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    "Tailscale is not online" problem

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Tailscale
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    • chudakC
      chudak @mcury
      last edited by

      @mcury said in "Tailscale is not online" problem:

      @chudak What is the output of the command: tailscale ping IP that you are trying to ping ?

      I think you are missing a value for "--c "

      But the line tailscale ping --c 3 --timeout 2 XYZ still does not work for me :(

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      • M
        mcury Rebel Alliance @chudak
        last edited by mcury

        @chudak said in "Tailscale is not online" problem:

        I think you are missing a value for "--c "

        But the line tailscale ping --c 3 --timeout 2 XYZ still does not work for me :(

        hmm, I think I may have provided the previous script, the one I was testing before deployment, let me search for the fixed one.

        Edit: https://tailscale.com/kb/1080/cli#ping

        You can ping a 100.x.x.x address or the node's name directly.
        Also, if I remember correctly, try --c1(without space),

        Edit2: script is updated in the previous post.

        dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • chudakC
          chudak @chudak
          last edited by

          @chudak

          UI but tracker in case someone wants to add comments
          https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/15319

          M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • M
            mcury Rebel Alliance @chudak
            last edited by

            @chudak said in "Tailscale is not online" problem:

            UI but tracker in case someone wants to add comments

            nice, good job for reporting that.

            Did you manage to use the script ?

            dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

            chudakC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • chudakC
              chudak @mcury
              last edited by

              @mcury said in "Tailscale is not online" problem:

              @chudak said in "Tailscale is not online" problem:

              UI but tracker in case someone wants to add comments

              nice, good job for reporting that.

              Did you manage to use the script ?

              I thought you were looking for a better version of the script.
              Were you?

              Did you see the Christian McDonald said it’s not a bug?
              Apparently the current widget reports only about if the TS process running, no wonder it’s not useful

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              • M
                mcury Rebel Alliance @chudak
                last edited by mcury

                @chudak said in "Tailscale is not online" problem:

                I thought you were looking for a better version of the script.
                Were you?

                I updated it, check above. Replace headquarters for the node's name.

                @chudak said in "Tailscale is not online" problem:

                Did you see the Christian McDonald said it’s not a bug?
                Apparently the current widget reports only about if the TS process running, no wonder it’s not useful

                I hope they include this in the next pfSense upgrade.

                dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

                chudakC cmcdonaldC 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • chudakC
                  chudak @mcury
                  last edited by

                  @mcury

                  The scripts worked, thx!

                  --timeout option seems to be broken. Did you get it to work?

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                  • cmcdonaldC
                    cmcdonald Netgate Developer @mcury
                    last edited by cmcdonald

                    @mcury said in "Tailscale is not online" problem:

                    @chudak said in "Tailscale is not online" problem:

                    I thought you were looking for a better version of the script.
                    Were you?

                    I updated it, check above. Replace headquarters for the node's name.

                    @chudak said in "Tailscale is not online" problem:

                    Did you see the Christian McDonald said it’s not a bug?
                    Apparently the current widget reports only about if the TS process running, no wonder it’s not useful

                    I hope they include this in the next pfSense upgrade.

                    Maybe for the release after 24.03 I'll do a proper Tailscale widget. As I said in the Redmine, service status in pfSense can only report service running or not running. There are two Tailscale binaries, tailscale and tailscaled. tailscaled is the service and tailscale is the front end. By design tailscaled has to be running to receive commands from tailscale, even before it's authenticated and connected.

                    Need help fast? https://www.netgate.com/support

                    chudakC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • chudakC
                      chudak @cmcdonald
                      last edited by

                      @cmcdonald

                      I hope they include this in the next pfSense upgrade.

                      Maybe for the release after 24.03 I'll do a proper Tailscale widget. As I said in the Redmine, service status in pfSense can only report service running or not running. There are two Tailscale binaries, tailscale and tailscaled. tailscaled is the service and tailscale is the front end. By design tailscaled has to be running to receive commands from tailscale, even before it's authenticated and connected.

                      Pls do!
                      This seems like a simple UI bug but in fact it’s very misleading.
                      I suspect that start/stop from the current widget also non functional

                      TIA

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                      • M
                        mcury Rebel Alliance @chudak
                        last edited by

                        @chudak said in "Tailscale is not online" problem:

                        --timeout option seems to be broken. Did you get it to work?

                        The default is fine, 5s.
                        The "Tailscale is not online" issue happens pretty fast, so there is no need for the timeout option as I see it..

                        dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

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                        • M
                          mathwilp1011
                          last edited by mathwilp1011

                          Hi Guys,

                          For anyone interested: here is the script that I used that is working 100%.

                          The --timeout 2 is not a flag within the tailscale CLI commands.

                          SUBCOMMANDS for Tailscale
                          up Connect to Tailscale, logging in if needed
                          down Disconnect from Tailscale
                          set Change specified preferences
                          login Log in to a Tailscale account
                          logout Disconnect from Tailscale and expire current node key
                          switch Switches to a different Tailscale account
                          configure [ALPHA] Configure the host to enable more Tailscale features
                          netcheck Print an analysis of local network conditions
                          ip Show Tailscale IP addresses
                          status Show state of tailscaled and its connections
                          ping Ping a host at the Tailscale layer, see how it routed
                          nc Connect to a port on a host, connected to stdin/stdout
                          ssh SSH to a Tailscale machine
                          funnel Serve content and local servers on the internet
                          serve Serve content and local servers on your tailnet
                          version Print Tailscale version
                          web Run a web server for controlling Tailscale
                          file Send or receive files
                          bugreport Print a shareable identifier to help diagnose issues
                          cert Get TLS certs
                          lock Manage tailnet lock
                          licenses Get open source license information
                          exit-node
                          update [BETA] Update Tailscale to the latest/different version
                          whois Show the machine and user associated with a Tailscale IP (v4 or v6)

                          Anyone has comments, please let leave them.

                          Note: you must make it executable with chmod +x and I just modified the above script to make it work for my use case. The tailscale node keeps on falling off (exit node unavailable) after either a reboot or it fails after a few days ofd being online. Added error checking display message.

                          @cmcdonald, this is still occurring in the 24.03 BETA (latest revision) as you are aware.

                          ============
                          Script:

                          #!/bin/sh

                          ALLDEST="tailscaleexternalNODE"

                          COUNT=1
                          while [ $COUNT -le 2 ]
                          do
                          for DEST in $ALLDEST
                          do
                          tailscale ping --c 1 $DEST >/dev/null 2>/dev/null
                          if [ $? -eq 0 ]
                          then
                          echo "Tailscale is up"
                          exit 0
                          fi
                          done
                          if [ $COUNT -le 1 ]
                          then
                          echo "Tailscale down"
                          /usr/local/sbin/pfSsh.php playback svc stop tailscale
                          sleep 2
                          /usr/local/sbin/pfSsh.php playback svc start tailscale
                          sleep 10
                          echo "Tailscale is up"
                          exit 1
                          fi
                          COUNT=expr $COUNT + 1
                          done

                          chudakC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • chudakC
                            chudak @mathwilp1011
                            last edited by

                            @mathwilp1011

                            Today TS is again shows Tailscale is not online. Refresh or check the Tailscale status page.

                            The scrip says tailscale has been started.

                            But in fact TS is down :(

                            WTH

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                            • M
                              mcury Rebel Alliance @chudak
                              last edited by

                              @chudak 4 months later, I think this time frame tell us something.
                              Problem should be with tailscale itself, or the other node..

                              dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

                              chudakC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • chudakC
                                chudak @mcury
                                last edited by

                                @mcury said in "Tailscale is not online" problem:

                                @chudak 4 months later, I think this time frame tell us something.
                                Problem should be with tailscale itself, or the other node..

                                Frankly, there is nothing to update and I still did not get to the bottom of it.

                                TS sometimes is up and running and very stable for long periods. And then it gets flaky and can't connect.

                                I do run "restart_tailscale" script in crontab, so I assume it makes it start.

                                But in general, I am puzzled ...

                                Any clues?

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                                • M
                                  mcury Rebel Alliance @chudak
                                  last edited by mcury

                                  @chudak said in "Tailscale is not online" problem:

                                  But in general, I am puzzled ...

                                  Any clues?

                                  Any logs when the problem starts ?
                                  What happens when you try to ping the other node ?
                                  What status it shows in the GUI ?

                                  I have been using that script with the following scenario, which works fine:

                                  I have a customer that runs multi WAN in their headquarters.
                                  One of this links is a CGNAT and other is not.

                                  The branch office connects directly to the primary non CGNAT link (I have opened a port in the firewall for that connection).
                                  If a link failover happens in the headquarters, sometimes it loses connections to the TS network and that's when the script "fixes" the problem by forcing the headquarter firewall to restart the service but now using the CGNAT link, thus connecting through the TS node and not a directly connection anymore.

                                  The reverse is also true, I mean, when the primary link which is not CGNAT comes back online.

                                  dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

                                  chudakC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • chudakC
                                    chudak @mcury
                                    last edited by

                                    @mcury

                                    I don't know exactly where to look :(

                                    On a high level, only what I see is TS service is green (which is confusing but that's in a different thread and unrelated) and TS connection status is down.

                                    My use case is:

                                    pfS runs TS
                                    iPad runs TS
                                    iPhone runs TS
                                    Windows 11 VM runs TS

                                    So when psF is down, others actually work fine.
                                    I even noticed that routes get resolved.

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                                    • M
                                      mcury Rebel Alliance @chudak
                                      last edited by

                                      @chudak said in "Tailscale is not online" problem:

                                      TS connection status is down.

                                      isn't the script working for that ?
                                      script tries to ping and if it fails, it will restart the service.

                                      dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

                                      chudakC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • chudakC
                                        chudak @mcury
                                        last edited by

                                        @mcury said in "Tailscale is not online" problem:

                                        @chudak said in "Tailscale is not online" problem:

                                        TS connection status is down.

                                        isn't the script working for that ?
                                        script tries to ping and if it fails, it will restart the service.

                                        That's an interesting part.
                                        Yesterday I found TS down

                                        I tried to start it manually, and switched Kea DHCP to ISC DHCP and back, removed /tmp/kea4-ctrl-socket.lock and could not make it start.

                                        Then today in the morning - everything is up and running normally

                                        ??!!

                                        M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • M
                                          mcury Rebel Alliance @chudak
                                          last edited by

                                          @chudak said in "Tailscale is not online" problem:

                                          I tried to start it manually, and switched Kea DHCP to ISC DHCP and back, removed /tmp/kea4-ctrl-socket.lock and could not make it start.

                                          Then today in the morning - everything is up and running normally

                                          ??!!

                                          I don't see how one thing could interfere with each other.

                                          But, I'm still using ISC-DHCP for that customer.
                                          Can't switch to KEA yet...

                                          dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

                                          chudakC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • chudakC
                                            chudak @mcury
                                            last edited by

                                            @mcury said in "Tailscale is not online" problem:

                                            @chudak said in "Tailscale is not online" problem:

                                            I tried to start it manually, and switched Kea DHCP to ISC DHCP and back, removed /tmp/kea4-ctrl-socket.lock and could not make it start.

                                            Then today in the morning - everything is up and running normally

                                            ??!!

                                            I don't see how one thing could interfere with each other.

                                            But, I'm still using ISC-DHCP for that customer.
                                            Can't switch to KEA yet...

                                            Do you know by chance how to catch related to TS stop/start errors/warnings in the logs?

                                            M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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