Cumulus Support

For the past week I have an unusual problem. My automatic Twitter stops updating on or around 21:40 each evening. I am running Cumulus 1.9.2 on a Windows 7 Ultimate computer. Fully updated and patched, with Microsoft Security Essentials. Aside of the various Windows processes, the computer is standalone and only runs Cumulus. I have not made any changes to this computer at all, other than Windows Update.

A simple restart of Cumulus, will restart the automatic update for another 24 hours without problem until 21:40 the next day, updating every 20 mins (@CumbriaWeather)

I have tried a full reboot, I have changed my Twitter password, I have deleted OAuthToken and OAUthTokenSecret, to cause a refetch. The debug log does not seem to show anything unusual, with the Twitter update just disappearing from the log. It just seems to go to sleep?

Do you have any suggestions of how to get to the bottom of this?

Any help/thoughts appreciated.

There have been performance issues at Twitter which seem to cause the Cumulus Twitter update thread to hang - see the other thread about this. I suspect you're having the same problem, but it does seem odd that it stops at the same time every day; mine runs for variable periods before hanging. According to Twitter the performance issues are now resolved, so the problem may go away.

Note that Cumulus logs extra information for Twitter updates to the diags files when the debug log is turned on (I've been running with mine on, but it hasn't stopped for a while now), so there may be something useful in your diags files. Or it may just show it stopping. It's a difficult problem to pin down, and the problem may not be in my code anyway.

I noticed that your updates stopped again at about the same time. Interestingly, I also had a failed update (and Twitter are still having performance problems):

16/03/2012 20:00:01.227 : Starting Twitter thread
16/03/2012 20:00:01.227 : TwitterOauthToken available
16/03/2012 20:00:01.227 : Twitter data:Wind 9 mph SW. Barometer 1004.24 mb, Rising slowly. Temperature 5.8 °C. Rain today 1.0 mm. Humidity 90%
16/03/2012 20:00:22.303 : Twitter update error: Socket Error # 10060
Connection timed out.
16/03/2012 20:00:22.303 : Twitter Response:

But mine recovered and updated successfully at the next update. I think yours did not, and difference could be that you are using a 19 minute update interval, i.e. not a factor of 60, which uses a different timer mechanism. I may not be restarting the timer when a Twitter timeout occurs, so it never updates after that. Could you have a look in your diags file and see if you had a similar timeout message (assuming you have debug logging turned on). If you did, as a work around you could try switching to a 20 minute interval while I investigate.

It looks like yours restarted updating after a couple of hours - did you have to restart Cumulus for that to happen?

Morning,

Interestingly the problem seems to have gone away. The past two nights (Sat/Sun) have updated without interruption, although some of the updates were missed. The update frequency is currently on 25 minutes, although previously I tried from 15 to 30 mins. I suspect the problem is to do with Twitter themselves as you suggest.

I don't think there is anything more that can be done other than keep an eye on it. Has yours been running OK?

Thanks for your help anyway.

RodH wrote:Has yours been running OK?

Yes, it had that one timeout, that it recovered from, and other than that it's been fine.

Hello Chaps

Yes my Tweets stop occasionally - it stopped again on the 19th.
A restart seems to work - as you say it's Twitter at fault.
I'll turn on my debug log and keep an eye on it.
I moved my time to every 2 hrs (in place of every 4) - not sure a shorter interval is worth it.
Steve

profzarkov wrote:Hello Chaps

Yes my Tweets stop occasionally - it stopped again on the 19th.
A restart seems to work - as you say it's Twitter at fault.
I'll turn on my debug log and keep an eye on it.
I moved my time to every 2 hrs (in place of every 4) - not sure a shorter interval is worth it.
Steve

I just checked my Twitter page, and realised the last update was on the 19th as well.
Cumulus was still working, but i've just tried to restart it, but the process won't shut down. I'v e had to force it from the task manager.

Mapantz wrote:Cumulus was still working, but i've just tried to restart it, but the process won't shut down. I'v e had to force it from the task manager.

This is consistent with my theory that a (particular) problem getting a response from Twitter is causing the Twitter update thread to hang.

I've just noticed that my Twitter page stopped updating a few days ago. Looking at the logs, Twitter didn't respond to an update, which would have caused the thread to hang. I'm working on a fix, but I'll need to hit the Twitter problem again before I know whether it works (or causes other problems).

No Complaint from me, just a note that I have noticed this morning mine has stopped updating, but just down the coast from me https://twitter.com/#!/NWalesWeather is working just fine?

Strike that, it's started up again