Audio only working for about 5min after restarting Citrix Audio Redirection Service

[Maik Ludwig]

Hello, everyone,

we currently have a problem with the output of sound.
This works for about 5 minutes after the first login to the server.
After that there is no sound and the Citrix Audio Redirection Service has to be restarted. After that we have sound again for about 5min.
The service runs continuously, so it is not stopped or crashed, but still has to be restarted to get sound again.

 

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this?
This happens on three different servers (different master images). All freshly installed.

 

(Windows Server 2016 - CVAD 1912 LTSR)

 

 

Thanks

~Maik

[Martin Vidas]

I have the same issue.

Tried to connect to the same Citrix terminals via RDP - the sound working perfect for hours.

The terminals are Windows server 2016. Headsets Jabra 65 and 75.

Softphone Bria - the first call is ringing in the headset - few minutes of inactivity and no sound in the headset.

If I am refreshing (via Bria sound test, or some other sound tests - working again for few minutes and stops again). When the sound stops even YouTube is not providing sound.

I have a call for a later today with Citrix support about this issue, so if there is a solution I will share it.

Martin

 

[Kyle Peterson]

Are you using audio over udp? Because I have a similar issue, audio works for a few minutes then it just stops.

 

If I turn off audio over udp it works fine

[Fernando Klurfan1709153904]

21 hours ago, Kyle Peterson said:

Are you using audio over udp? Because I have a similar issue, audio works for a few minutes then it just stops.

 

If I turn off audio over udp it works fine

 

Audio over RTP's Achilles heel is Firewalls.

UDP is a stateless protocol, hence Firewalls do not know if a connection is terminated or not (either by sender or receiver).

A timeout is therefore implemented by the Firewall to tear down an idle connection.

Every FW will have a default value for this (30sec,2 min, etc). There also will be a global default.

You need to reconfigure that and apply it to a class map that targets the IP addresses of your Citrix farm.

 

Maybe this can help:

 

https://community.cisco.com/t5/network-security/does-anyone-know-how-to-increase-udp-timeouts-to-1-hr-on-asa/td-p/1905337

 

 

[Fernando Klurfan1709153904]

On 4/15/2020 at 1:41 AM, Maik Ludwig said:

Hello, everyone,

we currently have a problem with the output of sound.
This works for about 5 minutes after the first login to the server.
After that there is no sound and the Citrix Audio Redirection Service has to be restarted. After that we have sound again for about 5min.
The service runs continuously, so it is not stopped or crashed, but still has to be restarted to get sound again.

 

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this?
This happens on three different servers (different master images). All freshly installed.

 

(Windows Server 2016 - CVAD 1912 LTSR)

 

 

Thanks

~Maik

Is this happening EXACTLY after 5min, every time? 

A deterministic and reproducible issue like this one points to UDP and Firewalls. 

[Kyle Peterson]

Thanks fernandok I think you are 100% correct.

 

My firewall has a udp timeout and a udp stream timeout, I did not have my stream timeout increased but now its working.

Will need to watch for a few days but pretty sure its good.

 

We use a Watchgurad here, hopefully this will help the poster as it very well could be related.

 

Thanks

[Maik Ludwig]

Sorry for my late reply.

 

 

On 4/17/2020 at 12:07 PM, Martin Vidas said:

I have the same issue.

Tried to connect to the same Citrix terminals via RDP - the sound working perfect for hours.

The terminals are Windows server 2016. Headsets Jabra 65 and 75.

Softphone Bria - the first call is ringing in the headset - few minutes of inactivity and no sound in the headset.

If I am refreshing (via Bria sound test, or some other sound tests - working again for few minutes and stops again). When the sound stops even YouTube is not providing sound.

I have a call for a later today with Citrix support about this issue, so if there is a solution I will share it.

Martin

 

Was Citrix support able to help you?

 

 

On 4/18/2020 at 9:23 PM, Kyle Peterson said:

Are you using audio over udp? Because I have a similar issue, audio works for a few minutes then it just stops.

 

If I turn off audio over udp it works fine

Yes, I'm using audio over UDP. I will check if it will work without it.

 

 

10 hours ago, Fernando Klurfan1709153904 said:

Is this happening EXACTLY after 5min, every time? 

A deterministic and reproducible issue like this one points to UDP and Firewalls. 

Most of the time it's happening after a few seconds (~10).

I had not yet tested enough and therefore wrote 5min.

 

 

 

I will check if it is working without audio over UDP and check my firewall.

Thanks for your help!

[Kyle Peterson]

Just to note sometimes my audio would cut out within 10 seconds as well, usually it was longer though.

[Maik Ludwig]

I disabled Audio over UDP and it is working now.

But firewall rules for UDP audio are all set correctly?

[Martin Vidas]

5 minutes ago, Maik Ludwig said:

I disabled Audio over UDP and it is working now.

But firewall rules for UDP audio are all set correctly?

Hi Maik,

Did you disabled it in the firewall?

OR via GPO?

[Maik Ludwig]

Just now, Martin Vidas said:

Hi Maik,

Did you disabled it in the firewall?

OR via GPO?

I disabled it in Citrix Policies GPO

[Martin Vidas]

2 minutes ago, Maik Ludwig said:

I disabled it in Citrix Policies GPO

Thank You - I will test it too and inform :)

[Maik Ludwig]

Which I find odd: I've now reactivated UDP, and it still works without any problems...

[Martin Vidas]

19 minutes ago, Maik Ludwig said:

Which I find odd: I've now reactivated UDP, and it still works without any problems...

Do you have both sound settings?

[Maik Ludwig]

3 minutes ago, Martin Vidas said:

Do you have both sound settings?

It looks like this now:

 

User GPOs:

 

 

Computer GPOs:

 

 

 

I just disabled "Audio over UDP real-time transport for testing.

It worked after disabling, but it is now still working while it is enabled.

[Martin Vidas]

Thanks Maik,

I will test it in this way and inform

[Martin Vidas]

So after testing it - for me it is working only when the GPO is disabled.

But still Maik - a big thank you, You saved me a lot of time.

 

[Maik Ludwig]

1 hour ago, Martin Vidas said:

So after testing it - for me it is working only when the GPO is disabled.

But still Maik - a big thank you, You saved me a lot of time.

 

Glad I could help, but I am not experienced enough to say if this has any consequences.
I would say that this is only a temporary solution, but I'm not sure.