Licenses on Merged Servers caused recording to stop when one system was offline too long
Completed
Hello,
2nd instance of running into this issue. I will have to verify version number, but I believe the 4.x platform.. DW build.
Had several servers that were each licensed individually before merging via cloud/internet. Systems ran fine for a long period before one system dropped out of the hive with internet connection issues. After about 30 days the remaining merged servers decided to stop recording on cameras that should never have been impacted by the licensing... (Because I had activated the correct number of licenses on the servers before merging) The number of cameras that were Knocked offline and had their recording schedule turned off on the merged servers matched the number of cameras on the non-connectable server.
I remedied the situation by turning off the licenses related to the non-connected server and turning the recording back on for the cameras that took the hit with licensing.
I'm not sure what to expect if/when the offline server re-connects to this scenario.
So.. can it be clarified so I understand why the merged systems decided to stop recording due to license issues in this circumstance?
I had another group of servers behave this way today for a different customer. 2 systems that had been licensed prior to merging. One system dropped the connection to the cloud/internet, and the remaining system in the hive/group decided to deduct the licenses from the missing server from it's own remaining recording/functioning cameras. Customer lost a good amount of video unfortunately.
I'm guessing this is related to an approx 30 day grace period when a server with licenses referred to in a hive/merged group. This may be about defeating people trying to cheat on licensing or something similar, but it has caused some issues with our customers, and us when we aren't able to fix a missing server from the hive that can't connect.
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Hi Matt Barber,
To be honest, I have no clue what happens.
Your theory is right;
If server A has 50 cameras + 50 licenses channels, and server B has 50 cameras + 50 license channels, the grace period would be irrelevant if the connection breaks between both servers.
Would it be possible to share the output of the following API call:
https://<serverIp>:7001/ec2/getFullInfo?format=json
Ps. I do recommend upgrading the system to 5.0.0.36183. You can use the following in-client credentials to upgrade:
Build Number: 36183
Password: 9wubdq -
Sorry for the delay.
Update.. Just got access via Teamviewer for this system, but they may be blocking cloud access via firewall or similar.
I couldn't save the file on the local machine as a .json file. The API generated a browser page full of text. I copied and pasted into a text file and saved as a .json. I got an error when I tried to save the page and info directly from the browser.
I disconnected the system from the cloud in an attempt to bring re-connect and potentially fix the issue of connectivity to the hive.
That didn't resolve the issue.
The licenses show on the local machine in licensing section of the software, but it still ties licenses up on servers that are not available on the non-working internet connection.
Upgrade will need to wait for the moment until I can get all systems to talk to each other via cloud.
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This may not be helpful at this point, but I had to completely re-build 4 systems and re-merge after the issues at hand. The data I tried to provide is probably moot now. :)
Still not sure why licensing on a system that was licensed independently before merging to a group would go dead when connection to the cloud was severed for an extended period of time.
Is there any knowledge of the issue, or if this issue has been addressed in 5.0x vs. 4.x?
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Hi Matt Barber,
I checked the file you provided, and couldn't see anything related to the reported issue.
Do I understand, the issues resolved itself after you upgraded from 4.x to 5.0?There should be no difference in behavior in this regard.
If you like, I can transfer the topic, into a support ticket so we can check the system through TeamViewer?
Please let us know. -
I raised a ticket some time ago reporting this issue & had a technical reply.
I have not encountered the scenario yet on v5+, but assume the logic has not changed.My understanding is it is "by design" that when a merged server is offline & exceeds it's 30 day grace period, recording is disabled on all system servers - regardless of what server the licenses are on. The technical reply was logical & is summarised by [me] "it is due to inter-server transaction ordering becoming an issue".
The current work-around, as you mention, is to manually disable recording of cameras = to the number of offline licenses - ideally before the grace period expires - and de-activate / activate the licenses to an online server.License fail-over might be a relevant feature request to mitigate the issue.
Refer: ticket #28829 -
Hi Andrew Sharrem,
Allow me some time to check with our license team for the expected behavior.
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