Networking

[YacobParticipant]

Alright everyone I could use a little help.
I’m attempting to put my mix rack and surface on a different network. I’ve tried it once before but once I changed the mix rack settings the surface could no longer find the mix rack no matter what IP address I set it to. Is there a certain order or trick that I need to do to make this all work? I admit I’m not very strong with networking, especially on something like this, so any help at all will be greatly apriciated!

Thanks in advance!

Jacob

[Anonymous]

So do you think Allen & Heath should source a really basic net working tutorial
designed for networking their mixers?
There will be others out there that need help?
Sure there are tutorials out there and I learn’t a heap from a days reading lesson which became rather boring and yawning toward the end however it worked.

[MichaelParticipant]

Like Yacob, I plugged my Mixrack and dLive on to a network and they were both unable to connect to each other.

I had use the physical reset button on the Mixrack to resolve the issue and I haven’t tried it since. It seems strange to me that a network issue could take out the GigaAce direct connection between the two devices.

It’s maybe/probably a DCHP / IP assignment issue, but heck if I can find the MAC address on the devices themselves. A networking guide could be a great idea. (P.S. Shouldn’t the GigaAce work regardless of the broader networking situation? It’s a point-to-point direct connection. Is the dLive’s reliability inextricably linked to network reliability – even with a direct point-to-point GigaAce connection that is physically separate (but evidently not logically separate) from the network ports? Doesn’t seem like a graceful failure mode.

I’m sure I can solve it with sufficient motivation and trial-and-error, but it’s perhaps harder than it needs to be with the current lack of documentation in the Firmware Reference Guide.

-michael

[Allen & Heath Product SupportModerator]

Have you seen our knowledgebase article on the subject of gigaACE on a network?
https://support.allen-heath.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/1152/335/gigaace-and-dx-networking-and-fibre-optics

[Nicola A&HKeymaster]

@yacob, can you clarify the requirements i.e. why do you need the two devices on separate networks? A diagram of your intended application would help.

@michael, if you connect both MixRack and Surface to the same network, there is going to be a network ring. gigaACE bridges the control network between MixRack and Surface, so the Network ports on both sides are effectively on the same LAN network. To gain control or visibility of both, it is sufficient to connect either to your network.

[YacobParticipant]

Let me try and clarify. I’m not trying to put them on separate networks. I’m attempting to be able to connect with a computer/phone/tablet but on our network is a 10.x.x.x so it’s not seeing the console. How can I get the console to be on a 10.x.x.x instead of 192?

Even when I changed the mix rack manually the surface was unable to find it regardless of the ip addresses.

[MichaelParticipant]

Thanks Nicola, I figured it out today.

When I connected only the surface to the network and activated DHCP on the surface, it all worked marvelously. It seems that while both the MixRack and Surface have network settings pages, it is important to activate DHCP on only the device that is directly connected to the local network?

Could some of this be added to the network section of the getting started and/or firmware reference guide(s)? Especially the risk of a network ring with GigaAce bridging? Or am I missing the existing documentation somewhere?

It can be very disconcerting to mess this up and frantically figure out how to get the MixRack to boot up. I can’t remember if the network reset button was documented or if I just managed to muddle through it, but the lack of the reassuring startup click/phantom LEDs on the MixRack nearly gave me a heart attack the first time it happened.

[Nicola A&HKeymaster]

The MixRack and Surface must be on the same subnet.
@yacob, you can set both MixRack and Surface to the same subnet as your other network devices, by assigning a static address to them. With a 10.x address I would guess you have a DHCP server on the network, in which case it might be better to switch both MixRack and Surface to DHCP to avoid any IP conflict. You might want to check with the network admin in either case.
@michael, I don’t see why only the Surface would need DHCP. For this to work, you would need a DHCP range compatible with the static IP address on the MixRack. Typically you either switch them both to DHCP, or keep them both on static IP.

[MichaelParticipant]

Thanks Nicola for working through this with us!

Updates!

So we got the Surface on the facility network (which includes enterprise wireless access points in ideal locations for remote mixing), and the iPad app worked great. The next day, the system booted up just fine, soundcheck proceeded as normal and about 10 minutes into the program, the Surface spontaneously lost connection to the MixRack – luckily the MixRack continued to pass audio but it was a tense 10 minutes. After the operator rebooted the Surface twice with no resolution, the problem was resolved by turning off DHCP at the surface and disconnecting the network cable – rebooting then resolved the issue.

Questions:

• Could a problem with the facility network bump the Surface and/or MixRack off of their direct GigaAce connections? Or was this a configuration error caused by having one device assigned the default manual IP (without a static DHCP reservation), and the other a dynamic DHCP-assigned IP? (In which case, why would it have such a delayed impact? Perhaps the MixRack’s manual IP was at that moment assigned to another device which bumped it off the network or caused packet confusion?)
• Do the GigaAce and network jacks share a NIC? (It seems the same IP is shared between the network connection and the GigaAce connection?)
• Followup question: How does this work with the redundant network and GigaAce ports? Do each of the ports have different physical/MAC Addresses? What happens in the case of fail-over?
• Am I missing some obvious documentation on how to set this up according to best practice? For example, if both options are available – which device (Surface/MixRack) is best to be the connection point to network? Perhaps the MixRack, so that Director or a tablet could still be used if the surface loses connection to the MixRack?
• Is it perhaps safest to assign a manual IP to each device, leave DHCP assignment off, and simply reserve those IPs on the router end for both the Mixrack and Surface?

[ahjeffModerator]

Hi Michael

I’ll try to answer your questions one at a time:

Could a problem with the facility network bump the Surface and/or MixRack off of their direct GigaAce connections? Or was this a configuration error caused by having one device assigned the default manual IP (without a static DHCP reservation), and the other a dynamic DHCP-assigned IP? (In which case, why would it have such a delayed impact? Perhaps the MixRack’s manual IP was at that moment assigned to another device which bumped it off the network or caused packet confusion?)

“Could a problem with the facility network bump the Surface and/or MixRack off of their direct GigaAce connections” Essentially yes, an IP conflict, network loop, broadcast storm, or any number of other scenarios could cause a disconnection. Your scenario of a duplicate IP address could be one such scenario. There is nothing special about the GigaACE data link, it’s just a network connection between the surface and the rack.

Do the GigaAce and network jacks share a NIC? (It seems the same IP is shared between the network connection and the GigaAce connection?)

Each unit (surface or rack) has one NIC. The GigaACE provides a ‘dumb’ tunnel for network data between the two connected units

Followup question: How does this work with the redundant network and GigaAce ports? Do each of the ports have different physical/MAC Addresses? What happens in the case of fail-over?

GigaACE redundancy is implemented using a proprietary FPGA design. It is totally transparent to any networking layers.

Am I missing some obvious documentation on how to set this up according to best practice? For example, if both options are available – which device (Surface/MixRack) is best to be the connection point to network? Perhaps the MixRack, so that Director or a tablet could still be used if the surface loses connection to the MixRack?

This is completely your own preference, but you are right that using the rack gives you options for mixing without switching on the surface

Is it perhaps safest to assign a manual IP to each device, leave DHCP assignment off, and simply reserve those IPs on the router end for both the Mixrack and Surface?

That’s what I would do, but this will depend on what the requirements and restrictions of your existing network are

[Author]

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