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Author Topic: Leave the machine on or off at the end of the night? Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 05-02-2011 11:58 PM                     With the memory leak issues and what-not, since all these major server manufacturers have been using linux I wonder why they haven't built in support for kexec, which would give them the ability to "restart" the OS without physically rebooting the hardware. It's a part of the linux kernel that lets you automatically load any kernel of your choice with any settings you want that would normally be thrown in your bootloader. So all the HW keeps running, which makes them not all that prone to failure from being shut down all the time while having all parts of the OS reloaded, which avoids all the leak issues. And this speeds up the reboot cycle as you avoid having to wait for it to load the BIOS and such.  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 05-03-2011 12:22 AM                        Generally speaking, it's not the kernel that's at fault with regard to such things as memory leaks. I don't know enough about how cinema servers work to be able to provide citations, but the standard Linux kernel (defined as Linus Torvald's official kernel found at kernel.org) is pretty solid unless someone who doesn't know what he's doing has added some wonky proprietary drivers to it. That's not beyond the realm of possibility, though most programs run in userspace so they don't and can't affect the kernel. The fundamental design of Linux as a multi-user operating system means that as a user the worst you can do is crash your own session but the rest of the system should keep on ticking. I was somewhat surprised to see that my cinema server runs Fedora Core 5; that distribution is quite out-of-date as it was originally released in 2006 and official support (bugfixes, etc) are generally available for only about 13 months for each Fedora release. The current version of Fedora available today is 14 and 15 will be released later this month, so as you can see Fedora is a fast-moving distribution that's intended to include the cutting-edge of Linux technology -- it's not generally recommended for situations where you require long-term operation such as servers. It's more-or-less a test-bed for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. I personally use Centos (a free version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux). RHEL and its clones (Centos and Scientific Linux being the most well-known) are intended for use in data centers and the like and would, in my opinion, be a better fit for use in applications like cinema servers than Fedora. The folks who have to support these things could then take advantage of bug fixes and enhancements provided by Red Hat instead of having to roll-their-own. But what do I know...  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-03-2011 08:06 AM                     quote: Chris Slycord I wonder why they haven't built in support for kexec, which would give them the ability to "restart" the OS without physically rebooting the hardware. A couple of the servers out there can with the correct key commands...  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 05-03-2011 11:24 AM                     Dolby's definitely can reboot without power cycling. -Steve  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 05-03-2011 01:06 PM                     Nevermind then. Guess at least dolby has fixed that. quote: Frank Cox I was somewhat surprised to see that my cinema server runs Fedora Core 5; that distribution is quite out-of-date as it was originally released in 2006 and official support (bugfixes, etc) are generally available for only about 13 months for each Fedora release. Personally, I'd be more surprised if they'd used anything up-to-date considering that this would make them susceptible to issues arising from linux being a bit of a "moving target."  |  IP: Logged Dominic Espinosa Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1172 From: California, U.S.A. Registered: Jan 2004 posted 05-10-2011 05:50 PM                     Heh. We run Sony. And as such cannot turn them off. So they sit there munching dust all night long. In addition to the server rack and the preshow players. Even though our booth receives filtered air from the HVAC and all doors are shut we still for some reason have to remove popcorn oil accumulated on the PRD and LRD quite frequently. This is of course not covered by the Sony service plan since they probably knew it was a manufacturing flaw (the agreement specifically goes out of its way to say this). The problem I think its poorly constructed intake. The filters don't seem to catch ANY of the crud that builds up in the optical block. Not to mention all the dirt and crap in the power supply, which is NOT filtered. But I still love 'em!  |  IP: Logged Jo Mostert Film Handler Posts: 8 From: Leut Maasmechelen Belgium Registered: Apr 2011 posted 05-31-2011 06:42 PM                     I switch evertything off. All the lights in my building (except the neon's), all my projectors, all the servers, except the main server, and the main servers for the rest of the computer system. Reasons? I'm used to it. Didn't ever question that habbit. Saving energy. The dust-'n-dirt-issue. A computer of projector that's off doesn't collect filthy stuff.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 06-01-2011 04:21 AM                     If you're dumping everything down each night, you could face a chance of loosing the software and settings that the projector needs to communicate with the server being just flash memory within the projector.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-01-2011 08:39 PM                     Why would that happen Monte? Most of that stuff is stored on non-volitale memory in projectors which doesn't loose it's internal charge if power is removed. I am not sure what you're getting at here. The only thing I have recently learned is that older ROM chips do have a finite life span and the stored program can become corrupt. That has happened in some Hewlett PAckard test equipment that I know of. Re-programming those same old ROMs with a new image puts em right back like new for about 25 years. For now all my sites that are non vpf shut down completely every night... no one looses settings unless a module fails... We're not dealing with PC motherboards in the projectors... In the servers most use commonly available server motherboards and interestingly the two leading server companies use almost the same Super Micro server motherboard but in quite different arrangements! Mark  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 06-01-2011 09:47 PM                    The only issue I have encountered so far is when I did a reboot I lost the lens file for focus and I had to re-focus and save the files. We leave everything on projectors and servers per company requirements. (They do remote updates on the servers)  |  IP: Logged Ken Lackner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1907 From: Atlanta, GA, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 06-02-2011 11:46 AM                     quote: Mark Gulbrandsen For now all my sites that are non vpf shut down completely every night. What do VPFs have to do with shutting down at night or running 24/7?  |  IP: Logged Kris Verhanneman Expert Film Handler Posts: 182 From: Belgium Registered: Dec 2009 posted 06-02-2011 12:13 PM                     At night they collect the log files or run updates on server / projector.  |  IP: Logged Ken Lackner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1907 From: Atlanta, GA, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 06-02-2011 02:34 PM                     I get that those are reasons to keep the equipment on at night, but wouldn't it be up to the exhibitor or whichever NOC they use to perform those tasks, regardless of whether the exhibitor collects VPFs?  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-03-2011 09:00 AM                     The projectors can go into standby during off hours since the NOC can power them up or down from that state. And... since all of the equipment I use has air intake filters I don't have to worry about sucking in a lot of dirt. I put the servers on rack slides to make changing it's filters a breeze... pun intended! Mark  |  IP: Logged

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