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SX Server Drive Defrag Issues - SX Customers Please Read!
We've recently discovered that automatic drive defragmentation is not occurring 100% of the time in versions 4.8.0 to 4.8.2 of Cablecast. While not the most critical of problems, fragmentation of the content drive over an extended period of time can lead to compromised video playback quality in the form of skipping and/or jittery audio/video. We have already isolated the cause of the intermittent failure and have it fixed for version 4.8.3 of Cablecast.
To ensure continued quality playback from your SX server we recommend that you manually defragment your content drive at least once a week until Cablecast 4.8.3 is released.
To defragment your content drive:
1) Open 'My Computer' on the desktop of your SX server
2) Right click on your content drive (Generally Drive "E:" or "F:") and choose "Properties"
3) Click on the 'Tools' tab and choose "Defragment Now..."
4) Highlight your content drive (Again, drive E or F) and click the 'Defragment' button. This will start drive defragmentation and cleanup your content drive.
Please note that if a disc is heavily fragmented and you're running defragmentation during the playback of a show that you may see playback issues from your SX server. Due to this, it is recommended that you defragment during late night hours or while content is being played from a source other than the SX server.
To ensure continued quality playback from your SX server we recommend that you manually defragment your content drive at least once a week until Cablecast 4.8.3 is released.
To defragment your content drive:
1) Open 'My Computer' on the desktop of your SX server
2) Right click on your content drive (Generally Drive "E:" or "F:") and choose "Properties"
3) Click on the 'Tools' tab and choose "Defragment Now..."
4) Highlight your content drive (Again, drive E or F) and click the 'Defragment' button. This will start drive defragmentation and cleanup your content drive.
Please note that if a disc is heavily fragmented and you're running defragmentation during the playback of a show that you may see playback issues from your SX server. Due to this, it is recommended that you defragment during late night hours or while content is being played from a source other than the SX server.
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Inappropriate?Thanks for the heads up Chad. -
Inappropriate?Our version states it is 4.8.3; however, we had to defragment over the weekend. Is there something we are missing in Cablecast so we don't have to do it manually? -
Inappropriate?Lowell,
Sorry for the confusion, you're not missing anything. You have a beta build of 4.8.3 from the work we've been doing on your specific VOD issue which does not have the defragmentation fix implemented yet. Once updated to the 4.8.3 final release you won't need to worry about it.
-Chad -
Inappropriate?I have been having the stuttering issue and it has become a real problem. It is happening during broadcast and when I playback from the content drive and queue. I have defragged the content drive several times but to no avail. I have updated to the latest version also. Help!
Kerry1 Comment
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Kerry,
Last time I had a stuttering problem, I had a bad drive. Check your event log and see if any bad sectors are being reported. 3Ware has a cool feature that you can setup that e-mails you if a drive is having issues. I would set that up also if you have not already. -
Inappropriate?We had jittery video over the weekend. I thought it might be a defrag issue, but checked and saw that we have version 4.8.3
Should I still defrag weekly just as a regular upkeep?3 Comments Add a comment
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John, I updated to 4.8.3 and had a video stuttering issue. I was told to defrag but it did not take care of my problem. I also had several people tell me that I might have a bad drive. In my frustration I shut down all of my servers, except Carousel, and rebooted. VOILA! It took care of the problem. Give it a try.
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I also have to re-boot the SX-4 server every other week or so. It appears that the memory size of sxhwcontrol process that runs in the background gets larger every day until the RAM memory starts to run out and programs start stuttering. After a re-boot, the size goes back to normal and it is good for a couple weeks.
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Randy,
Any chance you could keep a short log of the Memory, Virtual Memory, Threads and Handles that hxhwcontrol is using? Perhaps jot down the numbers once or twice a week? I'm curious if they're all increasing, or just one of them. We put a LOT of time into making sure sxhwcontrol wasn't leaking any memory, so I'm confused and concerned. Let me know what you can do. Thank you!
