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    SG-1100, outages, no DHCP, 10 days log missing

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • C
      Cabledude @stephenw10
      last edited by Cabledude

      @stephenw10
      4 days in and here are some screen shots. I had apparently already set 150M each, so I just went with these figures to see what would happen.
      cc4a2588-7d47-4f8a-b466-429c4f307776-image.png

      eabf5432-b53a-4566-ab90-ca30f24e562b-image.png
      Apparently not much activity, now that I disabled most of the logs.

      eMMC storage usage seems a lot to me, but I may be wrong.

      What do you think?

      Pete
      Home: SG-2100 + UniFi + Synology. SG-1100 retired
      Parents: SG-1100 + UniFi + Synology
      Testing: SG-1100 w/ 120GB SSD via ext USB (eMMC dead). Works great

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

        2.2GB? That's reasonable IMO. Here's a test 1100 I have:

        [24.03-RELEASE][admin@1100-3.stevew.lan]/root: df -h
        Filesystem                     Size    Used   Avail Capacity  Mounted on
        /dev/ufsid/663e8ac8b2733b8a     14G    2.1G     10G    17%    /
        devfs                          1.0K      0B    1.0K     0%    /dev
        tmpfs                           80M     96K     80M     0%    /tmp
        tmpfs                          120M    6.9M    113M     6%    /var
        devfs                          1.0K      0B    1.0K     0%    /var/dhcpd/dev
        

        That one's running from USB.

        C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • C
          Cabledude @stephenw10
          last edited by Cabledude

          @stephenw10 Okay thanks, this is what I get:

          Filesystem                     Size    Used   Avail Capacity  Mounted on
          /dev/ufsid/6647542c1c44d84c    6.7G    2.2G    4.0G    35%    /
          devfs                          1.0K      0B    1.0K     0%    /dev
          tmpfs                          150M    2.3M    148M     2%    /tmp
          tmpfs                          150M     48M    102M    32%    /var
          

          So when the /var RAMdisk gets full, will those logs be offloaded to eMMC automatically, to make room for new logs?

          Pete
          Home: SG-2100 + UniFi + Synology. SG-1100 retired
          Parents: SG-1100 + UniFi + Synology
          Testing: SG-1100 w/ 120GB SSD via ext USB (eMMC dead). Works great

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

            No, it should not get full. The log management should limit the total log size.

            The RAM disks do get backed up to eMMC and re-created at reboot.

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

              @Cabledude said in SG-1100, outages, no DHCP, 10 days log missing:

              when the /var RAMdisk gets full

              It's basically like running out of disk space. We've found RAM disk usage is reasonably small, however, we disable a lot of the default logging such as the default block rules, pfBlocker DNSBL, and Suricata HTTP logging. pfBlocker usage depends heavily on the lists chosen...there is one "adult site" list that takes over 1 GB to download and unzip for instance.

              OTOH pfSense uses tmpfs now, so the RAM isn't allocated until used.

              There are a couple of packages that do not transfer to eMMC at boot...I think bandwidthd is one IIRC, at least last I knew.

              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!

              C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • C
                Cabledude @SteveITS
                last edited by Cabledude

                Hi @SteveITS , thanks for your insights. When looking at the log files I noticed pfBlocker is a major contributor. So I started by disabling logging for all IP block lists (one PRI1 and two GeoIP) and default block rules (under Status / System Logs / System / General).

                However, what about pfB DNSBL logging options? I see this in global DNSBL settings:
                06844a8b-9f62-4384-bd17-ada40b164fc7-image.png

                So I suppose I could select "Null Block (no logging)" but will it still block anything? In the "DNSBL Groups" section, all individual Groups are set to "DNSBL WebServer/VIP".

                OTOH pfSense uses tmpfs now, so the RAM isn't allocated until used.

                What are you trying to say with this? I understand the RAM disk is empty upon creation and will be used by the system logs to store the logs, just like any drive. Just wondering what you mean specifically or what you're referring to.

                Thanks,

                Pete
                Home: SG-2100 + UniFi + Synology. SG-1100 retired
                Parents: SG-1100 + UniFi + Synology
                Testing: SG-1100 w/ 120GB SSD via ext USB (eMMC dead). Works great

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

                  I run pfBlocker in RAM disks and don't really see an issue. Just see how it goes. Set the max lines options lower if you see the logs growing too large.

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

                    @Cabledude said in SG-1100, outages, no DHCP, 10 days log missing:

                    OTOH pfSense uses tmpfs now, so the RAM isn't allocated until used.
                    

                    What do you mean by this?

                    In "the old days" pfSense would preallocate the 80+120 MB or whatever RAM. Technically speaking (if it let you) you could allocate 8 GB to RAM disk and it would work until you actually ran out of RAM. On our clients' 2100s we usually set 512 and 1024 but the entire "memory in use" is normally about 1 GB because /tmp and /var are not large.

                    OTOH if you set 1 GB for /var and try to use the UT1 list it will run out of "disk space" and fail. All our lists are WAY smaller.

                    For DNSBL I want to say this is on by default? (could be misremembering)
                    "DNS Reply Logging 
                    Enable the logging of all DNS Replies that were not blocked via DNSBL. "

                    ...and then yeah the lists can be logged too.

                    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!

                    C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • C
                      Cabledude @SteveITS
                      last edited by

                      @SteveITS said in SG-1100, outages, no DHCP, 10 days log missing:

                      For DNSBL I want to say this is on by default? (could be misremembering)
                      "DNS Reply Logging 
                      Enable the logging of all DNS Replies that were not blocked via DNSBL. "

                      So do you uncheck this one on your clients' devices?

                      ...and then yeah the lists can be logged too.

                      Well here it gets confusing (to me at least). See my previous post and screen shot. I get three options for Logging/Blocking:

                      • Null Block (logging)
                      • DNSBL Webserver/VIP
                      • Null Block (no logging)
                        From which I conclude that the third would result in the smallest log files, but I wonder if it will still block anything. Only the "DNSBL Webserver/VIP" option will sinkhole the bad domains.

                      Pete
                      Home: SG-2100 + UniFi + Synology. SG-1100 retired
                      Parents: SG-1100 + UniFi + Synology
                      Testing: SG-1100 w/ 120GB SSD via ext USB (eMMC dead). Works great

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

                        I have the logs set to the default 20k lines. I have DNSBL set to the default 'No Global mode' and I see:

                        [24.03-RELEASE][admin@fw1.stevew.lan]/root: ls -ls /var/log/pfblockerng
                        total 5524
                           0 -rw-------  1 unbound unbound       0 May 24 00:00 dns_reply.log
                        2324 -rw-------  1 unbound unbound 2375830 May 24 12:05 dnsbl.log
                           4 -rw-r--r--  1 root    wheel      1535 Feb 15  2023 dnsbl_error.log
                           4 -rw-------  1 root    wheel      1562 May 24 00:00 dnsbl_parsed_error.log
                           4 -rw-------  1 root    wheel      1846 May 24 00:00 error.log
                         232 -rw-------  1 root    wheel    234766 May 24 04:01 extras.log
                           4 -rw-r--r--  1 root    wheel       121 May 24 04:00 maxmind_ver
                         628 -rw-------  1 root    wheel    641033 May 24 00:00 pfblockerng.log
                        2324 -rw-------  1 unbound unbound 2375830 May 24 12:05 unified.log
                        

                        So ~5MB of logs.

                        I do only use a few small lists though.

                        C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • C
                          Cabledude @stephenw10
                          last edited by Cabledude

                          @stephenw10 said in SG-1100, outages, no DHCP, 10 days log missing:

                          I have the logs set to the default 20k lines. I have DNSBL set to the default 'No Global mode'

                          Right.

                          the default 'No Global mode' setting basically means logging is set to the individual group setting, which is always "DNSBL Webserver/VIP" by default

                          This below is my remote 1100:

                          total 2056
                             0 -rw-------  1 unbound unbound      0 May 24 13:00 dns_reply.log
                             8 -rw-------  1 root    wheel      612 May 24 13:00 dnsbl_parsed_error.log
                           128 -rw-------  1 unbound unbound  62255 May 24 13:00 dnsbl.log
                            24 -rw-------  1 root    wheel     9607 May 24 13:00 error.log
                            16 -rw-------  1 root    wheel     5819 May 24 13:00 extras.log
                           192 -rw-------  1 root    wheel    94504 May 24 13:00 ip_block.log
                             8 -rw-r--r--  1 root    wheel      121 May 24 10:00 maxmind_ver
                          1368 -rw-------  1 root    wheel   696798 May 24 13:00 pfblockerng.log
                           312 -rw-------  1 unbound unbound 157331 May 24 13:00 unified.log
                          

                          And here is my home 2100:

                          total 4610
                           977 -rw-------  1 unbound unbound 3264595 May 24 13:38 dns_reply.log
                             9 -rw-------  1 root    wheel      7986 May 24 13:01 dnsbl_parsed_error.log
                           793 -rw-------  1 unbound unbound 2978044 May 24 13:37 dnsbl.log
                            17 -rw-------  1 root    wheel     57040 May 24 13:01 error.log
                            17 -rw-------  1 root    wheel     39429 May 24 13:01 extras.log
                          1625 -rw-------  1 root    wheel   3437077 May 24 13:01 ip_block.log
                             9 -rw-r--r--  1 root    unbound     121 May 17 21:02 maxmind_ver
                           169 -rw-------  1 root    wheel    607620 May 24 13:01 pfblockerng.log
                             1 -rw-r--r--  1 unbound unbound       0 Oct  2  2023 py_error.log
                           993 -rw-------  1 unbound unbound 3277651 May 24 13:38 unified.log
                          

                          I have the 2100 Max version with 128GB SSD. Currently no RAMdisks configured because SSD is far less sensitive to rewrites than eMMC. Would you agree? Or would you still set RAMdisks on an SSD unit?

                          Pete
                          Home: SG-2100 + UniFi + Synology. SG-1100 retired
                          Parents: SG-1100 + UniFi + Synology
                          Testing: SG-1100 w/ 120GB SSD via ext USB (eMMC dead). Works great

                          C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • C
                            Cabledude @Cabledude
                            last edited by Cabledude

                            Oh my, by reading these figures I notice the "dns_reply.log" is zero, which just made me discover that this unit (my remote 1100) is still running pfB DNSBL unbound mode and not python mode. Oops. This substantially takes more memory. I just changed it to python mode.

                            Here is the output after the change to python mode:

                            total 2272
                             104 -rw-------  1 unbound unbound  52668 May 24 14:13 dns_reply.log
                               8 -rw-------  1 root    wheel      860 May 24 14:00 dnsbl_parsed_error.log
                             128 -rw-------  1 unbound unbound  62255 May 24 14:00 dnsbl.log
                              24 -rw-------  1 root    wheel     9607 May 24 14:00 error.log
                              16 -rw-------  1 root    wheel     5819 May 24 14:00 extras.log
                             192 -rw-------  1 root    wheel    94504 May 24 14:00 ip_block.log
                               8 -rw-r--r--  1 root    wheel      121 May 24 10:00 maxmind_ver
                            1376 -rw-------  1 root    wheel   700880 May 24 14:00 pfblockerng.log
                               0 -rw-r--r--  1 unbound unbound      0 May 24 13:50 py_error.log
                             416 -rw-------  1 unbound unbound 209999 May 24 14:13 unified.log
                            

                            Pete
                            Home: SG-2100 + UniFi + Synology. SG-1100 retired
                            Parents: SG-1100 + UniFi + Synology
                            Testing: SG-1100 w/ 120GB SSD via ext USB (eMMC dead). Works great

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

                              Yeah, I would not use RAM disks on a system with an SSD. You can can always swap out the SSD in the event it fails.

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

                                @Cabledude said in SG-1100, outages, no DHCP, 10 days log missing:

                                So do you uncheck this one on your clients' devices?

                                We rarely use DNSBL at a client. I use it at home and it causes enough issues there because my wife works in search so "needs" the add links on her devices. :)

                                My thought is, turn on the logging if we are troubleshooting a problem that needs logging. Otherwise it's a few years of disk writes that no one looks at.

                                (At clients we have a few layers of protection... DNS forwarding, advanced a/v, etc.)

                                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!

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