Problems setting up a beacon's central server with mixed environment
Hi all,
My name is Deny Dias. Altough I'm an TI specialist in streaming media, I'm new on Multicast Beacon.
I've downloaded Multicast Beacon to test it as a multicast monitoring tool for the company I work on. Our multicast setup is huge, with 100+ different and distant geographic locations that must be served by multicast cloud. This cloud is used to transmit corporate WebTV to the users within.
Since I heard about Multicast Beacon, I'm trying to figure out a way to use it as a primary multicast failure adviser. When a WebTV user reports a problem watching it, the first step will be our helpdesk team to access beacon's url to check at a glance if that user location reports multicast problems. If there is a problem, them the network team will drive it. If it's not, them my team will take care of it.
In short words, This is what I plan to do with Multicast Beacon:
1 - Run my own central server
2 - Run beacons on all locations I need reporting to that Central Server
3 - Make Central Servers page available to support people
My problems are on the steps #1 and #2 above. The #3 is totally ok.
Right now, I'm making some lab tests with Multicast Beacon. But I'm facing difficulties to get it work. My lab consistis of:
1 - Apple PowerBook G4 1.33, 1.25GB RAM, Ethernet 100Mbps connection running Mac OS X 10.3.8 (yeah, I know it's unsupported by NLANR/DAST), perl v5.8.1-RC3, beacon-1.1-0-1 as a Central Server (BECENTRALSERVER = 1)
2 - One P4 2.8, 512MB RAM, Ethernet 100Mbps running Windows XP Pro SP2, J2SE 1.4 and Beacon 0.63 (java version)
3 - Multicast group is 239.100.100.100, the ports are 10002 (RTP), 10003 (RTCP) and 10004 (TCP).
The problem is that my notebook is being report always as an Blind Beacon. It can't see any other beacons on my network nor being recognized by others. I'm sure that the multicast setup of the network are ok because I run Mbone's VIC on it and sucessfuly get traffic from the same machines I'm using on the lab.
The other thing is that the test beacon only machine (windows) is not being recognized by the Central Server. By looking at protocol dump, I could see that the beacon is reporting correctly to port 10004 but using udp instead of tcp. Just a piece of information: the 1.1 version of beacon for win32 (the python one) doesn't even connect to the central server, so I tried the java one, which seems to be easier to deploy in big environments. Here is a sample packet of the 0.63 version reporting to the central server:
No. Time Source Destination Protocol Info
1 0.000000 10.2.68.162 10.2.42.186 UDP Source port: 4175 Destination port: 10004
Frame 1 (209 bytes on wire, 209 bytes captured)
Ethernet II, Src: 00:0a:8b:76:5f:fc, Dst: 00:0d:93:c6:68:94
Internet Protocol, Src Addr: 10.2.68.162 (10.2.68.162), Dst Addr: 10.2.42.186 (10.2.42.186)
User Datagram Protocol, Src Port: 4175 (4175), Dst Port: 10004 (10004)
Data (163 bytes)
0000 15 32 33 39 2e 31 30 30 2e 31 30 30 2e 31 30 30 .239.100.100.100
0010 3a 31 30 30 30 32 20 42 69 62 69 40 4d 49 36 35 :10002 Bibi@MI65
0020 38 31 39 34 2e 63 6f 72 70 2e 70 65 74 72 6f 62 8194.corp.petrob
0030 72 61 73 2e 62 69 7a 0b 31 30 2e 32 2e 36 38 2e ras.biz.10.2.68.
0040 31 36 32 0a 57 69 6e 64 6f 77 73 20 58 50 03 35 162.Windows XP.5
0050 2e 31 03 78 38 36 08 31 2e 34 2e 32 5f 30 37 20 .1.x86.1.4.2_07
0060 42 69 62 69 40 4d 49 36 35 38 31 39 34 2e 63 6f Bibi@MI658194.co
0070 72 70 2e 70 65 74 72 6f 62 72 61 73 2e 62 69 7a rp.petrobras.biz
0080 0d 31 31 30 38 35 37 34 36 39 33 36 32 34 03 30 .1108574693624.0
0090 2e 30 03 30 2e 30 03 30 2e 30 03 30 2e 30 03 30 .0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0
00a0 2e 30 23 .0#
Here is my beacon.conf setup on the machine that would be the Central Server:
GROUP = 239.100.100.100
PORT = 10002
TTL = 16
SHOWIP = 1
SHOWSSRC = 1
SHOWREPORTS = 1
OUTPUTDIR = /Volumes/Warehouse/Users/deny/Sites/beacon
BACKGROUND = 0
INTERFACE = 10.2.42.186
CENTRALSERVERNAME = 127.0.0.1
BECENTRALSERVER = ON
WRITEHISTORY = 1
SERVERTCPPORT = 10004
Ant this is settings of the start_beacon.bat at beacon only machine:
set multicast_group=239.100.100.100
set multicast_port=10002
set beacon_server=10.2.42.186
set server_port=10004
set time_to_live=16
set user_name=Bibi
I appreciatte any help. And count on me to provide any other info about my setup.
Best regards,
Deny Dias.
Petrobras - Petroleo Brasileiro S/A