Ripped DVD Playback Preformance Issues- Network maybe?

[niz23]

Stutch.

Ok, is there a quick way for me to allow access via SSH and web to access the Core on its public side?  That will give me a quick way to grab the config for you.

Easiest way. Browse to webadmin.
Under configuration|network you can enable/disable the internal firewall.
Thats the easiest way to activate access on public side.

Beware if your public side is directly attached to your DSL/internet router.
If it is not then I guess your internet router have a firewall configured.

there is also some options to open up just some ports on this page.

/niz23

[hari]

 switchport mode access (This tells the switch the a computer is attached to this port, vs another switch or router.)

not exactly. This tells the switch to not use 802.11q

bandwidth 10000000 (This manually sets the port to allow the use of maximum bandwith.)

wrong. This does not affect the bandwith of the port but adjust metrics for routing protocols.

spanning-tree portfast (this is essential for PXE clients as it disables the 45 second port diagnostic and spanning tree checks that each port typically goes through when a new device comes on line.)

this has nothing to do with port diagnostics. Btw, the default settings for spanning tree are 50second (2x15s+20s).

from my point of view the switch config looks fine. Any results from the port counters?

best regards,
Hari

[Stutch]

you have your bandwidth set to 10Mb...?

No. Bandwidth = (10000000/raw bandwidth measured in Kb/s)

[Stutch]

 switchport mode access (This tells the switch the a computer is attached to this port, vs another switch or router.)

not exactly. This tells the switch to not use 802.11q

bandwidth 10000000 (This manually sets the port to allow the use of maximum bandwith.)

wrong. This does not affect the bandwith of the port but adjust metrics for routing protocols.

spanning-tree portfast (this is essential for PXE clients as it disables the 45 second port diagnostic and spanning tree checks that each port typically goes through when a new device comes on line.)

this has nothing to do with port diagnostics. Btw, the default settings for spanning tree are 50second (2x15s+20s).

from my point of view the switch config looks fine. Any results from the port counters?

best regards,
Hari

When I attempted to disable the firewall I got an ugly web error on the system.  I'm going to reload it and see if I Can get around that problem.  after that, I will post for you what I see.

[Zaerc]

Stutch.

Ok, is there a quick way for me to allow access via SSH and web to access the Core on its public side?  That will give me a quick way to grab the config for you.

Easiest way. Browse to webadmin.
Under configuration|network you can enable/disable the internal firewall.
Thats the easiest way to activate access on public side.

Beware if your public side is directly attached to your DSL/internet router.
If it is not then I guess your internet router have a firewall configured.

there is also some options to open up just some ports on this page.

/niz23

Better to just only open port 22 for ssh, and everything else can be tunneled using ssh.

[johanr]

As hari says, there is not much to go wrong with the config.
 I would however recommend (sorry for sounding like a besserwisser/messerschmidt or whatever) to use Auto(speed,dup) on all the active ports. I have not seen the Cisco devices having the jumping link problem anymore.

If you want spanning tree to be faster, start using Rstp instead or even Mstp. The convergence times will be much faster..
For bandwith, you have already set it to 1000. If you want to control bandwith you do it with Qos policing  NOT Recommended however... (have seen major issues/bugs using that on several C devices(7204,7609,3550) in previous ios 12.2 releases, probarbly corrected now but I would not give it a try just because if the history.

Now show us the fresh 'sh int'  i.e. clear the interfaces and don't mess with the cables then let run for quite a while watching movies. and some wireshark results would be nice as well =)

 

-johan

[Stutch]

It was raw paranoia that caused me to force the speed & duplex setting as well as the other settings on the switch to begin with.  I’ve been screwing with this issue for months; following numerous threads in this forum that I had hoped would help me to resolve my issue.   I should not need an enterprise class switch to stream movies… and yet, here I am. (Not complaining!)

Furthermore, I won’t need to mess around with QoS as this switch is dedicated to just the internal media network. 
I will take your suggestion and reset the port settings for  speed and duplex.   This was just another example of me needing to verify that I was getting the speed that I was expecting.  I had already discovered cat5  patch cables that were not rated for gig speeds causing me headaches.

So for the sh int, do you need me to grab this a few times while a movie is running?  Do you just need it off the core, or the media device as well.  I’ll do sniffing as well.
I appreciate the assistance from all of you. 

You are all on the Christmas list now.

[johanr]

haha, paranoia is good 

Don't forget to update the Core and MD with the same settings(speed, dup) though

sh int afterwards is fine. for both of the interfaces. Lots of Runts and drops are not good.
Take a quick look in the syslog as well just to make sure(that all is ok with the 3550).

Not sure how to do a similar in linux though =/ but that will give some hints if this is related to the network which I actually doubt.

(hari posted some nice commands to be run as well)

Btw, I assume you have everything on the inside of the Core, as recommended ?

Is it easy for you to move(copy) the same Movie to the hdd of the Core and view it from there as well?

Just to easily eliminate eventual troublecausers.
Also I posted a while ago about twitchy playback and got the recommendation to not use alpha blending.. Try changing that.(in case you are)

Good Luck!
-johan

[Stutch]

haha, paranoia is good 

Don't forget to update the Core and MD with the same settings(speed, dup) though

I will reset all ports on the 3550 to the default configuration as suggested, but I'll leave the portfast enabled on the client ports.

sh int afterwards is fine. for both of the interfaces. Lots of Runts and drops are not good.
Take a quick look in the syslog as well just to make sure(that all is ok with the 3550).

Not sure how to do a similar in linux though =/ but that will give some hints if this is related to the network which I actually doubt.

(hari posted some nice commands to be run as well)

I plan to reload the server again tonight and try both Hari, and your suggestions. 

Btw, I assume you have everything on the inside of the Core, as recommended?

If you are referring to media directors and all that stuff being on the correct side of the core, then yes.  I have followed all recommendations as closely as possible on my configuration. 

Is it easy for you to move(copy) the same Movie to the hdd of the Core and view it from there as well?

Just to easily eliminate eventual troublecausers.

All my movies exist on the core.  I use the media directors as well as the core itself to rip movies.  I guess I am not sure what you mean?

Also I posted a while ago about twitchy playback and got the recommendation to not use alpha blending.. Try changing that.(in case you are)

I was a passionate viewer of that thread! as I had hoped that it would also uncover my issue. Immediately after it was suggested, I had turned off the alpha blending, but did not see any improvement.  I cried a little inside.

[Stutch]

Results from show interface after the first hiccup.  More to come.

test3550#show int gigabitEthernet 0/1
GigabitEthernet0/1 is up, line protocol is up (connected)
  Hardware is Gigabit Ethernet, address is 000f.23a9.dc81 (bia 000f.23a9.dc81)
  MTU 2000 bytes, BW 10000000 Kbit, DLY 10 usec,
     reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255
  Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
  Keepalive not set
  Full-duplex, 1000Mb/s, link type is auto, media type is 1000BaseTX
  input flow-control is off, output flow-control is on
  ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
  1000BaseT module (WS-G5483) in GBIC slot.
  Last input never, output 00:00:01, output hang never
  Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
  Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0
  Queueing strategy: fifo
  Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)
  5 minute input rate 902000 bits/sec, 681 packets/sec
  5 minute output rate 8491000 bits/sec, 972 packets/sec
     560193 packets input, 124061300 bytes, 0 no buffer
     Received 122 broadcasts (0 multicasts)
     0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
     0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
     0 watchdog, 41 multicast, 0 pause input
     0 input packets with dribble condition detected
     768301 packets output, 827748511 bytes, 0 underruns
     0 output errors, 0 collisions, 1 interface resets
     0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred
     0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier, 0 PAUSE output
     0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out
test3550#show int gigabitEthernet 0/12
GigabitEthernet0/12 is up, line protocol is up (connected)
  Hardware is Gigabit Ethernet, address is 000f.23a9.dc8c (bia 000f.23a9.dc8c)
  MTU 2000 bytes, BW 1000000 Kbit, DLY 10 usec,
     reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 2/255
  Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
  Keepalive set (10 sec)
  Full-duplex, 1000Mb/s, link type is auto, media type is 10/100/1000BaseTX
  input flow-control is off, output flow-control is on
  ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
  Last input never, output 00:00:00, output hang never
  Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
  Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0
  Queueing strategy: fifo
  Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)
  5 minute input rate 9211000 bits/sec, 1241 packets/sec
  5 minute output rate 1378000 bits/sec, 983 packets/sec
     988008 packets input, 910853215 bytes, 0 no buffer
     Received 7563 broadcasts (0 multicasts)
     0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
     0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
     0 watchdog, 0 multicast, 0 pause input
     0 input packets with dribble condition detected
     800396 packets output, 178362238 bytes, 0 underruns
     0 output errors, 0 collisions, 1 interface resets
     0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred
     0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier, 0 PAUSE output
     0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

[Stutch]

I started a packet capture after the movie was going for a bit.  The following is what I see after the movie studders for a moment:

mii-tool shows the following:

eth0: negotiated 100baseTx-FD, link ok
eth1: negotiated 100baseTx-FD flow-control, link ok

My core is running gigabit though, so shouldn't this show up as such?

cat/proc/interrrupts on the core shows:

dcerouter_1:~# cat /proc/interrupts
           CPU0       CPU1       CPU2       CPU3
  0:       5040       5664     271228   22644729   IO-APIC-edge      timer
  1:          0          0          0         10   IO-APIC-edge      i8042
  8:          0          0          0          0   IO-APIC-edge      rtc
  9:          0          0          0          1   IO-APIC-fasteoi   acpi
 12:          2          1         76       8192   IO-APIC-edge      i8042
 14:         30         73       8956     453140   IO-APIC-edge      ide0
 16:          0          0          0        293   IO-APIC-fasteoi   ohci_hcd:usb1, HDA Intel
 17:       1070       1177     214978   51339817   IO-APIC-fasteoi   ohci_hcd:usb2, ohci_hcd:usb4, eth0
 18:       1089       1017      49495    4670493   IO-APIC-fasteoi   ohci_hcd:usb3, ohci_hcd:usb5, nvidia
 19:         94        251      47362    3870708   IO-APIC-fasteoi   ehci_hcd:usb6, 3w-9xxx
 21:          8         10       1396     141982   IO-APIC-fasteoi   eth1
 22:          0          0          0          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   ahci
 23:          0          0          0          3   IO-APIC-fasteoi   ohci1394
NMI:          0          0          0          0
LOC:   22926590   22926525   22926544   22926509
ERR:          0

show int gi0/12 (core) and gi0/1 (Media Device)

test3550#show interfaces gigabitEthernet 0/12
GigabitEthernet0/12 is up, line protocol is up (connected)
  Hardware is Gigabit Ethernet, address is 000f.23a9.dc8c (bia 000f.23a9.dc8c)
  MTU 2000 bytes, BW 1000000 Kbit, DLY 10 usec,
     reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 2/255
  Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
  Keepalive set (10 sec)
  Full-duplex, 1000Mb/s, link type is auto, media type is 10/100/1000BaseTX
  input flow-control is off, output flow-control is on
  ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
  Last input never, output 00:00:01, output hang never
  Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
  Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0
  Queueing strategy: fifo
  Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)
  5 minute input rate 10436000 bits/sec, 1331 packets/sec
  5 minute output rate 1100000 bits/sec, 1004 packets/sec
     5266411 packets input, 741758640 bytes, 0 no buffer
     Received 60087 broadcasts (0 multicasts)
     0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
     0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
     0 watchdog, 20 multicast, 0 pause input
     0 input packets with dribble condition detected
     4062890 packets output, 629197124 bytes, 0 underruns
     0 output errors, 0 collisions, 1 interface resets
     0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred
     0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier, 0 PAUSE output
     0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out
test3550#show interfaces gigabitEthernet 0/1
GigabitEthernet0/1 is up, line protocol is up (connected)
  Hardware is Gigabit Ethernet, address is 000f.23a9.dc81 (bia 000f.23a9.dc81)
  MTU 2000 bytes, BW 10000000 Kbit, DLY 10 usec,
     reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255
  Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
  Keepalive not set
  Full-duplex, 1000Mb/s, link type is auto, media type is 1000BaseTX
  input flow-control is off, output flow-control is on
  ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
  1000BaseT module (WS-G5483) in GBIC slot.
  Last input never, output 00:00:00, output hang never
  Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
  Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0
  Queueing strategy: fifo
  Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)
  5 minute input rate 651000 bits/sec, 684 packets/sec
  5 minute output rate 9693000 bits/sec, 1044 packets/sec
     2814020 packets input, 396925632 bytes, 0 no buffer
     Received 158 broadcasts (0 multicasts)
     0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
     0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
     0 watchdog, 57 multicast, 0 pause input
     0 input packets with dribble condition detected
     4146275 packets output, 377667857 bytes, 0 underruns
     0 output errors, 0 collisions, 1 interface resets
     0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred
     0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier, 0 PAUSE output
     0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out
test3550#

Wireshark is a bit huge, so I'll try and sort it to what looks to be the issue.

[hari]

I started a packet capture after the movie was going for a bit.  The following is what I see after the movie studders for a moment:

mii-tool shows the following:

eth0: negotiated 100baseTx-FD, link ok
eth1: negotiated 100baseTx-FD flow-control, link ok

My core is running gigabit though, so shouldn't this show up as such?

yes, it should. Replug the cable (or shut/unshut the switchport) and see if autoneg works. Worst case you have to use fixed settings (Use "ethtool -s ethX speed 1000 duplex full" on the linux side and revert to the old duplex/speed settings on the switchport)

Please show me the ifconfig output of the NICs on the linux hosts.

best regards,
Hari

[Stutch]

Here is the ifconfig output pf the NICs on the linux core:

dcerouter_1:/home/linuxmce# ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1D:92:B6:99:6B
          inet addr:192.168.80.1  Bcast:192.168.80.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::21d:92ff:feb6:996b/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:7359526 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:9313628 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:1442576109 (1.3 GB)  TX bytes:6700041446 (6.2 GB)
          Interrupt:17 Base address:0x8000

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0E:0C:A2:23:D3
          inet addr:192.168.0.56  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20e:cff:fea2:23d3/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:165369 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:128543 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:192231471 (183.3 MB)  TX bytes:19128842 (18.2 MB)
          Base address:0xe400 Memory:febc0000-febe0000

I can't get the results from the media director though because it apparently doesn't use the same password for su that the core is using?

[freymann]

I can't get the results from the media director though because it apparently doesn't use the same password for su that the core is using?

On the core, issue a:

sudo -i

and then just

ssh moon##

to the MD... Get the Media Director's number from the web admin...

[Stutch]

Outstanding.  Here is the Media Director ifconfig result:

root@moon72:~# ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1D:92:0F:44:D8
          inet addr:192.168.80.3  Bcast:192.168.80.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::21d:92ff:fe0f:44d8/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:392239 errors:141 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:141
          TX packets:307922 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:409797850 (390.8 MB)  TX bytes:95461943 (91.0 MB)
          Interrupt:20 Base address:0x8000

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:1368 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1368 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:88740 (86.6 KB)  TX bytes:88740 (86.6 KB)