While I was away and there were no power outages or anything.  When I woke the PC up this morning, Emby Theater was up front and center, though without any connection to Emby since the server had died.

 

 

Can anyone tell me what happened? Thanks in advance.

 

Marc

Can anyone tell me what happened? Thanks in advance.

server-63620726400.txt

[Luke 42080]

Hi, please try updating to the latest version of Emby Server. If there's still an issue then we can re-evaluate from there. Thanks !

[Marc_G 95]

Was this due to a known problem? I lost a week's worth of recording, and really want to know what caused it. If the log shows the fail was due to a known issue in the prior version that was fixed in the current version, great... but I need to know why this happened. Losing recordings... especially my wife's... is an extreme fail and I need to restore confidence this won't recur with the next recording. It's not sufficient to just update the software and hope for the best. The next recording scheduled is one of her favorite shows, and if it doesn't happen, I'm in the doghouse even deeper.

 

Please, is there anything suggestive of a cause in the log I posted?

 

Thanks

[Luke 42080]

When were the recordings original scheduled?

[Marc_G 95]

Thanks Luke.

 

I moved from one server to the new one over the Christmas holiday break. At that time I backed up the server (using the server backup plugin) and restored to the brand new computer I built. 

 

I noticed that none of the recordings (TV series) that were originally scheduled were happening (and not even showing in the upcoming recordings schedule), so in January I deleted all of the scheduled recordings and created new scheduled recordings. Those have been happening fine until now.

 

Thanks.  Oh, and I notice a lot of "Debug DLNA" entries... what are they about?

 

Marc

[Luke 42080]

I'm pretty sure I can guess why the recordings aren't happening - the data coming from your HDHR has changed (channel names/numbers), and this has caused our internal channel Id's to change, and as a result, the recording process cannot find the channel that it's supposed to record on.

 

We are looking at ways to better handle the HDHR data changing. In the meantime, you can prove my theory by testing a manually scheduled recording.

[Marc_G 95]

OK I will try one shortly and report back.  Meanwhile I've updated Server to .14.

 

But, is there any reason the server apparently crashed and didn't come back up? The server apparently died right around the time of the attempted recording.

[Marc_G 95]

I've scheduled a recording to fire at 12:30 (in 17 minutes locally).  Will report back with how it goes.

Edited January 27, 2017 by Marc_G

[Marc_G 95]

The recording seems to be working. At 3 minutes before show start (as directed by my settings) Emby made a new folder in Live TV Series, and the file is being saved. 

 

Question about the earlier note about the HDHR data changing:  I haven't made any software or firmware changes to the HDHRs or their software since around Thanksgiving. What would change from one day to the next about the data coming from them? Things were fine Saturday night.

[Luke 42080]

the change probably actually came from your tv feed. it could be something as simple as the name of a channel changing. currently when that happens emby will consider it a whole new channel. as i mentioned we're looking at how to improve our reaction to this. in the meantime you may just want to delete and reschedule the recordings and they should be fine.

[Guest asrequested]

I've had to remake a lot of my timers, several times. I've never been quick enough to find the log that correlates. I just figured it was my meddling. I'll try to gather some good info, if it happens again.

[Marc_G 95]

OK, thanks. Meanwhile I deleted all the series and re-added new ones.

 

Is there any utility I could run that might check once an hour or so, verify Emby Server is running, and if not, fire it up? The loss of the server while I was away was a bad thing. I don't currently have any remote access to my Emby setup (from outside my LAN) configured but I may be traveling more in the future and would want to be able to leave knowing that the server won't just shut down and not restart...

 

Thanks!

[Guest asrequested]

Your best bet would to use the windows remote desktop app. Then you'll be able remotely start it if you need to.

[Marc_G 95]

Right. I currently don't have anything on my LAN set up to forward past the router but I probably should set this up.

[mastrmind11 722]

http://serverfault.com/questions/48600/how-can-i-automatically-restart-a-windows-service-if-it-crashes

[Guest asrequested]

Luke, any chance you could add some kind of alert to let us know a show that is scheduled to record, doesn't actually start recording? It would help us, not only to make an adjustment, but to also report there is an issue and have the corresponding logs.

[PrincessClevage 175]

If you run Emby as a service you can use this free tool to monitor up to 5 custom services and generate and alert and an automatic action, it also has an app for the phone so you can restart the service from the couch;-)

https://www.manageengine.com/free-windows-service-monitor/free-windows-service-monitor-index.html

[Logos302 86]

Running it as a service also has options on what to do if it crashes so you don't actually need to install anything.  Unless you want the notification part.