Xibo

Client loosing sync/connection - Apache logs

Asked by stef

Hey really nice app going.

I had many problems webserver related - xibo related, i'm trying to figure it all out.

I had xibo before the main release, RC3 i think, all was working fine. I started having problems with the server, it was running on xp, some update to php or apache made it crash constantly... and in the meantime i upgraded Xibo to 1.0.0 when it got released.

Since around those event, i noticed that sometimes my Xibo Client stops contacting the webserver, in more than one way :

-It doesn't receive the new messages i add in my layout
-It doesn't refresh the HTML pages that are in my layout

Now, if i close the client, re-open it, it works for a few hours to a day, and then it stops refreshing again.

For my webserver problem :

I switched from XP to Ubuntu, and it works superb again, for all my other apps. For Xibo, i'll have to wait a few hours to a day to see.

BUT

I check my apache logs, and the client accesses my server every seconds almost! It accesses /xibo/xmds.php , one to two times per second. My client is setup to poll for changes at "120". Is that measure secondes? minutes? or milliseconds??

Is it normal?

i was wondering if that made it stop polling after a while or something...

any idea ?

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Dan Garner
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Revision history for this message
Alex Harrington (alexharrington) said : 		#1

Hi

The poll interval is in seconds. Did you save your changes after changing the poll interval?

The only reason a client would be legitimately connecting that frequently to the webservice would be if it were the debug client returning log data to the server. I assume you have the standard 1.0.0 client installed?

Firstly I'd suggest deleting the contents of your Xibo Library directory and restarting the client. That will force the client to pull everything fresh from the server.

Cheers

Alex

Revision history for this message
stef (stephane-quimpere) said : 		#2

Yes i have the 1.0.0 installed.

The polling in seconds? Then that access would have to be seen every 2 minutes instead of this often?

The log table seems to fill up pretty fast on the database.

In my error settings, debug is off, audit is off, and it's set to production. What else can i check? I did clear the Xibo Library directory on the client and restarted it, often, or else it's not getting my newly added messages.

Another thing i have noticed in my apache log, the access to my html pages only work once on two of them, each alone in their zones, they are set at a duration of 45, so that would be... 45 seconds? They only time they appear again in my log is if i clear the xibo library on the client and restart it.

I have another one html link, in my complete list of messages (including text, html and jpg files in rotation), and that one works OK.

Revision history for this message
Dan Garner (dangarner) said : 		#3

Hi,

If you have cleared the Xibo library the frequent entries in the Apache log from xmds.php are likely to be the client re-downloading its schedule and associated media (layouts, files, etc).

The client will also connect to XMDS and transfer its log file every 6Kb of messages. On my test install of Xibo (not running the debug build) it took a significant time to send a log. If you have installed the debug build of the Xibo Client I would expect a log file to be sent every 15 seconds or so - depending on what the client is doing. We do not recommend you run the debug version for a long period of time.

I would do the following:

- Run Xibo for a day to make sure it has all the media it needs
- Enable Audit in the Server Settings
- Go to displays -> edit the display -> enable auditing

When it next goes wrong
- Check that the green light is on for that display
- Check the log for entries for the "Required Files" function

You would expect to see an entry for RequiredFiles every "polling period"

Cheers,
Dan

Revision history for this message
stef (stephane-quimpere) said : 		#4

It was not the debug version that i was running.

An hour ago, i completely removed the client, re-installed, and it seems to stop polling every seconds, it's only checking the xmds.php to load the schedule and media (it seems). I will monitor if it keeps going OK.

Thanks for the procedure, i will try it if it goes wrong again.

In a region, can i use only 1 webpage/html item, or do i need more? Because i have two regions, each with only one webpage item, and it only checks once, when i start the client, after that they don't refresh, unless i use one region, with 2 webpage items.

Revision history for this message
Best Dan Garner (dangarner) said : 		#5

There is a known bug in the 1.0 Series of Xibo where the Xibo Client will not refresh its content if there is only 1 item per region scheduled when there is only one layout in the schedule.

If there is more than only layout in the rotation it is not a problem. It is also not a problem if there is one layout, but that layout has 2 or more items in each of its regions.

It is very similar to this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/xibo/+bug/346260

As you can see we don't plan on fixing this for the .NET client in 1.0. It will be fixed in the Python client of 1.1+

Cheers
Dan

Revision history for this message
stef (stephane-quimpere) said : 		#6

Thanks. Well i solved my every seconds access with reinstalling the client, and i fixed the "1 item per region" bug by combining the two and cycling between my 2 web items. Thanks for everything!

Revision history for this message
stef (stephane-quimpere) said : 		#7

Thanks Dan Garner, that solved my question.