A file dropped to watchfolder processed by both transcode nodes in a farm

[FranceBB]

So you believe, that it is not caused by codepage of filename or by server’s regional settings?

It shouldn't but that's only because I failed to replicate it.
Just to be sure: are you saying that every single time there's one of those characters the file is picked up by more than one host?
Can you write down here a specific file name that you're confident will trigger the error every time?
'cause I tried with random characters and I failed to reproduce it. By the way, all my servers are set to English US, as Microsoft would have wanted eheheheh

I apologize for disturbing Grandmaster on vacation … I thought he was back because he was replying to other topics in this forum.

He has been replying even though he's on vacation 'cause he never really stops working. He's just too passionate about it. Some people solve crossword puzzles in their spare time, he solves other people's problems on the FFAStrans forum xD

[emcodem]

He has been replying even though he's on vacation

Hm i dont remember steinar to be on vacation on Sep 15, 2020
@Silicon, trying the stuff that frank sent you might be a good idea, but usually i start such investigations by analyzing and reproducing. If we can reproduce, we have an easy time to fix.

I was not able to reproduce by just creating a file on c:\temp\sterečo.avs. But you seem to be pretty sure that the issue is about such files, i really wonder why that is the case... still job logs and exe_manager logs will be mostly interesting i guess... (of course only if the stuff that frank sent you don't resolve the issue)

[FranceBB]

I was not able to reproduce by just creating a file on c:\temp\sterečo.avs.

That's the same thing I tried, which is why I asked for the name of a file he thinks could trigger the issue as I've put there random characters and I failed to replicate it.
What the files I sent him do has nothing to do with special file name but rather concurrency as they relax the timing of the hosts to assign themselves jobs and limit the maximum concurrent tickets the overall farm can put into running at the same time. If it solves the problem, it means that I was right and it was a concurrency issue, if it doesn't, it means I was wrong and we have to investigate further.


Disclaimer: if you're a normal user please DO NOT download and apply the files I've just shared. They should be harmless and work like a charm as I've tested them but whatever doesn't fall under the strict scrutiny and testing regime of Grandmaster Steinar has to be considered a beta eheheheh

[Silicon]

Hi FranceBB and emcodem
I have found the root cause - I have had a different setting in "Region - Administrative - Language for non-Unicode programs" Control panel on one of the transcode nodes in the farm ... my stupidity
I'm deeply sory for it

[emcodem]

Hm, i tried to set this to czech but even then i was not able to reproduce. The only thing was after setting to czech and rebooting, 2 (of 20) existing files with the č have been reprocessed but thats not the same error than you have.

Well, i guess if it is solved for you, we can put this aside for now but one thing is still interesting for me:
Did you check/uncheck the "Enable UTF8 - Beta" stuff checkbox in the box where you choose the language for non unicode programs?

This all is interesting of course because we all have those funny characters in our native language - and as Frank said, it should work, one way or the other!

[Silicon]

The "Enable UTF8 - Beta" checkbox is available only in Win10 and WS2016 and higher. I’ve got just one Win10 machine in the farm (others are WS2012R2 and WS2008R2) and this checkbox is unchecked.
I can PM you logs requested if you still wanna investigate.

[emcodem]

Sorry for the late reply.

More interesting than the logs would be being able to reproduce.
So your setup was like english language on the base system and czech for the "non unicode programs"?

[Silicon]

Hi emcodem
This is my actual setup:
- Region > Formats Tab: English (United States)
- Region > Administrative Tab > Language for non-Unicode programs: Czech (Czech Republic)
With these settings set up on all servers in farm I don't see double processing anymore.

Region - Formats - English.PNG (4.11 KiB) Viewed 11838 times

Region - Administrative - Language for non-Unicode programs - Czech.PNG (14.77 KiB) Viewed 11838 times

The root cause of the "double proccesing" was, that I had mistakenly set "Language for non-Unicode programs" to English instead of Czech on one of the servers in the farm.

[FranceBB]

That's quite interesting, though...
I wonder what is Windows reading with that setting differently that makes it think it has to pickup the same ticket twice...
Anyway, nice finding and thanks for sharing.