Troubleshooting the Pexip Infinity platform
This section contains a list of symptoms, possible causes and suggested resolutions for some issues you may experience when using the Pexip Infinity platform.
It includes the following sections:
- Pexip Infinity deployment and upgrading
- Joining a conference and viewing content
- Conference connectivity and TLS issues
- Pexip Infinity administration
- Infinity Connect clients
Help in resolving LDAP-specific issues is contained in a separate topic: Troubleshooting LDAP server connections.
Help in resolving Lync / Skype for Business issues is contained in a separate topic: Troubleshooting and limitations with Lync / Skype for Business and Pexip Infinity.
For a list of devices that are supported by Pexip Infinity, including any known issues, see Interoperability.
Pexip Infinity deployment and upgrading
Symptom | Possible cause | Resolution |
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During upgrade, one or more Conferencing Nodes are stuck with a status of "waiting for calls to clear", but there are no active calls reported on the Management Node. | In some circumstances a call will not clear properly from the Conferencing Node. | Reboot the Conferencing Node. |
During automatic deployment of a Conferencing Node using VMware, the following message is given: "Server raised fault: 'Current license or ESXi version prohibits execution of the requested operation.'" |
You are using a version of VMware that does not support use of the VMware API, which is required for automatic deployment of Conferencing Nodes. |
Either:
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An automatic deployment of a Conferencing Node using vCenter as the VM manager fails at 22%. | During automatic deployment, the Management Node uploads the VM image directly to the ESXi host using HTTPS on port 443/TCP. If this port is not accessible, the upload will fail. | Ensure that all ESXi hosts on which Conferencing Nodes are being deployed are accessible from the Management Node using HTTPS on port 443/TCP. |
A Conferencing Node does not accept calls even though it is powered on and is contactable on the network. |
If time is not properly synchronized between the Management Node and the host server, certificates issued by the Management Node may be invalidated by Conferencing Nodes within the same Pexip Infinity deployment. As a result, the Conferencing Nodes will not communicate properly with the Management Node, causing calls to fail. |
Ensure all virtual machines (VMs) (i.e. the Management Node and all Conferencing Nodes) within the Pexip Infinity platform, and the host servers on which they are running, are using accurate times according to the public or private standard NTP clock. We strongly recommend that you configure at least 3 distinct NTP servers or NTP server pools in each instance to ensure proper synchronization. To synchronize time on Pexip Infinity:
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A newly deployed Conferencing Node does not accept calls and its last contacted status on the Management Node shows "Never", even though it is powered on and is contactable on the network. |
After deploying a new Conferencing Node, it takes approximately 5 minutes before the node is available for conference hosting and for its status to be updated on the Management Node. (Until it is available, the Management Node will report the status of the Conferencing Node as having a last contacted and last updated date of "Never".) |
Wait for the Conferencing Node to finish initializing. |
I entered the wrong information while running the installation wizard. |
On server-based deployments you can re-run the installation wizard by following the instructions in Re-running the installation wizard. Do not re-run the installation wizard on cloud-based deployments (AWS or Azure) in order to change Management Node configuration data such as its IP address or hostname. To change such data you must terminate the existing instance and deploy a new Management Node instance. You should only re-run the installation wizard on cloud-based deployments if you need to reset the web administration password (and then you should not change any of the other configuration data). |
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A new Management Node or Conferencing Node does not work. It was created by cloning it through VMware. | You cannot use cloning to create Management Nodes and Conferencing Nodes. |
Create all Management Nodes according to our instructions (see Pexip Infinity installation overview for links to the appropriate instructions for your hypervisor). Create all Conferencing Nodes by following the instructions in Deploying new Conferencing Nodes. |
A newly-deployed Conferencing Node has gone into maintenance mode with the message "CPU instruction set is not supported; system will be placed in maintenance mode". | The Conferencing Node has been installed on a system that does not meet the CPU instruction set requirements. |
Do one of the following:
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Joining a conference and viewing content
Symptom | Possible cause | Resolution |
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Participants cannot join a conference due to insufficient capacity.
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All Conferencing Nodes that are able to take the media for this call are at capacity. |
For further information on capacity and how calls consume resources, see Hardware resource allocation rules. |
The participant has dialed in to the Conferencing Node while it is still starting up and an internal capacity-checking tool is running. |
The Administrator should place the Conferencing Node into maintenance mode if it is expected to be powered off and on. If the Conferencing Node is not in maintenance mode while the capacity-checking tool is running the participant should wait a few moments and then attempt to join the conference. |
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The Virtual Meeting Room or Virtual Auditorium has a participant limit applied, and this limit has been reached. | Increase the participant limit, if appropriate. | |
Participants cannot join a conference due to an invalid license.
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If your Pexip Infinity reports an invalid license, this could mean that:
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For more information, see Pexip Infinity license installation and usage. |
Participants cannot join a conference due to insufficient licenses.
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There are not enough port licenses available on the system at this time. For more information, see Pexip Infinity license installation and usage. |
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An H.323 endpoint has its bandwidth restricted when joining a conference via a Virtual Reception, or when placing a call using the Distributed Gateway after first connecting to a Virtual Reception. | If there has been a bandwidth restriction placed on the Virtual Reception, any H.323 endpoints using that service will not be able to subsequently increase their bandwidth, even after being transferred to a Virtual Meeting Room or using a Call Routing Rule that has a higher (or no) limit. |
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Presentations do not display full screen |
If the presentation being shared is either:
then the image being sent may have a non-standard aspect ratio. In order to send the image inside a standard resolution window (for example 640x480 [4:3]) or 1280x720 [16:9]), the endpoint may add horizontal or vertical mattes (also known as letterboxing or pillarboxing respectively). |
Ensure that presenters always either:
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Images are not displaying as expected:
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Endpoints send and display video images and presentations in various aspect ratios, most commonly 16:9 and 4:3. If there is a difference between the aspect ratios of the sending and receiving endpoints, then the endpoint and/or Pexip Infinity may crop the image or add vertical or horizontal mattes. |
For more information, see Changing aspect ratios. |
Main video on a Cisco E20 freezes when content is received |
The following issue may occur when additional video codecs (e.g. H.264 High profile) have been enabled on the Pexip Infinity deployment: When an E20 has been dialed out to from a VMR, and a participant in the VMR presents content, the main video on the E20 freezes and no presentation is shown. The E20 will still send video as normal, and audio will flow in both directions. This occurs because more codecs are offered to the E20 than it is able to cope with. |
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Participants keep hearing themselves repeated back after a short delay. This happens in a conference with one or more other participants connected using Infinity Connect via Internet Explorer, Edge, Safari or Firefox, and who are using their computer's microphone and speakers. | Internet Explorer, Edge, Safari and Firefox do not have adequate echo cancellation, and in certain circumstances may experience a delay in playing audio. When this happens, sounds played through the computer's speakers are picked up by the computer's microphone and replayed back to other participants. |
Participants using Internet Explorer, Edge, Safari or Firefox should:
Participants using Flash-based browsers should also ensure echo cancellation is enabled:
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In-band DTMF tones may not be detected if they are input too quickly. | False detections can be caused, for example, by poor line quality, line noise and echo. | This is best resolved through using out-of-band DTMF tones. |
Participants are disconnected from conferences and "Backplane disconnected" messages are recorded in the administrator log. |
VMware snapshots were being taken or deleted while conferences were in progress. Taking or removing snapshots can cause virtual machines to become unresponsive. For more information, see this VMware knowledge base article. |
Only create and delete VMware snapshots at a time of minimal usage. |
Conference connectivity and TLS issues
Symptom | Possible cause | Resolution |
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Calls fail when dialing out to, or receiving calls from, video network infrastructure devices, such as a Cisco VCS or CUCM. Calls may fail immediately, or after a period of time, and SSL alerts are raised in the support log with an "unsupported certificate" description. | Either the external system or the Conferencing Node is verifying the other party's certificate and it is rejecting the connection because the certificate does not have client authentication properties. | Ensure that the certificates on your external systems and on your Conferencing Nodes contain "TLS Web Client Authentication" Enhanced Key Usage properties (see Mutual TLS authentication and client/server certificates). |
A Cisco MXP intermittently puts a call on hold immediately after resuming it. | This is due to a bug in the MXP where a race condition exists between the resume message and the session refresh re-INVITE message. | Set the session refresh configuration on your call control system to a value that avoids this race occurring. |
After upgrading to version 10 or later, some Cisco MXPs may no longer be able to connect over TLS to Pexip Infinity. | This can occur if the endpoint connects directly to a Conferencing Node (e.g. because it is registered to Pexip Infinity, or it is using IP dialing). | Add to your Conferencing Node server certificates some custom DH parameters that define a DH group of size <=2048 bits. See Managing a node's TLS server certificate for information about how to do this. |
Pexip Infinity administration
Symptom | Possible cause | Resolution |
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Log timestamps appear to be inaccurate or log entries appear to be out of sequence. |
Time is not properly synchronized between the Management Node, Conferencing Nodes and their host servers, causing different systems to use different timestamps. This could be because:
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Ensure all virtual machines (VMs) (i.e. the Management Node and all Conferencing Nodes) within the Pexip Infinity platform, and the host servers on which they are running, are using accurate times according to the public or private standard NTP clock. We strongly recommend that you configure at least 3 distinct NTP servers or NTP server pools in each instance to ensure proper synchronization. To synchronize time on Pexip Infinity:
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How do I register Pexip Infinity to a gatekeeper? | You don't. Instead, you configure your call control system to route calls to Pexip Infinity. See Call control. | |
Oracle Acme Packet SBC has the error "Message Too Large". |
Increase the following configuration parameters on the Acme Packet SBC:
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VMware datastore is showing disk I/O alarms. |
Enabling SIOC on your datastores might help. For more information, see this VMware knowledge base article. |
Infinity Connect clients
Symptom | Possible cause | Resolution |
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Participants are unable to use Infinity Connect clients. Infinity Connect Web App and Infinity Connect desktop client users are presented with a message "Server error! Please try again". |
Support for these applications has been disabled. |
Enable support as follows:
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Participants attempting to connect to a conference using the Infinity Connect Mobile client for iOS get a message "Certificate Error. Please contact your system administrator." |
Your deployment does not use valid, trusted certificates. Infinity Connect Mobile clients require deployments with HTTPS and valid certificates. |
Install valid certificates. For more information, see Managing TLS and trusted CA certificates. |
Participants attempting to connect to a conference using the Infinity Connect Mobile client for Android get a message "Unable to connect to the server". |
The user has entered an invalid address. |
Check the address. |
Your deployment does not use valid, trusted certificates. Infinity Connect Mobile clients require deployments with HTTPS and valid certificates. |
Install valid certificates. For more information, see Managing TLS and trusted CA certificates. | |
The user is attempting to connect to a reverse proxy that requires authentication. They are using Version 3.0.11 or earlier of the Android client, which cannot provide authentication credentials. |
Users should either:
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Participants using an Infinity Connect client cannot see the chat window. | Chat has been globally disabled. | Enable chat. |
Guest participants using an Infinity Connect client cannot see the chat window, participant list, or presentation. | Guest participants are not allowed in to the conference if the conference is locked, or until the first Host participant has joined using video or audio, or has joined as control-only and has explicitly started the conference. |
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Users cannot access the Infinity Connect Web App home page when using Internet Explorer. | Internet Explorer may be accessing the site in Compatibility View. | Ensure that the target domain is not in Internet Explorer's list of websites added to Compatibility View. |
Users of the Infinity Connect Web App via Edge, Internet Explorer or Safari get no main video when connecting to a conference via a reverse proxy. Other conference participants see a muted camera icon in place of the participant's video. |
To send and receive audio/video media, Internet Explorer, Edge, and Safari browsers need a direct TCP connection to a Conferencing Node (as they use the RTMP protocol and thus cannot use ICE/TURN). For more information, see Using Infinity Connect from outside your network. |
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