Firmware Cannot update a UK M-Series NVR from 4.63.020? [SOLVED]

[codlord]

I have a UK DS-7616NI-M2/16P NVR which was supplied with firmware V4.63.020_230808
(Don't know if it's relevant but hardware version is B-R-K21B1-00)

I have read through the couple of long threads here about M-Series V5 firmware and I thought as things have now hopefully settled down and V5.03.020_240904 has been released maybe I should update it from V4 to V5

However, it does not seem to take any firmware, I tried:
V5.03.020_240904 from the UK website
V5.03.000_240428 from the UK portal
and even the latest V4:
V4.63.025_231201 from the UK portal

But it does not want to update to any of these. Tried through the camera web interface as well as with the Batch Tool.

I saw there were some "Customised Firmware" on the UK portal but nothing there says about needing a specific upgrade staggered path or anything like that.

 

[JB1970]

I have a UK DS-7616NI-M2/16P NVR which was supplied with firmware V4.63.020_230808
(Don't know if it's relevant but hardware version is B-R-K21B1-00)

I have read through the couple of long threads here about M-Series V5 firmware and I thought as things have now hopefully settled down and V5.03.020_240904 has been released maybe I should update it from V4 to V5

However, it does not seem to take any firmware, I tried:
V5.03.020_240904 from the UK website
V5.03.000_240428 from the UK portal
and even the latest V4:
V4.63.025_231201 from the UK portal

But it does not want to update to any of these. Tried through the camera web interface as well as with the Batch Tool.

I saw there were some "Customised Firmware" on the UK portal but nothing there says about needing a specific upgrade staggered path or anything like that.

I've not had any issues with mine when updating but occasionally they can be finicky. I had an NXI-K the other day that updated once via the web browser but when I subsequently attempted to update it further I just got a 'failed' message. In the end I had to use iVMS-4200 as it wouldn't update via browser.

 

[kraven]

I have exactly the same hardware version you have, B-R-K21B1-00 but a DS-7608ni-m2/8p, and I also purchased in the UK, and it has updated successfully through the NVR (not camera) maintenance page.

I downloaded the upgrade from : DS-7608NI-M2/8P

Can you detail the error you're getting ?

Also, are you sure you have a UK spec NVR and not a China variant..... (not sure this is even a problem). On the login screen for the NVR, how many languages do you see ?

 

[sportster]

I too have the B-R-K21B1-00 h/w (DS-7616NI-M2) and have had no issues doing any of those upgrades.

Off the top of my head....... are you using a bonafide ZIP program to unzip the file ? aka..... is it possible you have an off-brand zip program & is that the underlying culprit ?

 

[codlord]

I have not solved this but I think I now know the reason - I think it's to do with the network config but I don't understand why.

I am at site A and the NVR is at site B.
A network and B network are connected via (DrayTek) router Lan-to-Lan VPN.

I just confirmed the problem with batch config tool (which as far as I know only uses port 8000):
Tried to update a G5 camera on site B from site A and it failed.
Same file to update a G5 camera on site A from site A and it worked.

I don't understand as the VPN has no port restrictions and I can connect directly to all site B web interfaces, and site A iVMS-4200 is connecting to NVR using port 8000 no problem. Everything works apart from firmware updates!

EDIT:
I just confirmed with the batch tool - if I temporarily open up port 8000 on the site B router I can successfully update firmware over the internet pointing to site B public_IP:8000
So 100% the firmware update failures are in some way due to the Lan-to-Lan VPN. But I still don't know why...

 

[sportster]

Kudos to you for working the problem.

FWIW, I'll offer you a theory.

Typically, computer firmware upgrades have very little tolerance for "delays" in packet arrival.

In your situation, I suspect:

• the VPN <<---->> VPN connection is adding a slight delay to packet arrival..... aka just enough delay to break the firmware upgrade.

During the firmware upgrade, your VPN connection is (probably) still dealing with:

• encryption / decryption at each end
• other traffic coming from cameras and IVMS4200, and _____ ?
• normal ISP telecommunication delays in any site <<-->> site connection

Add all this up, and at times you have an extra 100ms delay or two. Just enough to break things.

It's just a theory, difficult to prove, but IMO highly probable.

If you want to go down this rat hole further, you might consider a few tests:

• temporarily disable encryption / decryption at each end (is this possible in the DrayTek?)
• temporarily turn off all cameras & IVMS4200, and any other notable VPN traffic
• use something like the Wireshark tool, to measure delays in packet arrival at the NVR

and see what the above reveals. BUT it's a lot of extra work with little benefit, since it seems you've figured it out.

Carry on

 

[codlord]

@JB1970 where you say you updated via iVMS could you detail exactly where/how that is done for NVRs / Cameras? Thanks

 

[JB1970]

@JB1970 where you say you updated via iVMS could you detail exactly where/how that is done for NVRs / Cameras? Thanks

Open iVMS-4200 and import the device using its local IP, username and password (if it's not already there). Then in in Device Management click the Remote Configuration icon (gearwheel) and select Basic Settings. That will open the web config within iVMS and you should be able to do it from there. I seem to remember there's also a way of doing that for NVR connected cameras; however it was done 'blind' in that once you selected an upgrade file you couldn't see the progress of the update.

 

[codlord]

I finally solved this firmware update issue, so in case anyone with same or similar issues finds this thread in future I will detail the answer. It WAS a network config issue where I was using a LAN-to-LAN IPsec VPN.

It turns out I needed to lower an obscure setting on BOTH the Site A and Site B routers. This setting was VPN TCP maximum segment size (MSS) for IPsec and I set it to 1200 (it was defaulted to 1360).

On one DrayTek router the setting was under VPN and Remote Access -> IPsec General Setup
On the other DrayTek it did not show any such setting and you have to change it via the web console:
vpn mss show
And then in my case the 3rd value was IPsec so:
vpn mss set 3 1200

I will admit I only vaguely understand the reason which is something along the lines of usually the default network MTU (maximum transmission unit) is around 1500. When you transmit over a VPN the VPN/compression adds some overhead so the IPSec tunnel MTU needs to be lower. I think that's what the MSS value is all about - it already defaults to a lower value (1360) but for whatever reason in my case it needed to be lower. I don't really know why and I just picked 1200 as my first check/test and it seems to work. I can upload (ftp) over the VPN and also firmware updates now work.