invalid boot sequence

[Bob Ezra]

About 6 weeks ago the show stopped and an invalid boot sequence message appeared. I thought it was due to a brownout (uncommon here) since there were high winds.

Tonight when I tried to enter my "manager" pw to delete a cpl , I kept getting authenticaion error. I rebooted server and it worked, I thought maybe this was related to caps or num lock on the keyboard.

Then, the same night, the show stopped midway with the invalid boot sequence screen. I followed the prompts and restarted the show after manually relighting lamp (ups a lifesaver)

I generated a diagnostic report, sent it to Dolby, and I looked at it with Dolby Log Analyzer.

One thing that caught my eye was under the "storage " tab sdd:State: Error


The sdd was changed a few years ago to fix a different problem which it didn't fix.

Both led's on the PSU were green.


Any help appreciated

Thank you

[Pete Naples]

Which server?

[Brad Miller]

Let me guess, this is a Doremi 2000 or DCP-2K4 or ShowVault, right? If so, yup its time to change out the SSD. They do fail.

[Bob Ezra]

Showvault DCP 2K4. The SSD was changed out about 4 years ago.
Reneh from Dolby looked at the Diagnostic report and thought things looked good, not SSD.
Since the lamp was out, theory is a UPS glitch that cut power to the server and the Barco electronics
and then UPS recovered and booted up server and projector which were both on when I got up to the booth.

[Marcel Birgelen]

How does a power outage explain the login problems you had? To me, this still looks like a failing SSD.

[Bob Ezra]

Marcel

I'm thinking maybe I accidentally hit Numbers Lock on my keyboard and when typing the password there were numbers where there shouldn't be.

what comparable replacements are there for Tripplite UPS SMX1500 LCD?

[Marco Giustini]

If you server reported an SSD error, I wouldn't discard it even though the unit now works.

As a minimum you'd like to re-seat the SSD and its USB cable.

UPS might just need its battery replaced. Test it: unplug sensitive equipment from it and plug something that draws some energy but that can withstand a power cut. Now pull the UPS plug and see 1. if it works 2. how long the battery lasts.

[Elia Orselli]

If you server reported an SSD error, I wouldn't discard it even though the unit now works.

But he found an SDD error. And sdd is the 4th HDD in the raid

[Marco Giustini]

ahhhh of course! I misread!

Then discard my comment about the SSD and focus on the SDD

[Bob Ezra]

the battery icon on the Tripplite UPS SMX1500 LCD shows fully charged.
It is the version where the battery can't be replaced (no longer sold by tripplite)

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

the battery icon on the Tripplite UPS SMX1500 LCD shows fully charged.
It is the version where the battery can't be replaced (no longer sold by tripplite)

It actually can be replaced with a bit of research and effort. IIRC it is made up of multiple cells of a popular SLA wired in series. When you get a chance, pull the pack out and note the actual OEM part numbers on one of the cells. Then, simply go online and search said number. Order however many of those cells (I think it will be 4 in that model) from a vendor of your choice and rebuild the pack to suit.

You'll be back up and running with a fresh battery, and better yet, the knowledge to rebuild it again when needed.

Also agree the problem is a bad SSD in the server.

[Leo Enticknap]

But he found an SDD error. And sdd is the 4th HDD in the raid

The DCP-2K4 ships with only three drives in it by default. It is possible to put a fourth drive in bottom slot of the RAID cage and create a four-drive array, but it isn't as simple as re-initializing it from the VNC or web UI: you have to edit a configuration file and then reupload it via FTP using the root account, and then reboot the thing, before it will see the fourth drive. I had to do this a long time ago, but have forgotten the precise details. Of course it's possible that Bob's server has this fourth drive and that the reconfiguration has been done, but equally possible (IMHO) that this is a typo and that we're talking about the SSD.

As for the SSD boot volume going bad, there are two varieties of going bad: hardware failure of the flash drive itself, and the hardware being OK, but the data on it having gotten corrupted as the result of a chaotic powerdown during a write operation. Given that this thing will boot after a bit of prodding and that the drive is only four years old, I suspect the latter. It might be an idea for Bob to take a configuration backup file, then ask Dolby for an ISO image of the DCP-2K4 on its current software version (or capture one from the drive of another server, if he has one), pull the boot drive, burn this image using another PC, reinsert, boot, and then restore the settings backup. If there is no further trouble, I don't think we were looking at a hardware failure.

[Bob Ezra]

it was sdd error. Gary from Dolby, after looking at logs, thinks it is an external usb device causing the shut down. Mouse or keyboard. Stay tuned.

[Leo Enticknap]

Ahhhh ... that would explain it. There are some older servers that will try to boot from a USB drive if one is inserted, because that was how you put software updates in. These units come from the factory with the boot order set to USB first, then whatever it is supposed to boot from under normal circumstances (dedicated boot drive or a partition on a RAID). If the USB drive is not bootable, then the server completely hangs at that point. There was one customer to whom this happened so often that I put a large label on her DSS220 reading "UNPLUG ALL USB DRIVES IMMEDIATELY AFTER INGESTION," because there were frequent power brownouts and outages in her area, there was no UPS, and she would frequently arrive an hour before showtime to find the server hung up at the boot sequence.

[Marco Giustini]

the battery icon on the Tripplite UPS SMX1500 LCD shows fully charged.
It is the version where the battery can't be replaced (no longer sold by tripplite)

As Tony said, chances are the "pack" is made of a few regular batteries which you can buy very cheap on the market. Only downside is that you'll have to disassemble the existing pack and move the wires to the new one. (those are big batteries so you do that at your own risk).

The fact that the UPS shows a full battery does not mean that the battery works unfortunately. The only way to check is to do as I suggested.

BTW: the fact that a manufacturer "discontinues" a product which works perfectly fine and just needs some batteries to work again should be made ILLEGAL.