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    Should I be using Unbound Python mode? Is it stable?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved pfBlockerNG
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    • keyserK
      keyser Rebel Alliance @Gertjan
      last edited by

      @gertjan
      I have given up running the setup that suffers the "filling disk issue".
      My Internet needs to be up, and I need to spend a little less troubleshooting time on pfBolckerNG.

      I have also probably used 90% of my eMMC's advertised endurance on very heavy sustained writing from pfBlockerNG

      Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

      V 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • V
        vjizzle @keyser
        last edited by

        @keyser Hi! I hear you. I am suffering also from some weird behaviour of pfblockerng and I also made a post about it. I don't see bbcann177 anywhere for some time now. I hope he has not abandoned the project.
        The main issues I have with it are that reliability of unbound seem to drop when pfblockerng is enabled. Also the disable dynamic hostname registration when pfblockerng is enabled in python mode is getting a little long in the tooth...would've expected a fix by now. I still use pfblockerng for ip blocking and I have setup an Aduard home server for my DNSBL needs. I suggest you do the same :).

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • N
          NOCling
          last edited by

          SG-1100 24% of 7.0GiB - ufs
          I try Undound Mode overnight:

          Unbound
          [21.05.1-RELEASE][xxx]/root: iostat -x
                                  extended device statistics
          device       r/s     w/s     kr/s     kw/s  ms/r  ms/w  ms/o  ms/t qlen  %b
          flash/sp       0       0      0.0      0.0     2     0     0     2    0   0
          mmcsd0         0       2      7.0     75.0     4    10     0     9    0   1
          mmcsd0bo       0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0
          mmcsd0bo       0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0
          md0            0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0
          
          Unbound python mode
          [21.05.1-RELEASE][xxx]/root: iostat -x
                                  extended device statistics
          device       r/s     w/s     kr/s     kw/s  ms/r  ms/w  ms/o  ms/t qlen  %b
          flash/sp       0       0      0.0      0.0     2     0     0     2    0   0
          mmcsd0         0       1      3.0     31.1     2     8     0     7    0   0
          mmcsd0bo       0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0
          mmcsd0bo       0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0
          md0            0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0
          

          It writes some more to the disk, so i got back to python mode this morning.

          Netgate 6100 & Netgate 2100

          keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • keyserK
            keyser Rebel Alliance @NOCling
            last edited by

            @nocling said in Should I be using Unbound Python mode? Is it stable?:

            SG-1100 24% of 7.0GiB - ufs
            I try Undound Mode overnight:

            Unbound
            [21.05.1-RELEASE][xxx]/root: iostat -x
                                    extended device statistics
            device       r/s     w/s     kr/s     kw/s  ms/r  ms/w  ms/o  ms/t qlen  %b
            flash/sp       0       0      0.0      0.0     2     0     0     2    0   0
            mmcsd0         0       2      7.0     75.0     4    10     0     9    0   1
            mmcsd0bo       0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0
            mmcsd0bo       0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0
            md0            0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0
            
            Unbound python mode
            [21.05.1-RELEASE][xxx]/root: iostat -x
                                    extended device statistics
            device       r/s     w/s     kr/s     kw/s  ms/r  ms/w  ms/o  ms/t qlen  %b
            flash/sp       0       0      0.0      0.0     2     0     0     2    0   0
            mmcsd0         0       1      3.0     31.1     2     8     0     7    0   0
            mmcsd0bo       0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0
            mmcsd0bo       0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0
            md0            0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0
            

            It writes some more to the disk, so i got back to python mode this morning.

            You can’t use “iostat -x” as a measure unless you have rebooted your pfsense and waited at least an hour or two. It displays statistics since last boot, and LOADS of factors impact that.
            You need to do some monitoring while running with commands like: “iostat -d 5 6” and “top -m io”

            Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

            keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • N
              NOCling
              last edited by

              I Reboot after the Ubound change and the iostat was after 8-9h overnight and 12-14h overday.

              Netgate 6100 & Netgate 2100

              keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • keyserK
                keyser Rebel Alliance @NOCling
                last edited by

                @nocling Yes, but that is going to be one BADLY skewed statistics because that includes all the writes from a boot, reinitialise logs and reconfiguration sequence. So that number will become a lot less over the coming days/weeks as the boot/initialize proces starts to become less significant in the average calculation.

                Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • keyserK
                  keyser Rebel Alliance @keyser
                  last edited by

                  @keyser said in Should I be using Unbound Python mode? Is it stable?:

                  You can’t use “iostat -x” as a measure unless you have rebooted your pfsense and waited at least an hour or two. It displays statistics since last boot, and LOADS of factors impact that.
                  You need to do some monitoring while running with commands like: “iostat -d 5 6” and “top -m io”

                  Sorry - that should have said “before you waited at least a week or two”

                  Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

                  keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • keyserK
                    keyser Rebel Alliance @keyser
                    last edited by

                    @keyser Hmm, seems the diskfilling issue is not resolved by disabling DNS reply logging after all.

                    It just fills very slowly now as I’m not really logging anything.

                    I’ll do a more proper investigation now to see if I can find where the lost diskspace really goes. None of my log files are “oversized” now, and no files have aqquired the currently lost 100Mb space pr. Week in increased filesize.

                    So there is an issue with some kind of leakage to the filesystem that is not commited as visible/cleared until pfBlockerNG is restarted.

                    Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

                    keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • keyserK
                      keyser Rebel Alliance @keyser
                      last edited by

                      @keyser PNG image.png

                      A good chunk of the daily lost space happens when the pfBlockerNG CRON job runs.

                      Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

                      M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • M
                        mcury @keyser
                        last edited by mcury

                        Mine seems to be fine.. SG-3100 21.05.1 UFS with DNS Reply Logging disabled in DNSBL.. Python mode btw..

                        [21.05.1-RELEASE][xxx]/root: iostat -x
                                                extended device statistics
                        device       r/s     w/s     kr/s     kw/s  ms/r  ms/w  ms/o  ms/t qlen  %b
                        flash/sp       0       0      0.0      0.0     7     0     0     7    0   0
                        mmcsd0         0       2      0.4     50.1     2     3     0     3    0   0
                        mmcsd0bo       0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0
                        mmcsd0bo       0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0
                        md0            0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0
                        [21.05.1-RELEASE][xxx]/root: uptime
                         5:32PM  up 5 days,  4:41, 2 users, load averages: 0.24, 0.42, 0.41
                        

                        dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

                        V 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • V
                          vjizzle @mcury
                          last edited by vjizzle

                          I did some tests on a system with 60+ days uptime and setup unbound with python mode. This is what I see when running the iostat command:

                          extended device statistics
                          device       r/s     w/s     kr/s     kw/s  ms/r  ms/w  ms/o  ms/t qlen  %b
                          md0            0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0
                          ada0           0      22      0.0    330.1     0     0     1     4    0   1
                          pass0          0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0
                          

                          Do I need to worry?

                          keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • keyserK
                            keyser Rebel Alliance @vjizzle
                            last edited by

                            @vjizzle Depends om how large your Sata SSD is.

                            It’s doing 330Kb writes pr. Second on average. That’s:

                            0,33Mb * 60sec * 60min * 24hours * 365 days = 10.4TB/year

                            If your SSD is 128Gb or bigger, it’s probably not an issue. But if it’s 32Gb Id think about it. 16Gb or smaller and I’d be very worried.

                            Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

                            V M 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • V
                              vjizzle @keyser
                              last edited by

                              @keyser It is 120GB m2 ssd so I am safe I hope. I saw on Reddit that bbcan177 released a patch for the growing files on disk. I hope he can tackle the frequent writes as well.

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                              • M
                                mcury @keyser
                                last edited by

                                @keyser said in Should I be using Unbound Python mode? Is it stable?:

                                0,33Mb * 60sec * 60min * 24hours * 365 days = 10.4TB/year

                                So, based on that formula, I would be using around:

                                0,05Mb * 60sec * 60min * 24hours * 365 days = 1.58TB/year

                                With these writes, do you think I should be worried with a 8 GB eMMC Flash ?

                                dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

                                keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • keyserK
                                  keyser Rebel Alliance @mcury
                                  last edited by

                                  @mcury said in Should I be using Unbound Python mode? Is it stable?:

                                  So, based on that formula, I would be using around:

                                  0,05Mb * 60sec * 60min * 24hours * 365 days = 1.58TB/year

                                  With these writes, do you think I should be worried with a 8 GB eMMC Flash ?

                                  I wouldn’t. The 8Gb eMMC is rated at about 11Tb write endurance as far as I have been able to find out.

                                  So you should be good for about 8-9 years - likely longer than your appliance will be in service anyways.

                                  Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

                                  M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                  • M
                                    mcury @keyser
                                    last edited by mcury

                                    after the last update from pfblockerng, stats are worse than before, at least for me..

                                    top -m io
                                    unbound showing 100%

                                    iostat -x
                                                            extended device statistics  
                                    device       r/s     w/s     kr/s     kw/s  ms/r  ms/w  ms/o  ms/t qlen  %b  
                                    flash/sp       0       0      0.0      0.0     7     0     0     7    0   0 
                                    mmcsd0         0      13     11.8    193.6     1     1     0     1    0   1 
                                    mmcsd0bo       0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0 
                                    mmcsd0bo       0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0 
                                    md0            0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0 
                                    
                                    uptime 
                                    11:49AM  up  2:21, 2 users, load averages: 0.30, 0.34, 0.31
                                    

                                    Edit: As soon as I changed from python mode to unbound mode, unbound disappeared from top -m io

                                    dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

                                    keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • keyserK
                                      keyser Rebel Alliance @mcury
                                      last edited by keyser

                                      @mcury said in Should I be using Unbound Python mode? Is it stable?:

                                      after the last update from pfblockerng, stats are worse than before, at least for me..

                                      top -m io
                                      unbound showing 100%

                                      iostat -x
                                                              extended device statistics  
                                      device       r/s     w/s     kr/s     kw/s  ms/r  ms/w  ms/o  ms/t qlen  %b  
                                      flash/sp       0       0      0.0      0.0     7     0     0     7    0   0 
                                      mmcsd0         0      13     11.8    193.6     1     1     0     1    0   1 
                                      mmcsd0bo       0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0 
                                      mmcsd0bo       0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0 
                                      md0            0       0      0.0      0.0     0     0     0     0    0   0 
                                      
                                      uptime 
                                      11:49AM  up  2:21, 2 users, load averages: 0.30, 0.34, 0.31
                                      

                                      Edit: As soon as I changed from python mode to unbound mode, unbound disappeared from top -m io

                                      You can’t use that command since you rebooted only 2:21 hours ago. Is shows average since last boot, and your boot skews those Numbers massively. You need to run realtime i intervals to see Whats going on: “iostat -d 5 6”
                                      Six intervals of 5 seconds

                                      Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

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                                      • M
                                        mcury @keyser
                                        last edited by mcury

                                        @keyser said in Should I be using Unbound Python mode? Is it stable?:

                                        iostat -d 5 6

                                        unbound mode:
                                        iostat -d 5 6
                                                  flash/           mmcsd0           mmcsd0           mmcsd0 
                                          KB/t tps  MB/s   KB/t tps  MB/s   KB/t tps  MB/s   KB/t tps  MB/s 
                                          3.23   0  0.00  14.84  14  0.20   3.23   0  0.00   3.23   0  0.00 
                                          0.00   0  0.00  20.50   2  0.04   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00 
                                          0.00   0  0.00  13.79   1  0.02   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00 
                                          0.00   0  0.00  25.88   3  0.07   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00 
                                          0.00   0  0.00   0.50   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00 
                                          0.00   0  0.00   4.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00
                                        

                                        changed to python mode again, ran a reload:

                                        python mode:

                                        iostat -d 5 6
                                                  flash/           mmcsd0           mmcsd0           mmcsd0 
                                          KB/t tps  MB/s   KB/t tps  MB/s   KB/t tps  MB/s   KB/t tps  MB/s 
                                          3.23   0  0.00  14.97  13  0.20   3.23   0  0.00   3.23   0  0.00 
                                          0.00   0  0.00  13.97   4  0.05   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00 
                                          0.00   0  0.00   2.83   1  0.00   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00 
                                          0.00   0  0.00  26.67   4  0.11   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00 
                                          0.00   0  0.00  32.00   0  0.01   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00 
                                          0.00   0  0.00  29.67   5  0.16   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00
                                        

                                        Edit: Something changed.. top -m io is not showing unbound anymore..
                                        So it seems that just changing from python to unbound and then reverting back to python mode fixed it.. at least now it's not showing unbound in top -m io anymore..

                                        dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

                                        keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • keyserK
                                          keyser Rebel Alliance @mcury
                                          last edited by

                                          @mcury Those numbers also look fine. There’s no massive writing anymore. So you are in the clear :-)

                                          Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

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