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Author Topic: GDC Ingestion "Exceptions" Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 08-20-2015 10:24 AM                     At one location, I deal with 4 GDC SX-2000A servers and a GDC TMS. Occasionally, I find I cannot ingest a movie into the TMS and distribute it to the 4 servers, without getting "exception" messages. Doing a file verification gives me a 'hash mismatch' error on both the TMS and servers. This happens only very infrequently, and usually with DCP's from independent producers or distributors. But last night I found I cannot ingest "American Ultra" into the TMS or distribute it to the auditoriums without getting 'hash mismatch' exception errors. (all ingestion is being done through the CRU drive bay) So, this means that I will actually have to GO down to the theater at some point later today and manually ingest "Ultra" into each server locally. Ingesting locally into each auditorium's server always solves the problem. As I said, this happens very infrequently, but whenever it does, it a big P-I-T-A. I will either have to go down to the theater late tonight after the last show, or go in around 4am 2moro morning to take care of this since I have other commitments I need to work around and GDC's are friggin' slower than molassas in January when attempting to mulitask ingest and playback at the same time. So my best bet is to go do it when nothing else is running at the theater, even though it's a complete drag on my time. So, any ideas why this occasionally happens? GDC Serverthingys are SX-2001A's, and as far as I know are up-to-date, software-wise. The TMS was updated to latest version either late last year or early Y2k15. But this has always happened unpredictably since the system was installed, and always when I have the least time to deal with it. (I'm sure GDC designed it that way)  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 08-20-2015 01:39 PM                     I would assume an issue with ext2/ext3 OR NTFS drivers of the TMS. Is the TMS running on a windows machine? You should try to check the disc format of these DCPs/discs causing these issues. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 08-20-2015 01:51 PM                     Hi Carsten- I believe the TMS is running on Windows 7 Professional. This only happens intermittently. Mabye once every 5 or 6 months. But always (Murphy's Law) when I have the least time to deal with it. Almost every other time it's happened, it has been with a drive from somewhere other than a major studio or distributor. So I can understand that. But "American Utlra" is from one of the 'big boys' so I'm surprised I'm having trouble with it. This morning, I've got one of 'the kids' physically moving the hard drive from server-to-server and I'm ingesting and verifying the CPL's locally into each one remotely from here at home. I will go down there later 2nite in person to check everything out, since I have to deal with a curtain issue in one auditorium too. (Thankfully the curtain got stuck in the "up" position, and not "down" - - or I'd be down there right now trying to get it to open! hahaha)  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 08-20-2015 03:21 PM                     I don't recall getting such complaints from my GDC TMS sites so I'm more inclined to believe it may be the TMS server itself and how it is set up, or is patched...etc. GDC switched over to TMS 4.0 in 2015 that is a place to start. Another thing about our TMS systems (anybody's) is that those servers are purpose built and NEVER update Microsoft anything. Once they are assembled and deemed stable, that is it. The only updates are to the TMS software itself. They don't surf the internet...all they do is run the TMS. We have the GDC TMS running on Win 7 Pro and Windows Server 2008.  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 08-20-2015 05:18 PM                        I ingest directly onto my GDC server and the one and only time I got an "exception" turned out to be a bad CRU drive. They sent me another one and there were no problems with that (other than that I lost my Friday night show since I couldn't get the movie to load.)  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 08-20-2015 08:21 PM                     I once in a while get these exception ingests where I also have GDC, but with SX-3000 and also GDC TMS setup. We use Windows 2008 Server OS. I cancel the exception ingest and content, but before removing the drive, I push the the gray button until the blue drive light goes out (this parks the heads on the HD) then remove the drive. To retry, I put the drive in another bay and restart the ingest where the next ingest is successful. Once in a rare case, I'll have to do USB ingest if nothing else works. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-20-2015 10:05 PM                     Exception's can occur if the server you are sending to or transferring from is not logged on to the TMS, say because you rebooted screen 2 a few minutes ago because of some projector issue. If you do that then TMS doesn't automatically log that screen back on when the projector and server comes up. You have to right click on the TV screen at the left and select "connect to screen" manually. It shows the exception because there is an error. Say you start a transfer to screen 2 from the TMS Store and Screen 2 isn't logged on for what ever reason... TMS uses Filezilla as the FTP and FZ doesn't know IF Screen 2 is logged on or not and proceeds to transfer what you told it to. TMS does however get a signal back from the server acknowledging transfer and if it doesn't see that signal then you get the exception error. A network error or funky switch could cause it as well but GDC TMS doesn't require a managed or sophisticated network to begin with. Simple GB switches work fine. SX-3000's only require one GB switch to handle both management and Media data thus simplifying the system even more. If you log on the server and clear that exception then start the transfer over it should go fine. Mark  |  IP: Logged Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 08-23-2015 10:09 AM                     Hi Mark- Thanks (as always) for your comments. But, whenever I've had this problem: 1) All the outlying servers HAVE been logged in. 2) Clearing and error & re-trying gives the same "exception" results. 3) As I said in my original post, this happens very infrequently, and in the past, I've only had the problems with drives mastered by smaller 'independent' distributors, and was more prone to happen with material ingested from mini USB drives. This was the first time I've had it happen with a CRU drive from a major distributor. I suspect that it has something to do with the network wiring, since not only is it a very long run to two of the auditoriums, but I've never been impressed with the quality of the net wiring work the installers did. In fact on several occasions when I've had this problem, it has only occurred at the two "distant" auditoriums. But last week I couldn't get a clean transfer to even two "local" servers, one of which is located probably less than 20 cable-feet from the TMS. Here's a question for you: Do have any idea of what the 'average' transfer speed between the TMS and servers is? (or is supposed to be?) When nothing else is running, the process doesn't seem to take too long, but if you are transferring while playing a show, the network slows down to about the same speed as a turtle on tranquilizers. (or a somewhat somnambulant snail on sleeping salts ) I know ALL systems will do this to some extent when multitasking, but the difference on this one seems extreme. Or is it just the nature of the GDCs?  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 08-23-2015 10:14 AM                     The Dolby DSS line are the only servers I know that run pretty much at full speed when running a movie...particularly the DSS200 (The DSS220 does slow a bit but it is a software RAID and is generally slower on the ingest speed than the DSS200 too). GDC and Doremi do slow to a crawl, if not choke if there is a show going. I don't have the exact speeds it normally runs. However in the GDC TMS, it does show the transfer speed so you could see it there.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-23-2015 05:25 PM                     Jim, the only other thing I have seen cause it is when someone fiddles with the settings and they point the media drive as another drive. That will also thrown an exception because the content is on the directory list but not on the "wrong" hard drive. Otherwise these systems are pretty foolproof. The actual transfer speed is dependent on where the media is coming from. Move it between two server's and it can go quite fast. TMS to server is really dependent on how fast the TMS is capable of doling out the data. It's an app, so it's more CPU intensive than it is memory intensive. Oh, it IS best to transfer when servers are not playing back. The SX-3000 and it's hardware raid are a bit faster than the servers running software raid are at transfer during playback. If you have managed switches those could also be a problem. I had two complex's full of local SMC managed switches and about half of them died a slow death. We pulled the rest and junked them and replaced them with standard gigabit Cisco switches. There is likely a gigabit media switch and a seperate management switch at your TMS so one or the other could also be the issue. Substituting in another switch is the best way to see if that's the issue. Mark  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 08-23-2015 06:58 PM                     Be careful about screen to screen with GDCs. GDC throttles incoming data during playback, but foolishly it doesn't throttle outgoing data, so if you have a GDC playing in screen 1 and a GDC in screen 2 is not playing and trying to transver a movie from screen 1, you're bound to have screen 1 start hiccuping and stuttering on it's playback.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-23-2015 07:55 PM                     Actually, after a certain build that no longer happens. The server playing back has it's ingest speed throttled now. The only time it might happen is if the array is above 90% full and even then it's going to throttle down to nothing. Mark  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 08-23-2015 08:51 PM                     That's not the scenario I wrote above Mark.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-24-2015 02:02 PM                     That should not happen. Current firmware is designed to limit transfer speeds in or out during play back. It has been a zero issue for me. Mark  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 08-24-2015 06:53 PM                     Well Mark that doesn't mean anything, because NOTHING is an issue for you when promoting GDC. So let's try this another way. Can you tell me what version of software the outgoing throttling during playback was incorporated in please? It would be quite helpful.  |  IP: Logged

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