Month: April 2021

Categories
Knowledge Support Support exacqVision Client Categories Products

Throttling Issues After Changing the Storage Configuration on an exacqVision System

Before troubleshooting an exacqVision system that is experiencing throttling, it is important to know how the software writes video to the disk.

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Each time PSFPI attempts to open a record stream, the disk volumes are checked for available space. The available space is determined by adding 1GB to the currently used space. The volume with the most space available is selected for storage. For example, Drive E: would be chosen in the following Windows environment:

C: (unused)
D: 98% full
E: 97% full
F: 98% full

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Note that, if all volumes are equally full, the oldest video is deleted to make room for the new video.

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A unique problem arises if changes are made to the system’s available drives. For example, suppose you add a drive in the previous example:

C: (unused)
D: 98% full
E: 97% full
F: 98% full
G: 0% full

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All video is then saved to drive G: until it is 97% full. However, if the system was already taxing the available I/O for drives D:, E:, and F:, it could overtax the new drive and result in throttling.

Additionally, after the new drive fills up, it contains all the video for a large span of time; this means that the video it contains will eventually all be the oldest video, and this problem will recur in an endless loop. Then, if cameras are added to a system at a later date, the system could exceed its available I/O.

Categories
Knowledge Support Support exacqVision Server Categories Products

Streams not closed when recording is disabled

Description

With Dahua/Illustra Essentials, video continuous to stream when the recording for the stream is disabled in the ip camera recording page. Most likely this does not affect user but it affects traffic on the network.

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Version Introduced

r71495 (6.8.x RC)

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Platform

All

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Steps to reproduce

disable stream recording in the “Recording” tab of the ip camera setup page.

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Expected result

video stopped stream.

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Actual result

video continuous to stream.

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Work Around

disable/enable the device.

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Version Fixed

None

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Keywords

DahuaIpPi, Dahua

Categories
Knowledge Support Support exacqVision Server Categories Products

Manually Triggering a Watchdog

Because of issues archiving over a WAN (see this article), it might be necessary to manually trigger a watchdog so that the server is able to start up successfully. To do this, complete the following steps:

  1. On the System configuration page, open the Watchdog Timers tab and make sure the motherboard watchdog is enabled.
  2. Open a Terminal window to the server.
  3. Execute ps -ef | grep core to find out the process ID of the core process. If multiple IDs are reported, use the lowest.
  4. Execute sudo kill -9 [pid], where [pid] is the process ID from the previous step.

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The server should then restart within the specified watchdog timer timeout.

Categories
exacqVision Enterprise Categories Products

ESM: Spare With Expired or Non-Enterprise License Not Monitored

A server without an Enterprise license enabled for health monitoring can be selected as a spare server. The protected server will fail over to this spare server, but Enterprise System Manager (ESM) will not monitor the spare server. This can also occur if the spare server’s Enterprise license has expired.

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As a workaround, do not designate a spare that does not have a license that allows it to be monitored by ESM.

Categories
Knowledge Support Support exacqVision Server Categories Products

Updating Supermicro C7Q67 Motherboard Firmware

A small percentage of exacqVision systems with Supermicro C7Q67 motherboards installed have been found to exhibit widely fluctuating network performance and then lock up. The problem is known to occur only on systems containing Supermicro C7Q67 motherboards with the BIOS firmware version 1.0b. These motherboards are found mostly in 2U exacqVision A Series and Z series servers.

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NOTE: To determine which motherboard model is installed in an exacqVision system by opening a Command Prompt and typing systeminfo. The System Manufacturer and System Model lines display the make and model of the motherboard.

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To resolve the network and system lockup issues, you must update the BIOS firmware using the following procedure:

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NOTE: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO INSTALL THE FIRMWARE UPDATE ON ANY MOTHERBOARD OTHER THAN SUPERMICRO C7Q67.

  1. Make a bootable USB flash drive. If you need assistance with this step, visit http://rufus.akeo.ie.
  2. Create a folder named c711 on the root of the flash drive.
  3. Download the latest BIOS firmware for the motherboard from https://exacq.com/reseller/C711.zip. (The username required to download the file is guest, and the password is exacqvisionip.) Extract the contents to the c711 folder on the flash drive.
  4. Plug the flash drive into the exacqVision system and start (or restart) the system.
  5. When the system restarts, immediately press Delete to enter the BIOS settings. (If you have a RAID controller, wait until it finishes initialization and then immediately press Delete.)
  6. Type admin256 as the password and press Enter.
  7. Navigate to the Boot tab and find the USB flash drive or USB Devices in the list. NOTE THE BOOT ORDER so that you can restore it after this process is complete.
  8. Highlight the USB drive and press the + button to move it higher in the boot list. Repeat until it is located at the top of the list.
  9. To restart the computer, press F4 (Save and Exit) and select Yes.
  10. When the system restarts, immediately press Delete to enter the BIOS settings. (If you have a RAID controller, wait until it finishes initialization and then immediately press Delete.)
  11. Navigate to the last line on the EXIT tab and select Reset System with ME Disable Mode.
  12. When the system boots to the flash drive C:> prompt, type cd c711 and press Enter.
  13. Type ami C7Q67_T9062.bin and press Enter.

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  1. If you see a message indicating that you need to update the ME firmware to 1.10, type the following in ALL CAPS (press Enter after each line) and wait for the process to complete:

    REN AFUDOSU.SMC AFUDOSU.EXE
    AFUDOSU.EXE C7Q672.417 /P /B /N /R /ME
  2. Shut down the system and remove the power cable from the power supply on the back for at least ten seconds.
  3. Plug the power cable into the system and press the power button (if necessary) to start it.
  4. When the system restarts, immediately press Delete to enter the BIOS settings. (If you have a RAID controller, wait until it finishes initialization and then immediately press Delete.)
  5. On the Main tab, verify that the BIOS is now version 1.10 (09/06/12) and set the current time and date.

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On the Advanced tab, select or verify the following Boot Feature settings:

  • Power Button Function [4 Seconds Override]
  • Restore on AC Power Loss [Last State]

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On the Advanced tab, select or verify the following Processor & Clock Options setting:

  • Power Technology [Custom]
  • EIST [Disabled]
  • CPU C1E [Disabled]
  • CPU C3 Report [Disabled]
  • CPU C6 report [Disabled]
  • Package C State limit [No Limit]

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On the Advanced tab, select or verify the following IDE/SATA Configuration setting:

  • SATA Mode [AHCI Mode]

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On the Advanced tab, select or verify the following Hardware Health Configuration setting:

  • Fan Speed Control Mode [Full Speed]

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  1. On the Security tab, set the Administrator password as admin256.
  2. On the Boot tab, reset the boot order as it was before you promoted the USB drive.
  3. To restart the computer, press F4 (Save and Exit) and select Yes.
Categories
Knowledge Support Support exacqVision Webservice Categories Products

Manually Enabling Remote Web Service Configuration

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN DEPRECATED

By default, exacqVision Web Service restricts configuration to the browser on the local machine. Through the configuration, a user can disable this restriction to enable remote configuration. However, there could be a need to manually remove this restriction (such as when installing the Web Service in a virtual environment, such as exacqVision Virtual).

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To manually enable remote configuration, complete the following steps:

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NOTE: These instructions assume that the file to edit does not contain any text. If it has previously been changed, merge the changes specified here into the existing file.

  1. With administrator credentials, open the file .evws-login for editing. By default, this file is found in Windows at C:\Program Files (x86)\exacqVision\WebService\bin\.evws-login, or in Linux at /etc/.evws-login.
  2. Add the following into the file:

    [Settings]
    restricttolocalhost = 0
  3. Save the file.
  4. Restart the Web Service.

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After restarting, the Web Service will have remote administration enabled.

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You can also use the Web Service Configuration page to deselect the Enable Localhost Restriction option.

Categories
exacqVision Client Categories Products

Video Displayed in Only One Video Window in Multi-window Layout in Linux (OpenGL Issue)

An old exacqVision system with Supermicro C2 installed has been seen to display video in only one of 16 video panels in 4×4 mode. Changing the VGA Acceleration mode from Auto to None resolved the issue.

Categories
Knowledge Support Support exacqVision Server Categories Products

USBDIO and Serial Port Recovery

The following recovery enhancements have been added to exacqVision Server:

  1. USBDIO recovery enhancement: version 6.7.20.74529
  2. UART serial ports recovery: version 6.7.25.75004

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When a USBDIO or UART serial port device disconnects, exacqVision Server attempts to reconnect to the device after one second. If that attempt fails, the next attempt occurs after two seconds, and then four seconds, eight seconds, 16 seconds, and so on. This occurs until the device reconnects, or until the following maximum intervals are reached:

  1. USBDIO: 300 seconds
  2. UART serial ports: the same as the IP Camera reconnection interval
Categories
Knowledge Support Support exacqVision Client Categories Products

Enabling Legacy Authentication Mode

*** INTERNAL USE ***

With the introduction of the new Authentication mode in exacqVision Client and Server 6.8, the temporary admin password no longer works. However, exacqVision Client includes a way to run in Legacy mode, thus enabling the temporary admin password.

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This procedure should be used only by Exacq Technical Support.

Double-click on the LegacyAuthentication.xdv file, which should be associated with exacqVision Client, to open it. This file can be found in the following directories:

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Windows: ../exacqVision/Client/LegacyAuthentication.xdv
OSX: ../edvrclient.app/MacOS/LegacyAuthentication.xdv
Linux: /usr/local/exacq/client/LegacyAuthentication.xdv

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When this file is opened, the temporary admin password is enabled and can be reset. To enable the new Authentication mode, close and re-open exacqVision Client.

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Categories
Knowledge Support Support exacqVision Mobile Categories Products

Native Decoding in Exacq Mobile 3

About Native Decoding

The 3.12 release of the Exacq Mobile 3 app added the ability to decode native video from a camera streaming in JPEG or H.264 format.

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Support

Native JPEG decoding is supported on all platforms and devices that the Exacq Mobile 3 app runs on, including the web browser.

Native H.264 decoding requires the Exacq Mobile 3 app to be installed on an iOS Android device.

The Exacq Mobile 3 app can decode H.264 constrained baseline profile up to Level 5.2 (4096×2304) video. Support for more profiles and resolutions could be implemented in the future, but there is currently no timeline for implementation.

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Method

The Exacq Mobile 3 app will attempt to decode native video from a camera if the following conditions are met:

  1. Both the camera and the device support the same native format (H.264 or JPEG).
  2. The image quality setting on the mobile app is at least 70% of the image quality on the camera.
  3. The height of the video panel on the mobile app is at least 45% of the height of the native image.
  4. The width of the video panel on the mobile app is at least 45% of the height of the native image.

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When streaming H.264 video, the Exacq Mobile 3 app will revert to transcoded video if performance issues arise. For example, if the device running the Exacq Mobile 3 app is unable to decode H.264 video fast enough to keep up with the incoming video, the video will then be transcoded.

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FAQs

Q: How can I tell whether the app is decoding native video?

A: There is no indication within the Exacq Mobile 3 app that native video is being decoded. However, when native video is being decoded on the app, the CPU usage from the evws-backend process will be lower than that of an evws-backend process that is providing transcoded video.

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