@Aadrem said in Frequent Crashes and Errors after upgrading to 24.11 pfSense Plus Version:
Unfortunately, accessing files, even through the shell, was not possible due to the frequent reboots.
Don't fact check me with your own PC type devices, so, if you're willing, imagine this situation :
Boot your PC.
Open all kind of files ....
Stand up, and walk to the power socket and rip it out.
Wait 10 seconds, put it back, and start over.
If your PC is modern enough, so its starts fast, you can do this 10 times test in less then 10 minutes.
If your PC is a portable : it will go even faster but please, these devices can have their disks soldered in so you will break your portable beyond repair by just removing the battery while it is running, for 10 times max.
But again, don't actually do it. Just imagine. (Go youtube to see them doing it - and, way better, ripping out the power while doing a BIOS upgrade - this one gives you a the full jackpot the very first time you play)
Your PC uses probably NTFS as a file system, and pfSense uses the somewhat even better 'ZFS', but still, chances are greate that 'nothing' happened. Just some current data loss.
But do this several times, and you will 'break' the filesystem.
Like in the good old days : do your CHKDSK /f and while doing so, you pray.
And then, again, you re installed Windows from those 46 floppies.*
Check this : How to Run a pfSense Software File System Check (5/2020) - some will say : not needed anymore.
Ok, maybe I lose some time while doing so, but at least, for me "data loss" or "OS broken", something that happened in century before this one.
(And if it happens, I've a daily dual copy)
Btw : a bad file system can be a symptom, not the original reason why your system went down.
Just install pfSense on some other hardware and suddenly all issue are gone ..... Doesn't that make you think ? ;)
(Yeap, motherboards, disks and our coffee machines still die on us)
@Aadrem said in Frequent Crashes and Errors after upgrading to 24.11 pfSense Plus Version:
From what I’ve read on forums and web in general, upgrade processes with pfSense often seem to cause issues
Yeah, I've seen them. Somewhat the 'same' story pops up on every OS update.
For myself, and since 2008 ( or more ? ) I'm still trying to make it fail on me.
It was always UPS protected, so it never (well : rarely) went down without the system shutting it itself.
I always reboot before upgrading it, and I go to single user mode (console !!) and do a file system check, and then let it run for several hours or a day before execute order number 13 (never GUI, I'm old school). This console session, I have it logged so I can review the upgrade process.
Some how I'm pretty sure that the upgrader process "knows" that it is watched. That would explain why it never failed on me.
Ones in a while the disk layout, or partitions, change, or new file systems comes out, like ZFS two years ago, so the phoenix method is needed.
I've always said here on the forum : go basic first : remove all installed packages before upgrading but, I admit, I don't do this myself anymore.
Before, I always asked for a (new) firmware first - I have a 4100, that I burned on a USB key. And I kept the previous version also. I still have a key with pfSense 1.2 (collector !). Now, the ZFS handles all this, but if the SSD dies, it will we "Hello, TAC ?" again. Or I'll go for the 'interactive' installer.
