SABnzbd Forums

I've been using SABnzbd for some time (mostly without any problems). Currently I am using v0.5.3 on Win7 64Bit.

From time to time I experience a strange behaviour: one of the items in my download queue jut stops and SABnzbd continues with the next item. Whenever I check these "stalled items" I see that there are a few files missing. So I download these missing files - usually with Newsleecher (using the same nzb). Every single one of the files that SABnzbd skipped is always an incomplete one. Newsleecher always tells me in the log that the file was incomplete but saved it anyway.

Most of the time I can repair the set afterwards using the par2 files.

Is there a reason why SABnzbd decides not to save incomplete files at all? If it would save them it could easily repair them using the par2 files and everything could be finished automatically without my intervention. Is there maybe a swith in the settings that tells SABnzbd to always decode and save incomplete files?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

gehav

If you have multiple servers defined and one server stops working,
there may be a deadlock on missing articles.
How many servers are in your setup?

I have two servers of the same provider (US and EU) in my setup. But I don't think that this has anything to do with it. The download continues normally on the next set of files (using the same server). The missing files are not the last files of the set but random files in between. The only thing they have in common is that they are incomplete on my servers.

I am pretty sure that the solution would be to force SABnzbd to save files even if they have errors or are incomplete.

But I will try anyway to delete one of the servers and only use the other for some time!

Are the US and EU servers Highwinds Tornados?  Lately they are getting stuck on:

article
body

Instead of immediately sending '430 No such article', that response is delayed or not sent at all.

I think SABnzbd's timeout default is 120 seconds so if a two servers setup is still tripped up by one or both servers stalling that way, it could be a bug.

When the server doesn't answer, SABnzbd considers it a timeout.
The server needs to say "I don't have it".
The number of retries is infinite, else you would
quickly burn through all your queued jobs if the server failed.
When a server is unreliable (and not telling it doesn't have an article is that too)
you should flag the server as "optional".
Then SABnzbd will switch off the server for some time, to break the deadlock.

If a single server without a backup server is unable to respond 'I don't have it' then how does SABnzbd go ahead and assemble what it has for that file?

If you still set it as optional, the deadlock is broken.
Keep in mind that in this situation the server is malfunctioning.
There is no ideal solution.
Doing limited retries (e.g. like Grabit does) will destroy your queue
in case your single server is really offline.

A single primary server with no backup can be flagged as optional?  Help me inpheaux!

Yes it can.
We are looking at some way to allow you to force a stuck job to post-processing.

Thanks for all the replies!

My newsserver is Astraweb and I have not had a problem with them in the last weeks. Like I said: the problem vanishes when I switch to Newsleecher. If I have the problem again I will investigate it in more detail to find out which circumstances lead to SABnzbd omitting certain files!

shypike wrote: If you still set it as optional, the deadlock is broken.
Keep in mind that in this situation the server is malfunctioning.
There is no ideal solution.
Doing limited retries (e.g. like Grabit does) will destroy your queue
in case your single server is really offline.

Jumping here from my thread to read the explanation.

Reading what you write leaves me a bit puzzled.

Do you mean that the servers is at fault because they fail to respond to a request from sabnzbd?
And setting the alternate servers to "optional" will solve this?

Im trying to understand, perhaps you could explain it in another way?
Thanks

(im trying to figure out if i should write a mail to my newsprovider or if i should wait for a fix for sabnzbd, or just forget about backup servers since i dont really need them)

Some servers don't give an answer when they don't have an article.
SABnzbd assumes they just timed-out and keeps retrying forever.
If the other server don't have the article and the "last one" refuses to answer,
downloading gets stuck.
Setting the server as "optional" means that it will be ignored for
some time, thus breaking the deadlock.

I'm getting stalled downloads at various amounts of completion. Some within 10% some immediately a few between.

When stalled my log progresses... 1 line every 60s or so.

This is quite frusterating as it holds up the entire queue.
Should sabnzbd not be able to pass by missing articles more quickly?

I have tried disabling all but 1 single server.

# edit just realized a dug up a really old thread. sorry