Strange communication problem between ISY and Admin Console

[eataft]

I have occasionally encountered a strange communication problem between the ISY-99i and the Administrative Console. When started up, the Admin Console fails to display the status of any device, either in the My Lighting summary or in the individual device screens. When I issue On and Off commands from the Admin Console, the devices respond correctly, but their status still doesn't show up on the screen. No error messages appear on the screen or in any log file.

 

The ISY itself is functioning normally -- timers, programs, etc., execute as they should. Furthermore, if I connect to the ISY with my browser and look at Devices or Scenes, the device status is displayed correctly. It is only the Admin Console that is having a problem.

 

This problem occurs only upon startup of the Admin Console. It is an all-or-nothing thing -- either none of the devices or all of the devices have their status displayed. Once it has been started and has successfully displayed status of the devices, it works solidly during sessions lasting hours or days.

 

This suggests to me that there is a software or configuration problem affecting the startup of communication between the ISY and the Java-based Admin Console running on my PC. When this happens, I have tried many things -- restarted the ISY and PLM, cleared the Java cache, restarted my PC, etc. Eventually, the problem goes away, but not as a result of any particular action.

 

Details: ISY-99i/IR Pro running firmware 3.2.6.

Java Runtime is current (1.7 and 1.6 installed).

PC runs Windows 7 x64 SP1.

 

I'm open to suggestions about how to troubleshoot this problem next time it occurs.

[LeeG]

Usually restarting the Admin Console will establish a session where the ISY is able to push data to the Admin Console. It seems to happen here when the Admin Console is slow to start because of other system activity although that is only speculation at this point. If you have the Pro version the last two Icons on the right associated with holding updates and RF device updates do not display when this happens. Try just ending and invoking the Admin Console again without doing anything else.

[eataft]

Not sure what you mean by "the last two icons on the right". Are you talking about the system status bar at the bottom, where Ready / System Busy appear? If so, I see no other icons. If these icons are in some other place, please tell me where to look. My ISY is an ISY-99i/IR Pro, if that is what you mean by "Pro version".

 

Repeatedly restarting the Admin Console does eventually resolve the problem, after an unpredictable number of tries.

 

Looking at the system status bar has revealed another clue. When the Admin Console is behaving normally, the system status flips momentarily to System Busy and then back to Ready whenever I invoke a command. When the Admin Console is behaving abnormally, the status stays continuously Ready.

 

I have discovered one other interesting clue. I also have the MobiLinc Portal integration installed, so that I can access the ISY from a smart phone running MobiLinc. When the Admin Console is behaving normally, MobiLinc works fine. When the Admin Console is behaving abnormally, MobiLinc fails to display any device status.

 

This suggests that some process in the ISY is failing to serve up device status to network clients, whether the client be the Admin Console or MobiLinc. This is in spite of the fact that device status is known internally and is available to a web browser client.

[LeeG]

You are absolutely correct that the ISY is not able to push data outbound. That is why the Admin Console does not see status changes nor does MobiLinc. Often this is the result of firewall/AV issues with Kaspersky and Avast but they tend to be absolute until the firewall/AV is configured to allow data from the ISY to its applications.

 

The Icons I mentioned are on line two of the Admin Console screen, below the line with File, Link Management, Tools, etc. The last two Icons do not appear when the Admin Console has not been able to establish an IP connection with the ISY. The lack of this connection prevents the ISY from pushing state change information to the Admin Console.

[eataft]

I thought about possible firewall or antivirus issues, but, as you say, the intermittent nature of the problem would seem to rule them out. I will continue to look into it, though.

 

As it turns out, there is another thread that already discusses the same issue: http://forum.universal-devices.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=9883. In that thread, there was a speculation that the problem was introduced in a recent beta release of the firmware. But I am observing it in the released 3.2.6 firmware.

 

Anyway, that thread gave some suggestions of other things to investigate. I will follow up and report on anything that I find. Thank you for your help.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello eataft,

 

Please do the following:

1. Go to http://www.universal-devices.com/99i/admin.jnlp ... this should bring up an ISY Finder dialog

2. In the dialog, click on the Add button and then enter the https URL for your ISY

3. Close everything

4. If step#1 didn't install an icon on your desktop, then redo #1. Otherwise, click on the icon and choose the https entry

 

If using https gives you better results, then the problem is certainly the firewall you have.

 

With kind regards,

Michel