Post Upgrade Verification Checklist

Complete these checks within 10 minutes of the Broadcaster restarting.

Use this checklist immediately after every Broadcaster or ZEN Master upgrade to confirm that streams, outputs, and reporting have all recovered correctly.

•        All sources reconnected. In ZEN Master, verify all expected sources show as Active with normal bitrates. Sources that remain in Connecting state more than 3 minutes after restart need investigation.

•        All targets reconnected. Verify all outputs are Connected in ZEN Master. Check each failover group is on the correct primary leg.

•        No unexpected stream errors. Check the ZEN Master event log for any new error events generated after the restart. A small number of reconnection events is normal. Sustained errors or packet loss events are not.

•        Bitrates at expected levels. Spot-check bitrates on key sources and targets. A bitrate significantly lower than normal after reconnection can indicate a source issue unrelated to the upgrade.

•        Transcoded channels are online. In ZEN Master or the Broadcaster UI, check all transcoded outputs. Any output showing as Offline after the restart with a codec or encoding error may indicate a regression in the new build.

•        Adaptive bitrate outputs reconnected. Verify each adaptive output is Online and shows the correct profile ladder. An adaptive output showing "Offline: Unsupported Encoding" after an upgrade is a known regression pattern. See the companion Upgrade Checklist guide for steps.

•        Audio codec outputs are functioning. If any transcoded outputs use HE-AACv2, verify that the audio bitrate is present and correct. Multi-channel audio sources can surface transcoding issues after an upgrade. See the Multi-Channel Audio Downmix Troubleshooting Guide if affected.

•        Stream statistics are populating. Verify that bitrate graphs, packet loss stats, and content analysis data are appearing for active streams. If ZEN Master shows charts with no data, wait 5 minutes. Chart data can take time to populate after a restart.

•        Alert configuration is intact. Go to Settings, then Alerts, and confirm all alert rules are present.

•        Historical charts are accessible. Check that historical charts from before the upgrade are still visible. If history is missing, try a hard browser refresh first (Ctrl+Shift+R). If still missing after 30 minutes reach out to Support.

Skip this section if bonding is not configured on this Broadcaster.

•        Bonding statistics are populating. Verify that bonding stats including link utilization and packet distribution are showing correctly in ZEN Master or the Broadcaster UI. If bonding stats to display as zero after upgrade, restart the bonding group and refresh the browser before escalating.

•        All bonding group members are active. Confirm all links in each bonding group are active and contributing traffic.

Skip this section if recording is not configured on this Broadcaster.

•        S3 recording settings are intact. Go to Settings, then Recording, and verify the S3 URL and credentials are saved correctly. S3 URLs can appear to save but silently revert to disk-only after an upgrade. After saving, navigate away and return to confirm the URL is still present.

•        TS recording is capturing. If scheduled TS recording is active, verify a capture is running or completed successfully after the restart.

Broadcaster restarted and streams not recovering as expected?

Streams still Connecting after 5 minutes? -> Check upstream source/encoder is online -> Force Reconnect from ZEN Master -> Still offline after 10 min -> Initiate rollback

Adaptive output shows "Offline – Unsupported Encoding"? -> Note target version -> contact Zixi Support with version and output config

Bonding stats showing zero? -> Wait 5 min -> Refresh browser -> Restart bonding group -> Still zero after 10 min -> Escalate with version

ZEN Master charts missing history? -> Hard refresh browser -> Wait 15 min -> Still missing - Open support ticket with ZEN Master links and details

S3 recording not saving to S3? -> Re-enter and save S3 URL -> Verify credentials -> Navigate away and back to confirm persistence

Transcoding output offline with audio or codec error? -> See Multi-Channel Audio Downmix guide or confirm codec settings match source PID

Broadcaster not starting at all? -> Check systemctl status for error -> Review /var/zixi/broadcaster/log/ -> reinstall

Multiple failures across multiple streams 10+ minutes post-restart? -> Collect Broadcaster logs -> Initiate rollback: reinstall previous build from backup, restore config, restart service

No clear cause and streams still offline -> Collect Broadcaster logs, version details, and stream list and escalate to Zixi Support

Initiate rollback if streams are not recovering within the agreed threshold (recommend 10 minutes)

When escalating to Zixi Support after an upgrade failure, include as much of the following as possible: