RoonServer on Synology Virtual DSM cannot add Music folder [Under investigation - "Open vSwitch"]

Nick - You are not the only one having this issue; some others including me are having the same issue. I have a media server which was working fine and suddenly lost the link to Roon. Now when I try and map the shared folder, I keep getting the same error message that you are getting. Roon support is aware of it and is running diagnostics.

Back to the first cause, Synology support told me they will try to contact Roonlabs or you to discuss the inotify issue, may be suggest some method to replace the use of inotify watches, if this can be change then I don’t need to take care the vDSM issue.

That would be good news to me since I’m not the only one and Roon support aware of it that means we may have solution later.

I checked the notify_inode_mark on my Synology. It is the same as with your NAS.
I asked the Roonlabs devs and they told me this is expected and normal.
Is there any indication that makes you believe this is causing your trouble and the described issue?

I help Synology beta test the Virtual Machine Manager last few weeks and got some system unstable issue with the new virtual DSM, the Synology devs study my case and a bunch debug logs they concluded that RoonServer package used up all inotify resources of main DSM which caused some system demon fail to start and bring the system hang and unstable. So they recommend me to uninstall the RoonServer package; they don’t agree to increase the limit of inotify watches as a good solution because it may still being exhausted afterward. Or I can install the RoonServer in the virtual DSM which will not affect the main DSM even when the resource of vDSM exhausted.

When the inotify reach limit 8192, I try to add one watch by:

tail -f /var/log/messages

The shell will prompt error telling that inotify resource exhausted and cannot be used. That means any other process need inotify will fail too.

inotify exhausted

This issue not only affect Synology but also Qnap and Linux system.
Seems some discussions between Roon users who have folder update issue also caused by this resource exhausted? I’m not sure.

But at least causing the main system unstable should not be treated as “expected and normal” as Roonlabs devs said. Most of our NAS system is not dedicated for only RoonServer to run. Hope either Roonlabs or Synology devs could co-work and found out a better solution.

As a end user, I only need the system stable and function well, pity that my main DSM cannot see my AppleTV and the vDSM cannot see my music folder, both of them not function well.

Roon watches your file folders to see if any files changed or any directories changed. If you point it at a lot of files it’s going to use an inotifywaithandle per file.

We usually set the kernal limit of inotifywaithandles to somewhere around 1 million.

I understand the problem at hand I just as just a resource issue. Upping this value on Linux is harmless and easy. The entire point of inotifywaithandles is that they are much lighter weight then file descriptors.

Thanks Danny, then I’m relieved to raise the inotify watches max value.

Besides, may I have your recommendation or hints to fix the titled problem, that I cannot add music folder to vDSM, nor cannot see airplay for the RoonServer on main NAS?

I already tried increasing the fs.inotify.max_user_watches by putting it in the sysctl.conf yesterday and it solved the issue with insufficient inotify-inode handlers.

Regarding the AppleTV/Airplay issue: I still think it is a networking issue. As you were using interface bonding before, I assume there is a managed switch involved. If true and possible, could you try to simplify the setup, by just using a simple unmanaged ethernet switch with default ethernet settings on the synology (like in your previous test). Then restart RoonServer after these changes were performed. This should only be temporary and could help identifying the cause.

Thanks for keeping help.

About the AirPlay issue, in order to test in a simple environment I found a unmanaged switch cisco SG100D-08 to connect all three device, the NAS, iMac and AppleTV, all using fixed IP.

The NAS only plug in one network cable on port-1 and closed all VM stuff, restart RoonServer, AppleTV and iMac, still cannot make RoonServer on NAS see my AppleTV.

Additional information, don’t know where it related to the same cause, I also have the (quote from Mike) “Truly one of the more frustrating bugs ever” issue which ALL my android phone cannot connect Roon Core if the Core installed on NAS, but iOS work fine and everything work fine if the Core installed on any other Mac or PC, within my same network environment.

Seems in some kind of network or system environment will cause the RoonServer on NAS (not on Mac/PC) cannot communicate with some device.

Is there a firewall enabled in your DSM that might block access?

This is what I think of in the first place.
No, I have closed all firewall to test, I’ve even closed the router’s firewall to test before, it doesn’t help.

Hi @nick_Tsang ----- Thank you for your continued feedback and more importantly, thank you for your patience! Both are very appreciated!

Moving forward, I have went ahead and enabled diagnostics on your account so we can try to get a better sense as to what could be causing the issue here. The next time your core machine is brought online a diagnostics report containing a fresh set of Roon logs will be automatically generated/uploaded to our servers.

Once the mentioned report becomes available, I will confirm that it has been received and passed over to our techs for analysis.

-Eric

Thanks Eric.
Just want to ask, since the recent issue affect the core on NAS function, I’ve changed to use iMac as the Roon core, so I think your log would be generated by core in iMac. I don’t know whether it may has suitable information for your diagnostic? Or should I change back to core on NAS one time so that you can gather the log from NAS?

Thank you for the follow up and provided insight, @nick_Tsang! Very appreciated!

You are indeed correct in your thinking that the logs being generated by the iMac are not going to be suitable in evaluating the issue at hand. As suggested in your post, would you kindly please allow the NAS to host your Roon core once again and when you have things reconfigured please reproduce the issues(s) and note the time(s) when the error(s) occur.

Once you have provided the requested time frames I will re-enable diagnostics on your account. Pleas be advised that the NAS will have to continue to act as your core until the report is received. I will verify when it has made it to our servers so you can continue to use the iMac while we conduct our analysis.

Many thanks!
-Eric

Hi Eric,
I just changed back the core to NAS, the time frames is about:

Core on NAS started at 21th Nov. (TimeZone HK, UMT+8) :

11:20 am enable the roon core package on NAS;
11:30 am upgrade the roon remote version on iPad, changed to use core on NAS and success, but no AirPlay device detected;
11:31 am iPhone changed to connect core on NAS and success, but no AirPlay device detected, power up the AppleTV didn’t help;
11:32 am Start Roon remote apps on Android, closed core on iMac so android lost and keep looking any core in the network but fail, cannot find the core on NAS.

You may gather the log now, I will keep this condition until you told me it’s been done.

Hi @nick_Tsang ----- Thank you for touching base with me and providing the requested time frames :thumbsup::clap:

As mentioned, I have enabled diagnostics on your account and will be keeping an eye on our servers to confirm it’s arrival. Once it is received I will be sure to notify you asap.

Thanks again, Nick!
-Eric

Hi Nick,
Are you as well using the vswitch feature? Your symptoms seem identical to this thread.

Hi @crieke, good observation and bingo!
When I disabled the Open vSwitch on the host NAS and restart the Roon core, then the AirPlay appeared. That explain why my host DSM cannot see my AppleTV but the virtual DSM can see, because vDSM do not have vSwitch.

However, the Open vSwitch is the requirement for Synology Virtual Machine Manager, I must disable the VMM first to disable the vSwitch, that means this NAS cannot use VM feature if I want the Roon core inside can see the AirPlay device.

Hope your test/investigate on vswitch may overcome this issue in near future. Or find the fix to add network path in the Roon core on virtual DSM which may bypass the vswitch issue at the same time, would be great.

BTW,disable the vswitch do not help the Roon Remote apps on android phone connect the Roon core on NAS, it may have another cause.

Hi @Eric, I think you should received the required diagnostics information which already last for 2 weeks. Rieke help to find out the AirPlay problem which should related to vSwitch, hope this may help your follow up development.

My Devialet Od’A is coming back so I will no longer use AppleTV afterward, please disable the diagnostics on my account and let me back to normal use status, thanks a lot.

Welcome to contact me if any further information or test case you may need from me.

I’m investigating the “cannot add music folder” issue again and found that it was not the problem of virtual DSM but all shared folder other than host NAS.

When I install the roon core on a Synology NAS, I can add shared folder to roon storage only within this NAS, I cannot add any folder from other NAS nor computer shared folder. It always prompt “There was an unexpected error: UnexpectedError”

Is this a know limitation or may be there is some tricks to do that?