Cumulus Support

OS: Windows 10 Home; 64-bit
Cumulus MX: ver 3.3.0 build 3063
Web Hosting Service: tsoHost
Connection type to host: FTPS

FileZilla: works as expected; able to view web site files, upload and download files as expected. No connection problems

APRS/CWOP: data uploaded correctly
Weather Underground: data uploaded correctly
Weahther Cloud: data uploaded correctly

Problem: data is not being uploaded to web site from Comulus WX.

Viewing log from MXdiags folder, note the recurrent error message:
"Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

Sample excerpts from log:

**********
2020-01-15 10:51:31.258 Error uploading C:/CumulusMX/web/index.htm to /Weather/index.htm : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
2020-01-15 10:51:31.258 Error uploading C:/CumulusMX/realtime.txt to www.paulkiener.com/Cumulus/realtime.txt : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
2020-01-15 10:52:01.801 FTP error renaming /public_html/Cumulus/realtime.txttmp to /public_html/Cumulus/realtime.txt :
2020-01-15 10:52:01.801 Error uploading C:/CumulusMX/web/index.htm to /Weather/index.htm : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
2020-01-15 10:52:01.801 Error uploading C:/CumulusMX/realtime.txt to www.paulkiener.com/Cumulus/realtime.txt : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
2020-01-15 10:52:31.732 FTP error renaming /public_html/Cumulus/realtime.txttmp to /public_html/Cumulus/realtime.txt :
2020-01-15 10:52:31.747 Error uploading C:/CumulusMX/web/index.htm to /Weather/index.htm : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
2020-01-15 10:52:31.747 Error uploading C:/CumulusMX/realtime.txt to www.paulkiener.com/Cumulus/realtime.txt : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
2020-01-15 10:53:01.678 FTP error renaming /public_html/Cumulus/realtime.txttmp to /public_html/Cumulus/realtime.txt :
2020-01-15 10:53:01.678 Error uploading C:/CumulusMX/web/index.htm to /Weather/index.htm : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
***********

Is there any help for me in resolving this problem of not being able to upload data to my web site? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Paul

It could be other things as well... but
http://www.paulkiener.com/Cumulus/weatherstyle.css displays so you have uploaded that file to folder /Cumulus
Your log has uploading C:/CumulusMX/web/index.htm to /Weather/index.htm
Normally that would be C:\CumulusMX\web\xxxxx and to /Cumulus/ if that is your weather subfolder

Check your WebFTPsite settings

Enjoy,
Paul

Thanks, Paul for your quick reply.

I have deleted the file weathersyle.css from the /Cumulus folder on the web site. It is now located in the folder /Cumulus/webfiles.

I have changed to destination folder for index.htm to /Cumulus.

I am now getting these errors, among others,

2020-01-15 13:18:28.791 Error uploading C:\CumulusMX\realtime.txt to www.paulkiener.com/Cumulus/realtime.txt : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
2020-01-15 13:18:58.886 FTP error renaming /public_html/Cumulus/realtime.txttmp to /public_html/Cumulus/realtime.txt :
2020-01-15 13:18:58.886 Error uploading C:\CumulusMX\web\index.htm to /Cumulus/index.htm : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
2020-01-15 13:18:58.886 Error uploading C:\CumulusMX\realtime.txt to www.paulkiener.com/Cumulus/realtime.txt : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
2020-01-15 13:19:28.791 FTP error renaming /public_html/Cumulus/realtime.txttmp to /public_html/Cumulus/realtime.txt :
2020-01-15 13:19:28.806 Error uploading C:\CumulusMX\web\index.htm to /Cumulus/index.htm : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
2020-01-15 13:19:28.806 Error uploading C:\CumulusMX\realtime.txt to www.paulkiener.com/Cumulus/realtime.txt : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

it appears that the initial problem remains. Thanks for reading my initial post and responding. This problem has been haunting me for the past few weeks!

Paul

Please switch on debug logging and ftp logging. Let Cumulus run for at least one update period, then zip up your MXdiags folder and attach that along with the ftp log file,

Hopefully the full MXdiags will give some clues as to the error.
Re webfiles folder, normally you would not have that folder on your website and manually one-time only (Filezilla) upload all the folders and files in your local \CumulusMX\webfiles folder to your remote weather folder - i.e. public_html/Cumulus/

Enjoy,
Paul

Paul,
This is what I have in my /public_html/Cumulus folder:
images
js
lib
web
webfiles

Currently, I do not have any files, only the above-mentioned folders and their contents.

I have noted that on an occasion, files are uploaded but contain no data. Checking those files on my computer, and they contain data. Those files have the extension of " .txttmp".

Copy of the MXdiags log file is attached.

Hope this helps.

Paul

Your first post says the host uses FTPS, but you have Cumulus configured to use SFTP?

Mark,
Zipped files attached. Are these the files that you wanted zipped?

For the FTP Protocol to use, I have "1 - Use SSL/TLS for FTP (FTPS)" chosen.

Paul

I won't interfere in your FTPS or SFTP settings but for setting up the standard Cumulus template webpage

This is what I have in my /public_html/Cumulus folder:
images
js
lib
web
webfiles

The images, js and lib folders and their contents are good as you have it in /public_html/Cumulus
You also need weatherstyle.css in /public_html/Cumulus
You only need those uploaded once.

You do not need the web and the webfiles folders nor their contents on your webserver.
Once you have your FTP setup and working correctly CumulusMX will then process the necessary files and upload to /public_html/Cumulus

That should be all for the Cumulus standard template webpage. When you have that configured and working then you can consider customized files or other templates for your website.

p.s. after looking at your latest zip attachment you seem to have the settings to FTP to /public_html/Cumulus/web
That can work if you have the settings correct in CumulusMX and also have a folder /public_html/Cumulus/web but that is not the usual convention (my comment above said you do not need that folder, but you can ignore that and set it up as you wish - just need to have everything set up correctly for CumulusMX to upload to the correct remote location).

First things first, get your FTP/FTPS/SFTP working and I can't help with that.

Enjoy,
Paul

Mark & Paul,
I decided to re-do my setup. I did the following steps:
1) copied the data folder and the cumulus.ini file from Cumulus MX to a backup folder on my computer;
2) deleted the contents of the Cumulus MX folder from my computer
3) unzipped the files from the Cumulus MX 3.3.0 b3063 downloaded zip file into a new Cumulus MX folder on my computer
4) copied the backup data folder over the newly unzipped data folder
5) via FileZilla, deleted all folders and files from my Cumulus folder on my web site
6) uploaded the folders: images, js, and lib as well as the file weatherstyle.css into the blank Cumulus folders on my web site
7) Running as administrator, entered information so that Cumulus MX connects to my station and reads data correctly; uploads data to Weather Underground, Weather Cloud, and APRS/CWOPS

The Remote FTP Directory is set to: /public_html/Cumulus

Attached is another zip file containing the MXdiags file and ftplog.txt file.

Paul: Reviewing both log files, it shows that that I am connected to my web site via FTPS. So the initialization of my web site is working.

Mark: Please note that in the ftplog.txt file, Cumulus MX is gaining access to the tsohost web server with the statement: "Welcome to Pure-FTPd [privsep] [TLS]" As an aside, FileZilla also access the web server via FTPS/TLS. However, in the MXdiags file, I see the following:

2020-01-15 22:06:53.498 Attempting realtime SFTP connect to host www.paulkiener.com on port 21
2020-01-15 22:06:55.093 Realtime FTP connected

...which makes it appear that I have connected via SFTP. I have "1 - Use SSL/TLS for FTP (FTPS)" selected for the FTP protocol to use in my Internet settings of Cumulus MX.

I think that I have everything set up correctly, except that there are no file uploads to my web site. There are a very few files that are uploaded, but those files are empty, when opened, and show "0" in size. There are currently 2 such files: index.htm and realtime.txt which were uploaded on 1/15/2020 @ around 10am.

I am sure there must be a setting somewhere that I do not have set up correctly. But I'm having a difficult time finding which one it is.

I hope the above has been helpful to you. Thanks, again, for all your help!

Paul

Not sure if this will shed any further light on my problem of not being able to upload data files to my web site via FTPS, but after rereading the wiki and other info via Google search, I went ahead and briefly turned on Active FTP. The result from that was an error message that basically said that server (pureFTPd) would not talk back to the IP address of my local computer, but only to the IP address, which happens to be the static IP address provided me by my local ISP (I presume that this, then, would be the IP address of the modem). Not sure if this is the fault of PureFTPd or Cumulus MX, or even my own internal router settings.

Hopefully, this will further help. Thanks in advance.

Paul

pkiener wrote: ↑Thu 16 Jan 2020 6:00 pm However, in the MXdiags file, I see the following:

2020-01-15 22:06:53.498 Attempting realtime SFTP connect to host www.paulkiener.com on port 21
2020-01-15 22:06:55.093 Realtime FTP connected

...which makes it appear that I have connected via SFTP. I have "1 - Use SSL/TLS for FTP (FTPS)" selected for the FTP protocol to use in my Internet settings of Cumulus MX.

Ah! A cut'n'paste error on my part, I'll fix that message.


I really need debug logging enabled in Cumulus.ini before Cumulus starts to get a full MXdiags log file.

But from the start of the ftp log... it uploads realtime.txt...

Then it tries index.htm, and finds a zero length file already there. I have seen many FTP servers that error when trying to overwrite zero length files for some reason.

Try this...
Change MX to disable realtime FTP.
Change MX to enable FTP rename.
Stop MX.
Set debug logging and FTP logging in Cumulus.ini.
Clear any zero length files already on the server.
Start MX, wait for a couple of upload intervals.
Send the MXdiag and FTP logs.

Mark,
I have attached the zipped fill containing the ftplog.txt and MXdiags file. I tried enabling the debug file, but the setting wouldn't hold as enabled when Cumulus MX started. Not sure how to enable the debug file other than thru the local web interface. I wasn't able to locate the setting in the ini file.

Realtime had been disabled for this generation of zipped files. I had also removed all the zero length files on the server before restarting Cumulus MX.

During this period that Cumulus was running, index.htmtmp and realtime.txttmp (both with 0 length) were uploaded to the server.

Let me know what else I need to do to help. I'm really anxious to get this going as I had Cumulus (early ver) running well for a number of years until tsoHost upgraded their security on 12/18/2019. I installed Cumulus MX a few weeks later, hoping to get data flowing again to the web server.

Again, I do appreciate all your help with this!

Paul

Hi Paul,

One more thing to try - disabling EPSV (extended passive) mode....

With Cumulus stopped, edit Cumulus.ini, in the "FTP site" section, add the line...
DisableEPSV=1

BTW, to start debug logging from Cumulus startup, you have to add the following line in the "Station" section...
Logging=1

If that does not work, some more tests you could do for please..

Does FileZilla work with FTPS in...
1. Implicit mode?
2. Explicit mode?
and
3. Data transfers encrypted?
4. Data transfers un-encrypted?

(but I'm not sure if you can control 3 & 4 in FileZilla?)

Implicit mode is an older depreciated method.
Explicit mode is the newer currently accepted method