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    pfsense 2.5.2 slowly leaking memory

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • CybermazeC
      Cybermaze @murzik
      last edited by

      @murzik I agree, 2.5.2 is acting weird.

      On a system with 4GB of ram and 2GB of swap, after 70 days, I notice unusual behavior.

      Ram and swap usage is at 60%, however, I have never ever seen swap usage before, even after months of uptime.

      My setup is really basic, no ressource hungry addons of any kind.

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      • M
        mer @Cool_Corona
        last edited by

        @cool_corona you say "same config"; is it same hardware, same set of packages, same functionality in your network?
        Just curious because your graphs are "interesting"

        Cool_CoronaC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Cool_CoronaC
          Cool_Corona @mer
          last edited by

          @mer Exactly the same.

          M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • M
            murzik @Cool_Corona
            last edited by murzik

            Just for one day
            8871cf51-d934-48da-b696-23e882b4c8df-image.png
            6c1d39ee-fff1-4f33-bcd7-241d09777dec-image.png

            After reboot
            7bebc9e4-86b3-42c7-8fbd-aecedacc91b1-image.png
            20b4451e-a816-4aa1-be64-6eba7080599f-image.png

            S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • S
              SteveITS Galactic Empire @murzik
              last edited by SteveITS

              @murzik And just to be clear, you've patched for the pcscd issue and/or that service is stopped (Status/Services)? We do have one 2.5.2 and its graphs are literally flat today except at 6:30 this morning when free memory increased 1%. That's when Suricata updates.

              Do you have pfBlocker's DNSBL active, or any other packages?

              Pre-2.7.2/23.09: Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
              When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to restart, or more depending on packages and device speed.
              Upvote ๐Ÿ‘ helpful posts!

              johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • johnpozJ
                johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @SteveITS
                last edited by

                You can see exactly when I turned off pcscd a couple of days ago.. I thought I had stopped it, but it was running again..

                graph.jpg

                An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                • M
                  murzik @johnpoz
                  last edited by

                  Yes, I've patched pcscd. Do have pfblocker, snort, squid installed. But I had all the same packages for years.

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                  • S
                    SteveITS Galactic Empire @murzik
                    last edited by

                    @murzik I don't use DNSBL or Squid but you might read this recent post about pfBlocker.

                    You could try looking at Diagnostics/System Activity, or run "top -o res" (sort by memory) at a command line, and see what is using the memory. I get:

                    PID USERNAME    THR PRI NICE   SIZE    RES STATE    C   TIME    WCPU COMMAND
                    81511 root         10  20    0   381M   337M nanslp   0 586:13   1.49% suricata
                    89847 root          1  52    0   135M    47M accept   0   0:29   0.00% php-fpm
                    93096 root          1  21    0   133M    46M accept   0   0:13   0.29% php-fpm
                    11372 root          1  52    0   132M    45M accept   1   0:03   0.00% php-fpm
                    338 root          1  52    0   133M    45M accept   0   0:11   0.00% php-fpm
                    337 root          1  52    0   132M    44M accept   1   0:34   0.00% php-fpm
                    26574 root          1  52    0    59M    38M piperd   1   0:00   0.00% php_pfb
                    73546 unbound       4  20    0    68M    32M kqread   1   1:17   0.00% unbound
                    336 root          1  20    0   102M    25M kqread   0   1:25   0.00% php-fpm
                    37003 root          1  20    0    29M  9648K kqread   2   0:07   0.05% nginx
                    36796 root          1  20    0    29M  9644K kqread   3   0:03   0.00% nginx
                    ...
                    

                    Pre-2.7.2/23.09: Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
                    When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to restart, or more depending on packages and device speed.
                    Upvote ๐Ÿ‘ helpful posts!

                    M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • M
                      murzik @SteveITS
                      last edited by murzik

                      @steveits
                      The problem not what application uses the most memory, but that memory usage grow over the time. I have to reboot every other day.
                      c09cf59b-c10d-41f3-bed3-3b8c8a9adde6-image.png
                      21ba4b38-fff9-492b-b1b8-87287c609b3d-image.png

                      Also memory usage displayed with "top -o res" does not account for all memory used memory shown in GUI.
                      Stopping PF blocker does not free memory.

                      S GertjanG stephenw10S 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • S
                        SteveITS Galactic Empire @murzik
                        last edited by

                        @murzik said in pfsense 2.5.2 slowly leaking memory:

                        memory usage grow over the time

                        I was assuming there was a particular process increasing in size. If it's multiple processes that would make it a bit harder to diagnose, perhaps just watch over time. But if it isn't happening to everyone then it seems like it's not a generic FreeBSD/pfSense problem...

                        That said unbound on the two routers I just looked at is much smaller than 700 MB, around 30-50 MB. We don't have pfBlocker's DNSBL running though.

                        Pre-2.7.2/23.09: Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
                        When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to restart, or more depending on packages and device speed.
                        Upvote ๐Ÿ‘ helpful posts!

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • GertjanG
                          Gertjan @murzik
                          last edited by

                          @murzik

                          pfBlockerNG, the DNSBL part : you're using the python mode ?

                          My unbound process is one of the biggest (but not the biggest) process in my system, but stays at around 100 Mbytes :

                          96339 unbound       2  20    0   101M    95M kqread   0   0:03   0.37% unbound
                          

                          No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                          Edit : and where are the logs ??

                          M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • stephenw10S
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @murzik
                            last edited by

                            @murzik said in pfsense 2.5.2 slowly leaking memory:

                            I have to reboot every other day.

                            What happens if you do not reboot it?

                            That is something leaking quite fast if you are using 8GB in 2 days.

                            Steve

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                            • M
                              murzik @stephenw10
                              last edited by

                              @stephenw10
                              If I do not reboot, pfsense will use up all the memory and swap and crash.

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                                murzik @Gertjan
                                last edited by

                                @gertja
                                Yes, I do use DNSBL in python mode. But I've been using it in python mode since it become available without any issues.... Also disabling DNSBL, restarting unbond, snort etc, does not free any memory....

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • S
                                  SteveITS Galactic Empire @murzik
                                  last edited by

                                  @murzik said in pfsense 2.5.2 slowly leaking memory:

                                  pfsense will use up all the memory and swap and crash

                                  We can't see your process list...you'll need to tell us which processes are using up the memory.

                                  Pre-2.7.2/23.09: Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
                                  When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to restart, or more depending on packages and device speed.
                                  Upvote ๐Ÿ‘ helpful posts!

                                  M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • M
                                    murzik @SteveITS
                                    last edited by murzik

                                    @steveits Unfortunately I am not able to tell. When system crashes it is too late to check. However, I am starting to suspect that ntopng could be the problem. I remoted ntopng yesterday, so far memory usage stays around 30% . Will see in few days.

                                    GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • GertjanG
                                      Gertjan @murzik
                                      last edited by

                                      @murzik said in pfsense 2.5.2 slowly leaking memory:

                                      ntopng

                                      Aha !
                                      You to forget to mention that you were using the big resource hog, the beast that should be set up carefully, and has to be managed 24/24h.
                                      Tools like ntopng should not be left alone, as it files up files rapidly.
                                      Most 'space' issues are not the RAM that starts too be consumed, but your entire disk space.
                                      The result is the same : booooom.
                                      With a full RAM and swap : the system goes down - but can restart it without issues. That is, if the file system wasn't corrupted when doing the unplanned system reboot.
                                      A full file system : your system won't boot any more.

                                      No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                                      Edit : and where are the logs ??

                                      M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • M
                                        murzik @Gertjan
                                        last edited by

                                        @gertjan
                                        Apparently ntopng was not the cause. As of right now
                                        cc13b462-bdef-434b-a339-52583815c6f0-image.png

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • stephenw10S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                          last edited by

                                          If it doesn't show in the process list it's probably something in kernel like a driver.

                                          Are all the affected systems running on the same hardware?

                                          Steve

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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