[mythtv-users] Shows Chopped Up and Long Queue of Comm Flag / Metadata Jobs

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Tue Aug 6 16:45:27 UTC 2013


On 08/06/2013 12:25 PM, Gary Buhrmaster wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at 2:36 PM, George Galt wrote:
> ....
>> In defense of process monitors, I run one not because myth is unreliable,
>> but because it is so reliable that it may take several days or more before I
>> notice it isn't running -- by which time I've missed a few of my wife's
>> favorite programs.  Since I don't watch TV every night (or sometimes for
>> more than a week, even when home), I can't otherwise monitor the system.  Do
>> you have any other suggestions if a process monitor isn't the preferred
>> strategy?
> Monitoring is not (itself) a bad thing.

But how you monitor--and how you interpret the tests the monitor 
performs--is very important.  In the past, there were monit-based 
monitoring scripts (along with other polling status scripts/widgets/...) 
that (together) hammered our backend status port in what basically 
amounted to a denial-of-service attack (because the little server we 
have wasn't designed for such heavy usage), and it affected parts of 
MythTV that were trying to use the backend services, and in some cases 
caused such a slow down that the monitoring script thought mythbackend 
had hung, so it would kill mythbackend and restart it.  We may do 
better, now, but I think you can still quite easily cause similar 
problems, especially when running these status scripts/widgets or 
whatever, along with the monitors.

>    However, what you do about
> a failure detection is important.

Definitely true, too.

That said, I have nothing against monitoring, when done properly, but I 
haven't found a need for it on my MythTV systems.  I prefer to 
concentrate on making my systems as rock-solid stable as possible and 
skimp on the monitoring.  That said, you'll probably see some "official" 
monitoring for MythTV in the future (and it's likely I'll be the one 
putting it--or at least the part that enables it--in place, even though 
I haven't needed it).

Mike


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