Persistent problems posting to iTunes U via podcast producer - inconsistent

Question

Hi all,
We have been running podcast producer to post content to our iTunes U site since shortly after 10.5 came out. Responsibility for the server has recently been passed to me. The problem that we are having, the problem we have had for a very long time, is that "pcast action iTunesU" will fail. The logging is not very verbose so we do not know if it is a timeout issue or what. The problem is inconsistent, sometimes it works (for the same user using the same workflow) and other times it will just fail. Sometimes it will fail early on in the process, sometimes later on. It seems there is no consistency and as yet I have not been able to reproduce the problem from the command line.
We are running 10.5.3 as the 10.5.4 update broke things worse (the metadata problem others have experienced as well).
I know that our workflow works, I know that the user authentication is working as I can post to that iTunes U tab doing short tests with podcast capture. When the instructor in question tries to post it will sometimes work and sometimes fail. Is this a timeout issue on Apple's end?
We desperately need a solution for this.
Is there a file size limit that is not documented or something?
Here is an example of the error from xgrid agent log:
Fri Jul 11 13:01:30 podcast.acs.ocad.ca xgridagentd[1109] <Notice>: Notice: agent task "11438" failed for user "pcastxgrid" executable "/usr/bin/pcastaction" arguments (\n iTunesU,\n "--basedir=/Volumes/Content/Shared/Recordings/4900EF02-5717-4F5B-B420-48780F797 998",\n "--input=ScreenCapture-2008-07-10-180542-ipod.m4v",\n "--title=Bojana Test (video)",\n "--description=",\n "--site_url=ocad.ca",\n "--tab_id=1589674576.01589674581",\n "--credential=Administrator@urn:mace:itunesu.com:sites:ocad.ca",\n "--display_name=hidden",\n "[email protected]",\n "--user=hidden",\n "--user_id=1028",\n "--pcast_server=https://podcast.acs.ocad.ca:8170/podcastproducer",\n "--otp=/cjLUErIVJxKnx/ZCOalWA=="\n)
To test from the command line I am generating a fresh OTP just fyi in case someone is searching:
$sudo pcastconfig --add_access "token" --properties "iTunes U Shared Secret"
Again, this happens sometimes (lately more often than not), and sometimes it will work.
The lectures that we are posting are roughly 2.5 hours and the instructor is using podcast capture on a macbook pro using the screen capture function. We are running PcP on an intel xserve.
Thank you!
Message was edited by: smpsmp

Answer 1

Just for good measure, here is a successful log for the same workflow, same user:
Mon Jul 14 14:57:09 podcast.acs.ocad.ca xgridagentd[1109] <Notice>: Notice: agent task "81237" started for user "pcastxgrid" executable "/usr/bin/pcastaction" arguments (\n iTunesU,\n "--basedir=/Volumes/Content/Shared/Recordings/F0FAE0CE-7BAA-43AD-BA8B-75A14FBD4 70C",\n "--input=ScreenCapture-2008-07-14-123118-ipod.m4v",\n "--title=test (video)",\n "--description=test",\n "--site_url=ocad.ca",\n "--tab_id=1589674576.01589674581",\n "--credential=Administrator@urn:mace:itunesu.com:sites:ocad.ca",\n "--display_name=hidden",\n "--email=[email protected]",\n "--user=hidden",\n "--user_id=1028",\n "--pcast_server=https://podcast.acs.ocad.ca:8170/podcastproducer",\n "--otp=ixAqXmjxoZnvCEqkQQ3vqA=="\n)