HouseBot

I was wondering what kind of uptimes everybody is getting?

Yesterday I had HB running for over 15 days but really had to restart since it was becoming noticeably slower compared to shorter uptimes. This may have something to do with the fast growing database over time.

I am running an XGA (1024x768) SWRemote with many panels and lots of script updated alphalists and other properties.

Also for some reason my RAM usage rises in time. I don't recall HB to have somekind of memory leak but something increases my mem usage.

So.. interested in: uptimes, small or large theme and the intensity of using the theme itself. (I use mine a lot)

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Nobody?
I am searching for clues why his happens so HB might benifit from it when used in a large system.

My uptimes are very long and typically on restart due to me adding/moving something or a power failure. The current uptime is 6 days (power failure) but before that it was 73 days. It has went as long as 1 year (on a differnt box but with similar config). I'm a little peculiar with how I build the HB servers though, Here's the current setup:

The current hardware is an old Compaq laptop - 1Ghz processor, 512mb of RAM. It has a fresh load of XP SP2 on a 16Gb Solid State Drive, with only essential drivers running (only 18 active processes without HB/winamp,SDM running). I found somewhere on the 'net instructions for loading the Enhanced Write Filter (EWF) from XPe and did that. I also run nothing on the box except HB, it's plugins, and Winamp. Once the box was in a working configuration, I froze the updates; no regular patches, no SP3, etc. I treat the box as if it is an appliance. The is no direct internet access to/from the box and regularly open shares. It is also the only 'real' Windows box on my network (all others are Mac's or Linux) and with the EWF there's no real need to have an antivirus client on it. The default admin shares have been disabled and there is only one very restricted share on the box for moving fines into HB.

For development- I run and identical copy of everything in a VIrtual machine (VMWare on a Macbook). Well, not entirely identical - the VM also has Visual Studio and some graphics development tools loaded. I do all of my testing for new ideas/plugins on the VM before I push it into the "production" environment.

My themes are small - only 5-6 panels now so nowhere near the size of yours. There are two defined SWremotes/themes - one for a 1024x768 dedicated touchpanel and one for 320x240 smartphones. I'm working on a web interface for my new iphone but it will be a while before that is ready.

I have plans to move everything completely to a HP5720 thin client that runs XPE. I have it and have been doing some testing, but I'm not sure if it's going to fill my needs. There is no IIS, no support for email though VBscript (outside of HB) and it seems a few other things may be missing from HPs build. All of those things are possible, but they have to be baked in to the build before it's deployed. Running the EWF no XP seems to give me almost the same results as XPE but with better support so I'm looking at replacing the tiny 1GB flash drive witht he 16Gb SSD from my current setup. There are two reason I considering the switch - the laptop won't restart after a power loss. It has a built-in UPS of sorts (the battery) but once it's drained and the laptop suspends, it won't wake up when the power returns. The other reason is a need for a fanless device and more USB ports.

If I can get everything sorted out, I'll be adding more devices back in and with more panels to go along with it. I'll let you know if anything changes with uptimes/reliability. Sorry that my setup/description probably doesn't help you much.

Terry

I have extremely long uptimes, measured in weeks or months.

Windows patches are the generally limiting factor in extended runtimes.

In an earlier version (v2.x), I had a 7 month stretch before I had to do a restart (I added another app).

My config is not simple, so I'm extremely impressed, HB is very, very stable.

Thanks for the replies. My HB runs on a server which also does all the other stuff like MS Office, Outlook, Downloading movies, playing media using meedio and recording TV etc.

Yesterday I changed the ffdshow codecs because the version I was running used up lots of memory. I guess that had something to do with my problems. However I still see a noticable slow down in the swremote performance when it stays maximized over time. I have discussed this in another thread as well. Simple fix is to restart my SWRemote during the night and have it start at the last opened panel. However I would like to know why this happens.

Uptimes of 73 days up to a year is impressive! Usually my uptimes are killed by restarts due to developping. I don't run windows updates anymore so no more resets due to that system.

My experience with SW remotes as been good (not quite as great as the server though), with weeks/months of uptimes for single controller.

My main controller is a Dell Axim (used be an X5, now an X51v) that stays on 24/7, sitting in its charging cradle. It's the main way I initiate complex system turn on /shutdown sequences, control lights and initiate major viewing or listening mode transitions (for all else I use my preamps remote and a source devices remote).

This talk of uptimes made me think of the old saw that development managers get asked during conferences:
“Would you get on a plane that will be controlled by software developed by your team?”

Luckily, I’ve had the pleasure of leading several teams where I’d gladly say Yes. Scott was on one of those teams, and the peer review of his work was stellar, as were the observed and measured results.

We’re all lucky that Scott is a stickler for quality and attention to detail. HouseBot is a single-author labor of love, and it shows. He has no QA, no Doc, and no support team (other than many of you who graciously share your knowledge on this forum), to do this, other than himself.
Yet every release has higher quality than I’ve observed from much larger and fleshed out organizations delivering similar scale product.

That HB is as bulletproof and functional (considering the complexities involved) as it is should amaze everyone
One of the reasons I stick with HB and trust the running of major parts of my home and my mega-buck A/V system to it is that the underlying design/build quality is excellent, and Scott’s commitment to this community is stellar.

OK, so it appears to possible to get good SWRemote uptimes. I am sure I don't so now I would like to get to the differences in use and/or setup.

I for one have many many indicators, dynamic images, alphalists that update through script used for displaying movie database, music, rss feeds, as well as logs from the alarm, AV equipment etc. I believe the problem lies somewhere in there. I am not sure if it is related in any way to the fast growing ms access database, but I don't think so because I regein all speed just with restarting the SWRemote and leaving the HB Server running. This doesn't vacuum the dbase it just restarts the swremote. I see the slowing down part happening over night. After about two full days where the swremote is maximized all the time, it becomes unworkably slow. When minimizing the theme everytime I don't use it, I can prolong the fast usage by days. So it has something to do with a cumulative maximized state.

Anyways, how heavy are you guys on status stuff like indicators, dynamic images property labels and alphalists in your theme?

I seem to always get hit by power. . . some of that is laziness though- the server is on the same outlet as my workshop, so when I try to plane something that is a little too thick. . .. reboot all. I have seen upwards of 50 days though.

I'm currently running 3.30, and I have seen my SW remote hang up a few times- it is running on an minimalistic Intermec touchscreen PC. Most of my interface is pretty straight-fwd, but I am running a complex jukebox UI.

JonFo wrote: We’re all lucky that Scott is a stickler for quality and attention to detail. HouseBot is a single-author labor of love, and it shows. He has no QA, no Doc, and no support team (other than many of you who graciously share your knowledge on this forum), to do this, other than himself.
Yet every release has higher quality than I’ve observed from much larger and fleshed out organizations delivering similar scale product.

That HB is as bulletproof and functional (considering the complexities involved) as it is should amaze everyone
One of the reasons I stick with HB and trust the running of major parts of my home and my mega-buck A/V system to it is that the underlying design/build quality is excellent, and Scott’s commitment to this community is stellar.

I very much agree with Jonathan's comment! My typical uptimes have been weeks and sometimes several months. The times where my uptimes are short are mostly caused by bugs in my own plugins .

One observation I have for you Richard is this. I've had much less luck and stability with my HTPC (used for playing back ripped video and such). It runs on a separate server and I did that intentionally. I lean in the same direction as Terry - my HB server is dedicated and I only make changes to it when absolutely necessary. It may be that you do have an HB-related issue but if at all possible it would be good if you could move your video playback (and other) duties to another computer.