[arm-allstar] Repeater node stops responding when it loses Internet

[Lawrence Roney]

Hello,

 

I have seen posts on this issue before, but we experienced it firsthand today.  I don't recall seeing a definitive answer.

 

Our mountaintop node (Rasp Pi 3) stopped functioning completely when the router feeding the mountaintop lost Internet.  No over-the-air response, no repeated audio, no courtesy tones, and it wouldn't key or control the repeater.  Asterisk was completely DOA until the Internet was restored back on the ground and it then came back to life.

 

Setup details:

-- Pi is connected to a Motorola SLR5700 repeater via a Masters Communications RA-42.

-- The repeater saw power on the RA-42 so it did not revert to its internal controller... Therefore it was off-the-air until Asterisk woke back up.

-- The Pi plugs into a switch. It does not lose the physical Ethernet link on the interface.  It only lost logical network access to the Internet due to a downstream outage from our ISP. 

-- It was connected to our remote Allstar hub node 44045 (24.120.113.121) at the time.

-- It has APRS reporting enabled

-- Archlinux uptime showed the Pi did not reboot

-- Was running HamVoIP Firmware: RPi2-3 Version 1.5rc6-10 Allstar - July 22, 2019

-- Was running HamVoIP Allstar Version: Asterisk 1.3.23-pre.hamvoip-V1.5.3-58-app_rpt=0.327-07/22/2019

 

Once I could ssh back into it, I checked /var/log/asterisk/messages and saw multiple instances of the following lines:

[Oct 29 16:27:08] WARNING[380] chan_iax2.c: Max retries exceeded to host 24.120.113.121 on IAX2/24.120.113.121:4569-16369 (type = 6, subclass = 12, ts=158856043, seqno=16)

[Oct 29 16:50:54] WARNING[373] app_gps.c: server rotate.aprs2.net cannot be found!!

--- SNIP ---

[Oct 29 17:05:26] WARNING[374] app_gps.c: Attempt to send APRS data with no connection open!!

--- SNIP ---

[Oct 29 17:07:58] ERROR[395] chan_simpleusb.c: FIFO overflow!

--- SNIP ---  (connection restored)

[Oct 29 17:34:20] ERROR[395] chan_simpleusb.c: FIFO overflow!

[Oct 29 17:34:20] ERROR[395] chan_simpleusb.c: FIFO overflow!

[Oct 29 17:34:22] NOTICE[382] chan_iax2.c: Registered IAX2 to '44.72.21.13', who sees us as 70.170.52.163:4569 with no messages waiting

[Oct 29 17:34:29] WARNING[395] app_rpt.c: Reconnect Attempt to 44045 in process

[Oct 29 17:34:34] WARNING[395] app_rpt.c: Reconnect Attempt to 44045 in process

 

What we did:

-- It was set to a static IP address.  I have since changed this to DHCP and will have the router hand out a reserved IP.  I seem to remember this possibly being an issue.

-- I updated the software to Firmware: RPi2-3 Version 1.6-04 Allstar - August 31, 2019 and Version: Asterisk 1.4.23-pre.hamvoip-V1.5.4-03-app_rpt-0.327-10/22/2019

 

Ideas:

-- Is the SimpleUSB FIFO overflow error an issue that may be causing this?

-- Since others have seen this occurrence as well, I wanted to provide some details in hopes of getting ideas on a cause or fix.

-- I'm sure our ISP will drop our Internet again someday soon so a workaround would be great.

 

Thanks,

 

Lawrence - N6YFN

Henderson Amateur Radio Club, NV