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    DNS unresponsive to clients

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved DHCP and DNS
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    • M
      markster @SteveITS
      last edited by

      @steveits
      My bad. It was not. Verified.
      I will keep digging. Maybe clear all logs and do a reboot so I can see exactly what may be causing that. It’s strange.
      After rebooting I can access Netgate by IP so it’s not like I loose a network connection. I can perform DNS lookup from GUI so that tells me that Unbound is working.

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

        @markster Update.. After setting both Inbound and Outbound Interfaces to ALL then rebooting it started to work.

        I will perform more test to validate.

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

          @markster Update: After about 1 hour DNS Resolver log shows "restarted Unbound 1.17.1".

          I honestly dont know what to make of it, but it has been a busy day looking into it. Not much of a benefit for me to run Unbound DNS on pfsense+ if it is so unpredictable.

          I am going to stick back to my proven setup, having Unbound on a separate host in a docker. I had this setup for over a year now and never had any, any issues with DNS, RPZ or my local LAN segments. 100% availability.
          Big plus is that I can compile new version when its available.

          I was hoping that moving to pfsense+ and running Unbound (1.17.1) on pfsense would be better architecture, in case say my NAS goes off-line. But, I am not sold yet to move to this configuration given how Unbound is glued into pfsense. My NAS in 5 years has never go off-line and it looks like Netgate 5100 also be running for along time.

          So as it is now, I am sadly giving up.

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

            @markster said in DNS unresponsive to clients:

            Update: After about 1 hour DNS Resolver log shows "restarted Unbound 1.17.1".
            I honestly dont know what to make of it, but it has been a busy day looking into it. Not much of a benefit for me to run Unbound DNS on pfsense+ if it is so unpredictable.

            Example :
            When you chose to use pfBlockerng, and update your DNSBL feeds every hour, then, if there was an updated feed, unbound will get restarted.

            If you select :

            66ddd1f1-ad18-4725-8409-27713ea15918-image.png

            then for every new DHCP lease, or DHCP, lease renewal, unbound gets restarted.

            You can 'predict' the resolver's restarting.
            I'll show you my unbound (resolver) restarts.

            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
              markster @Gertjan
              last edited by

              @gertjan None of this applies to my case.
              I do not use pfBlockerng or checked DHCP Registration.

              It is unexplained.

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

                @markster

                Just to be sure :

                grep 'start' /var/log/resolver.log
                

                Ho many per day ? hour ? or even minute ?

                pfBlockerng and 'DHCP registration' are just two possible 'unbound re-starters'.
                If 'any Interface' on pfSense, to which unbound is bound, goes down and/or up, unbound restarts also.
                There are probably other reasons ... I don't know them all.

                Example : recently, some one noticed that unbound restarted often.
                At the end we discovered that he uses a direct LAN cable from his PC to the LAN interface, and his PC went to sleep every xx minutes, thus pulling the LAN NIC down.
                The solution was : add a switch.

                And then there is the issue that others have seen : forwarding to x.x.x.x (using IPv6 ?) makes unbound not happy - fail ....
                I'm test-driving unbound right now, forwarding to 9.9.9.9 and the IPv6 equivalent, using TLS, and all goes well ....
                I've been forwarding to the 1.1.1.1 family for weeks : I've nothing to declare.

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

                M RobbieTTR 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • M
                  markster @Gertjan
                  last edited by

                  @gertjan Thank you for suggestions. You talking very good points.
                  There are just so many cases of Unbound restarting that it maybe difficult to point out. Like the case you mentioned about the PC is directly connected to pfsense box. This could be my case. However, I don’t see a reason why this would force Unbound restarts.

                  I moved on and restored my original configuration. These are just few advantages I see running DNS separate from the firewall.

                  • No restarts (pfsense+ related)
                  • efficient DNS cache
                  • easy maintenance
                  • compile and install new versions on demand

                  I implemented my own ads/malware blocking with RPZ - I use the same DNSBL feeds that pfblockerng is using. When one any DNSBL feed gets updated Unbound does not need to be restarted. Rather you can issue command "unbound-control auth_zone_reload file".

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

                    @markster said in DNS unresponsive to clients:

                    PC is directly connected to pfsense box. This could be my case. However, I don’t see a reason why this would force Unbound restarts.

                    If the PC hibernates or shuts down pfSense sees this as an interface up/down event and restarts multiple services, to see the new/unsee the old interface.

                    I'm not saying you're having a problem, or that your solution won't work, but it's not normal for unbound to restart without a reason. If unbound was crashing it would not restart on its own.

                    Shell Output - unbound-control -c /var/unbound/unbound.conf status
                    
                    version: 1.17.1
                    ...
                    uptime: 3166788 seconds
                    

                    ...so ~36 days which was when I made the last config change on that router.

                    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 👍 helpful posts!

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

                      @steveits said in DNS unresponsive to clients:

                      uptime: 3166788 seconds

                      nice - if I didn't always make changes to help users showing how to do something ;)

                      I'm only at 83 hours ;)

                      uptime: 299808 seconds

                      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

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

                        @johnpoz said in DNS unresponsive to clients:

                        if I didn't always make changes to help users showing how to do something ;)

                        Here.

                        Every 'dip' is a restart.

                        Now, I'm even forwarding to quad9.
                        Still waiting for it to fail.

                        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
                          markster @Gertjan
                          last edited by

                          @gertjan I decided, as a last resort try to start from default setting. Reset the box to default and re-entered the rules. Took me a while but now all its working as designed/intended.

                          My Interfaces are set to include only local+localhost. Outbound is set to ALL.

                          Tested the configuration by rebooting netgate 5100
                          and also Disconnect/reconnect clients. Unbound did not restarted.

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

                            @markster After running this config DNS started again to restart caused by dhcp renewals. I also noticed that for many cases Unbound get restarted were it does not need to be.
                            Cases like chaning a setting in General->DNS Resolution; or
                            chaning Advanced option in Unbound. These could just call unbound-control reload.

                            Someone on this forum has mentioned that many of these issues have been fixed in OPnsense. The issue with DHCP leases restarting DNS is for me a mind twister. It does not need to happen.

                            Unfortunalty it looks like it is a big issue to fix, I suspect that there are just some many dependencies that no one wants to touch it. Sad.

                            I am in the situation that I have a NAS box and I can run Unbound in a docker. This is my "solid" solution. I wanted to test Unbound on my pfsense 5100 but I will not spend more time trying to get things working (unpredictable), in effect this should be working perfectly out of the box. After all DNS is such a important part of any network. I cannot understand why Netgate and pfsense developers does not think that way.

                            S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • RobbieTTR
                              RobbieTT @Gertjan
                              last edited by RobbieTT

                              @gertjan said in DNS unresponsive to clients:

                              pfBlockerng and 'DHCP registration' are just two possible 'unbound re-starters'.
                              If 'any Interface' on pfSense, to which unbound is bound, goes down and/or up, unbound restarts also.

                              As an aside, DNS Resolver on my system is not restarted due to pfBlockerNG.

                              As for an interface going down, yep - got that T-shirt. I've been minded to change the 'All' bind to just my LAN interfaces to avoid a Resolver restart when my WAN link goes down / up again.

                              ☕️

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

                                @robbiett said in DNS unresponsive to clients:

                                LAN interfaces to avoid a Resolver restart when my WAN link goes

                                I bind my outgoing to loopback.. That never goes down ;)

                                loopback.jpg

                                And why would you have it listen on your wan? You serving up dns off your wan interface? When it talks outbound, that traffic would be natted to your public IP anyway, etc.

                                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

                                RobbieTTR 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • RobbieTTR
                                  RobbieTT @johnpoz
                                  last edited by

                                  @johnpoz said in DNS unresponsive to clients:

                                  And why would you have it listen on your wan? You serving up dns off your wan interface? When it talks outbound, that traffic would be natted to your public IP anyway, etc.

                                  That was my thought too. As to why it included WAN - well that is the default set in pfSense.

                                  localhost makes much more sense and what I had set on previous non-pfSense routers. 👍

                                  ☕️

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

                                    @robbiett I think they have it listen on all as default because you never know what users might setup, or add etc. so with all its a given that it will listen on all interfaces..

                                    But you could prob have a discussion about outbound default to localhost...

                                    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

                                    RobbieTTR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • RobbieTTR
                                      RobbieTT @johnpoz
                                      last edited by

                                      @johnpoz Setting the actual network interfaces for my 3 LAN/VLANs didn't go so well:

                                       2023-05-21 at 19.59.13.png

                                      ☕️

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

                                        @robbiett where is your local host in your listen?

                                        listen.jpg

                                        Its hard to see can you not expand that box?

                                        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

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

                                          @markster https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/5413
                                          (Hope towards the bottom) ;)

                                          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 👍 helpful posts!

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • RobbieTTR
                                            RobbieTT @johnpoz
                                            last edited by

                                            @johnpoz said in DNS unresponsive to clients:

                                            @robbiett where is your local host in your listen?
                                            Its hard to see can you not expand that box?

                                            Small walk of shame for me as I didn't know the box could be simply dragged to expand it. 🤷

                                             2023-05-22 at 08.42.44.png

                                            [Using Safari in screenshot]

                                            ☕️

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