Core Machine (Operating system/System info/Roon build number)
System (Core):
OS: Windows Server 2019 Standard (10.0.17763 build 17763)
Hardware: Xeon E5-2630L 32GB RAM
RoonServer: Ver 1.6 build 416 stable
Network Topology: Luxul AC3100 (XWR-3150v2), Cisco 2960G managed switch, Luxul 5 port desktop switch. All wired connections via Cat6 cabling.
Endpoints: Windows 10 Desktop with Roon remote attached to a Fostex HPA4 headphone amp (wired)
Windows 10 NUC with Roon remote connected to an AVR via HDMI (wired)
Raspberri pi with hifiberry dac/amp running Raspian lite and roonbridge (wireless)
Bluesound powernode (wireless)
I have quite a few other points, but these are the only points I have tested so far.
While streaming music from roon, audio periodically stops and all my endpoints dissappear for a bit. After a minute or so they return, but when I start playing music again the same issue occurs at least once every couple minutes. This happens using both music stored locally on my server and music streamed from Tidal. It does not matter which endpoint I am playing to, I have many (Detailed below with the network topology). I have tried restarting the RoonServer, rebooting the system it runs on, playing to different endpoints, and the same thing happens every time. I don’t have any other issues with services on my server like filesharing or using RDP to remote into it. I have been using this setup for many months now, and only recently started noticing issues.
I had less frequent but similar problems and this KB page helped a lot. I notice you have a managed switch, I had similar and enabling flow control seems to have been the key.
This kind of behavior can be attributed to a few things, I would suspect the network or the Core itself.
I have a few suggestions that may help you:
Since you are using managed switches, I would definitely check out the flow control settings that killdozer mentioned. If anything, the simplest test here would be to replace the managed switch with an unmanaged one and see if the issues go away, if they do you have found the culprit.
Windows Server 2016 by default has a “teredo tunneling pseudo interface” that can cause issues with Roon Remote connections, and it might be possible that Server 2019 has a similar behavior. It is suggested that this interface be disabled if not in use by going to device manager -> view -> “show hidden devices” and disabling it under the Network Adapters section. This aspect is also mentioned in our networking best practices.
Since you are using a Luxul router, I would make sure that multicast is properly passing through. This can also be tested similar to point #1, in that if you have another router that you can temporarily use and it does not exhibit this behavior, we know at which piece of equipment to look closer at. I have seen reports that enabling IGMP Snooping may sometimes help, but if at all possible to temporarily replace with a standard consumer-grade router (Netgear/TP-Link/ASUS/ect.) and the issues go away it will be a great data point.
Update: I wanted simplify things for testing of the issue. Since my managed switch was only connected to one endpoint, I temporarily disconnected my switch from the network. Therefore, now all connections are passing through the luxul router. The cut outs still happen intermittently. The server and the endpoint (my desktop) are connected via ethernet to the router. Based on this, I don’t want to rule out the router; however, the last time there was any firmware update around 1/24/219 and settings have not been changed on the router in the past few months, and everything was working perfectly until a couple of days ago.
Also, upon checking, Server 2019 has no “teredo tunneling psydo interface” network adapter installed. I have also disabled the windows firewall on both machines temporarily.
Thank you for running those tests. We have a few other options to try next:
Can you confirm that you are not running any VPN software or other firewall blocking applications on the Core? Apps such as Norton/McAFee/Little Snitch/Bullguard have caused similar symptoms in the past, so I would double check this aspect.
We can try to see if this behavior carries over on a fresh Roon installation. To perform this test, can you please follow the below instructions?
Make a Backup of your current Roon Database (using Roon’s backup manager)
Thanks for giving my suggestions a try. I wonder if perhaps the Luxel does not have multicast configured properly or if the Core itself is exhibiting these symptoms. I have two follow-up tests that we can perform here:
If you by any chance have another PC around the house which you can use to temporarily host the Roon core on, can you confirm if the behavior is the same? This will allow us to better separate the Core from being an issue here.
Likewise, if you have another router that you can temporarily use and have the Core + Endpoints connected to it, we would have another great data point.
Can you please let me know the exact local time + date in your country this behavior next occurs? I would like to start tracking a few of these occurrences in case we need to look at diagnostics down the line.
I migrated the core to my desktop pc (although the music source is coming from the network storage on the original machine). I ran music to my stereo pair of bluesound pulse flex speakers for a couple hours last night without a single drop out. So far this morning I have been playing music grouped to four different zoned (2 bluesound, 1 raspberry pi, and the local desktop) and have yet to experience an issue, which would happen about every minute or so of playback while using the original core…
My desktop is running windows 10 pro, a ryzen 7 2700x and 64 gb of RAM. It is connected via wire to my router (same as the original core). I also switched Ethernet ports after there was no issue on the off chance that the port itself the original core uses was malfunctioning.
Thanks for running that test. This clarifies that the issue is limited to the original Core and not the network or endpoints. We should next take a look to see what differentiates the original core from the new one. I have a few followup thoughts here:
It is possible that an antivirus or other type of firewall is blocking Roon from communicating properly. I would double check to make sure that any firewall or network-shaping apps have added Roon as an exception.
I would double check to see if disabling “teredo tunneling pseudo interface” has any change in behavior. I recall you mentioned that you weren’t able to find this option, but it is possible to disable it in other ways, see this article. This interface has been known to cause issues with Roon on Windows Server from previous reports, so I suspect this is at least partially causing the behavior.
We can try to reinstall Roon to see if it will help. To set the current Roon database aside and start fresh, please use the following instructions: