Frequent disconnection from Innuos Zen Mini Roon Core (ref#V8GFP3)

What’s happening?

· I am experiencing freezes or crashes

Describe the issue

Hello, I´m Using Innuos Zen Mini as Roon Core, nearly every day Roon loses contact ("..waiting to your roon server.."- "..choose another roon server..")

Describe your network setup

Innuos Zen Mini MK3 with PSU (Innuos as Roon Core)LAN connected to Melco S 100; Melco LAN connected to Fritz Repeater 3000; Fritz Repeater 3000 WIFI connected to AVM Fritz Box 7590; ROON Backup to Synology NAS which is LAN connected to Fritz Repeater (all same network)
the location of the Music folder which Roon is monitoring I don´t know exactly, maybe on the Zen or on the NAS? From the ZEN I could download Logs, if this will help you

The most likely cause of the issues is the Wifi link between the Fritz Repeatex and the Fritzbox. Ideally, your Roon Server should be connected to the router that manages your internet connection by wired ethernet (either directly to the router or via one or more network switches). See:

In particular, see the ‘For all networks section’.

I think that the best way to diagnose this is to go back to the most basic network configuration.

If you can move your Zen Mini and NAS Server, can you connect them directly to the Fritzbox using ordinary ethernet cables (even if you believe that this will degrade audio quality [I don’t], it is still worth doing this as a temporary test). If you can’t move your Zen Mini, then a long 25m or 50m CAT6 ethernet cable could be used to temporarily connect the Zen Mini to your Fritzbox elliminating all other equipement in the link.

If this paired down system works reliably, then you can try to re-introduce elements 1 bit at a time.

In this order:

  • Try, using the same cables, connecting the Zen Mini directly and the NAS directly to the Fritz Repeater (ie re-introduce WifI in to the internet ↔ Roon Server link). Does the fault re-appear? If so, the fault is likely the wifi link. Try using a different port on the Fritz repeater to check that it is not a failed port.
  • Try, using another standard ethernet cable, re-introducing the Melco S 100 switch. Does the fault re-appear? if so, then the fault is likely the Melco switch (or possibly the extra ethernet cable used). Try changing the ports used on the switch just in case one of the ports has failed.
  • If everything is still working, try going back to your original cables (assuming that you haven’t been using them in the previous steps). If the fault re-appears now, there is a fault with your cable.

When you have gone through this procedure, you should have a good idea as to whether or not you have a networking issue, and, if you do, where exactly it is and what to do to elliminate it.

Hello Wade_Oram,thank you for your answer.
The Innuos Zen connection to the Internet is ok, I think. I could reach the Innuos via IP adress the whole time. But the Innuos and Roon are losing connection and I think that there is a problem with the music library or my settings. (Innuos Zen is my Roon core also). The order of the errors is as follows:“waiting to your Roon Server”…“there is a problem loading music library… please restore a Backup…”. Then I restored the backup, Innuos Zen is connecting with Roon, I have to confirm my account and it works (for some time).
best regards, Ulrich

It still feels like it is most likely a network issue to me. There is a big difference between a network link of sufficient quality to maintain a connection and one of sufficient quality to maintain a streaming service - especially if you are using Roon to stream Qobuz/Tidal content.

Important: The Roon Server and any NAS you use to hold your local music library must be connected by wires. However, in your case, you state that your Zen Mini and the NAS are both connected to the Fritz Repeater, so that would appear to be the case.

Do the problems occur more often with Tidal/Qobuz streamed content? or local library content? or both? If it is Tidal/Qobuz cause issues significantly more than local library content, it would suggest that the Wifi link quality between the Fritz Box router and the Fritz Repeater may be the issue.

However, I also have to ask if you do any DSP?

The Zen Mini is not a very powerfull server being based around an Intel N4200 which has half the memory bandwidth and approximately a quarter of the single core (important for DSP) and multi-core performance of my i7-1165G7. OK, my server is probably over specified for anything other than the heaviest of DSP, but that is a huge difference in performance.

I believe the N4200 processor is below the recommended spec for a Roon Server. That is not to say that it won’t work. However, it may not be able to cope with the kinds of DSP operations that are possible on even the minimum recommended hardware:

If you do significant DSP, it may be struggling to keep up.

Finally, how big is your Roon Library (including local library content and streamed content)? The 8GByte of memory in the Innuos Zen Mini should be enough for small and moderate libraries but it may not be sufficient for the largest of libraries. If the Zen Mini runs out of memory (or even starts paging if that is appropriate), then the Roon Server application may crash or otherwise fail to keep up.

Hey @u.seufzer,

Welcome to the community!

You’re in great hands with @Wade_Oram - let us know your results to the above questions.

With that, it would be good to review a set of Roon Server logs from your Zen, please use the directions found here and send over a set of RoonServer logs to our File Uploader?

Hey Benjamin, logs sent. thanks, best regard

I connected Innuos Zen Mini MK3 with LAN cable directly to my FritzBox. It worked a few hours. But then it crashed again, music stops, Roon lost contact to server (Innuos Zen mini) and by myself searching Innuos via IP adress in a browser- no contact.

The blue lamp on the Innuos is still on, but a (short) press on the button will not shut off, so I have to switch off socket.

This scenario and the follows are same: a new „power on“ connects the Innuos to the internet but forces me to backup the Roon music library (from my Synology NAS) and then reconnect Roon to the Innuos Zen mini server.

Maybe your Innuos is the problem. They say that upsamplng could be a problem.

Hey @u.seufzer,

I wanted to check in on your status and see if you were able to review the mentions of DSP here?

If possible, are you able to set up a temporary Roon Server on a different machine, and test out using your current database?

I’d also consider reinstalling RoonOS on the Zen Mini in the meantime as well - be sure to save a fresh backup before doing so. Thank you! :+1:

Hey Benjamin,
I´m now testing Roon Server on a different machine like you advised. I´ll give you a feedback, soon. Thank you and best regards, Ulrich

Hey Benjamin,
with Roon on my Synology now - any suggestions with the settings for backups… when planing backup-folder in backup timeplan or reloading backup I will get a message like „failue loading folder“ / „unauthorized“ .
thanks and best regars, Ulrich

Hi @u.seufzer,
Can you share some screenshots of the paths you have tried and the errors you received?

Hi Daniel, I could solve the problem, thank you.

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