Hey all,
First of all, thanks to HTPC Guides for all the hard work in creating this awesome resource!
I'm looking for some insight on how to troubleshoot a strange performance issue I've been seeing intermittently with a Pi 2 and the Home Media Server image.
Here's my setup:
- Raspberry Pi 2, default clock settings (no CPU/memory overclock configured), decent 2.5A/5V PSU.
- Pi is hard wired to router, Plex clients (Mac Mini, LG TV) all hard wired through powerline ethernet (these get about 200Mbit of throughput). Plex is streaming directly (no transcoding happening on the Pi)
- Pi microSD card (a class 10 sandisk 16GB card) imaged with the latest Home Media Server image from this site, with the these apps configured:
Plex
nzbget
CouchPotato
NFS
Samba
- 5TB HDD attached to pi for storage, formatted with ext4 and mounted through fstab with these parameters:
UUID=2b19b711-4a2c-4999-aa36-9d2a937d7a25 /mnt/usb ext4 defaults 0 0
I've had this configuration running for about 4-5 months.
After setting everything up, performance with all apps and plex was perfect. Plex clients load libraries and images without delay, it only takes a few seconds to begin a stream. Even when post-processing usenet downloads (A CPU intensive process), plex works without a hitch, as do all other applications.
Download rates with nzbget run at a consistent 11MB/sec, maxing out the 100Mbit ethernet of the Pi 2.
I regularly keep all applications (Plex, Sonarr) up to date through sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade.
About a month or so ago, the entire pi unit began to get intermittent periods of sluggishness that would not recover until the unit was rebooted. Downloads would intermittently drop to 1-2MB/sec average, Plex clients would become unwatchable (Plex Home Theater frequently would not detect libraries, and when it did buffering became frequent). Sonarr would freeze on the loading page.
Checking top output through SSH, nothing was bottlenecking either memory or CPU. The SSH session itself was very slow to respond to keyboard input.
Kernel messages don't show anything particularly out of the ordinary, just these few lines for 'kmmcd mmc_rescan' every so often (Googling these doesn't lead to anything out of the ordinary):
Jan 16 00:16:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82441.138419] Workqueue: kmmcd mmc_rescan
Jan 16 00:16:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82441.142758] [<8055b4d4>] (__schedule) from [<8055b9a4>] (schedule+0x4c/0xa4)
Jan 16 00:16:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82441.149928] [<8055b9a4>] (schedule) from [<80424c4c>] (__mmc_claim_host+0xb0/0x198)
Jan 16 00:16:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82441.158404] [<80424c4c>] (__mmc_claim_host) from [<80424d54>] (mmc_get_card+0x20/0x24)
Jan 16 00:16:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82441.166693] [<80424d54>] (mmc_get_card) from [<8042c1f0>] (mmc_sd_detect+0x2c/0x80)
Jan 16 00:16:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82441.174894] [<8042c1f0>] (mmc_sd_detect) from [<804270bc>] (mmc_rescan+0xc8/0x324)
Jan 16 00:16:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82441.182947] [<804270bc>] (mmc_rescan) from [<8003cbf0>] (process_one_work+0x12c/0x440)
Jan 16 00:16:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82441.191044] [<8003cbf0>] (process_one_work) from [<8003cf48>] (worker_thread+0x44/0x4c8)
Jan 16 00:16:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82441.200007] [<8003cf48>] (worker_thread) from [<800424e0>] (kthread+0xe8/0x104)
Jan 16 00:16:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82441.207687] [<800424e0>] (kthread) from [<8000fa58>] (ret_from_fork+0x14/0x3c)
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.289381] kworker/u8:0 D 8055b4d4 0 13523 2 0x00000000
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.310519] Workqueue: kmmcd mmc_rescan
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.329226] [<8055b4d4>] (__schedule) from [<8055b9a4>] (schedule+0x4c/0xa4)
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.351033] [<8055b9a4>] (schedule) from [<80424c4c>] (__mmc_claim_host+0xb0/0x198)
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.387984] [<80424c4c>] (__mmc_claim_host) from [<80424d54>] (mmc_get_card+0x20/0x24)
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.426167] [<80424d54>] (mmc_get_card) from [<8042c1f0>] (mmc_sd_detect+0x2c/0x80)
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.464337] [<8042c1f0>] (mmc_sd_detect) from [<804270bc>] (mmc_rescan+0xc8/0x324)
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.502373] [<804270bc>] (mmc_rescan) from [<8003cbf0>] (process_one_work+0x12c/0x440)
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.540809] [<8003cbf0>] (process_one_work) from [<8003cf48>] (worker_thread+0x44/0x4c8)
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.579419] [<8003cf48>] (worker_thread) from [<800424e0>] (kthread+0xe8/0x104)
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.602054] [<800424e0>] (kthread) from [<8000fa58>] (ret_from_fork+0x14/0x3c)
I'm thinking something is stuck in the Linux kernel layer somewhere:
I don't think the issue is hardware (SD card is class 10 and PSU are good, and everything was working fine for several months)
The issue doesn't seem to be related to Plex or any other application, since all apps suffer the slow performance symptoms.
Likewise, the network is fine (other devices utilizing homeplug ethernet are OK, with low ping latencies and high, consistent throughputs).
Anybody else seen similar symptoms or have further troubleshooting suggestions? Perhaps an software package update broke something?
Again, the weird thing is that a reboot of the Pi fixes this for 1-2 days.
Thanks!
First of all, thanks to HTPC Guides for all the hard work in creating this awesome resource!
I'm looking for some insight on how to troubleshoot a strange performance issue I've been seeing intermittently with a Pi 2 and the Home Media Server image.
Here's my setup:
- Raspberry Pi 2, default clock settings (no CPU/memory overclock configured), decent 2.5A/5V PSU.
- Pi is hard wired to router, Plex clients (Mac Mini, LG TV) all hard wired through powerline ethernet (these get about 200Mbit of throughput). Plex is streaming directly (no transcoding happening on the Pi)
- Pi microSD card (a class 10 sandisk 16GB card) imaged with the latest Home Media Server image from this site, with the these apps configured:
Plex
nzbget
CouchPotato
NFS
Samba
- 5TB HDD attached to pi for storage, formatted with ext4 and mounted through fstab with these parameters:
UUID=2b19b711-4a2c-4999-aa36-9d2a937d7a25 /mnt/usb ext4 defaults 0 0
I've had this configuration running for about 4-5 months.
After setting everything up, performance with all apps and plex was perfect. Plex clients load libraries and images without delay, it only takes a few seconds to begin a stream. Even when post-processing usenet downloads (A CPU intensive process), plex works without a hitch, as do all other applications.
Download rates with nzbget run at a consistent 11MB/sec, maxing out the 100Mbit ethernet of the Pi 2.
I regularly keep all applications (Plex, Sonarr) up to date through sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade.
About a month or so ago, the entire pi unit began to get intermittent periods of sluggishness that would not recover until the unit was rebooted. Downloads would intermittently drop to 1-2MB/sec average, Plex clients would become unwatchable (Plex Home Theater frequently would not detect libraries, and when it did buffering became frequent). Sonarr would freeze on the loading page.
Checking top output through SSH, nothing was bottlenecking either memory or CPU. The SSH session itself was very slow to respond to keyboard input.
Kernel messages don't show anything particularly out of the ordinary, just these few lines for 'kmmcd mmc_rescan' every so often (Googling these doesn't lead to anything out of the ordinary):
Jan 16 00:16:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82441.138419] Workqueue: kmmcd mmc_rescan
Jan 16 00:16:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82441.142758] [<8055b4d4>] (__schedule) from [<8055b9a4>] (schedule+0x4c/0xa4)
Jan 16 00:16:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82441.149928] [<8055b9a4>] (schedule) from [<80424c4c>] (__mmc_claim_host+0xb0/0x198)
Jan 16 00:16:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82441.158404] [<80424c4c>] (__mmc_claim_host) from [<80424d54>] (mmc_get_card+0x20/0x24)
Jan 16 00:16:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82441.166693] [<80424d54>] (mmc_get_card) from [<8042c1f0>] (mmc_sd_detect+0x2c/0x80)
Jan 16 00:16:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82441.174894] [<8042c1f0>] (mmc_sd_detect) from [<804270bc>] (mmc_rescan+0xc8/0x324)
Jan 16 00:16:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82441.182947] [<804270bc>] (mmc_rescan) from [<8003cbf0>] (process_one_work+0x12c/0x440)
Jan 16 00:16:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82441.191044] [<8003cbf0>] (process_one_work) from [<8003cf48>] (worker_thread+0x44/0x4c8)
Jan 16 00:16:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82441.200007] [<8003cf48>] (worker_thread) from [<800424e0>] (kthread+0xe8/0x104)
Jan 16 00:16:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82441.207687] [<800424e0>] (kthread) from [<8000fa58>] (ret_from_fork+0x14/0x3c)
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.289381] kworker/u8:0 D 8055b4d4 0 13523 2 0x00000000
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.310519] Workqueue: kmmcd mmc_rescan
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.329226] [<8055b4d4>] (__schedule) from [<8055b9a4>] (schedule+0x4c/0xa4)
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.351033] [<8055b9a4>] (schedule) from [<80424c4c>] (__mmc_claim_host+0xb0/0x198)
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.387984] [<80424c4c>] (__mmc_claim_host) from [<80424d54>] (mmc_get_card+0x20/0x24)
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.426167] [<80424d54>] (mmc_get_card) from [<8042c1f0>] (mmc_sd_detect+0x2c/0x80)
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.464337] [<8042c1f0>] (mmc_sd_detect) from [<804270bc>] (mmc_rescan+0xc8/0x324)
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.502373] [<804270bc>] (mmc_rescan) from [<8003cbf0>] (process_one_work+0x12c/0x440)
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.540809] [<8003cbf0>] (process_one_work) from [<8003cf48>] (worker_thread+0x44/0x4c8)
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.579419] [<8003cf48>] (worker_thread) from [<800424e0>] (kthread+0xe8/0x104)
Jan 16 00:18:41 raspberrypi kernel: [82561.602054] [<800424e0>] (kthread) from [<8000fa58>] (ret_from_fork+0x14/0x3c)
I'm thinking something is stuck in the Linux kernel layer somewhere:
I don't think the issue is hardware (SD card is class 10 and PSU are good, and everything was working fine for several months)
The issue doesn't seem to be related to Plex or any other application, since all apps suffer the slow performance symptoms.
Likewise, the network is fine (other devices utilizing homeplug ethernet are OK, with low ping latencies and high, consistent throughputs).
Anybody else seen similar symptoms or have further troubleshooting suggestions? Perhaps an software package update broke something?
Again, the weird thing is that a reboot of the Pi fixes this for 1-2 days.
Thanks!