Automatic Reboot

[BFisher]

How often do you reboot your system? It seems pretty stable for a day, maybe two... but then seems to need a reboot to clear things up. Do you have your systems automatically reboot every day or two? I know I can manually do it, but I want it automated so when I go out of town for a week (or whatever) it just does it... Plus my server is headless so it's just easier if it automatically works.

How do you recommend doing it? I set up shutdown.exe -r in the windows scheduler but for some reason it doesn't seem to work as I expect. I plan on rebooting each morning at 5am (very rarely is anything recording at that time) if the system is idle.

Thanks

[kevine]

Originally Posted by BFisher

How often do you reboot your system? It seems pretty stable for a day, maybe two... but then seems to need a reboot to clear things up. Do you have your systems automatically reboot every day or two? I know I can manually do it, but I want it automated so when I go out of town for a week (or whatever) it just does it... Plus my server is headless so it's just easier if it automatically works.

How do you recommend doing it? I set up shutdown.exe -r in the windows scheduler but for some reason it doesn't seem to work as I expect. I plan on rebooting each morning at 5am (very rarely is anything recording at that time) if the system is idle.

Thanks

If you use a UPS, see if the software controling it can do it. I know most of them can. If you don't have 1, I think you should. If you still don't want one, there are plenty of freeware programs to reboot your system on a schedule. Try cnet.com

[doc]

Try this thread, I knew it was there somewhere.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...hutdown+script

Personally, My Sage box doesn't get rebooted, and sits there sometimes for 2 to 3 months. Then I reboot after doing some windows updates, or the likes.

[Protoman]

I rarely have a "need" for rebooting. I am also running a headless system (or soon to be as soon as I finish rewiring my closet and deciding which tuner should record what). The only times I need to shutdown or restart is if I am adding hardware or software (Windows Updates ), or if there is a Thunderstorm in the area as a precaution.

I would advise against rebooting automatically. The reason is not because of Sage recordings, but that the computer may not come back up on some occasions, which seems to happen when you need it the most. I know I have had a few computer not come back up when I was working on them remotely, some due to keyboard not being plugged in, or some other BIOS warning or error message. If however, you feel confident about that, I would use the script in the thread that Doc mentioned to do the reboot.

Rebooting a computer on a daily basis does seem a bit unusual, even for a Windows system. Typically, once a month or once every three weeks should be normal, and should be done just for stability and not because the computer is having issues and "needs" a reboot. You may want to consider rebuilding that machine and ensuring minimal applications are installed, this includes Windows Components (who needs Outlook Express, MSN Explorer, or Windows Messenger on their HTPC Server? ).

Just as a FYI, I did reboot my computer yesterday, because I installed TrueCrypt to encrypt personal files. The time before that was over a week ago, and it was because I was adding my second HVR-1800.

Not sure why shutdown -r is not working for you . You may want to try it while connected to the desktop to see if there is an application that is preventing shutdown. shutdown -r -f will force all applications to shutdown without warning.

[BFisher]

Thanks for the information.

I do have a UPS. My opinion - it's a must for all PCs. I have them for all my expensive TVs too... I like controlling how they shut off in case power goes out with them on. I haven't noticed that my UPS can automate rebooting, but I'll go have another look.

Personally, My Sage box doesn't get rebooted, and sits there sometimes for 2 to 3 months.

Wow - that's what I would expect (my automation PC is like that). But Sage seems to crash on me every couple days so I thought I would prevent that with a reboot. Are you running Sage as a service or minimized to the tray? I don't need Sage minimized (headless) but I can do that if it's more stable.

Thanks for the link. Good information!

[doc]

Originally Posted by BFisher

Wow - that's what I would expect (my automation PC is like that). But Sage seems to crash on me every couple days so I thought I would prevent that with a reboot. Are you running Sage as a service or minimized to the tray? I don't need Sage minimized (headless) but I can do that if it's more stable.

I used to run it as a service, but not now. There used to be an issue with mvp's when running Sage as a service, so I changed to just running the exe. I use a script that someone else wrote that checks to see if sage is running, and if it isn't, starts it. That script is in the windows startup folder.

Are you using Java 6 (or 1.6 or whatever its officially called)? that was a big improvement for me from the old 1.4

When on previous beta's I'd occasionally get the 'no signal' message when recording, which was cured with a reboot, but since the latter 6.2 beta's, and now the latest I haven't had any issues.

All of my clients are mvp's, so I don't get any graphic cards issues either.

I also have automatic updates turned off, and no antivirus software.

[doc]

Originally Posted by doc

My Sage box doesn't get rebooted, and sits there sometimes for 2 to 3 months.

Having said that, I've just vnc'ed to my sage box from work and its non-responsive, even though the sage web interface is working, so it looks like a reboot is on the cards for Friday night

[CollinR]

Bruce you have a problem, my machines get rebooted because of updates or service. Not because they exhibit troubles after some time.

Service mode should be more stable.


Well that and when the UPS runs out of battery.


I have write caching turned off, hopefully going to XP/XPe hybrid before long. Then you can just yank the power whenever you like.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by BFisher

How often do you reboot your system?

Basically never, except when installing software updates. This is with Sage running as a service, with one MVP connected.

As others have said, if your system requires daily reboots, then something isn't right. In your shoes I'd want to know why, rather than just working around it with a reboot script.

[CollinR]

Is your video drive on the same partition as Windows?
Is your video drive formatted 64k NTFS?

[Protoman]

I am running in service mode, becuase when I first stated using Sage (without the service mode) I had stability issues and occasionally the GUI would crash and caused a few missed shows . I am now on my third Sage server (upgraded for more performance and capacity for Tuner cards and hard drives, not because of issues) .

My thoughts on doing a client/server for Sage is that the server better be reliable and stable enough that a business could use it for a server and not have complaint about it. In this case the business would be husband/wife/kids/family/friends. There is nothing more embarassing and frustrating than trying to quickly fix the server or client during the big game or movie night. Just imagine for example watching the your favorite team play at the Superbowl with all of your friends and some cute co-workers over and at the two minute warning for the fourth quarter both teams are tied up and the next thing you know your server locks up, and needs to be rebooted. That would be a horrible tragedy!

If you aren't into sports then imagine the Season Finale, or the best part in a movie, or what ever else you might like to watch.

[evilpenguin]

The only time I reboot is when i'm taking drive images, other than its 24/7.

[BFisher]

Originally Posted by CollinR

Is your video drive on the same partition as Windows?
Is your video drive formatted 64k NTFS?

Thanks for the information everyone. I will keep working on figuring out what is causing the issue.

Since I changed from hibernate to sleep power savings, things have seemed much better.

To answer your questions Collin - I have 3 drives - 1 for OS/Programs (does have a 100 GB partition that I store some of my kids DVDs on); 2 750GB recording drives, all formatted 64k NTFS.

I do have ZoneAlarm and AVG Antivirus installed... probably not needed since it's not used for anything but Sage. I do have Java 1.6 installed.

[CollinR]

I was somewhat skeptical at some previous posting about power managment. I basically don't use it at all, I leave it going 24/7 with nobody logged in. I think it will spin down the harddrives but thats it for power managment.

[Protoman]

Originally Posted by CollinR

I was somewhat skeptical at some previous posting about power managment. I basically don't use it at all, I leave it going 24/7 with nobody logged in. I think it will spin down the harddrives but thats it for power managment.

I am with you on this one. My Sage server does not do any power management, and I am a bit afraid that if I do set it up that it will result in me missing recordings, which is not good.

Thanks,
Protoman

[BFisher]

I'm on day 4 without any issues... maybe it's stabilized. The only significant thing I changed is the power management... instead of hibernate, I have it sleep. So far, not a single missed recording due to power management.

One thing to be aware of - MVPs won't wake up the server. My home automation controller does it for me (if any TV comes on, check for SagePC status, if not on - turn on SagePC (since it's only sleeping, it's up in seconds))

[CollinR]

That functionality is being worked on, basically its a matter of getting some kind of WOL support into the package downloaded to the MVP. It won't work when the MVP has lost power but could as long at the boot image as already been loaded.

[davephan]

Originally Posted by BFisher

Thanks for the information everyone. I will keep working on figuring out what is causing the issue.

Since I changed from hibernate to sleep power savings, things have seemed much better.

To answer your questions Collin - I have 3 drives - 1 for OS/Programs (does have a 100 GB partition that I store some of my kids DVDs on); 2 750GB recording drives, all formatted 64k NTFS.

I do have ZoneAlarm and AVG Antivirus installed... probably not needed since it's not used for anything but Sage. I do have Java 1.6 installed.

Try turning off ZoneAlarm. I used to use ZoneAlarm several years ago, and it really slowed down my system. My brother in law still uses ZoneAlarm, and it seems the current version of ZoneAlarm still bogs down the system, at least with web browsing.

Your first line of protection should be a hardware router, without the default password. You might try using the Kerio software firewall instead of the ZoneAlarm firewall. I tried Kerio a couple of years ago, and it was much faster than ZoneAlarm. The Kerio firewall was bought by Sunbelt. The software is cheap, $10. I have been thinking about replacing my McAfee firewall that was free with the Kerio firewall. McAfee is also supposed to be blotted and slows down a computer.

Here's the link for the Kerio firewall:

http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Home...onal-Firewall/

Dave