Digi RealPorts Stop Working

Question

We have six Digi hardware devices in the field. Don't know their models - that is another group. I handle the software side. This weekend, 5 of the 6 Digi ports stopped communicating with the hardware. We use Vanguard to control our signs. I've stopped and started the Digi service on our Vanguard servers. Also rebooted our test Vanguard server. Anything else I should try or look for?

Additional info:
Remote hardware are Digi Transport WR44 R and Digi One SPs.

Server OS are Windows 2008 R2 SP1 64-bit OS.

I’m seeing this error on the test server:
System.Exception: A connection could not be established to display XXXXXXX). ---> System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the port 'COM15' is denied.

On the Prod server the error is:
System.Exception: A connection could not be established to display XXXXXXXX). ---> System.IO.IOException: A device attached to the system is not functioning.

Answer 1

Hi Pablo77,

If RealPort has stopped working on multiple devices then it is most likely a network issue.

The default port RealPort uses is TCP 771. I would log into the WR44R and confirm that you are seeing connections arriving on this port.

Answer 2

Hi..i am a new user here. As per my knowledge If you believe it is the WR router or the One SP not releasing the connection there are commands to do that.On the WR Router it is "gpstat". When you find the RealPort connection you can use "gpstat close x" where x is the ID number.On the One SP it *should* be "who" to list connections and then you should be able to use "kill x" where x is the current connection.

assy pcb

Comments

Thanks Ursa.  Nicholas also mention those. I've been experimenting with them in telnet. I've documented them for my crew so we'll use them in the future.

Answer 3

What we discovered was that for each of the signs having communication problems, the connections page showed there was a connection from our test Vanguard server. We tried the disconnect function repeatedly but it didn't work. We also tried rebooting the Digi device and that didn't kill the hung connection.

What worked was going to the test Vanguard server and:
1. Deleting the comm ports
2. Stopping the Daktronics and Digi services
3. Rebooting the server

Then the disconnect worked.

A co-worker said over the decades he has had problems with connections getting hung on COM ports and having to power down hardware and even remove batteries to free them.

It would be nice if Digi could enhance the disconnect command - something like the Unix kill -9.

Comments

Hi Pablo77,

If you believe it is the WR router or the One SP not releasing the connection there are commands to do that.

On the WR Router it is "gpstat".  When you find the RealPort connection you can use "gpstat close x" where x is the ID number.

On the One SP it *should* be "who" to list connections and then you should be able to use "kill x" where x is the current connection.

---

Nicholas,
To be honest, I don't know if it was the Digi or our server that not releasing the connection.

But I do appreciate these commands. We'll save them and use them the next time it happens.  Thanks!

Answer 4

FYI - We found out our backup software CommVault was finding the COM ports and causing the hung connections. We're going to investigate why that is happening and how to stop it.