ARGUS hangs when missing remote recorder connection

[jtlarson]

I'm running Argus 2.2.2 on a main server (no local tuners or storage).

I've got a number of remote recorders running MP 1.6 FINAL with the Argus 2.2.2 plugin and HDPVR2 tuners.

When one of the remote recorders gets disconnected (e.g. today while the remote recorder is updating the MediaPortal SQLExpress instance with a recent security patch) my main Argus server complains that it can't access that remote recorder (understandable), but it also looses connection to other remote recorders that are fully accessible.

As long as a single remote recorder remains disconnected, the main Argus server fails all recordings/live views--claiming "no tuners available" --even if the recording is set to use a tuner on different remote recorder (that is working perfectly). If I ping the working remote recorders via "Scheduling Console>Recorders" I get a success notification, but pinging the disconnected remote recorder freezes the console interface till the 1 minute timeout elapses.

To me it looks like the main server 'tuner polling process' is timing out trying to access the disconnected remote recorder, and totally neglecting the rest of the remote recorders that are ready to record. This means that a single issue in any of the remote recorders brings the whole system down, when it should only affect tuners on that specific recorder.

My uneducated suggestion/request is that the recorder polling should be done via separate sub-processes so that a timeout on one of them doesn't affect other remote recorders or the main Argus service thread.

If I can help test a solution, or if this has been fixed in RC 2.3, let me know.

[jtlarson]

This problem also occurs with individual tuners. When a scheduled program tried to record from a HDPVR tuner with a disconnected cable, the Argus scheduler became unresponsive, and eventually failed to respond. While in this failed state, I cannot access EPG, Search, Live TV, Upcoming Recordings, etc--any element that provides a view of the guide info is unavailable. The error I get when trying to access any of these resources in the Scheduler console is:

"An error occurred while receiving the HTTP response to https://myserver:49944/ArgusTV/ControlService. This could be due to the service endpoint binding not using the HTTP protocol. This could also be due to an HTTP request context being aborted by the server (possibly due to the service shutting down). See server logs for more details."

Unfortunately the Argus and Windows Application logs don't seem to acknowledge the problem.

I thought it is appropriate to post this here since to seems like a bug if a unsuccessful tuning attempt can bring down the whole system.