Suddenly Mezzmo Server Is Running Something, Eating Up Computer's Resources?

[notneb]

I have been an authorized user of Mezzmo Pro for many years, and have been very satisfied with it's service.
Over the past several weeks, I will hear my Windows 10 pc busily running something?? Each time I look in Task Manager, it is the Mezzmo process reporting VERY HIGH (in the RED) CPU usage!
I enabled diagnostic logging yesterday. This morning, I heard it happening again. This time I stopped the process. The only sizeable file in the log is the 2021-08-15-20-57-20-MezzmoMediaService.txt, and it is already 261,660 KB. I don't know what to look for in the file.
In my setup, I have all transcoding, as well as any internet downloading of anything turned OFF! I only stream my computers raw files, using tiles that are embedded in the video and audio files on my pc.

I've been trying to attach only that one "2021-08-15-20-57-20-MezzmoMediaService.txt" file to this thread, however, I'm guessing that it must be larger than your server will allow. It never finishes, and when it appears to, nothing is in the upload box?? And, that is after only 12 hours of logging??? Additionally, I don't believe that I have actually streamed anything during those 12 hours, either? The server has simply been ON.

1316

Regards,
Keith

[Peter]

From the portion of the log it looks like the TV is browsing a playlist of over 6000 items and getting 30 items at a time so this could consume CPU resources as Mezzmo will try to respond as quickly as possible. You can add the log file to a zip which should reduce the size significantly. Please also check in the status pane of Mezzmo to see if there are any system tasks in progress.

[notneb]

Thanks Peter,
Yes, I do have a giant music collection that I stream to my surround system using the TV. The music alone active in my Mezzmo library is currently 486GB.

The average overall size of the libraries hasn’t changed much though throughout the years. Different TV’s, Blu-ray players, etc., but always Mezzmo, since 2013. The current TV and Blu-ray player are about 5 years old.

When I discovered that the CPU usage was Mezzmo, I did have time to open it. The status pane had the usual library update in process, but it quickly finished, leaving only “Information: Logging turned on” remaining. I stopped the media server, and began looking through settings. I’m guessing 20 seconds before the CPU returned to normal.

Two hours ago, the Logs file had continued growing, and had reached 500MG in size, and I still hadn’t restarted the server. I decided to Clear the Plugin Cache, Clear the Log Files, and then started the server. Nothing abnormal happened, so I then watched a 1-hour long TV episode (streaming from the PC),

It has been about 3-hours now since Clearing the Log Files, and they are now 50MG. Not as fast of growth as before, but still growing. Streaming the episode worked smoothly, and I have not noticed any CPU problems.

I am hopeful that it won’t happen again (positive thoughts), but if it does, logging will be enabled, and I’ll promptly return to report it.

If you think of anything else I should check, or would like me to do something particular when it happens again, please let me know.

[notneb]

Well Peter, all my wishful thinking didn’t help.
When I went to bed on the 17th, I left the server ON, and put the computer into Sleep Mode.

I was woken about 5am by the sound of the CPU running like crazy. I stopped the media server, and was attempting to copy the “Logs” folder. Unfortunately I was too groggy and subsequently erased it instead! At that point the CPU went back to normal. So unfortunately I didn’t get a Logs folder with only the CPU run? I realized that my wife was already awake, and had turned on the TV, so that is apparently what woke the PC.

It happened again in the afternoon on the 17th. I caught it quickly this time.

I checked Wi-Fi settings, and the adapter’s “Allow this device to wake up the computer” was indeed already un-checked. Under the adapter’s advanced options I decided to disable the 3 entries that start with “Wake on…”. Not sure what they do, but they said wake, so I disabled them. Then I restarted the PC (Restart does Start the Media Server).

I put the PC back into Sleep Mode, and then later turned on the TV, to attempt to recreate the situation. It did NOT happen again???

I considered uninstalling the last Windows Update. I think, however, if this was caused by the last Windows update that I would not be the only person posting here.

Anyway, it is now noon on the 18th, and everything has been normal since the adapter change and Restart. The PC stayed in sleep mode all night. The Logs folder is large, but appears to be the same entries as before.

I did notice that the “2021-08-17-22-43-10-Mezzmo.txt” file, which is now 510KB, show to be adding profiles for a LOT of TV’s and Blu-ray players. My 3 are indeed on the list, but there are MANY more it is setting up that I have never owned. I would rather not post that file here publically, as it has some personal info.

[notneb]

Oh, well. It happened again... I sent a zip copy of the "Logs" folder to you at support@conceiva.com

[Peter]

The logs show the TV is browsing the entire library folder by folder so this is causing a lot of work for the server. If you have the app on the TV set to sort the contents of the server this may cause it to try and load all the content first and then sort it so you can try turning off sorting if it is set.

[GDragoN]

I have very similar problem. My library only has movies and TV series, a total of 5TB, no music or photos. My computer running Mezzmo is 4 core 8 threads Ryzen 5 2600G, and it doesn't run almost anything other than Mezzmo. My Mezzmo is configured never to transcode anything, so it only serves the files as is; I have even disabled (removed file) FFMPEG, so Mezzmo doesn't generate thumbnails or anything. And, my library is more or less the same size for the past 2 years, and the CPU overload started happening 5-6 months ago, and it mostly follows the same scenario:

1. It usually happens when streaming 2160p files, and in some cases, 1080p files.
2. Process MezzmoMediaServer.exe usually (even when streaming file) uses 1-3% CPU load. But, when the problem happens, it jumps to 12-13% (1 CPU core).
3. On TV, where I watch, the play stops, and the loading animation is spinning. After 10-15 seconds, it continues, working for a minute or two, and again it stops.
4. I then need to manually kill the MezzmoMediaServer.exe process, wait for Mezzmo to start it again, and start the movie again.
5. Now everything works fine, and it continues to work fine for the next day or two and starts all over.

Now, I do have other devices connecting to Mezzmo, but the problem happens either way: only one device, or multiple devices are connected in the same time. And, again, Mezzmo doesn't transcode anything, it only serves the files requested. When everything works OK, I tested with 6 devices connected, MezzmoMediaServer.exe CPU usage never goes over 4%.

Last few months I have to restart Mezzmo server almost every day, and most of the time in the middle of watching something.

Milan

[jbinkley60]

Out of curiosity, what are the client types you have connected to Mezzmo ?


Jeff

[GDragoN]

The main one is the LG TV UM7450PLA. I have had this TV for almost two years, and the problem I described began maybe 6 months ago. Other devices are Windows PC using VLC, Android devices using VLC, and one Android using KODI (I rarely use it; I can't remember the last time I used it). TV is used 90% of the time. And, yes, when the Mezzmo Server maxes out CPU usage, if I used Windows VLC, VLC crashes trying to recover the stream, Android VLC just stops until the Mezzmo recovers.

[jbinkley60]

I was asking because I had somewhat similar problems where my Kodi clients would hang with Mezzmo during playback. I didn't have to stop the server but I would have to stop playback and it would take up 30 seconds before I could restart playback. The timeframe it started is about the same which makes me think it might be something Windows related. Ironically it stopped about 4 weeks ago which coincides with my Windows patching schedule and some Kodi upgrades. I am running Windows 21H1 OS Build 9043.1165 on my Mezzmo server. Just curious what you are running ?


Jeff

[GDragoN]

My OS is Windows 10 21H1 19043.1110. And, I have not used KODI for at least 3-4 months (the Android box using it is not even connected right now).

[Peter]

Possibly there is a device on the network that is sending a lot of UPnP traffic or your PC has a program with a lot of UPnP traffic. Please try disabling UPnP on your router. It could also be the duplex mode of the network adapter, please check to make sure that the network adapter is set to run in full duplex mode.

[GDragoN]

Since TV doesn't browse the Mezzmo on it's own, I also thought something is sending Mezzmo a lot of traffic. So, for 2 days I had computer and TV put into isolated network, no other devices, and even no internet access. And, after less then a full day, and several played files, once again Server CPU usage spiked, and only after killing the process it returned to normal. I have no idea what is causing this, but using Mezzmo has become increasingly difficult for me.

I only have few devices allowed to Mezzmo, and very rarely I have two of my devices connected to Mezzmo at the same time, let alone more. And, the crash happens if one or two or more devices are accessing, it doesn't matter how many devices, and for most of the crashes it was only one device accessing. So if the crash happens when only one device is active on Mezzmo, it is not abnormal traffic to blame.

[Peter]

The original issue was high CPU usage, is the server now crashing when this situation happens?

[ftanner]

I'm not trying to discount anything in this thread, just posting my experience....

I am not experiencing the runaway process issue that is being experienced here. For reference, I have about 4,300 movies, about 30ish thousand songs, and about 11,500ish TV episodes. My average "non-utilization" CPU percentage for the Mezzmo Media Service is less than 3%. My non-utilization, I mean when I am not streaming anything.

Is there anything that I can do to provide a compare and contrast with his issues in order to help troubleshoot this?

[GDragoN]

The original issue was high CPU usage, is the server now crashing when this situation happens?

Sorry about that, it doesn't crash, it just uses 100% CPU for one core (it is not a multithreaded process). It doesn't go back to normal levels until I kill the process. That is the same as crashing for me because the only way to solve it is to kill the process and start it again. Also, while that happens, I can stream without issues files of small total size (under 100MB), most likely due to some caching. Any other file freezes every 30-40 seconds during playback, freeze lasts for 20-30 seconds, continues playing for another 30-40 seconds, freezes again, and so on. And, as I mentioned, I don't use transcoding at all, it is completely disabled for all file types and codecs.

[Peter]

Can you please check if the network card is running in full duplex mode? http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?id=reduce_video_stuttering#your_home_netw ork
Windows may be adjusting the tcp send buffer and Mezzmo is waiting so send data so the message queue is spinning its wheels while waiting for the buffer to signal it is ready to send. This has caused issues for other users.

[GDragoN]

Can you please check if the network card is running in full duplex mode? http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?id=reduce_video_stuttering#your_home_netw ork
Windows may be adjusting the tcp send buffer and Mezzmo is waiting so send data so the message queue is spinning its wheels while waiting for the buffer to signal it is ready to send. This has caused issues for other users.

I tested this for the past 10 days, and nothing has improved, same issues happen still.

[Peter]

So the network card is running in full duplex and the problem still occurs? Can you please right-click on a file where this occurs in Mezzmo and select 'Get FFmpeg Information' then copy and paste it into a post so we can see the details of a the file?