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Known Issue: Digital Watchdog VMAX A1 Plus Rebooting

Updated

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Known Issue:  Digital Watchdog VMAX® A1 Plus™ Rebooting

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Affected Roles:  Administrator

New Firmware Version:  v1.0.1.54

Previous Firmware Version:  v1.0.1.52

Last Edit:  July 30, 2024

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Known Issue

Digital Watchdog engineering has discovered an issue where the VMAX® A1 Plus™ is prevented from communicating with our Pathfinder (P2P) service in a timely manner. This delay in communication often results in the DVR becoming caught in a state of constant reboot. It is suspected that this may be caused by the DVR system’s watchdog timer function, where it is designed to monitor for and autocorrect temporary faults – in this case the Pathfinder handshake times out, causing the watchdog timer to believe there is an issue that can be cleared with a reboot.

To address this issue, DW has released firmware version v1.0.1.54 for VMAX A1 Plus units. By applying this firmware update/patch to the DVR, the Pathfinder (P2P) feature will be automatically disabled, allowing the system to bypass the handshake timeout and preventing the rebooting issue.

 

**NOTE:  Please be aware that this is only a temporary workaround. The DW Product Support teams are currently developing an improved P2P (peer-to-peer) integration that will restore the VMAX A1 Plus DVRs to their full functionality.

 

Affected Devices:

  • VMAX® A1 Plus™ DVR Series
    • DW-VA1P4xT
    • DW-VA1P8xT
    • DW-VA1P16xT

 

Fixed Issues

  • Mitigates unprompted system rebooting issue (watchdog timer)
  • Patch will disable the Pathfinder (P2P) function pending a permanent fix.  It is recommended to use a direct connection (LAN) and DDNS or a public IP for external connection (WAN/Internet) instead.

 

Special Instructions/Comments

  • It is suspected that issues with the Pathfinder (P2P) function may be related to the rebooting issue caused by the VMAX A1 Plus system watchdog timer.  Installing firmware patch version v1.0.1.54 will disable Pathfinder.
  • Pathfinder (P2P) can still be re-enabled, but it is likely that the watchdog timer and Pathfinder function issues will likely resume as a result, even after installing patch v1.0.1.54.  Leave this feature disabled if possible.

 

VMAX® A1 Plus™ Firmware Version v1.0.1.54

 

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