PORT LIST crashing C-Gate

Environment: Clean install of TK 1.14.8 (also tried older versions) on Server 2012 R2 (ie 64-Bit). Same tests fail on multiple machines (different hardware including virtual machines on Server 2012 R2, but work fine on my laptop and desktop, and also on a Server 2008 (32-Bit) machine.

From telnet session:

Code:

201 Service ready: Clipsal C-Gate Version: v2.10.6 (build 3169) #cmd-syntax=1.0
project load example
200 OK.
project use example
200 OK.
port refresh
408 Operation failed: This command is not applicable.  The list of ports is automatically updated.
port list

Connection to host lost

On my desktop the same sequence would conclude with "126 no ports found" and C-Gate wouldn't crash.

The above sequence is distilled from what happens when you open TK, select a network, and go to Edit Network, which on my 2012 machines crashes C-Gate and then Toolkit throws an exception.

(Log attached, it's nice and short!)

 

Just to confirm the exact same thing happens on our Win Server build.

 

I've been doing some more tests on this, and on my test machine I've found an apparent solution which unfortunately doesn't work on my live server where I need it.

In \Clipsal\C-Gate2\libs there is SerialIO.jar, and alongside it a version for Win8.1. I tried backing up the original then copying the Win8.1 version over the original, and on my test VM that allowed "list ports" to work. If only it had also worked on my real server!

It's just past midnight here in the UK so I've stopped testing for now but I'm open to suggestions for the morning! I have checked the SerialIO website and I note they do have a version that supports 2012R2, but I haven't had chance yet to see how it compares.

The frustrating thing is that i don't need serial, everything is CNIs here.

 

Further info...

If I remove serialio.jar altogether, C-Gate runs fine, except that if I run "port refresh" or "port list" I get no response (C-Gate doesn't crash, the terminal session just hangs). If I try to edit network in TK it times out on each of these commands and puts up an error but then carries on working. It means I can't edit a network (except by manually hacking the .xml file) but the important thing is that C-Gate doesn't crash (I have 35 networks and restarting C-Gate takes a while...)

Looking inside serialio.jar I see that the class files in the original are from 2012-09-29, and from the win8.1 version are 2014-11-20. Looking at the SerialIO readme suggests there are newer releases which support 2012R2 and Win10 - it doesn't give release dates but I'm guessing that both come after 2014.

So it looks like dropping in a newer version of serialio.jar might fix this?

 

SOLVED (kind of)

Given few other choices, I have bought a licenced copy of serialio.jar:
https://serialio.com/product/utility-and-developer/java-serial-port

After conversations with SerialIO they told me that a single "Standard Windows" licence ($49.95) would be sufficient for me, so that's what I've bought. It contains an updated serialio.jar which is a drop-in replacement and having dropped it in my server 2012R2 install of Toolkit doesn't crash C-Gate when editing network properties.

Obviously it's frustrating spending $49.95 to update a library, especially when I don't even need serial port capability - I just need to be able to edit the network IP settings without crashing C-Gate. But it is a fix and hopefully Clipsal can take this on board and upgrade the library for everyone else's benefit.

 

Thanks Daniel, that's good to know.

As an aside, whilst I can understand reasons for not formally supporting TK on server platforms, is there any good reason not to at least support C-Gate on them? Any major multi network project should surely be running on a server platform.

 

Thanks, will do. I'm holding off an upgrade on the live site until it's had chance to be properly tested by others in the real world though

Is there any chance of Windows Server products being officially supported for C-Gate? I can see the case for not supporting TK there but most non-TK applications that rely on C-Gate should really have the option of a server-grade OS host.