Before I explain my problem, let me quickly diagram my setup, all connections are with cables, no wireless.

 

DIY unRAID box-->Apple Airport Extreme-->Mac Mini-->PLEX software-->HDTV

 

My server will run days at a time with no problem as long as I'm not using it to serve video.  When asked to serve video, it will do so for an hour or two, and then my shares will disconnect and the server will become unresponsive.  I can't telnet in and there are no error messages.  My only solution at that point is to perform a hard reset, and remount my shares.  This solves the problem for another hour or two, but then I wash, rinse and repeat.

 

I've been monitoring drive temps and that's not a problem.  I'm posting a syslog from when I boot up and start playing video, though I can't get one from after the crash, as the server is unresponsive.

 

I'm lost, is this hardware, software, network, apple technology?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Justin

 

How about from the server system console (monitor/keyboard), unresponsive there as well?

 

One thing you can do is, before playing video, open a telnet session to the server, and then type this command:

 

tail -f /var/log/syslog

 

This will cause syslog messages to get displayed in the telnet window as they occur.  If server is crashing, you should be able to capture the last few lines of output.

Before I explain my problem, let me quickly diagram my setup, all connections are with cables, no wireless.

 

DIY unRAID box-->Apple Airport Extreme-->Mac Mini-->PLEX software-->HDTV

 

My server will run days at a time with no problem as long as I'm not using it to serve video.  When asked to serve video, it will do so for an hour or two, and then my shares will disconnect and the server will become unresponsive.  I can't telnet in and there are no error messages.  My only solution at that point is to perform a hard reset, and remount my shares.  This solves the problem for another hour or two, but then I wash, rinse and repeat.

 

I've been monitoring drive temps and that's not a problem.  I'm posting a syslog from when I boot up and start playing video, though I can't get one from after the crash, as the server is unresponsive.

 

I'm lost, is this hardware, software, network, apple technology?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Justin

 

 

I've got exactly the same setup at home - not a single issue here...  I connect to my server via IP address in Plex to avoid dns issues. That's about it. You could connect monitor and keyboard+mouse to UnRaid server and take a look there..  Run Memtest etc.

In addition to the suggestions above, you can start the video and a Telnet session, and capture the syslog at about 55 minutes in (or an appropriate safe point), then continue capturing it every minute or so (press the up-arrow key then the Enter key to continually overwrite it).  You will have a syslog that is very close to the crash point.

I will try all of the above, but it won't be until next weekend when I have time.  I truly appreciate all of the suggestions though.

 

Justin

Alright, here is my syslog... it disconected between the line at 18:49 and 19:06 that says cut here.  I then reset and the rest of the log is from that reset.

 

I removed log in and IP information. 

xx.x.x.x is the server

xx.x.x.yy is the laptop I telneted in with.

 

If you guys don't have any answers, I may just wipe my flash clean, resinstall and set up the shares again. I'm assuming that it is a simple process, except I don't own a mouse or keyboard so I'll have to borrow them from work.  If that doesn't work I'll reinstall OSX and PLEX.  Here's to hoping it's one of my installations and not a hardware issue.

 

Again, thanks for any input, and happy holidays.

 

**EDIT** Starting the system back up again also requires a reboot of the mini.  If I only reboot the server, the mini can't find the IP address until it has been reset.  The laptop also didn't register the latter half of the syslog until the mini had been reset, though the server was running prior to that. 

 

Trying xx.x.x.x...
Connected to xx.x.x.x.


root@Tower:~# tail -f /var/log/syslog
Dec 24 16:36:51 Tower login[1356]: ROOT LOGIN  on `pts/0' from `xx.x.x.yy'
Dec 24 16:41:37 Tower shfs(1): duplicate object: /mnt/disk2/TV/.DS_Store
Dec 24 16:41:37 Tower last message repeated 19 times
Dec 24 16:43:33 Tower in.telnetd[1367]: connect from xx.x.x.yy (x.x.x.yy)
Dec 24 16:43:35 Tower login[1368]: invalid password for `UNKNOWN'  on `pts/0' from `xx.x.x.yy'
Dec 24 16:43:36 Tower login[1368]: ROOT LOGIN  on `pts/0' from `xx.x.x.yy'
Dec 24 16:43:50 Tower emhttp: shcmd (19): /usr/sbin/hdparm -y /dev/sdb >/dev/null
Dec 24 16:45:53 Tower in.telnetd[1383]: connect from xx.x.x.yy (xx.x.x.yy)
Dec 24 16:45:58 Tower login[1384]: invalid password for `UNKNOWN'  on `pts/0' from `xx.x.x.yy'
Dec 24 16:45:59 Tower login[1384]: ROOT LOGIN  on `pts/0' from `xx.x.x.yy'
Dec 24 18:00:01 Tower logger: mover started
Dec 24 18:01:12 Tower logger: `./Music/Podcasts/NPR_ Fresh Air Podcast/._01 NPR_ 12-23-2009 Fresh Air.mp3' -> `/mnt/user0/./Music/Podcasts/NPR_ Fresh Air Podcast/._01 NPR_ 12-23-2009 Fresh Air.mp3'
Dec 24 18:01:12 Tower logger: removed `./Music/Podcasts/NPR_ Fresh Air Podcast/._01 NPR_ 12-23-2009 Fresh Air.mp3'
Dec 24 18:03:10 Tower logger: `./Music/Podcasts/NPR_ Fresh Air Podcast/01 NPR_ 12-23-2009 Fresh Air.mp3' -> `/mnt/user0/./Music/Podcasts/NPR_ Fresh Air Podcast/01 NPR_ 12-23-2009 Fresh Air.mp3'
Dec 24 18:03:10 Tower logger: removed `./Music/Podcasts/NPR_ Fresh Air Podcast/01 NPR_ 12-23-2009 Fresh Air.mp3'
Dec 24 18:03:13 Tower logger: `./.custom/sabnzbd/cache/watched_data.sab' -> `/mnt/user0/./.custom/sabnzbd/cache/watched_data.sab'
Dec 24 18:03:13 Tower logger: mv: cannot move `./.custom/sabnzbd/cache/watched_data.sab' to `/mnt/user0/./.custom/sabnzbd/cache/watched_data.sab': No such file or directory
Dec 24 18:03:13 Tower logger: `./.custom/sabnzbd/cache/queue7.sab' -> `/mnt/user0/./.custom/sabnzbd/cache/queue7.sab'
Dec 24 18:03:13 Tower logger: mv: cannot move `./.custom/sabnzbd/cache/queue7.sab' to `/mnt/user0/./.custom/sabnzbd/cache/queue7.sab': No such file or directory
Dec 24 18:03:13 Tower logger: `./.custom/sabnzbd/cache/bytes7.sab' -> `/mnt/user0/./.custom/sabnzbd/cache/bytes7.sab'
Dec 24 18:03:13 Tower logger: mv: cannot move `./.custom/sabnzbd/cache/bytes7.sab' to `/mnt/user0/./.custom/sabnzbd/cache/bytes7.sab': No such file or directory
Dec 24 18:03:13 Tower logger: `./.custom/sabnzbd/cache/rss_data.sab' -> `/mnt/user0/./.custom/sabnzbd/cache/rss_data.sab'
Dec 24 18:03:13 Tower logger: mv: cannot move `./.custom/sabnzbd/cache/rss_data.sab' to `/mnt/user0/./.custom/sabnzbd/cache/rss_data.sab': No such file or directory
Dec 24 18:03:14 Tower logger: mover finished
Dec 24 18:19:50 Tower emhttp: shcmd (20): /usr/sbin/hdparm -y /dev/sdb >/dev/null
Dec 24 18:47:50 Tower emhttp: shcmd (21): /usr/sbin/hdparm -y /dev/sda >/dev/null
Dec 24 18:49:50 Tower emhttp: shcmd (22): /usr/sbin/hdparm -y /dev/sdb >/dev/null

As an FYI, the IP addresses you likely removed are most likely local only.

 

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has reserved the

following three blocks of the IP address space for private networks:

 

10.0.0.0        -  10.255.255.255  (10/8 prefix)

172.16.0.0      -  172.31.255.255  (172.16/12 prefix)

192.168.0.0    -  192.168.255.255 (192.168/16 prefix)

 

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1918.html#ixzz0afgDOCQc

 

That is to say, there is no way for anyone outside your local area network to even send packets to those IP addresses. They would first have to be on your LAN.

I assumed as much, but now I know. I was thinking "better safe than sorry". Thanks for informing me.

Sorry, I've been out of touch.

 

Alright, here is my syslog... it disconected between the line at 18:49 and 19:06 that says cut here.  I then reset and the rest of the log is from that reset.

 

You did not actually attach your syslog, just included a very small piece that terminated at 18:49, without the "Cut here" section.  We can't be very definitive without the full syslog.  You do have an Realtek r8169 chipset, some of which are notorious for issues.  You might check the posts here, here, and here, to see if they describe the same issue you are having.