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    Futro s920 + DELL INTEL PRO X3959 crash on heavy load

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • M
      manu_hna @stephenw10
      last edited by

      @stephenw10 Hi Steve, thanks for your answer.
      The crash does not generate a crash report nor anything interesting can be seen in system logs. It just plainly reboots.

      I know it sounds like a hardware issue but I tried with another NIC and it crashed the same. And as I wrote, if I test this over the native realtek interface of the motherboard, it does work fine.

      Anything I can do to further debug this?
      Thanks!
      Manuel

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

        You can try enabling a serial console and logging the output.

        The hardware might have some logging if it's a server device.

        An expansion card creates heat and draws more power. Either of those things could be causing it to reboot if some component is on the limit.

        If you can make it crash on demand do you see anything on the console when that happens?

        Steve

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        • M
          manu_hna @stephenw10
          last edited by

          @stephenw10
          Hi, can you guide me on how to enable serial output? I am a bit lost with that.

          Thanks,
          Manuel

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          • M
            manu_hna @manu_hna
            last edited by

            @manu_hna @stephenw10
            Hi,
            Just to make sure I added some thermal paste to the cpu and temps did go down but the crash is still ocurring, so I don't think the problem is because of high temperatures.

            I am runing an iperf server on the machine and sending traffic from a local computer of the net (so it hits lan interface, em0).

            Thanks,
            Manuel

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            • P
              Patch @manu_hna
              last edited by

              @manu_hna said in Futro s920 + DELL INTEL PRO X3959 crash on heavy load:

              guide me on how to enable serial output?

              See https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/hardware/console-types.html
              The functionality and how to set it up will depend on details of what your hardware actually provides.
              Netgate does provide more specific details on the hardware they sell.

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              • M
                manu_hna @Patch
                last edited by

                @patch
                Hi Patch,
                Thanks! I read the docs but I currently do not have a serial cable around :S
                But isn't the output of serial console the same as sshing/reading DisplayPort output? When i ran this tests and were reading the screen output of the pfsense, nothing important was shown. It just went off and rebooted.
                Please correct me If I am saying something crazy.

                Thanks,
                Manuel

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                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by

                  It's same as a video console but you can't log that unlike a serial output. So if it spews a wall of text at you or reboots when you're not looking you won't be able to analyse it.

                  If nothing at all was shown, it just hard resets immediately, that's almost certainly a hardware issue.

                  Steve

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                  • M
                    manu_hna @stephenw10
                    last edited by

                    @stephenw10
                    Hi Steve,
                    Yeah, nothing happens. It just reboots :s

                    The curious thing is that running iperf on Linuxstress does not trigger this hard reset.
                    Also, if the test is run just after a startup (cold system) sometimes the test does not fail. But it always does once the temps are high. Is the system maybe rebooting due to temperatures?
                    Is there anyway to check that with pfsense?

                    Thanks,
                    Manuel

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                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      Sure you can check the CPU temp. It will show on the dashboard if you enable the senor in Sys > Adv > Misc.

                      However it may be some other component overheating.

                      How are you testing with Linuxstress?

                      Steve

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                      • M
                        manu_hna @stephenw10
                        last edited by

                        @stephenw10
                        I have seen that the crash is at +/- 80C° and 100% CPU usage.
                        I am testing with a live USB of Linux Stress.

                        Thanks,
                        Manuel

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                        • stephenw10S
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by

                          The CPU core is running at 80°C?
                          That seems hot, what CPU is it?

                          How hot does it run at idle?

                          Is the system fan spinning up with temperature as expected?

                          Steve

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                          • M
                            manu_hna @stephenw10
                            last edited by

                            @stephenw10
                            It runs at 60/70 normally. It does not have a fan. It is a passively cooled CPU.

                            Thanks,
                            Manuel

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

                              Hmm, well that's not so bad then. Anything passively cooled it expected to run hot. But that is still very hot. What is the actual CPU in that?

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                              • stephenw10S
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                last edited by

                                Ah, Ok I see it's an AMD GX-415GA?

                                Hmm, that appears to have a max rated temp of 90°C. In which case 80 seems waay too close!

                                It looks like it has a pretty big heatsink and the case is full of holes so the first thing I would do it just point a desk fan at it. It should make a pretty huge difference to the temps.

                                Steve

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                                • M
                                  manu_hna @stephenw10
                                  last edited by

                                  @stephenw10
                                  Hi Steve, thanks for keeping up!
                                  I have made some tests with low temps (60Cº) and it took more to fail but it did fail anyway. I don't think this one was due to the temps but who knows... I am really out of options rn.
                                  Anything else I can test/investigate?

                                  Thanks,
                                  Manuel

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                                  • M
                                    manu_hna @manu_hna
                                    last edited by

                                    @manu_hna @stephenw10
                                    I tried the desk fan approach but no luck... The pfsense application still crashed.

                                    Thanks,
                                    Manuel

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

                                      You set the sensor to amdtemp? Those are actually the reported CPU core values?

                                      How old is that device? It looks like it could be almost 10 years in which case it could just be failing components if it's seen a lot of hours.

                                      Steve

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                                      • M
                                        manu_hna @stephenw10
                                        last edited by

                                        @stephenw10
                                        Hi Steve,
                                        Yes those are amd sensor. Maybe this unit has gone bad. Just as a test I tried same iperf with opnsense and openwrt and same results occurred...
                                        I have ordered a new one and I'll see how this goes.

                                        Thanks, Manuel

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                        • M
                                          manu_hna
                                          last edited by

                                          Hi!
                                          Just to close this. Bought another unit and it is now working perfectly. So it was, indeed, faulty hardware.
                                          Thanks @stephenw10 and @Patch for the help.

                                          Manuel

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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