Peer Exchange Not Working 1.3.106?

[chillicane]

I have ~160 peers (windows) which all get their files from a central server (linux) which in turn gets its files from a handful of internal machines (windows) with the view that the peers will share the load (bandwidth) amongst themselves. I just upgraded them from 1.2.68 to 1.3.106 and on the previous version it worked pretty well, barring a couple of nodes which must have some environmental issues.

 

Now im seeing nodes dropping all their peers from their device lists and only syncing with the central server which isnt exactly in the spirit of what we're trying to achieve here! I only upgraded because i read some release notes somewhere about reduced 'chatter' amongst peers but its not looking good so far.

 

Happy to provide more information to assist in this one!

Update - manually adding peers to the predfined hosts works for that peer but it does not kick start the peer exchange process.

 

Update again - am bypassing the linux sync server to see if it will work better with only the windows version, will update

[chillicane]

Alright, by doing some DNAT trickery i  got the peers talking straight to a windows source and the PEX seems to have worked better  - based on a few samples i checked. Prhaps the issue is only in the linux sync?

[chillicane]

after watching for a few days it looks like the peer list entires are expiring but not being refreshed when peers should be exchanging lists with each other.

 

If i add a peer manually it picks it up straight away.

 

Could this be a hangup because of upgrading? Is there a way i can force refresh the peer lists, delete some files perhaps?

[coreycauble]

How are you monitoring your peers?

[chillicane]

Symptoms started as a massive increase of the sync time and bandwidth used on the 'server' which intially changes the files (all other peers are read only). Also a seperate monitoring package showed some peers were no longer getting the latest version of the file and upon further investigation their 'devices' tab was empty and stayed that way over time (days).

 

Im sure i read somewhere that the current linux version has a bug where peers are not 'expirng' from the devices list over time as they normally would so i have another theory now.

 

Given the 50 peer limit, i think ive accidently created a set of 50 peers which will all sync fine but from 51 onwards they get blocked by the 'server' due to peer limits as shown in debug log (assigned as server by 'use predefiined hosts' option on all 'clients').

 

To work around this in the mean time i have given peers a few other random peers in 'use predefined hosts' section in the hope they will eventually get a link back to a peer which has access to the 'server' and amongst themselves go back to function as they did before. This is not ideal but it has the added side effect of making the overall bitstorm more robust in the long term. Implementing that fix is ongoing and i wont really know if its worked for a few days when i check to see if more peers have been exchanged on my sample peers.

 

I know devs dont want to raise the peer limit as they are working on a (potentiall monitized) 'corporate' version of btsync which is great and certainly worth considering if they have the necesary features and the price is right but we dont actually have that version yet and ive been using this for over a year to deliver static files to clients in the best way i can imagine. I know it pisses off every cold calling/spamming corporate pricks who keep trying to sell me cloud based sync solutions at per year volume licensing!

 

Right now i would love to see a private tracking only component which i could use to co-ordinate peers (i know theres the third party one).

 

Overall im extremely happy with this program, its a fantiasticly useful application/adaption of the torrent protocol.

[chillicane]

I just checked my test machine and ive noticed it has not increased the number of entries in the devices tab - i would have hoped after 4 days it would have done some kind of peer exchange but it appears it has not occured!

 

Tearing my hair out on this one!

[Helen]

chillicane,

 

The most likely reason for the problem is that in 1.3. the way Sync reaches tracker (and thus learns about other peers) has been changed compared to 1.2. 

now it goes to http://config.usyncapp.com/sync.conf for tracker and relay servers. Do I understand it right and those 160 Win peers are located all in different networks? Any of them might have HTTP port 80 to config.usyncapp.com blocked. I suggest trying to reach http://config.usyncapp.com/sync.conf from browser on those peers which cannot get connected to others. 

 

And yes, please, mind 50 peers limits. 

 

I'd love to help, please write to syncapp@bittorrent.com. Put the link to this topic, describe which of the mentioned peers (those 160 or those from which Linux takes files?) have the issue, network details and debug logs from at least two of them. Thank you! 

[chillicane]

chillicane,

 

The most likely reason for the problem is that in 1.3. the way Sync reaches tracker (and thus learns about other peers) has been changed compared to 1.2. 

now it goes to http://config.usyncapp.com/sync.conf for tracker and relay servers. Do I understand it right and those 160 Win peers are located all in different networks? Any of them might have HTTP port 80 to config.usyncapp.com blocked. I suggest trying to reach http://config.usyncapp.com/sync.conf from browser on those peers which cannot get connected to others. 

 

And yes, please, mind 50 peers limits. 

 

I'd love to help, please write to syncapp@bittorrent.com. Put the link to this topic, describe which of the mentioned peers (those 160 or those from which Linux takes files?) have the issue, network details and debug logs from at least two of them. Thank you! 

thanks, ill collate that info.

I will say however that im not using tracker or relay servers on the shares im only relying on peer to peer peer exchange...like thats not a mouthful!