SWA download read timed out

[Andy Torres]

For the last two days I've been trying to download patches and QPK from ftp.itrc.hp.com using SWA but it keeps timing out with the following error:


* Download: 499084kB (31% complete)
* Download: 501122kB (31% complete)
* Downloading "/var/summit/backup_temp/SWA/patch_bundles/hp-ux/QUALITYPACK/QPK1123_B.11.23.0812.076.depot" from the remote location
"ftp://ftp.itrc.hp.com/superseded_patches/patch_bundles/hp-ux/QUALITYPACK/QPK1123_B.11.23.0812.076.depot"
* Downloading "/var/summit/backup_temp/SWA/patch_bundles/hp-ux/QUALITYPACK/QPK1123_B.11.23.0812.076.depot" from the remote location
"ftp://ftp.itrc.hp.com/patches_with_warnings/patch_bundles/hp-ux/QUALITYPACK/QPK1123_B.11.23.0812.076.depot"
ERROR: Download was unsuccessful: binary:QPK1123:B.11.23.0812.076. Failed to read:
ftp://ftp.itrc.hp.com/patch_bundles/hp-ux/QUALITYPACK/QPK1123_B.11.23.0812.076.depot Message: Read timed out


Very aggravating. I currently show ftp.itrc.hp.com resolving to IP address 15.217.32.52. Anybody know of another IP I can try, or am I stuck retrying over & over again?

Before anyone suggests it, we are not using a proxy server.

[Andy Torres]

Am trying 15.216.76.113 now from a previous download. I think .112 is also valid. Will update with my status as it fails/finishes.

Does HP list all valid IPs somewhere?

[James R. Ferguson · Accepted solution]

Hi Andy:

I had the same problem fetching the same bundle on November 26th during the daylight hours. The download timed out twice at about 30-35% completed. I was successful the third time I restarted after 1900 EST. Yes, annoying. I had not previously had the error, either. I'm using SWA 2.0.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Andy Torres]

Phew! Glad I'm not the only one. I was starting to suspect our firewall crew up to their clandestine tricks. :-P

I hope these timeouts aren't a trend. I've grown accustomed to retrieving patches and reviewing security issues with SWA. It would be a shame to have something so simple undermine what has turned out to be a great app.

Thanks for the reply and info.

[Andy Torres]

It went to about 60% completion before failing on IP address 15.216.76.113. Looks like it's just plain busy. I'll keep trying. No real solution, really, but closing this for now for lack of a better idea. Thanks for the reply, JRF.

[Bob E Campbell]

There have been a number of ITRC changes that have been going on recently. I will try and find out if any of them could have caused the performance hit. The SWA team is inside the firewall and we see the same problems.

I did want to mention that the "-x allow_existing_depot=true" option can be used when preloading content into a depot. I have a few ideas I will try out tonight, if I find a workaround I will post to the forums.

[Andy Torres]

Thanks for taking a look.
I left three servers downloading yesterday at 5PM EST. They all finished successfully. Guess I just need to download my quality packs at night when it's less busy.

All individual patches downloaded fine. It was just the quality pack that was timing out, so I'm not sure the "-x allow_existing_depot=true" option would've helped since downloads don't resume, right?

Any way, if it helps you to know it appears to be timing out only on larger downloads, not on smaller patch downloads.

[Bob E Campbell]

I am glad to hear that it worked for you later, and yes even I admit that 1.5 GB counts as a large download...

SWA downloads are a two step operation. First the content is brought in its raw form to /var/opt/swa/cache and then it is copied to the depot. The "allow_existing_depot" option is only used when a depot already has content such as a preloaded QPK.

We will certainly be looking at better ways to deal with this in future releases and user guides.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi (again):

> Bob: SWA downloads are a two step operation. First the content is brought in its raw form to /var/opt/swa/cache and then it is copied to the depot.

Yes, and that is a great design. I saw the value of that when I restarted my own 'swa get' which had specified the very large QualityPack along with security, critical and patches with warnings. The majority of the standalone patches were downloaded without incident, but as I noted above, the QPK download failed twice at about one-third done. At least when resuming (reissuing the 'swa get') the previous, successfully downloaded software was cached and not re-fetched.

Regards!

...JRF...