INTERNAL NOTE: E-Series Encoders are EOM and non-NDAA compliant devices.
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Some E-series encoders are having trouble with network communication. Attempts to connect with ExacqVision server, E-series utility or even find using ARP commands fail.
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It was found that some encoders were shipped with firmware 1.2.0.150420 pre-installed. This firmware is for testing only.
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The official firmware release for the 1-channel and 4-channel Exacq E-Series encoders is 1.2.0.140801.
Drive shows failed on the Hardware tab in the exacqVision Storage area. Certain combinations of exacqVision and other read/write data could cause the Western Digital Drive Short Test (WD DST) to intermittently get stuck in a loop and write excessively to a specific physical drive location dedicated for testing, which causes false failure alerts. Affected Version
Exacq Server 7.8 – 8.0
See KB: 22936 https://exacq.com/kb/?crc=22936 for more detail
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Drive not found HBA issue
Description
The HBA (Host Bus Adapter) can get damaged by the HBA clamp. Specifically the SATA 3 port capacitor can get damaged.
NOTE: The damage to the HBA does not affect all units. This has been seen in a very limited number. The clamp is there for shipping purposes only can may be removed. The card can become damaged only during shipping.
Platform
A-Series systems with more than 4 drives (non raid)
NOTE: A-Series IP only systems do not use a hold down bracket for the HBA after 11/01/2016. NOTE: A-Series Hybrid systems use a modified hold down bracket for the HBA after 11/01/2016.
See KB: 55093 https://exacq.com/kb/?crc=55093 for more detail
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Motherboard drives displaying “Red” on Storage Hardware tab
Description
Motherboard drives (including OS SSD) displaying “Red” on Storage Hardware tab only
See KB: 2383 https://exacq.com/kb/?crc=2383 for more detail
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Drives showing offline or write error on Storage Drive and Hardware tab
Description
Drives on Storage => Drive and Hardware tab showing offline or write error.
See KB: 15498 https://exacq.com/kb/?crc=15498 for more detail
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Drives showing offline in linux
Some users are experiencing multiple drives in an ‘Offline’ status with Linux systems containing host bus adapters. This may also present drives not on the HBA as ‘Offline’ or with ‘Write Errors’.
Exacq has been made aware of a firmware issue affecting 2TB Western Digital drives. This issue manifests itself on our exacqVision servers as a drive in the RAID Array going to ‘Unconfigured Bad’. While this is a recoverable error, due to the nature of the firmware issue with Western Digital, it will occur again. The scope of when these drives were used is fairly narrow within Exacq.
See KB: 47094 https://exacq.com/kb/?crc=47094 for more detail
Drives showing offline or write error on Storage => Drive tab and Hardware tab.
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Workaround
Open Windows device manager (Windows start menu and type “device manager”) Expand IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers Check to see if there are duplicate ATA Channel entries (ATA Channel 0, ATA Channel 1, etc) Disable the “Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller” and reboot to remove the duplicates. If the “Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller” does not exist, disable the second entry for each duplicate ATA Channel by right clicking and choose disable. Reboot the server
To update the firmware you will need to log into the MegaRAID Storage Manager. Find the desktop icon or short cut inside the Start menu. Log in with the credentials below:
In the MegaRAID Storage Manager software the model of your RAID card can be found on the Controller tab of the Dashboard.
Both firmware and driver downloads are in .ZIP files. Unzip these files. There will be many files inside the unzipped folder.
To update the firmware, use the “Update firmware” link on the MegaRAID dashboard.
Use the Browse button in the window that appears to locate your unzipped folder and select the file beginning with “mr” and ending with “fw.rom” as in this example.
Select the OK button and then check mark the Confirm box and click OK again. If prompted for an “online update” check Confirm once more and select OK. This means the firmware is able to update without stopping the RAID services or rebooting. The firmware update is complete.
Driver updates should only be attempted on Windows machines. Open Device Manager and locate the Storage Controller. Right-click and select “Update driver software…”.
Choose to “Browse my computer for driver software”. Make sure the “Include subfolders” box is checked. Click Browse and navigate to your unzipped driver folder. You do not need to determine which file you need. Simply select the parent folder and click Next to let Windows find the right driver.
After the driver has updated, you will need to reboot the machine for this to take effect.
Connect to a 2/3/5 megapixel Pro Gen2 Dome with firmware 1.2.0.
Generate motion activity in the camera’s field of view.
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Expected result
Motion event is generated as expected.
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Actual result
Motion event is inconsistent.
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Work Around
The camera firmware group has recommended the following:
1. Video stream 1 or 2 has be H.264. 2. The illustra3 plugin does not allow changing of context stream 2 but have seen cases where the iAPI3 shows h264 and still not setting motion. One way to verify is go to the ‘Event and Actions’->’Analytics’->’Motion Detection’ of the camera web page. If stream 2 is not set correctly, it would show a popup dialog with message ‘Operation Failed: No H264 stream found or stream too large’. In this case, just make sure to set stream 2 to H.264 and resolution of 1920×1440 or lower from the camera web page and reconnect the camera from EV client. 3. Medium or Low motion sensitivity is recommended. 4. Stream 2 should be H.264 and set to a resolution of 1920×1440 or lower.
The HBA (Host Bus Adapter) can get damaged by the HBA clamp. Specifically the SATA 3 port capacitor can get damaged.
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Note: The damage to the HBA does not affect all units. This has been seen in a very limited number. The clamp is there for shipping purposes only can may be removed. The card can become damaged only during shipping.
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Platform
A-Series systems with more than 4 drives (non raid)
Note: A-Series IP only systems do not use a hold down bracket for the HBA after 11/01/2016.
Note: A-Series Hybrid systems use a modified hold down bracket for the HBA after 11/01/2016.
How to determine if the HBA is bad
The 4 drives connected to the HBA will be labeled with /dev/sdx. The motherboard drives will have /dev/csmi in the path.
The broken capacitor on the HBA may only affect SATA port 3 on the HBA. This ‘should’ be the 2nd drive (numbered 0-3)(drive E: or SDC ). So only one of the first 4 drives which should be drive 2 will show not found or drive errors.
In some cases all 4 drives will show offline
Windows servers typically will not boot at all. Linux servers will boot but will either have drive missing or drive I/O errors.
If you suspect a bad HBA
Windows
Un-clamp and pull the HBA card leaving drives attached
Try to boot the computer
If it boots, then the HBA is bad
Note: they should leave the HBA clamp off whether we replace the HBA or not unless it is an hybrid system with the modified HBA clamp.
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Linux
Open up the system
Examine the HBA card for a broken SATA 3 capacitor and/or swap SATA 3 with another port to see if it comes online after powering up.
Motherboard drives (including OS SSD) displaying “Red” on Storage Hardware tab
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Platform
Windows A-Series with HBA (more than 4 drives)
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Steps to reproduce
Shut down the Exacq server and remove power
Note: Removing the power is the key part, just a normal shutdown will not produce this issue.
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Expected result
All drives show “Green” and Healthy on the Storage Hardware tab.
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Actual result
Just the drives on the Motherboard (including the OS SSD) show “Red” but healthy on the Storage Hardware tab
Note: All drives on the Storage Drive tab show Green and Healthy
Note: The drives are good, the system is recording to the drives when in this state. No known adverse effect to the customer when in this state.
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Work around
Rebooting the system will return the drives to Green Healthy on the Storage Hardware tab
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Fix
We know that rebooting the system will fix the problem until the next time the system losses power. If still in the state where it is showing the drives offline, navigate to the Windows Device Manager, expand storage controllers (it might be labeled as IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers), and disable Standard Dual Channel pci ide controller. Again, you will not see the Standard Dual Channel pci ide controller listed if it is not still in the state where you see the offline drives (after a reboot). If a reboot has been performed, you must shut down the system, pull power, and then boot back up to disable the Standard Dual Channel pci ide controller.
Firmware Issue Affecting 2TB Western Digital Drives
Exacq has been made aware of a firmware issue affecting 2TB Western Digital drives. This issue manifests itself on our exacqVision servers as a drive in the RAID Array going to ‘Unconfigured Bad’. While this is a recoverable error, due to the nature of the firmware issue with Western Digital, it will occur again. The scope of when these drives were used is fairly narrow within Exacq.
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How do I know if my system has the faulty RR02 firmware?
The only systems Exacq built using drives with this firmware were the A and Z-Series servers with RAID and 2TB drives. Browse to your ‘Configuration’ page and select ‘Storage’ from the tree. Then select the ‘Hardware’ tab on the right.As you select ‘disks’ listed, you will see a Firmware Version listed. If this is RR02, proceed to the firmware upgrade process.If not, no action is needed.
The S-series come defaulted for Archiving. This article will walk you through the steps of preparing the S-series for Extended Storage and assumes you have already configured the IP address of the S-series for your network.
Extended Storage relies upon an iSCSI connection to the S-series device. If using an exacqVision Server and exacqVision S-series storage device the iSCSI initiation is handled automatically. If using third-party hardware you will need to create the iSCSI initiation manually.<br>
Steps
Within the exacqVision Client, add the S-series connection. Navigate to the Add Systems page.<br> <br><br>
Click on the New button (A) and enter the IP address (B) of the S-Series unit, as well as the Username and Password (default admin/admin256). Click Apply.<br> <br><br>
With the S-Series unit now added to the navigation tree on the left, expand your options under this server name and go to the S-Series Storage settings page.<br> <br><br>
On the Network tab is a list of the Storage Volumes contained in the S-Series. The Type will be defaulted to None. The volumes in an S-Series may be of mixed types to achieve your desired storage configuration, so some volumes may be Archiving while others are Extended.<br> <br><br>
To change existing volumes to Extended, first change the Type column on your desired volumes to None and press Apply. Give the system a few minutes to complete the change.<br> Warning: Changing volume types will erase any existing data on the storage volume.<br> <br><br>
Change the Type of the desired volumes to Extended Storage (A). In the column labeled Server Address, enter the IP address of the exacqVision recording server (B). Press Apply. It may take a few minutes for the Status to cycle through the steps needed and finally display ‘OK’. There should now be an IQN listed in the Address column (C).<br> <br><br>
Return to the recording server’s Storage page and select the Extended tab.<br> <br><br>
Under the Portals section, enter the IP address of the S-Series system. Leave the port as 3260 and click the Add button.<br> <br><br>
The S-Series will be scanned and a list of Targets will appear.<br> <br><br>
Place a check mark in the Enabled column for each Target. If using an exacqVision S-Series, you will not need to enter a Username or Password. Press the Apply button.<br> <br>* Username and Password are required for use with third-party iSCSI hosts. Exacq support cannot provide assistance in setup or troubleshooting third-party iSCSI hosts or devices.<br><br>
After pressing Apply, each of the Targets will be prepared. As they finish preparing they will appear in the Partitions panel below.<br> <br><br>
Once the Status in the Partitions panel is ‘OK’, a Mount point will also be displayed. This indicates the Target on the S-Series is now being seen on the local recording server as if it were a local drive.<br> <br><br>
Return to the Drive tab on the recording server and your new Extended Storage drives should now appear in the Drive list.<br> <br>* The above image is an example from a Linux/Ubuntu system. On a Windows system, the Drive names will appear as letters (e.g. – C, D, E, F, etc.)<br><br>
In a Windows environment, the Georgia Standard Time zone displays correctly in the Windows “Time Zone Settings” drop down box as: (UTC+04:00) Tbilisi
However, the exacqVision Software may display it incorrectly as: (UTC+03:00) Tbilisi
This is because the Windows Registry may still reference this time zone as +03:00. The attached registry patch will correctly set the Tbilisi time zone to +04:00 in the Windows Registry. It is recommended to backup your Registry before applying this patch. Fore instructions click here.
NOTE: This patch will not help if you are running the 32-bit exacqVision Server service on a 64-bit Operating System.