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    A Guide to current NtopNG on pfSense 2.6/22.01 :-)

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    • C
      cyphonsqr @keyser
      last edited by cyphonsqr

      @keyser I like the idea.. but my pfSense box is an official NetGate 4860.. which I don't think can take any upgrades.
      I stand corrected.. it can take an mSATA drive : https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/solutions/sg-4860/msata-installation.html

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

        @cyphonsqr said in A Guide to current NtopNG on pfSense 2.6/22.01 :-):

        @keyser I like the idea.. but my pfSense box is an official NetGate 4860.. which I don't think can take any upgrades.
        I stand corrected.. it can take an mSATA drive : https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/solutions/sg-4860/msata-installation.html

        Yea, and that’s exactly what I would do - get a >=256Gb mSata drive, it’s a very small price to both allow yourself log to log whatever you want, and prevent wearing your eMMC to death regardless of settings in NtopNG, pfBlocker and what not :-)

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

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

          @aduzsardi said in A Guide to current NtopNG on pfSense 2.6/22.01 :-):

          @keyser that would be awesome , please add some info for arm based appliances as well
          thank you

          I have now updated the guide (first post) so it contains both a AMD64 version and a ARM/aarch64 version :-)

          Please confirm if it works as expected. I wrote it down after completing my own device :-)

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

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          • N
            netblues @keyser
            last edited by

            @keyser I'm sorry to report that even if this works, it has serious issues when/if upgrades come.

            Various important things will never get updated, so one has to reinstall from scratch.

            I suspect the issue is that pkg prefers to fetch things from general bsd repos and not pf, thus producing unexpected results.

            Certainly not worth the effort/ uncertainty it produces in the long run

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

              @netblues said in A Guide to current NtopNG on pfSense 2.6/22.01 :-):

              @keyser I'm sorry to report that even if this works, it has serious issues when/if upgrades come.

              Various important things will never get updated, so one has to reinstall from scratch.

              I suspect the issue is that pkg prefers to fetch things from general bsd repos and not pf, thus producing unexpected results.

              Certainly not worth the effort/ uncertainty it produces in the long run

              It’s true that it will not work without a “redo” of the process after a pfsense version upgrade.
              Thats because pfsense after a upgrade will install the pfsense NtopNG package from scratch.
              But if you disable NtopNG before upgrading, you can immediately redo the above process after a pfsense version upgrade, and thus reinstall the latest NtopNG - before the old buggy version included in the package starts and maybe causes corruption to the stored timeseries data.

              Personally this makes NtopNG usable and a Very valued Daily tool, so it’s worth the trouble for me :-) I guess you dont really have a need for NtopNG because the buggy version included in the current package is completely useless and impossible to “live” with.

              Here’s hoping that 22.05/2.7 will include an updated NtopNG in the official package so this “hack” is not needed. In that case it might even upgrade “and just work” with the current NtopNG data and settings from your hacked install.

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

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              • N
                netblues @keyser
                last edited by

                @keyser Well, yes and no
                The problem isn't contained to ntopng per se
                Pfsense can't update it self properly.
                and you end up with a system that misses critical components, such as mpd , needed for pppoe, and if this is your only way to connect, then you are left with no means to manualy fix things.

                I doubt that disabling ntopng will make the upgrade process work as expected again.

                The safe way is to install from scratch and then restore configuration.

                22.-5 rc is on ntopng v.5.2.220602 (FreeBSD 12.3)
                and since we are approaching release, I doubt it will change.
                Same package version (08.13_10) also appears at the 2.7 dev for now.

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

                  @netblues said in A Guide to current NtopNG on pfSense 2.6/22.01 :-):

                  @keyser Well, yes and no
                  The problem isn't contained to ntopng per se
                  Pfsense can't update it self properly.
                  and you end up with a system that misses critical components, such as mpd , needed for pppoe, and if this is your only way to connect, then you are left with no means to manualy fix things.

                  I doubt that disabling ntopng will make the upgrade process work as expected again.

                  The safe way is to install from scratch and then restore configuration.

                  22.-5 rc is on ntopng v.5.2.220602 (FreeBSD 12.3)
                  and since we are approaching release, I doubt it will change.
                  Same package version (08.13_10) also appears at the 2.7 dev for now.

                  Strange - when I update my test machine it works fine using that process. Are you using AMD64 or ARM64?

                  Anyhow, IF the included NtopNG version with 22.05/2.7 really is 5.2.220602, then I see no reason for using my hack as it has reached a reasonably mature and stable NtopNG version. I hope that goes for both AMD64 and ARM64.
                  ARM64 was left behind on a v4.0 release in 22.01/2.6 even though it said 5.0.xxxxx in the package manager.

                  If this is the case I think I will be doing clean install of 22.05 to remove any leftovers from the hacked install.

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

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                  • N
                    netblues @keyser
                    last edited by

                    @keyser I'm talking about pf 22.05 rc, upgraded from 22.01 with the ntopng hack, on amd64

                    And yes, ntopng does seem to work nicely too.

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

                      @netblues said in A Guide to current NtopNG on pfSense 2.6/22.01 :-):

                      @keyser I'm talking about pf 22.05 rc, upgraded from 22.01 with the ntopng hack, on amd64

                      And yes, ntopng does seem to work nicely too.

                      Okay that’s Nice to know. I will clean install then, restore the config, and after the official NtopNG pf package has installed (5.2.2206), I will restore my “in NtopNG” settings (rules, checks and so forth). No need for for my hack anymore😊

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

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                      • N
                        netblues @keyser
                        last edited by

                        @keyser Ι have restored from ntopng 5.3 to 5.2 and nothing broke.
                        on 22.05rc after clean install
                        However not much customisation had been done.

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