Prioritize group/reader

Hello!

I have two different readers which have the same provider and CAID.
One is local and one is remote. They differ only on the subscription where reader_remote have some extra channels.
They are in separate groups and I would like to keep it that way.

oscam.server

[reader]
label             = reader_local
enable            = 1
protocol          = pcsc
device            = 1
group             = 13
emmcache          = 1,3,2
caid              = AA01




[reader]
label             = reader_remote
enable            = 1
protocol          = newcamd
key               = 0102030405060708091011121314
device            = 127.0.0.1,1122
user              = ********
password          = ********
group             = 14
emmcache          = 1,3,2
caid              = AA01

Some users only have access to group 13 (reader_local) and some have access to the extra channels, group 14 (reader_remote).
If I understand it correctly, now when I'm setting a user to access both group 13 and 14, Oscam would simply ask both readers and just use the fastest one available (probably the local one)?

What I want to accomplish:

The users that have access to the extra channels, group 14 (reader_remote) should always ask that reader first regardless of the decoding channel but if that reader would fail to answer (lost connection or something), then I would like Oscam to instead ask reader_local to decode channel. So even if the answer would be faster from reader_local I would still like reader_remote to be prioritized when available. What is the easiest/best way to accomplish this? There are no load balancing settings at this moment, it's disabled (default).

Quote from monkified

Why not just have all the users that have the extra channels just have access to reader 14 and the others to 13

Because I want a reader_local as a backup IF the reader_remote would disconnect for some reason (I have reader_remote on another location, therefore it's depended on internet to work).
Then the most channels would still work, except for the "extra" ones.

Quote from codar

A services file will accomplish this, just create one with the extra channels available for this reader.
You can then in your local reader, use the file to disable these channel requests going to your local.

This may be accomplished by setting up load balancing.
Have a read here:
http://linuxsat-support.com/showthread.php?t=24526

Thank you! I think I get it and will get back to you with updated file examples. Only thing that bothers me is this text in the Oscam Wiki:
lb_mode
Attention: If load balancing is activated here, it may in oscam.server among services and ident are no entries!

So you can't both have load balancing activated and use the services file? That ruins your (my) plan :(

Quote from codar

I have both activated (loadbalancing is activated by default when you have more than one reader/proxy readers)
It works well for me but the difference between my setup and yours is in the preferred reader (oscam normally prefers the local on my setup and this is where the services file comes into its own on my local reader. I have never needed to adjust the weight on my readers)
Give it a try and let us know how you get on.
Just backup your configs before changing anything.

One of the original reasons why I want reader_remote to always get prioritized from the users having access to the extra channels is to make sure that AU works and updates that card (I don't know what channel(s) updating this provider).

I found this:
lb_mode = 2

If I understand the description in the Oscam Wiki, I think this is kind of what I'm looking for. This should prioritize the reader that was used the longest time ago/"oldest" reader which means that when both readers work as they should, the users having access to both group 13 and 14 should be rotated through the readers making reader_remote get somewhere near 50% of the ECM requests that both readers could have decoded (regardless of response time and load/usage level) and that's perfectly fine for me since it's enough to guarantee that AU will work for reader_remote.

And If I understand the Oscam Wiki correctly, when the loadbalancer is active, it should automatically block services that a certain reader can't decode and making the next request of that service go directly to the next/other reader instead? If that's true, it would be great and make no need for blocking those channels in oscam.services/reader_local.

What do you think? Should I block them in oscam.services/reader_local also regardless of that text in the Wiki (Attention: If load balancing is activated here, it may in oscam.server among services and ident are no entries!)?

Edit: This is what I'm walking about from the Wiki (but once again, it's a bit hard to completely understand what they mean when they say that the reader gets blocked?):

Quote

The ECM request is sent to all the appropriate readers.
If a reader answers with "not found", then it gets blocked.