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    Continuously increasing memory usage since the update to 2.6

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • stephenw10S
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
      last edited by

      What does that usage look like in the pfSense monitoring graphs?

      On my own 22.01 system I see wired use increase but that's not necessarily a problem. The is no need for the kernel to release RAM until the available free ram becomes too low for the requests using it.

      Steve

      fireodoF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • fireodoF
        fireodo @stephenw10
        last edited by fireodo

        @Techniker_ctr
        @stephenw10 said in Continuously increasing memory usage since the update to 2.6:

        On my own 22.01 system I see wired use increase but that's not necessarily a problem. The is no need for the kernel to release RAM until the available free ram becomes too low for the requests using it.

        Is it possible that this is a discussion of an old missunderstanding of memory usage in unix systems?

        Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
        SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
        pfsense 2.8.0 CE
        Packages: Apcupsd, Cron, Iftop, Iperf, LCDproc, Nmap, pfBlockerNG, RRD_Summary, Shellcmd, Snort, Speedtest, System_Patches.

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

          Well kinda. But also what changed between 2.5.2 and 2.6.0 to cause the differing usage pattern. And is it a problem.

          T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • T
            Techniker_ctr @stephenw10
            last edited by

            @stephenw10

            Hey Steve thanks for your help,

            here are the requested pfSense monitoring pages:

            Here in a 3 month view:
            3_month_10743_Status_Monitoring.png

            The Day we applied the update is graphically very well visible.

            Here in a 1 day view:
            1_day_10743_Status_Monitoring.png

            We also had our first outage today which was clearly due to the increased RAM levels:

            May  6 08:31:54 xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx::xxxx 1 2022-05-06T08:31:54.435677+02:00 xxxxxxx.xxxxxxxxx.xx kernel - - - pid 7306 (unbound), jid 0, uid 59, was killed: out of swap space 
            

            Because of the error the systems behind the pfSense were without DNS resolution. Therefore it seems that the RAM is not released for new processes. The system is currently at 94% RAM usage according to our monitoring.

            Any Suggestion?

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

              Not immediately. Let me see what I can find...

              It's interesting that you have not exhausted free memory and the system appears to be releasing inactive memory once free hits 10% which is what I expect.

              T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • T
                Techniker_ctr @stephenw10
                last edited by

                @stephenw10

                a small addendum:

                we just had a second system with the same failure.

                <3>1 2022-05-06T14:57:46.424812+02:00 xxxxxx.xxxxxxxx.xx kernel - - - pid 52014 (unbound), jid 0, uid 59, was killed: out of swap space
                

                Here is the output of the monitoring:
                2_month_12966_Status_Monitoring.png

                This is a fairly new system uptime 50 days. 03/17 was the deploy so the Data is a bit messy that day.

                A rough pattern seems to be slowly emerging:
                I am currently monitoring 11 (2.6) systems, following is the uptime along with RAM usage:

                VM1: 43 Days 90% (no failure yet)
                VM2: 44 Days 90% (no failure yet)
                VM3: 01 Days 26% (2GB RAM Testsystem)
                VM4: 34 Days 94% (no failure yet)
                VM5: 50 Days 93% (first failure)
                VM6: 50 Days 93% (second failure)
                VM7: 20 Days 61%
                VM8: 22 Days 66%
                VM9: 22 Days 65%
                VM10: 25 days 68%
                VM11: 43 Days 89%

                VM4 stands out a bit, but there is also a bit more going on than with the others, but it seems that at 50 days the critical mass is reached.

                Maybe this information will help with your investigations, if you need more information just ask.

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

                  And they are all configured the same; 1G RAM, VMs in Hyper-V?

                  Same package loads?

                  T 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • T
                    Techniker_ctr @stephenw10
                    last edited by Techniker_ctr

                    @stephenw10

                    yes that is correct. Some have 1 or 2 IPsec-Tunnels or ovpn setups. But the fundation is the same

                    2 Core CPU
                    1 GB RAM
                    5 GB SSD
                    Filesystem: ufs
                    HV: Hyper-V

                    Installed Packages:
                    Cron 0.3.7_5
                    openvpn-client-export 1.6_4
                    sudo 0.3_6
                    Telegraf net-0.9_6

                    except VM3, which is a new test system with 2 GB RAM

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • T
                      Techniker_ctr @stephenw10
                      last edited by Techniker_ctr

                      @stephenw10

                      We just had another failure on VM1 due to the RAM usage:

                      There were error(s) loading the rules: /tmp/rules.debug:19: cannot define table bogonsv6: Cannot allocate memory - The line in question reads [19]: table <bogonsv6> persist file "/etc/bogonsv6"
                      @ 2022-05-10 16:06:25

                      1_month_12780_Status_Monitoring.png

                      K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • K
                        kprovost @Techniker_ctr
                        last edited by

                        Can you post the output of vmstat -z, ideally on a machine that's using most of its memory? If there's a memory leak in the kernel there may be some indication of it there.

                        T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • T
                          Techniker_ctr @kprovost
                          last edited by

                          @kprovost

                          Following the output on VM1

                          ITEM                   SIZE  LIMIT     USED     FREE      REQ FAIL SLEEP
                          
                          UMA Kegs:               224,      0,     142,      11,     142,   0,   0
                          UMA Zones:              680,      0,     143,       2,     143,   0,   0
                          UMA Slabs:               80,      0,   18750,     450,  109008,   0,   0
                          UMA Hash:               256,      0,       9,       6,      14,   0,   0
                          4 Bucket:                32,      0,      27,     598, 1498399,   0,   0
                          6 Bucket:                48,      0,       7,     574,  863703,   0,   0
                          8 Bucket:                64,      0,      26,     780, 1263635,  19,   0
                          12 Bucket:               96,      0,      10,     277,  175069,   0,   0
                          16 Bucket:              128,      0,      54,     318,   53744,   1,   0
                          32 Bucket:              256,      0,      47,     148,  836378,   4,   0
                          64 Bucket:              512,      0,      56,      72, 1119551,81796,   0
                          128 Bucket:            1024,      0,      44,      24,  535362,   1,   0
                          256 Bucket:            2048,      0,      52,      10, 4815883,  19,   0
                          vmem:                  1856,      0,       3,       1,       3,   0,   0
                          vmem btag:               56,      0,     867,     624,    1094,  11,   0
                          VM OBJECT:              256,      0,    3634,    2156,253463924,   0,   0
                          RADIX NODE:             144,      0,    8017,    5915,716370226,   0,   0
                          MAP:                    240,      0,       3,      61,       3,   0,   0
                          KMAP ENTRY:             120,      0,      13,      86,      14,   0,   0
                          MAP ENTRY:              120,      0,    5241,    7035,2263377409,   0,   0
                          VMSPACE:               2560,      0,      57,      30,10984762,   0,   0
                          fakepg:                 104,      0,       1,     151,       1,   0,   0
                          64 pcpu:                  8,      0,    5073,    2095,   34172,   0,   0
                          mt_stats_zone:           64,      0,     500,      76,     500,   0,   0
                          mt_zone:                 24,      0,     500,     335,     500,   0,   0
                          16:                      16,      0,    1938,     823,78830492,   0,   0
                          32:                      32,      0,    2455,    1045,54857778,   0,   0
                          64:                      64,      0,  491731,     301,109581451,   0,   0
                          128:                    128,      0, 1962118,     182,96462269,   0,   0
                          256:                    256,      0,  489866,      79,77600913,   0,   0
                          512:                    512,      0,     426,     198,11174057,   0,   0
                          1024:                  1024,      0,    1612,      44,11834906,   0,   0
                          2048:                  2048,      0,     295,      79,10466901,   0,   0
                          4096:                  4096,      0,   17438,      13,14626646,   0,   0
                          8192:                  8192,      0,      30,       2,  308457,   0,   0
                          16384:                16384,      0,      19,       2,  408909,   0,   0
                          32768:                32768,      0,       6,       0,     263,   0,   0
                          65536:                65536,      0,      15,       2, 6915281,   0,   0
                          SLEEPQUEUE:              80,      0,     217,      62,     217,   0,   0
                          kenv:                   258,      0,       3,      72,    3640,   0,   0
                          Files:                   80,      0,     205,     395,143610016,   0,   0
                          filedesc0:             1104,      0,      82,      29,10984786,   0,   0
                          rangeset pctrie nodes:    144,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          TURNSTILE:              136,      0,     217,      43,     217,   0,   0
                          rl_entry:                40,      0,     116,     384,     116,   0,   0
                          umtx pi:                 96,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          umtx_shm:                88,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          PROC:                  1328,      0,      81,      42,10984785,   0,   0
                          PGRP:                    88,      0,      38,     412,  112692,   0,   0
                          THREAD:                1840,      0,     201,      15,    6198,   0,   0
                          cpuset:                 104,      0,      11,     113,      11,   0,   0
                          domainset:               40,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          audit_record:          1280,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          mbuf_packet:            256, 383385,       0,     759,30556029,   0,   0
                          mbuf:                   256, 383385,    8193,     768,263857330,   0,   0
                          mbuf_cluster:          2048,  59902,     759,       7,  150995,   0,   0
                          mbuf_jumbo_page:       4096,  29951,       0,       4,   55790,   0,   0
                          mbuf_jumbo_9k:         9216,   8874,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          mbuf_jumbo_16k:       16384,   4991,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          epoch_record pcpu:      256,      0,       4,      12,       4,   0,   0
                          NetGraph items:          72,   4123,       0,     279,   29063,   0,   0
                          NetGraph data items:     72,   4123,       0,       0,       1,   0,   0
                          DMAR_MAP_ENTRY:         120,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          ttyinq:                 160,      0,     180,      20,     375,   0,   0
                          ttyoutq:                256,      0,      95,      40,     198,   0,   0
                          FPU_save_area:          512,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          g_bio:                  376,      0,       0,     350,27462740,   0,   0
                          linux_dma_pctrie:       144,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          linux_dma_object:        24,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          cryptop:                128,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          cryptodesc:             120,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          crypto_session:          32,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          vtnet_tx_hdr:            24,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          VNODE:                  480,      0,    2225,      71,   82458,   0,   0
                          VNODEPOLL:              120,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          BUF TRIE:               144,      0,     563,    6268, 4618013,   0,   0
                          NAMEI:                 1024,      0,       0,      40,212755708,   0,   0
                          rentr:                   24,      0,       0,       0,     966,   0,   0
                          S VFS Cache:            108,      0,    2519,     316,  805596,   0,   0
                          STS VFS Cache:          148,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          L VFS Cache:            328,      0,      20,      64,   24777,   0,   0
                          LTS VFS Cache:          368,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          TMPFS dirent:            64,      0,      41,     393,   18729,   0,   0
                          TMPFS node:             232,      0,      42,      94,   18730,   0,   0
                          NCLNODE:                608,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          DIRHASH:               1024,      0,      31,      17,     890,   0,   0
                          Mountpoints:           2744,      0,       4,       5,      10,   0,   0
                          AIO:                    208,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          AIOP:                    32,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          AIOCB:                  752,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          AIOLIO:                 280,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          pipe:                   760,      0,      12,      43, 9800538,   0,   0
                          procdesc:               136,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          ksiginfo:               112,      0,     107,     383, 4736160,   0,   0
                          itimer:                 352,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          ng_pipe:                 64,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          KNOTE:                  160,      0,      30,     195,34096706,   0,   0
                          socket:                 872,  30804,      80,     272, 1250903,   0,   0
                          IPsec SA lft_c:          16,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          unpcb:                  256,  30810,      42,     138,  431749,   0,   0
                          ipq:                     56,   1917,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          udp_inpcb:              488,  30808,      21,      91,  631572,   0,   0
                          udpcb:                   32,  30875,      21,     604,  631572,   0,   0
                          tcp_inpcb:              488,  30808,      10,      62,   76559,   0,   0
                          tcpcb:                  984,  30804,      10,      30,   76559,   0,   0
                          tcptw:                   88,   6165,       0,     270,   21380,   0,   0
                          syncache:               168,  15364,       0,     138,   47481,   0,   0
                          hostcache:               96,  15375,       7,      34,     355,   0,   0
                          sackhole:                32,      0,       0,     375,      41,   0,   0
                          tfo:                      4,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          tfo_ccache_entries:      80,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          tcpreass:                48,   3818,       0,       0,      26,   0,   0
                          tcp_log:                400, 5000000,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          tcp_log_bucket:         144,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          tcp_log_node:           120,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          sctp_ep:               1280,  30804,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          sctp_asoc:             2288,  40000,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          sctp_laddr:              48,  80012,       0,       0,      19,   0,   0
                          sctp_raddr:             736,  80000,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          sctp_chunk:             152, 400010,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          sctp_readq:             152, 400010,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          sctp_stream_msg_out:    112, 400015,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          sctp_asconf:             40, 400000,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          sctp_asconf_ack:         48, 400060,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          udplite_inpcb:          488,  30808,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          ripcb:                  488,  30808,       5,      35,   29066,   0,   0
                          rtentry:                208,      0,      25,      70,      33,   0,   0
                          pf mtags:                48,      0,       0,     830,76849844,   0,   0
                          pf tags:                104,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          pf states:              320,  96000,      57,     135, 2129745,   0,   0
                          pf state keys:           88,      0,      57,     438, 2129745,   0,   0
                          pf source nodes:        136,  96019,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          pf table entry counters:     64,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          pf table entries:       160, 400000,  132853,   12297,  785608,   6,   0
                          pf frags:               256,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          pf frag entries:         40,   5000,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          pf state scrubs:         40,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          bridge_rtnode:           88,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          selfd:                   64,      0,     158,     772,137686944,   0,   0
                          swpctrie:               144, 119853,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          swblk:                  136, 119828,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          FFS inode:              160,      0,    2129,     196,   63670,   0,   0
                          FFS1 dinode:            128,      0,       0,       0,       0,   0,   0
                          FFS2 dinode:            256,      0,    2129,     136,   63670,   0,   0
                          
                          K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • K
                            kprovost @Techniker_ctr
                            last edited by

                            @techniker_ctr said in Continuously increasing memory usage since the update to 2.6:

                            128: 128, 0, 1962118, 182,96462269, 0, 0

                            It looks like the '128' zone is the most likely culprit. Rather unhelpfully that's a generic zone used by the in-kernel 'malloc()' call.

                            Let's confirm that that's the problem first. Can you keep an eye on the vmstat output for a few hours to see if the used number (currently at 1962118) increases roughly in line with the growing memory use you see?

                            (Napkin math: we've got 1962118 allocations of 128 bytes, so about 240 MB. That seems to be about right for what we're looking for.)

                            Once that's confirmed the following running Dtrace script on the router may provide clues:

                            #!/usr/bin/env -S /usr/sbin/dtrace -x nolibs -s
                            
                            struct uma_zone {
                                    uint32_t *mtx;
                                    char *uz_name;
                            };
                            
                            fbt:kernel:uma_zalloc_arg:entry
                            / ((struct uma_zone *)arg0)->uz_name == "128" /
                            {
                                    @num[stack()] = count();
                            }
                            

                            Let that run for a few minutes and then terminate it with Ctrl+C. It'll likely produce a large amount of output, but with any luck the top user will give us a clue as to where that memory is going.

                            T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                            • T
                              Techniker_ctr @kprovost
                              last edited by

                              @kprovost I wasn't able to run the script for minutes, it crashed after ~20 sec with message "Killed". So attached the output for about 15 seconds: output.txt

                              The 128 zone increase during one day:

                              2022-05-22 08:48 :

                              128:                    128,      0,   14566,     221,  812169,   0,   0
                              

                              2022-05-22 17:19 :

                              128:                    128,      0,   29424,     119, 1566853,   0,   0
                              
                              K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • K
                                kprovost @Techniker_ctr
                                last edited by kprovost

                                @techniker_ctr
                                Okay, it's pretty safe to conclude we're indeed leaking from the 128 zone.

                                The dtrace output doesn't immediately point to an obvious suspect, but having looked through it I think this is where the problem is:

                                          kernel`malloc+0x72
                                          kernel`nvpair_create_number+0x3f
                                          kernel`nvlist_add_number+0x26
                                          kernel`pf_get_syncookies+0xa2
                                          kernel`pfioctl+0x2bd6
                                          kernel`devfs_ioctl+0xb0
                                          kernel`VOP_IOCTL_APV+0x7b
                                          kernel`vn_ioctl+0x16c
                                          kernel`devfs_ioctl_f+0x1e
                                          kernel`kern_ioctl+0x2b7
                                          kernel`sys_ioctl+0x101
                                          kernel`amd64_syscall+0x387
                                          kernel`0xffffffff8135af6e
                                            4
                                

                                There's nothing there to distinguish it from some of the other calls, but 2.6 does not have this commit: https://github.com/pfsense/FreeBSD-src/commit/410b11b25bdf39be3a73003ae5e5fadd9e3497fd
                                That fixes a memory leak in that code path, and pfsense ends up calling that regularly to obtain unrelated counters.

                                I expect you to be able to confirm this by running pfctl -si -v in a loop. That should leak memory quickly.

                                The good news is that the fix is already included in the upcoming 22.05 (plus) release and will also be in future CE releases.

                                fireodoF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 5
                                • stephenw10S
                                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                  last edited by

                                  Looks like it's already in 2.7 snapshots too if you're able to test one.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                  • fireodoF
                                    fireodo @kprovost
                                    last edited by

                                    @kprovost said in Continuously increasing memory usage since the update to 2.6:

                                    The good news is that the fix is already included in the upcoming 22.05 (plus) release and will also be in future CE releases.

                                    Dumb Question: is there a command to release that memory on a running system? (I think no)

                                    Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                                    SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                                    pfsense 2.8.0 CE
                                    Packages: Apcupsd, Cron, Iftop, Iperf, LCDproc, Nmap, pfBlockerNG, RRD_Summary, Shellcmd, Snort, Speedtest, System_Patches.

                                    K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • K
                                      kprovost @fireodo
                                      last edited by

                                      @fireodo There is not, no.

                                      That's sort of why we call it 'leaked' memory. It's gone (at least until the system is rebooted). If this were a user space leak you could restart the application to reclaim the memory, but as it's leaking from the kernel you have to restart the kernel (i.e. reboot).

                                      fireodoF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                      • fireodoF
                                        fireodo @kprovost
                                        last edited by fireodo

                                        @kprovost said in Continuously increasing memory usage since the update to 2.6:

                                        It's gone (at least until the system is rebooted).

                                        Understood. Thank you!
                                        BTW: I can also confirm this as I made myself researches in this matter on my Lab machine. (Following the instructions in this thread)

                                        Best regards,
                                        fireodo

                                        Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                                        SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                                        pfsense 2.8.0 CE
                                        Packages: Apcupsd, Cron, Iftop, Iperf, LCDproc, Nmap, pfBlockerNG, RRD_Summary, Shellcmd, Snort, Speedtest, System_Patches.

                                        M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • fireodoF fireodo referenced this topic on
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                                        • M
                                          manueljv2 @fireodo
                                          last edited by

                                          @fireodo Good day, this problem was solved? I have the same problem and I have not managed to solve it. can help me please

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                                            kprovost @manueljv2
                                            last edited by

                                            @manueljv2 Yes, the fix is in both the current 2.7 snapshots and the upcoming 23.01 plus release.

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