Q197535 - INFO: Microsoft NetShow Theater Server 3.0 Release Notes

INFO: Microsoft NetShow Theater Server 3.0 Release Notes

Q197535

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft NetShow Theater Server version 3.0

SUMMARY

The following are the Release Notes for Microsoft NetShow Theater Server version 3.0.

MORE INFORMATION

These release notes provide supplementary information to the Microsoft NetShow Theater Server documentation. Reading the documentation is essential. In addition, the NetShow Theater Server Web site, http://www.microsoft.com/theater provides important late-breaking information.

The Release Notes are divided into the following sections:

General

Documentation

Setup

Administration

Networking

Microsoft Windows Media Player

General

Required software:

Required operating system for title and content server computers: The operating system for the title server and content server computers is Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0 with Microsoft Windows NT Service Pack 3. Future Windows NT service packs or QFEs are not guaranteed to be compatible with Microsoft NetShow Theater Server version 3.0.

Installing under Microsoft Windows NT Server version 5.0 is not supported. NetShow Theater Server Setup will not allow installation under Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows 98.

Required browser for administrative workstation:
The NetShow Theater Server Administrator requires Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.01 or later.

Required video player for client computers:
NetShow Theater Server client computers require Microsoft Windows Media Player. You cannot use earlier versions of NetShow clients with NetShow Theater Server version 3.0. To download Media Player, go to the NetShow Theater Server compact disc or download it from the NetShow Theater Server Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/theater/.

Other issues:
Delay at system startup is normal:
The amount of time required to start the title server and content server computers varies with the size of the NetShow Theater Server installation. For larger installations, containing many titles, the start time can be as much as 15 minutes. There is no progress indicator, nor are any additional messages passed to the console, although you may see disk activity on the servers.

Optimal display resolution:
NetShow Theater Server Administrator, product documentation, and SDK are formatted for 800x600 display resolution.

Setup does not support double-byte characters in computer names:
Do not use double-byte characters in computer names when installing NetShow Theater Server.

Documentation

How to install NetShow Theater Server documentation: There is no separate installation procedure for the online documentation. During Microsoft NetShow Theater Server Setup, you will be prompted to install administration tools. When you select Administration Tools, Setup installs the administration tools, all online documentation, and the Microsoft NetShow Theater Server software development kit (SDK) and Microsoft Windows Media Player SDK on the computer from which you are running Setup (in most cases, this is the administrative workstation). Online documentation is in HTML Help format.

Viewing NetShow Theater Server documentation: Once you have installed NetShow Theater Server, you can use the following procedure to view the online documentation at the administrative workstation:

To view NetShow Theater Server documentation after installation: On the administrative workstation's Start menu, point to Programs. Point to NetShow Theater Server. Click NetShow Theater Documentation.

In addition to the HTML Help files, the online documentation is also available in the appropriate print directories on the NetShow Theater Server compact disc. These files are in Microsoft Word (.doc) format. For example, you can open the .doc version of Microsoft NetShow Planning Guide and then print it to more easily plan your NetShow Theater Server system.

If you don't have Microsoft Word installed on the administrative workstation, you can download Microsoft Word Viewer 97 from the Microsoft Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/. Word Viewer is a small application that lets you read and print Word documents, but not edit them.

Changing font size in NetShow Theater Server documentation: To change the font size that appears in the NetShow Theater Server Documentation, use the following procedure:
Open Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.01.
Click Internet Options from the View menu.
Click Fonts
Under Font Size, click the down arrow.
Select the font size range you want.
Click OK, returning to home page and closing Internet Explorer.

Setup

NetShow Theater Server Installation Setup requires administrator permissions:
Before running Setup to install Microsoft NetShow Theater Server, you must verify that you have permission to administer each of the computers onto which you are installing. When installing to computers enlisted on a domain, be sure that your domain login is included in the administrator group of each computer before running NetShow Theater Server Setup.

If installing from the Administrative Workstation, make sure you have local administrator privileges on every computer to which you are installing NetShow Theater Server components.

Setup cannot complete installation if the path is modified to add more than two directories:
If you specify an installation path during NetShow Theater Server Setup that requires the creation of more than one subdirectory beyond that of the default path, you must create the new directories before running Setup.

You must restart computers if Setup fails:
If Setup does not successfully complete the installation of NetShow Theater Server components, you must restart all affected computers before running Setup again.

If you do not restart all the affected computers before running Setup again, the installation may not be successful.

Installing NetShow Theater Server on Multiple Content Server Configurations with a CLIP ATM Network:
The single-processor HAL must be used in a multiple content server configuration running with a CLIP ATM network.

Installing NetShow Theater Server on hybrid network:
If you are installing on a hybrid network, you must run NetShow Theater Server Setup from the title server and install only NetShow Theater Server. Afterwards, you must run Setup from the administrative workstation to install the NetShow Theater Server administration tools. To learn more about hybrid networks, see Special Considerations for Hybrid Networks in Microsoft NetShow Theater Server Installation Guide.

Installing NetShow Theater Server on multihomed computers:
Installing NetShow Theater Server on computers with more than one network card or more than one IP address assigned to a single network card is not supported. There are known operating system issues that could prevent successful installation of NetShow Theater Server on multi-homed computers. Errors such as the following in Setup indicate that at least one of the NetShow Theater content servers or the title server has either multiple network cards installed and/or has multiple IP addresses assigned to a single network card:

Cannot initialize installation service on computer SERVER1 Couldn't check the operating system version of SERVER1 Couldn't check the amount of physical memory installed on SERVER1 An error occurred while creating a list of raw drives attached to the selected Content Servers An error occurred while trying to obtain performance information of drive F

To work around this issue, install NetShow Theater server only on computers configured with one network card and one IP address. Do not simply disable the secondary network cards via the control panel applet. In certain situations, this will not help. Instead, all drivers for secondary network cards must be removed prior to executing the installation program. Consult http://www.microsoft.com/theater/ for updated information concerning this issue.

Adaptec SCSI device drivers:
NetShow Theater software exhibits degraded performance using the Adaptec SCSI driver version 2.11 (SYS file dated 9/15/97). Microsoft is working closely with Adaptec to resolve this issue. Until the problem is rectified and a newer version driver is available, use the default Windows NT drivers (shipped with NT 4.0 Service Pack 3) for the Adaptec 2940/3940 series cards.

Uninstalling NetShow Theater Server:
Uninstalling administration components with Active Desktop installed On computers running Active Desktop, you must uninstall the Administrative components immediately after restarting the computer and before any administrative components are loaded into memory. On computers without Active Desktop, do not uninstall the Administrator components if the NetShow Theater Administrator is active.

Uninstalling server components removes the path to the command-line tools:
If you have installed the Administrative components on a title server and then run Uninstall to remove only the Server components, this removes the path to the command-line Administration tools from the default path environment variable. As a result, you must explicitly type the path to the command-line tools to access them. To work around the problem, simply add the fully-qualified directory containing the Administration command- line tools to the path environment variable. Note that while the complete directory name containing the Administration command-line tools will vary depending on the installation point selected, the final part of the name contains ..\Theater\Admin\bin.

Administration

Managing a NetShow Theater Server system Shutting down a single content server:
When shutting down a single content server, it is important to stop all Microsoft NetShow Theater Server processes prior to issuing the shutdown command.

To stop NetShow Theater Server processes:
From the Start menu open Control Panel.
Open Services.
Highlight NetShow Theater Content Server Service and click Stop.
Close the Services dialog box.

Unrecoverable errors on non-fault-tolerant systems:
When a disk fails on a non-fault-tolerant NetShow Theater Server, there is no way to rebuild the content storage system. This situation requires the removal of the video server (including all content), replacement of the failed hardware, and reinstallation of the video server. When this is done, the content can be loaded again. Microsoft always recommends installing fault-tolerant video servers when multiple content drives are present on the system.

Maximum title length limited to 18 hours:
The maximum title length is 18 hours. Longer titles can be made into shorter segments, and then played sequentially with an .asx file. For more information on .asx playlists, see "Content Administration" in Microsoft NetShow Theater Server System Guide.

Opening multiple administrator instances with Active Desktop:
To open multiple instances of Administrator under Active Desktop, Type [CTRL] N in Administrator. However, this only works if the view frame part of NetShow Theater Server Administrator is active.

Administrator is incompatible with Microsoft Windows NT 5.0 Beta:
NetShow Theater Server Administrator requires Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0 and Service Pack 3. It does not function with Microsoft Windows NT version 5.0 Beta.

User authentication caution:
Once an administrator has been authenticated by NetShow Theater Server, they will remain authorized until they disconnect, regardless of changes to the Administrator Group.

Incorrect bit rate is displayed when adding a title:
While adding a title with the NetShow Theater Server Administrator, the bit rate shown on the General tab of the Properties dialog box reflects the title server bit rate, not the title bit rate. Once the title add process has finished and the title page has been refreshed, the correct title bit rate is reflected.

Connected clients are not counted in some cases:
When using the NetShow Theater Server Administrator, clients include those that are both playing (streaming) a title and those that are fast- forwarding or fast-reversing a title (if you are in Server View, this number is shown on the Clients tab of the Properties dialog box; if you are in Client View, this number is shown on the Information tab of the Properties dialog box).

If you use the command-line utility NSTCONF or the NetShow Theater Title Server Performance counters, the number of client connected reflects only those currently playing (streaming) a title, not those fast-forwarding or fast-reversing a title.

Logging issues Some server events cause error message in NT Event Log:
Some NetShow Theater Server events such as rebuilding a disk or having Network Monitor installed can cause NT Event Log messages. These messages include phrases like "Bad UID" or "BHMON.DLL" and can be ignored.

NSLOG Database does not show time stamp at midnight:
When Microsoft Access displays the date field, the default format for Date/Time field does not display the time part if it is midnight. Work around this by setting the format of the field in the access .mdb file to another date format.

To change the date format

Open the Microsoft Access file.
Select the table, and click Design.
Click eventdate, and then click the format field.
Select m/d/yy hh:nn:ss AM/PM in the format field.
Save the changes.
The EventDate field now displays the time even if it is midnight. Changes to title names in client logging files If you enable client logging, a log is generated for each client and saved to a folder on the title server whenever a client plays a title. You can use the information for a variety of administration tasks, including diagnosing user performance issues. When the title server creates an entry in the client log file, any spaces in the URL name of a title will be replaced with an underline character (this prevents parsing problems since the fields in this log file are separated by spaces).

CPU utilization:
If the title server has multiple processors, the server CPU utilization parameter (s-cpu-util) in the client log file will always be zero.

Networking

Network considerations
Using Network Monitor Service on title or content servers:
Network Monitor Service should not be used on the title server or content server computers.

DEC Alpha Computers on an ATM Network:
For information about configuring DEC Alpha computers for CLIP ATM Microsoft NetShow Theater Server systems (including special drivers for ATM network cards), contact Digital Equipment Corporation.

Network cards
Performance issues with PCA200e network card:
The PCA200e network card used with CLIP ATM systems exhibits performance degradations for bit rates other than 2 Mbps. The drivers for this card are optimized for 2 Mbps, use of other bit rates is possible but at other bit rates this card does not deliver the full rated capacity (number of streams).

Network card selection on multihomed computer:
Multiple network cards are not supported for streaming by this release of NetShow Theater Server. If multiple network cards are found on the NetShow Theater Server installation(s) during setup, the Setup program determines which network cards are on the same subnet. If multiple network cards in each computer are on the same subnet, Setup selects the first network card based on the lowest device number.

Adaptec ANA-5910:
If you are using the Adaptec ATM network card on your clients, download the NetShow Theater drivers (version 2.07M) from the Adaptec Web site at http://www.adaptec.com. NetShow Theater Server does not work with older Adaptec drivers.

OLICOM OC-615x:
OLICOM OC-6151 and OC-6152 ATM network cards default to using ATM local area network (LAN) emulation, and must be set explicitly to use Classical IP over ATM. To change the setting to Classical IP over ATM, create a configuration file named Oc-615x.cfg. On Microsoft Windows 95, this file is placed in \Windows\System, and on Microsoft Windows NT, it is placed in \Winnt\System32\Drivers.

You must also specify some additional parameters, such as the MTU size and UNI signaling version. Use the sample configuration file below if you plan to use the OLICOM ATM network card on a CLIP ATM Network. You must modify the ATMARP server address to the ATMARP server on your ATM network

DefineAdapter
UniVersion Uni3.1
DefineVirtualAdapter ClassicalIp
MtuSize 9180
ArpServer 47 00 05 80 ff e1 00 00 00 f2 1a 1d 7b 00 20 48 08 0d 86 00
; 20 hexadecimal bytes.
; Replace the above address with your ARP server address
EndVirtualAdapter EndAdapter

Fast Ethernet switches:
Improperly configured server network cards and Ethernet switches can cause networking problems. For example, many Ethernet switches have congestion control features that should be disabled for NetShow Theater Server. There also can be problems if a server's Ethernet network card and the switch port to which it is connected are configured differently. You must turn off congestion control, error correction, auto-sense/auto-negotiate of the link speed, and other traffic management features of your Ethernet switch software.

Cabletron switches:
Cabletron MMAC Plus switch considerations:
You must turn on IP MOBILITY in the firmware. The firmware must be Rev 1.05.03 or higher. For more information on the recommended configuration of Cabletron products, go to the Cabletron Web site at http://www.ctron.com/.

Cabletron ZX-250 ATM switch considerations:
To properly configure the Cabletron ZX-250 switch using ATM CLIP (Classical IP) Well Known Address, you must enter the Well Known Address and the local ATMARP server address as the registered address in the switch, as shown below:

WellKnown Vs Registered Addresses


AddressId : 1
AddressType : STATIC
WellKnownAddr :
47:00:79:00:01:02:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:A0:3E:00:00:02:00
RegKnownAddr : 39:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:14:8C:80:00:20:48:08:A4:67:00

FORE Systems switches:
Software:
When using the FORE Systems ASX 1000 or ASX 200 ATM switches, you must use version 4.1.076 of FORETHOUGHT software.

Call proceeding:
Turn off call proceeding messages on all ports connected to the title server and content servers. Leaving these messages on adds a considerable amount of processing overhead. Call proceeding messages can be disabled in the Configuration UNI menu of the switch management interface. Each port must be deleted and recreated with the call proceeding feature turned off.

Virtual channel identifier:
The maximum Virtual Channel Identifier (VCI) value on each port has a default value of 511. This is usually sufficient for most installations. If you are setting up a NetShow Theater Server system configured for more than 400 clients, you must set a larger VCI value. This is set through the configuration uni menu of the switch management interface.

Example of setting the maximum VCI value:

Localhost::configuration uni>del 1a1 0
Localhost::configuration uni>new 1a1 0 -maxvci 1023 send_cproc off

Microsoft Windows Media Player

Required operating system for Microsoft Windows Media Player:
Microsoft Windows Media Player for Microsoft NetShow Theater Server version 3.0 operates with the following:

Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0 with Service Pack 3
Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0 with Service Pack 3
Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition, version 4.0 with Service Pack 3
Microsoft Windows 95 with the latest service pack (x86 systems only)
Microsoft Windows 98 (x86 systems only)

Winsock Proxy Client considerations:
When using Media Player along with Microsoft Winsock Proxy Client on a computer connected to two different networks, the Winsock Proxy Client must be disabled to be able to play on the video network. For example, the computer is connected to a network as IP Address 157.xxx.xxx.xxx, and also connected to a different network as IP Address 1.xxx.xxx.xxx. In order to stream video over the second network, the Winsock Proxy Client must be disabled.

Yamaha sound card drivers:
The default Windows NT driver for the Yamaha sound board can result in poor playback performance. Be sure to test sound cards and other hardware with Microsoft NetShow Theater Server before deploying them in quantity.

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