Network Problem

[Norbert Woeller]

Hello,

I have a problem with one of my network PC. I have conected 6 PC's:

1) FS9 / ActiveSky

2) PM Captian PFD

3) PM Engine / PM Sound

4) PM First Officer PFD

5) PM Lower Engine

6) PM CDU / PM MCP / PM pmSystems

All ist working fine, except PC 6 with PM CDU / PM MCP / PM pmSystems. After starting this PC, I will get framerate problems at my FS9 PC.

I have set the Framerate in FS9 to 27. After starting the 6) PC, the frames are going very fast up and down. From 27 to 26, back to 27, 15, 26, 25, 27, and so on. And that all in milliseconds. But after some minutes, it' going from 27 to 23, 26, 22, 27, 21. After an hour it goes from 27 to 14, 12, 26, 16. and so on.

I have read the documentation of WideServer and WideClient, have tried to play with the parameters, but no luck. Also I have tried to make changes in the network cart. Also no luck. Now I have no idea.

Maybe someone can help.

My configuration of PC 6):

Intel Core 2 Duo CPU

P8400 @ 2.26GHz

1.58GHz, 2.99GB RAM

Marvell Yukon 88E8055 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (latest driver)

WinXP on all network PC's

Thank you

Best Regards

Norbert

[Pete Dowson]

All ist working fine, except PC 6 with PM CDU / PM MCP / PM pmSystems. After starting this PC, I will get framerate problems at my FS9 PC.

I have set the Framerate in FS9 to 27. After starting the 6) PC, the frames are going very fast up and down. From 27 to 26, back to 27, 15, 26, 25, 27, and so on. And that all in milliseconds. But after some minutes, it' going from 27 to 23, 26, 22, 27, 21. After an hour it goes from 27 to 14, 12, 26, 16. and so on.

I have read the documentation of WideServer and WideClient, have tried to play with the parameters, but no luck. Also I have tried to make changes in the network cart. Also no luck. Now I have no idea.

Sorry, I've no idea either. The first thing you should always do is check the Log files -- they tell you what is happening and may indicate some disconnection/reconnection problem with that PC. Look at the WideServer and FSUIPC logs in the FS Modules folder, and in the WideClient log in the WideClient folder on the client PC.

Have you tried a process of elimination -- having WideClient connecting on PC6 but with no applications running? If that "solves" it, try running the others (PM CDU, PM MCP, pmSystems) each on their own, see which is causing a problem.

Such behaviour cannot be caused by WideFS reading data from FS, as all data requested by clients is only sent out when it changes, and the change rate is dictated by the frame rate. However, it could happen if a program is writing some critical changes to FS very frequently, and FS has some problem keeping up.

If changing what is running on that PC has no effect and you still get the problem, then it may well be down to something going wrong with the connection. The logs should show if this is the case.

Pete

[Norbert Woeller]

First bof all, thank you for the quick answer, Pete. It's allways a plesure to communicate with you.

Have you tried a process of elimination -- having WideClient connecting on PC6 but with no applications running? If that "solves" it, try running the others (PM CDU, PM MCP, pmSystems) each on their own, see which is causing a problem.

Sorry, have forgot to tell you. Yes I have tried process elimination. The CDU and the pmSystems are the "bad boys". All other is running fine.

Now I have upload the LOG files. I have delete the older once, to get new files. But I have attached both. When deleding the old LOG files, I have noticed that WideServer and WideClient have two files!?!? One is ending with a "0".

Yesterday, when trying to solve the problem, I have take a look from time to time into the Log files and have seen some errors. Today I can't see them :oops: but the problem is still there.

Thanxs a lot

Norbert

New LOG.zip

Older LOG.zip

[Pete Dowson]

Sorry, have forgot to tell you. Yes I have tried process elimination. The CDU and the pmSystems are the "bad boys". All other is running fine.

Sorry, do you mean that without both CDU and pmSystems, all is well, but with either (or both?) it is not.

Looking at the NEW log you supplied:

12484 New Client Application: "cdu" (Id=800)

17906 New Client Application: "MCP" (Id=1684)

24515 New Client Application: "pmsystems" (Id=2116)

32562 New Client Application: "pmGetWeather" (Id=2476)

38046 New Client Application: "sa_wxr" (Id=2848)

3428593 ****** End of session performance summary ******

3428593 Total time connected = 3426 seconds

3428593 Reception maximum: 30 frames/sec, 13429 bytes/sec

3428593 Reception average whilst connected: 21 frames/sec, 449 bytes/sec

3428593 Transmission maximum: 77 frames/sec, 4372 bytes/sec

3428593 Transmission average whilst connected: 33 frames/sec, 358 bytes/sec

3428593 Max receive buffer = 3362, Max send depth = 28, Send frames lost = 0

3428593 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              0 3428593      end_of_the_skype_highlighting **************** Individual client application activity ****************

3428593 Client 800 requests: 20397 (Ave 5/sec), Data: 43076118 bytes (12573/sec), Average 2111 bytes/Process

3428593 Client 1684 requests: 21311 (Ave 6/sec), Data: 68898246 bytes (20110/sec), Average 3232 bytes/Process

3428593 Client 2116 requests: 42009 (Ave 12/sec), Data: 53187313 bytes (15524/sec), Average 1266 bytes/Process

3428593 Client 2476 requests: 3264 (Ave 0/sec), Data: 3432188 bytes (1001/sec), Average 1051 bytes/Process

3428593 Client 2848 requests: 68183 (Ave 19/sec), Data: 16740146 bytes (4886/sec), Average 245 bytes/Process

The system performance seems okay -- averaging 30 frames/sec at this client. I do find the maximum and average transmission rates quite high though77 and 33 respectively. Additionally you have two more Client applications on there than you mentioned: pmGetWeather and SA_WXR. I'm pretty sure they shouldn't both be used -- one or the other, surely? SA_WXR seems to be making a large number of requests itself. Strange. It seems quite quiet on my system (I'm using SA_WXR but not pmGetWeather).

Try without both of those, see how it goes.

When deleding the old LOG files, I have noticed that WideServer and WideClient have two files!?!? One is ending with a "0".

The explanation is documented. Each time they are restarted they save the previous log (the one with the .0) before creating a new one. That way we can find problems without messing about stopping everything -- a restart doesn't lose the valuable data.

Yesterday, when trying to solve the problem, I have take a look from time to time into the Log files and have seen some errors. Today I can't see them :oops: but the problem is still there.

Apart from WideFS activity, could it be some sort of disk access? Have you de-fragmented your main FS disk recently? Does the disk activity light come on a lot?

The OLD logs show nothing different from the NEW logs. All seems okay internally to FS and WideFS. I suspect it's some other activity going on in your FS PC, though why it should be caused by one of those programs you have running on that specific client I don't know.

Where do you have the CDU's common folder (NETDIR, I think?), which SA_WXR and pmGetWeather and other parts of PM access? It should be on the same PC as the CDU for efficiency. If it is on the FS PC it may well be affecting performance, especially with both pmGetWeather and SA_WXR competing to provide the bitmap for the ND, which isn't a trivial file in itself.

Regards

Pete

[Norbert Woeller]

Sorry, have forgot to tell you. Yes I have tried process elimination. The CDU and the pmSystems are the "bad boys". All other is running fine.

Sorry, do you mean that without both CDU and pmSystems, all is well, but with either (or both?) it is not.

I have tried only with the CDU, only with pmSystems, with both and all other kombinations. The problem comes alive with one of them or with both together.

The system performance seems okay -- averaging 30 frames/sec at this client. I do find the maximum and average transmission rates quite high though77 and 33 respectively.

What does that mean? And can I do something here?

Additionally you have two more Client applications on there than you mentioned: pmGetWeather and SA_WXR. I'm pretty sure they shouldn't both be used -- one or the other, surely? SA_WXR seems to be making a large number of requests itself. Strange. It seems quite quiet on my system (I'm using SA_WXR but not pmGetWeather). Try without both of those, see how it goes.

Yes, I tend to forget things ;-) I'm using pmGetWeather for the ACARS function of the FMC. SA_WXR dosen't support that. But both, pmGetWeather and SA_WXR dosen't make any trouble.

Apart from WideFS activity, could it be some sort of disk access? Have you de-fragmented your main FS disk recently? Does the disk activity light come on a lot?

Hm, I'm using the O&O Defrag tool. As far as I know, it is one of the best you can get. So I think that isn't the problem. Yes, the disk activity light comes on a lot.

Where do you have the CDU's common folder (NETDIR, I think?), which SA_WXR and pmGetWeather and other parts of PM access? It should be on the same PC as the CDU for efficiency. If it is on the FS PC it may well be affecting performance, especially with both pmGetWeather and SA_WXR competing to provide the bitmap for the ND, which isn't a trivial file in itself.

NetDir is on the CDU PC

I have add LogFiles of a flight I have made this evening. Maybe you can find something...

Thank you again

Best Regards

Norbert

LogFiles.zip

[Pete Dowson]

I have tried only with the CDU, only with pmSystems, with both and all other kombinations. The problem comes alive with one of them or with both together.

Hmm. In that case I've really no idea what is going on. I supect it must be something to do with normal file access over the network, because the Logs show everything is fine.

The system performance seems okay -- averaging 30 frames/sec at this client. I do find the maximum and average transmission rates quite high though77 and 33 respectively.

What does that mean? And can I do something here?

It means only what I said -- that overall the programs on that PC are sending commands to FS at a fairly frequent rate, as I say -- 77 (max) 33 (average) per second. It just seems rather high to me. However, it is probably just the communications between the PM components via their shared FSUIPC offsets, in which case it shouldn't affect FS performance.

But both, pmGetWeather and SA_WXR dosen't make any trouble.

Have you tried with both of them not running to see if you get the slow down effect on FS?

I have add LogFiles of a flight I have made this evening. Maybe you can find something...

They show things are even better than the last, and even the transmission rates from the "suspect" PC look better:

3000343 Transmission maximum so far: 43 frames/sec, 3337 bytes/sec

3000343 Transmission average whilst connected so far: 30 frames/sec, 1191 bytes/sec

So, sorry, I can see nothing wrong at all in the operation of WideFS on your system. Assuming you find no difference when not running pmGetWeather and SA_WXR, then whatever is slowing FS is related somehow to what your CDU or pmSystems is asking of it. Maybe something conflicting with the aircraft you are using?

Regards

Pete

[Norbert Woeller]

But both, pmGetWeather and SA_WXR dosen't make any trouble.

Have you tried with both of them not running to see if you get the slow down effect on FS?

Yes, I have, but that's not the problem.

So, sorry, I can see nothing wrong at all in the operation of WideFS on your system. Assuming you find no difference when not running pmGetWeather and SA_WXR, then whatever is slowing FS is related somehow to what your CDU or pmSystems is asking of it. Maybe something conflicting with the aircraft you are using?

Thank you for the hint. Have testet with differend aircraft, but all the same.

OK, thank you for your kind help Pete. Will going on to find the error.

Best regards

Norbert

[Norbert Woeller]

Problem solved :D

You want to know the solution? You can hit me, if you want :wink:

As I have told, I'm using O&O Defrag for my FS PC. For all other PC's I'm using the onbord microsoft defrag (wich is more a plecebo, I know). After using O&O Defrag for the PC where I'm runing the CDU, pmSystems and so on, everything is working fine now. Can't belive it. Sometimes solutions are so near...

Best Regards

Norbert

[Pete Dowson]

Problem solved

...

After using O&O Defrag for the PC where I'm runing the CDU, pmSystems and so on, everything is working fine now. Can't belive it. Sometimes solutions are so near...

Hmmm. Glad you sorted it so quickly. Seems strange, though, that this affected the Server's performance -- unless there's something accessing the culprit PC's disc from the Server, something accessing NETDIR perhaps? Otherwise you'd expect the programs running on that PC to suffer poorer performance, not somehow inflict it on another!

Regards

Pete

[Norbert Woeller]

I was to loud. Only the first 3-4 minutes the frames are stable. After that, the same game :?

Regards

Norbert