I'm starting to doubt I can even run a proper server

Need help? Post your questions here.

Moderator: moderators

I'm starting to doubt I can even run a proper server

Postby Mecte » Fri Jan 13, 2017 9:36 pm

I've been using Subsonic on and off for the better part of a decade by now, and never have I succeeded in simply running a server that didn't stop working a couple of weeks down the line.

What's up? Is there some cardinal rule I'm missing here? I've run vastly varying versions of Subsonic on at least three different systems, at least as many different OSs, about a billion reinstalls because things stopped working, and in two different residences. I have real trouble determining how on earth this problem could be on my end. The thing that frustrates me most is that a fresh reinstall always fixes the problems I'm having. Sure, that's a simple solution, but why is it even needed? Why does everything work perfectly until at some utterly random point (usually within a month), it doesn't?

Is Subsonic really this unstable or have I, somehow, managed to rack a up losing streak for the last ten years? All I can say is I was pretty damn disappointed to, once again, find my music library utterly nonfunctional, both on the host device as any remote device.
Mecte
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 9:15 pm

Re: I'm starting to doubt I can even run a proper server

Postby daneren2005 » Fri Jan 13, 2017 9:49 pm

Subsonic is really fragile around shutdown. If you aren't properly stopping Subsonic before shutting down you are going to get corruption issues like that. If you are having it happen on a bi-weekly basis yes I feel like you are doing something wrong since I have only had it happen once in past 4-5 years.
Developer of DSub for Android
daneren2005
 
Posts: 1709
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2012 7:52 pm

Re: I'm starting to doubt I can even run a proper server

Postby toolman » Sat Jan 14, 2017 7:23 am

Allthough Subsonic isn't perfect, I never experienced the problems you were facing.
If Subsonic got messed up, it usually was me who did something wrong.
Like Daneren2005 said: "If you aren't properly stopping Subsonic before shutting down you are going to get corruption issues."
And it seems your database may get corrupt if you subscribe to podcasts.
I ran Subsonic on Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows Server without any issues for months.
I'm now running Subsonic 6.0 (build 830afc) since 30 April 2016 on Windows Server without any issues.
My music collection is : 2,511 artists 10,602 albums 147,967 songs 1235.78 GB with daily additions.
If the database was as fragile as you claim it to be, it would have crashed long time ago.
But no, Subsonic just keeps working without any problem.
Perhaps it's the hardware you are using that causes the problems.
Perhaps it's a hard drive with bad blocks, faulty memory, unstable PSU or a mainboard with some problems.
toolman
 
Posts: 538
Joined: Fri Dec 11, 2009 4:18 pm
Location: Netherlands

Re: I'm starting to doubt I can even run a proper server

Postby Mecte » Sat Jan 14, 2017 8:49 am

daneren2005 wrote:Subsonic is really fragile around shutdown. If you aren't properly stopping Subsonic before shutting down you are going to get corruption issues like that. If you are having it happen on a bi-weekly basis yes I feel like you are doing something wrong since I have only had it happen once in past 4-5 years.


If it's really this simple, I'll feel stupid. So shutting down my computer correctly isn't enough? Isn't it a little weird for, well, any program that's reached version 6.0 in its lifetime, to not have a system in place that ensures a graceful shutdown whenever Windows does so? Also, if this is what's causing all my grief, wouldn't it be a much more widespread issue? I don't recall Subsonic ever telling me it needs to be shut down very gently, nor does it seem to be in the documentation. Apps like Kodi/XBMC that also utilise an elaborate database system don't require this. I'm sure it's not as simple as flat out comparing these programs with each other like this, but it still seems odd.

By the way, when Subsonic does work, I love using DSub along with it. Great app you made there. :)

toolman wrote:Allthough Subsonic isn't perfect, I never experienced the problems you were facing.
If Subsonic got messed up, it usually was me who did something wrong.
Like Daneren2005 said: "If you aren't properly stopping Subsonic before shutting down you are going to get corruption issues."
And it seems your database may get corrupt if you subscribe to podcasts.
I ran Subsonic on Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows Server without any issues for months.
I'm now running Subsonic 6.0 (build 830afc) since 30 April 2016 on Windows Server without any issues.
My music collection is : 2,511 artists 10,602 albums 147,967 songs 1235.78 GB with daily additions.
If the database was as fragile as you claim it to be, it would have crashed long time ago.
But no, Subsonic just keeps working without any problem.
Perhaps it's the hardware you are using that causes the problems.
Perhaps it's a hard drive with bad blocks, faulty memory, unstable PSU or a mainboard with some problems.


It can't really be the hardware. I've already installed Subsonic on three different hard drives in this system alone (not to mention numerous other computers), all of which operate flawlessly otherwise. I was maybe thinking the sheer size of my database could pose problems, but yours is actually quite a bit larger so that theory is out the window.
Mecte
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 9:15 pm

Re: I'm starting to doubt I can even run a proper server

Postby toolman » Sat Jan 14, 2017 9:18 am

Well something's going on what makes Subsonic crash.
Did you read the logfiles when Subsonic crashed?
What OS(s) did you use?
What additional software (if any) was your machine running?
What happened exactly when Subsonic stopped working?
Did you subscribe to podcasts, since there's a posting here where someone had similar issues which stopped when he didn't use the podcast feature anymore.
It's a pity you can't get Subsonic to run reliable yet, but I'm sure that there's a solution to your problem.
toolman
 
Posts: 538
Joined: Fri Dec 11, 2009 4:18 pm
Location: Netherlands

Re: I'm starting to doubt I can even run a proper server

Postby Mecte » Sat Jan 14, 2017 10:17 am

toolman wrote:Well something's going on what makes Subsonic crash.
Did you read the logfiles when Subsonic crashed?
What OS(s) did you use?
What additional software (if any) was your machine running?
What happened exactly when Subsonic stopped working?
Did you subscribe to podcasts, since there's a posting here where someone had similar issues which stopped when he didn't use the podcast feature anymore.
It's a pity you can't get Subsonic to run reliable yet, but I'm sure that there's a solution to your problem.


I did read the log files but they don't make a lot of sense to me. I'll paste them here in case you'd like to peruse them:

subsonic-agent.log: http://pastebin.com/ndcDVhcP

subsonic-service.log: http://pastebin.com/vJZJ930K

I'm currently running Windows 10 x64 and I only have the log files for this current installation, but I've used pretty much all other versions of Windows with Subsonic before. Other software that's running is stuff like Chrome, MPC-HC and/or VLC, Steam, foobar2000, Notepad++, Netlimiter (does not contain rules for Subsonic), uTorrent, and Telegram. No other servers or anything, just pretty normal day-to-day software.

I have no idea what exactly happened when Subsonic called it quits as I wasn't using it at the time. I was just going to listen to some music when leaving the house and found it had gone belly up at some point. I can't really tell when.

I haven't subscribed to any podcasts using Subsonic.
Mecte
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 9:15 pm

Re: I'm starting to doubt I can even run a proper server

Postby toolman » Sat Jan 14, 2017 12:23 pm

I really don't know that much about Subsonic but I would suggest trying this:
Since your Subsonic is already messed up you have to do a new install.
If I were you I would install Subsonic in C:\Subsonic.
Just uninstall the corrupt version and delete the folder C:\Subsonic. ( If this folder still exists after uninstalling)
Update your Oracle Java version to the latest version being: Version 8 Update 111, Release date October 18, 2016. [url]( www.java.com)[/url]
Install Subsonic in the folder C:\Subsonic.
When installation is finished run services.msc. Find the Subsonic service and change the credentials to an account which has administrator rights and therefor full access to all your media folders.
Restart the service and start setting up Subsonic like you have always done.
I would suggest you install a backupprogram which makes daily backups of your databasefolder keeping copies for 14 days. I use Cobian backup which is free and has a lot features. ( you can tell it to stop the Subsonic service, make a backup of the database and start the Subsonic service again.)
As soon as you have done a folderscan make a backup of your database.
When this is done you can listen to your music again and just see if and when Subsonic's crashing on you again.
toolman
 
Posts: 538
Joined: Fri Dec 11, 2009 4:18 pm
Location: Netherlands

Re: I'm starting to doubt I can even run a proper server

Postby Mecte » Sat Jan 14, 2017 3:41 pm

Thank you, I'll give that a shot. I've already got the latest version of Java installed and have daily backups running through Crashplan, so that's covered.
Mecte
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 9:15 pm

Re: I'm starting to doubt I can even run a proper server

Postby Exrace » Sat Jan 14, 2017 7:32 pm

One thing to confirm: are you giving the server enough memory to run.
I have my setup set to allow up to 512mb.
My running setup:
6.0.beta2 (build ef60a8) – March 20, 2016
Server jetty-6.1.x, java 1.7.0_10, Windows Server 2012 (76.5 MB / 178.2 MB)
2,312 artists
5,996 albums
43,793 songs
422.32 GB
4,505 hours

...been running for months at a time and never had any DB corruption.
I don't do anything special on restarts and this server has experienced power outages and comes up clean even after that.
You mention using Crashplan...maybe the backup services are part of the issue?
I use Veeam Endpoint Backup 1.5 on my server setup and don't have any issues with db backups (uses vss).
Possible some part of the VSS snapshots used by Crashplan might be corrupting your DB?
Exrace
 
Posts: 218
Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2010 5:02 am

Re: I'm starting to doubt I can even run a proper server

Postby Mecte » Sat Jan 14, 2017 9:42 pm

Crashplan seems an unlikely culprit as I've been using it for only a couple of months. My problems with Subsonic precede that by years.

I will factor in an increased memory allotment for my new installation. That couldn't hurt and my system can afford it. Thank you for the suggestion.
Mecte
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 9:15 pm

Re: I'm starting to doubt I can even run a proper server

Postby toolman » Mon Jan 16, 2017 2:47 pm

Actually you don't need to increase the memorylimit
My setup:
Subsonic has allocated 256 MB
In about Subsonic I see:
Windows Server (61.6 MB / 90.5 MB) handling:
2,511 artists
10,602 albums
147,967 songs
1235.78 GB
11,825 hours.
And no problems streaming my music.
toolman
 
Posts: 538
Joined: Fri Dec 11, 2009 4:18 pm
Location: Netherlands


Return to Help

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 20 guests