3 Replies Latest reply: Jul 23, 2009 6:40 AM by fmeuser RSS

    FMLE Program Freezes when Many Viewers Connect

    mrwizzer2 Community Member

      We're trying to move over to using Flash Media Server 3.5 and Flash Media Live Encoder for our webcasts.   I've got a nice application built that has full DVR functionality, etc., and it works wonderfully when I test it by connecting to the stream on three or four computers.

       

      But when we have more users connect, (up to around 100 connections), FMLE freezes, the program stops responding, and I have to restart the PC.

       

      The Flash Media Server seems to be fine, not breaking a sweat, (at this moment we have 1500 simultaneous users connected), but the Flash Media Live Encoder seems to be where the problem is. 

       

      Has anyone run into this before?  I wouldn't have thought the number of connections would have any impact on the FMLE, but apparently it does.

       

      We started off with multiple streaming of three streams at 100, 256 and 512kbps.  When that crashed, we went to a single 200kbps stream, and that seemed to work better, as we were successfully streaming for about ten minutes, but then, it froze again.

       

      The image source is coming through a Video Toaster, which is on the same computer.  Could that be part of the problem?  I'm grasping at straws at this point, so any input would be greatly appreciated.

        • 1. Re: FMLE Program Freezes when Many Viewers Connect
          fmeuser Community Member

          Number of connections to FMS has no correlation with FMLE performance. The problem should be somewhere else. Please share your system configuration on which you are running FMLE. Please also note down the CPU usage while FMLE is getting frozen. What kind of device setup are you using, please explain a bit about it. With less number of connections how long FMLE has been running without any problems. Please also share the FMLE session log file (by default created inside MyVideos directory).

          • 2. Re: FMLE Program Freezes when Many Viewers Connect
            mrwizzer2 Community Member

            Thanks for your help.  Here are some answers to your questions:

             

            Running Windows XP, Pro Version 2002, Service Pack 2 on an Intel Xeon

            5160 @ 3GHz

            2.99 Ghz, 2GB Ram

             

            We're running Video Toaster on the same PC to provide the video content for the live webcasts.

             

            Unfortunately, I can't make it misbehave without scores of people connected, so I can't tell you what the CPU usage is when it's acting up, but I can tell you that CPU usage is up to 85% when it is working, (and that number didn't include an audio signal).

             

            We ran a test (albeit limited movement - just a clock ticking) for several hours with no problems.

             

            Attached are the FMLE session log files from that fateful morning.  ; )

             

            Thanks!

            • 3. Re: FMLE Program Freezes when Many Viewers Connect
              fmeuser Community Member

              85% cpu is on the higher side. 70-75% is on the safer side. Devices could give data with incorrect timestamps if not much cpu is available. I would suggest you to use a higher power machine and ensure that usage doesn't go above 75%. You can also experiment with vp6 and h264, both consume different amount of cpu.

               

              Secondly, If the bandwidth is congested between FMLE and FMS, FMLE will not be able to push data at the same rate. When more number of users connect, what was the bandwidth usage? If FMLE can't push the data, rtmp buffer length and its memory usage will also increase. You can watch the rtmp buffer lenght in the FMLE stats window. Please also check the memory usage next time when FMLE freezes.

               

              You are using 3.0 version. Please upgrade to 3.0.1 and try the above suggestions.