ISY 994 failure?

[drw]

Over the Thanksgiving week, my ISY failed. It quit issuing Insteon commands and could not be logged into over IP. My home IP network was working normally - I rebooted my router a couple of times to no avail. I was out of town so I could not observe the ISY any further. Upon returning, I found the ISY powered - the power LED was on but none of the other LEDS (error,memory,tx,rx) were lit - the power supply LED was lit.

 

The failure occurred in the evening and so my house was lit (24 hours a day) for several days while I was gone.

 

In order recover, I removed the ISY power for 15 seconds. The ISY rebooted and appeared to be normal - Insteon commands were being issued. I could log into the administrative console and all appeared well.

 

The last error logs are as follows for the last day of normal operation

(26 Nov was the day of the failure in the evening)

(30 Nov was the day I unpowered and rebooted the system)

 

Tue 2013/11/26 06:25:48 AM System -100 [DHCP] state=RENEW

Tue 2013/11/26 07:18:44 AM System -60006 n/a

Tue 2013/11/26 05:31:54 PM System -50010 mail.universal-devices.com

Tue 2013/11/26 05:38:05 PM System -100 [DHCP] state=RENEW

Tue 2013/11/26 08:43:28 PM System -170001 [Auth] 192.168.1.122:62073->80, Num=3

Sat 2013/11/30 06:20:53 PM System -5 Start

Sat 2013/11/30 06:21:00 PM System -170001 [Network] Established

Sat 2013/11/30 06:22:29 PM System -5012 26

Sat 2013/11/30 06:22:41 PM System -10 n/a

Sat 2013/11/30 06:43:41 PM System -5 Start

 

Is there anything of interest in this log that would tell us about the failure?

Should I be concerned about this ISY failing again?

I am using the last production version firmware (4.0.5).

I have been running an ISY (first an ISY 26 then an ISY 994i) for several years and have never had a failure like this before.

 

Further note, I devised a "fix". I put the ISY power supply on an independent timer that turns the ISY off at 5:00 AM and turns it back on at 5:01 AM - thus causing a reboot every day at 5 AM. I didn't really want to get into designing a watchdog timer that would check on the "health" of the ISY. This was a quick-and-dirty way to keep it going.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi drw,

 

I am so very sorry to hear.

 

If your ISY's firmware version is 4.0.5 and if you have Verizon FIOS or DirecTV, please upgrade to 4.1.0. It will surely fix the issue (Verizon and DirecTV bombard ISY with UPnP traffic thinking ISY is a media server!!!!).

 

If not, please send your Tools | Error Log to support@universal-devices.com.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[drw]

For the second time, my ISY 994i quit working a few days ago. It was not issuing Insteon commands and was unresponsive on the IP-side - I could not login to the admin console. Powering the ISY off and then on revived the system.

 

After the first occurrence, I changed the firmware to 4.1.0 as suggested. It is my understanding that some kind of media-server packets could possibly flood the ISY and cause the lockup. Version 4.1.0 fixes this?

 

I am not entirely sure that I have any "media-server" type devices. I have several media-consuming devices...AppleTV...Panasonic TV...blu-ray player. I do have a Silicon-dust network HDTV tuner which can send an HDTV stream out to a client (media server?). The only device that could be considered a "media-server" would be an Iomega NAS but the media capabilities are turned-off. I have no DirecTV equipment and I am not on Verizon FIOS. My ISP is AT&T Uverse. The problem roughly corresponds with a change to Uverse. I do not have Uverse TV service...I have the 2wire 3600HGV gateway. I don't use the router in the gateway...I am continuing to use my Asus RT-66AC router that I have used for some time.

 

As mentioned in a previous post...I have put the ISY on an external household timer that cycles the power every night...this gets the ISY working again. I would like to fix this problem because the nightly reboots cause me to lose variable storage. I have some furnace running values stored in variables and would like to be able to see them over a longer term than one day.

 

Is my ISY intermittent? Should I consider a replacement? Are there any error logs that I should consult?

[Xathros]

As mentioned in a previous post...I have put the ISY on an external household timer that cycles the power every night...this gets the ISY working again. I would like to fix this problem because the nightly reboots cause me to lose variable storage. I have some furnace running values stored in variables and would like to be able to see them over a longer term than one day.

 

Sorry, this is not an answer to the main problem - but - With your mvars, why not add:

 

$myMvar initTo $myMvar after each place you change the value of $myMvar. This way, you will survive the power cycle without data loss. This is what I do with all trackers and critical values.

 

On the main topic, your ISY should be rock solid. I would investigate the possibility of a bad power supply powering the ISY or problems with the AC line powering the ISY's supply.

 

-Xathros

[Teken]

I would also add a bad memory card or corrupt firmware can also cause erratic behaviour.

 

Teken . . .

 

 

Encrypted By: Phoenix Security Solutions

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello drw,

 

I am so very sorry to hear. Please do not put your ISY on a timer because, then, we will never ever be able to figure out what's causing the issue. At the moment, I do believe the problem is related to UPnP bombardment by media servers. Please do stay on 4.1.0 or even 4.1.2 and disable the timer so that we can address the root cause.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[drw]

Michel,

I will be happy to participate in any observations/experiments that you need to identify this problem. I have taken my ISY off the timer so it will be running continuously.

 

I assume assume you will want error logs immediately after a "freeze-up". Please let me know any other information that you need.

 

As I mentioned earlier, I recently changed from AT&T DSL service to Uverse service. I have no TV service from Uverse. I did have to change my modem/router to an AT&T provided 2wire 3600 HGV. I do not use the routing capability of this router - I continue to use my Asus router (which I have used for some time). The 2wire router does not appear to support UPnP - I can find no settings for it - and various forums seem to indicate that there is no UPnP support.

 

The first "freeze" occurred around Thanksgiving time before I changed internet providers - so perhaps the change is not a factor.

 

Also, I do have various "media" devices but I don't think they are media servers that would be emitting UPnP packets.