Unable to Stream Video on Demand files from NAS on latest version of AMS 5.0.3

Question

Hi,
I was hoping that someone could assist me.
Our organisation has recently purchased Adobe Media Server Standard to deploy to two Windows 2008 R2 servers (core edition) to stream flash content (video on demand only) which is resident on NAS storage.
I have considerable difficultly in streaming content from NAS and from the literature I have read and the configuration I have done it should be possible.
The steps I have taken to attempt to get this to work are as follows:
Installation
- Installed AMS 5.0.1 on both servers using the default TCP ports and Apache was not installed as part of the install
- Both AMS instances upgraded to the latest release AMS 5.0.3
- Windows Firewall on the servers disabled (we use hardware firewalls) and TCP connectivity verified by using telnet to connect these servers on 1935 and 80
Initial Configuration
- As we only will be using video on demand I removed the live, livepkgr and multicast applications from the /applications folder. Vod is the only application remaining
- Using the videoplayer in the /samples/videoplayer we were successfully able to view the sample streams
Configuration to stream from NAS
- I modified the VOD_DIR in the ams.ini file in the /conf folder to reflect the NAS location (\\{nas FQDN\sharename}
- Our NAS share has NTFS permissions applied and our AMS servers are joined to Active Directory. I created an AD account that had membership of the group that had read rights to the NAS share.
- I then reconfigured the AMS windows service to Log on with the AD account (as per the install guide: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/adobemediaserver/configadmin/WS5b3ccc516d4fbf351e63e3d119f2925 e64-7fc7.2.3.html)
Issues Experienced
- Whenever I change the AMS windows service to use an AD user (and not the Local System account), the service will run for only a short time (time often varies) before the service stops. In the application event log the AMS (Core) component
  logs the error "Failed to create process mutex".
- The issue experienced is similar to a previous post by an FMS 3.5 user (http://forums.adobe.com/thread/650522)
Troubleshooting:
- To rule out a permission issue, I confirmed that the AD user created could actually read from the NAS share
- I also gave the AD user read/write permission to the AMS install directory. I have also added the AD user to the local admin group. Still get the "Failed to create process mutex" error and service stops.
- We created a test share on the NAS that had no restrictions set (everyone full control) and reconfigured the ams.ini to use this. The service still stops.
- I reconfigured the ams.ini back to the default path (local storage) and attempted to start the AMS windows service with the AD account. The service still stops which seems to confirm the issue is not related to the NAS storage/permissions itself
- I gave the servers machine account from AD read/write access to the NAS shares (both test and live shares) and reconfigured the AMS windows service to use the local system account. Whilst the windows service remains stable and runs,
  streams do not work
- I have been testing using rtmpdump and a player (http://osmf.org/configurator/fmp/):
   - With the player the player connects and the stream remains in a "buffering state"
   - With rtmpdump we get the "NetStream.Play.StreamNotFound" error. The stream definately exists. I have the rtmpdump log file but not sure how to upload it to this post
- The above issues/behaviour is experienced from both servers
Workaround:
- The only way I can get NAS streaming to work is to map the NAS share as a network drive from the server
- On the same server I then stopped the AMS windows service and started AMS as a console application (ams.ini is pointing to the NAS location)
- Streaming then works however this is not an exceptable workaround for a enterprise server that will be streaming content to the Internet. Having to rely on mapped network drives and console applications is certainly far from ideal.
Should it be possible to have the windows service run under the context of another account and to be able to stream without then having to have a mapped network drive?
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Jason
UPDATE: to add further, I have just tested this on a Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard edition with the full UI and I get the exact behaviour/problems as documented above. The issue I am experiencing is not related to the fact I am using the core edition of Windows.

Answer 1

HI,
I have managed to address my issue and get this working!
When reconfiguring the AMS service to use the AD account you MUST also reconfigure the Adobe Media Administration Server to use the AD account.
This mismatch in accounts was causing the mutex issue and stopping the AMS account from running. Read access to the NAS and log on as a service right on the AMS server
was all that required for the stream from NAS to work.
If any Adobe staff read this thread - can I please request that the section on "Mapping Directories to Network Drives" in the "Configuring the Content Storage" section of the help guide (http://help.adobe.com/en_US/adobemediaserver/configadmin/adobemediaserver_5.0.3_config_adm in.pdf) be revised to be clearer as to what windows services need to be reconfigured
to support AD authentication
Thanks
Jason