Roon causing LAN network issues (ref#BV7R4E)

Support
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What’s happening?

· Other

Describe the issue

Roon causes LAN to fall over; I don't have IGMP enabled on system so we think (me & my commecial network support IT guy) that the multicast is causing the issue. Also: Roon is not seeing my Devialet Pro (Roon ready device) which is on the same subnet mask.

Describe your network setup

Commercial set-up, Virgin router bridge mode, Drytech switch, spanning tree for Sonos (wired + wifi), Unify U6Pro Wifi, Devialet Pro Ethernet connected, Sonos streaming speakers mixture of wired but mostly wifi (hence Spanning Tree).

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I recommend reviewing Is Multicast / IGMP needed? - #11 by ipeverywhere

Also - I presume you are not trying to traverse VLANs?

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No we are not traversing any VLANs as we don’t have them. Thanks for the link to the explainer on multicast / IGMP.

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Hi @projects.kob,

Consumer router firmware often intertwines IGMP and multicast forwarding between broadcast domains.

Unless you have granular control over which ports remain active for multicast forwarding, it’s best to keep IGMP on in any routers that will be topologically arranged to support device discovery.

It’s not entirely clear what you mean here - what is the specific symptom you’re seeing on this network and within Roon? Are you able to share a precise timestamp so we can inspect logs?

Please also share the relative arrangement of your listed network hardware to RoonServer and the Devialet.

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Hi @Connor,

Thanks for your response and for taking the time to address my concerns.

To clarify, I’ve used Roon successfully in the past on a similar commercial Ethernet setup, where I was able to reliably discover my Devialet as a Roon Ready device. However, in my current setup, I’ve encountered significant challenges.

Network Overview and Issues Observed:

  • Device Discovery Issue: Roon could not detect the Devialet, despite both being on the same subnet.

  • Frequent Disconnections: The Roon app on my iPhone frequently lost connection with the Roon server hosted on my Mac Mini.

  • Severe Network Performance Degradation: On November 30, 2024 (installation day), I observed significant drops in internal network performance, eventually leading to a complete Internet outage.

As you may know, issues like this can arise in multicast environments if network configuration allows redundant paths, resulting in looping multicast packets. While I can’t definitively link Roon to this behavior, the timing aligns: once Roon (and the Roon Server) were taken offline, these outages ceased.

Internet Troubleshooting:

I’ve escalated the matter with Virgin Media, and they are dispatching an engineer to physically inspect the line. However, based on prior experience with multicast-induced loops, I want to rule out Roon’s role in contributing to the network instability and ensure the system is configured correctly for device discovery and optimal performance.

Timestamps for Log Analysis:

As requested, here are the relevant connection events from Sunday, December 1, 2024 (Dublin time):

  • Disconnected: 10:08

  • Reconnected: 11:19

  • Disconnected: 13:33

  • Reconnected: 14:00

  • Disconnected: 14:58

  • Reconnected: 15:19

  • Disconnected: 16:04

  • Reconnected: 16:57

Please review your logs for these times to identify any anomalies or potential contributing factors.

While I acknowledge that this could be a complex, multi-factorial issue unrelated to Roon, the inability to detect a Roon Ready device like the Devialet and the timing of the network instability are worth investigating further.

Looking forward to your insights.

Best regards,
@anon38974048

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Hi @anon38974048,

Do any of your wired Sonos endpoints using SonosNET still have their WiFi radios active?

If the switch has its own STP enabled, we’ve seen a condition in the past where switch firmware will wrestle with SonosNET over assigned network paths. Traffic will leap from WiFi receiver to WiFi receiver on Sonos endpoints and then re-enter the wired network. This allows for duplicate device announcements, or worse, multicast floods.

See if you can replicate the issue under the following conditions:

  1. With RoonServer on but no Sonos devices powered on
  2. With RoonServer on but no Sonos wired connections online, only wireless receivers

Our diagnostic servers aren’t able to reach your RoonServer instance to request logs. At your convenience, please use the directions found here and send over a set of logs to our File Uploader.

Thank you!

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Hi @Connor,

Thank you for your detailed response and guidance on replicating the issue. I wanted to provide an update on the situation and share some additional context.

Current Testing Constraints

At the moment, I’m unable to run the specific tests you’ve requested involving the Sonos devices. My IT support technician has advised against running Roon without their presence, as they need to monitor both the LAN and WiFi performance in real-time during these tests. I will run these scenarios as soon as they are available on-site in the next few days.

I just want to clarify something: if the issue continues with Sonos devices that are connected wirelessly (through SonosNET) but not those that are wired, what would you recommend as a solution? Knowing the potential remedies in advance would really help with our planning.

Logs Submission

In the meantime, I’ve attached the following logs for your review:
• ~/Library/Roon/Logs
• ~/Library/RoonGoer/Logs
• ~/Library/RoonServer/Logs

These logs might provide some insight into the challenges we’re facing, including:

  1. Roon’s inability to detect my Devialet (Roon Ready) device.
  2. The network-related disruptions that appear linked to the presence of Roon.

Technical Observations

Regarding your point about STP (Spanning Tree Protocol) and SonosNET, I recognise the potential for conflicts in commercial-grade networks. When STP is active on the switch, it can compete with SonosNET over network path selection. In such cases, multicast traffic could exhibit erratic behaviour, including device announcement duplication or multicast flooding, as you mentioned.

From my experience with commercial-grade Ethernet setups, this situation could be exacerbated by:
• Multicast loop formation: If Sonos devices toggle between wired and wireless connections and reintroduce traffic into the network via SonosNET.
• Firmware-level STP conflicts: Some managed switches struggle with dynamically adjusting to SonosNET’s network topology.

If these conflicts are confirmed, I’d be interested to hear your recommendations for mitigating this at the switch configuration level. For instance, would enabling IGMP snooping in combination with STP adjustments (e.g., tweaking priority settings or BPDU filtering) help in this case?

Next Steps

While we’re working on arranging the testing environment, I hope the logs can shed some light on Roon’s device discovery issues (not seeing the Devialet natively) and network behaviour. Additionally, any guidance on proactively addressing multicast conflicts in such hybrid wired/wireless setups would be greatly appreciated.

Looking forward to your feedback.

Best regards,
@anon38974048

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Hey @anon38974048,

I noticed your server is running on Mac -

With the Seqouia update, we’re still working out discovery kinks that aren’t playing nicely with their update. Can you please navigate to macOS System Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network , and make sure Roon is allowed. If it is already enabled, toggle it off and on again. Then reboot your Mac, and see if the same issue persists.

We’re seeing frequently repeated network reachability errors [remoting/brokerserver] network reachability changed. Kicking off discovery cycle that lead to continued disconnections.

Are you able to simplify your network much? We unfortunately aren’t able to provide much support around commercial-level networks at this time. As Connor had mentioned -

This would be good to enable if you haven’t yet. :+1:

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Hi @connor

Thank you for your assistance with troubleshooting the Devialet detection and network issues.

1. Devialet Detection Issue

I followed your instructions to toggle the settings at macOS System Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network, ensuring Roon is allowed. Unfortunately, this did not resolve the issue, and the Devialet remains undiscoverable.

I have resubmitted updated logs for your review as “@ projects.kob-20241213.zip”, which include:

• ~/Library/Roon/Logs

• ~/Library/RoonGoer/Logs

• ~/Library/RoonServer/Logs

2. System Outages Fixed

After enabling IGMP on my router, I’ve observed the following improvements:

• Roon connectivity has significantly improved.

• Playback is smoother and more immediate.

Could you please review the newly submitted logs and confirm whether the connectivity issues (e.g., repeated “[remoting/brokerserver] network reachability changed” errors) have been resolved?

3. Assistance with Album Unification

Additionally, I’d appreciate it if you could point me to a resource or guide for unifying albums where the track listing appears split. This has been an ongoing challenge for me, and any documentation or tips would be very helpful.

Thank you for your continued support.

Best regards,

@anon38974048

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Hi,

This is the Roon FAQ on merging Albums it might help.

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Thanks very much. Helped me sort out a few albums.

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For your Devialet detection issue;

You need to go to settings/privacy&security/local network and toggle the Roon entries off then back on. Then quit Roon server by clicking on the menu bar item and choose quit, then once Roon server has closed, reopen the Roon app. This forces Roon to rescan the network for devices. Your devices should then reappear (do for me every time)

DO NOT REBOOT your Mac after toggling off/on the Roon entries in local network, you should close the Roon server app via the menu bar item as per the above instructions. Rebooting your Mac can trigger the bug in macOS Sequoia preventing you from accessing the Devialet

1 Like
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Hi @anon38974048,

@David_Moore2 shares some helpful insight that we’d be curious to see if it helps you with your Devialet devices.

Let us know the results - thank you! :raised_hands:

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Thanks for this. Very helpful.

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Hi @David_Moore,

Thanks @benjamin for remininding me to update.

I’ve carefully followed your instructions as outlined:

  1. Went to Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network and toggled the Roon entries off and back on.
  2. Quit Roon Server by selecting the menu bar icon and choosing Quit.
  3. Reopened the Roon app to force a rescan of the network devices.

As you advised, I made sure not to reboot the Mac after toggling the Roon entries. Despite this, the Devialet still does not appear as a Roon Ready device.

At this stage, I’ve repeated the process multiple times without success. If there are any additional steps or troubleshooting suggestions you can provide, I’d greatly appreciate them.

Best regards,
@anon38974048

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OK, sorry to say it is not the issue I am experiencing.

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Hi @anon15113244,

Regarding my current setup and ongoing issues with Roon:

  • My current commercial Ethernet network setup does not detect my Devialet device through Roon. For reference, Drytech provides the DHCP server in this configuration.
  • In terms of Roon’s behaviour, it is no longer flooding the system since IGMP is now running.

However, Roon goes offline from time to time. I use the same Minimac M2 machine as a Plex server, and it does not exhibit this intermittent pattern of behaviour. We also ran a scan and can confirm seeing the Devialet on it in the correct subnet.

Finally, I have been waiting patiently for Roon’s team to analyse the logs I submitted on December 13. Any news on that? @benjamin

Perhaps this analysis might shed some light on the root cause of these issues.

Thanks again for your help.

Best regards,
@anon38974048

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Hi @David_Moore2 - thanks for you help.

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Hi @benjamin & @connor

Thanks for all your help so far. Just wondering if you and your team have had a chance to look at the logs which were submitted on December 13.

I have resubmitted updated logs for your review as “@ projects.kob-20241213.zip”, which include:
• ~/Library/Roon/Logs
• ~/Library/RoonGoer/Logs
• ~/Library/RoonServer/Logs

Regards,
@anon38974048

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Hi @projects.kob,

Thanks for following up!

Yes, the team has reviewed this log set a few times, and see some inconsistencies with how the Devialet is being discovered within your instance of Roon. As a next step, we’d like to see how things perform on a fresh RAATServer database.

You can generate a new RAATServer instance on your device by following these instructions, but please be aware that this will reset your Roon Settings → Audio Tab to factory settings and I would advise making a backup of any custom DSP settings you have:

  • Create a Backup of your current Roon database
  • Exit out of Roon
  • Navigate to your Roon’s Database Location
  • Find the folder that says “RAATServer”
  • Rename the “RAATServer” folder to “RAATServer_old”
  • Restart the Roon App to generate a new RAATServer folder

We’ll be on standby to hear how things perform on the new RAATServer database! :+1: