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    Unbound DNS Resolver not starting

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved DHCP and DNS
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    • GertjanG
      Gertjan @KKIT
      last edited by Gertjan

      @KKIT said in Unbound DNS Resolver not starting:

      Question: Is it possible to reinstall unbound?

      Noop. I don't think so.
      It's just an executable. And some support files like unbound-control etc.

      @KKIT said in Unbound DNS Resolver not starting:

      Or maybe I reset the config?

      This is pfSense.
      This is FreeBSD.
      This means : we all have the same identical binary executable Library etc files.
      Only our "config file" file is different : it's here /var/unbound/unbound.conf
      and this file is re generated just before pfSense starts unbound.
      Like any other process on the system.

      @KKIT said in Unbound DNS Resolver not starting:

      If so, how would I go about that?

      I would : open a console or SSH to pfsense, go médecin mode (option 8) and :

      tail -f /var/log/resolver.log
      

      Now, in the GUI, interact with unbound and see what the log tailing tells you.
      In another SSH session, medecin mode, use :

      top
      

      On another SSH, option also, use

      dig @127.0.0.1 google.com +trace
      

      to question unbound with a hots name lookup. You should repeat this test as often as possible.
      Normally, unbound should listen to 127.0.0.1 - and you should receive an answer.

      Ask if unbound is running, lists on what interface it listens :

      24.03-RELEASE][root@pfSense.bhf.tld]/root: sockstat | grep 'unbound'
      unbound  unbound    39327 3   udp6   *:53                  *:*
      unbound  unbound    39327 4   tcp6   *:53                  *:*
      unbound  unbound    39327 5   udp4   *:53                  *:*
      unbound  unbound    39327 6   tcp4   *:53                  *:*
      unbound  unbound    39327 7   tcp4   127.0.0.1:953         *:*
      unbound  unbound    39327 8   dgram  -> /var/run/log
      unbound  unbound    39327 10  stream -> [39327 12]
      unbound  unbound    39327 12  stream -> [39327 10]
      unbound  unbound    39327 13  stream -> [39327 14]
      unbound  unbound    39327 14  stream -> [39327 13]
      

      The first 4 lines means : unbound listens on port 53 :
      For UDP and TCP
      For IPv4 and IPv6
      For every interface

      Btw : these are not really 'pfSense instructions'. Not even FreeBSD instruction - or Linux for that matter. These commands are - with some nuances - avaible on every OS on planet earth ^^

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

      K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • K
        KKIT @Gertjan
        last edited by

        @Gertjan said in Unbound DNS Resolver not starting:

        tail -f /var/log/resolver/log

        Thanks for your suggestions, right off the bat, I get this:
        tail: /var/log/resolver/log: No such file or directory

        I went in with option 8, as you mentioned. So I guess there is a deeper rooted issue. Do you suggest I reinstall pfSense and load from a backup?

        fireodoF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • patient0P
          patient0 @KKIT
          last edited by

          @KKIT I did fiddle with the Unbound settings yesterday and wasn't able to start Unbound. In my case it turned out that Unbound wasn't stopped cleanly and the therefore couldn't bind to port 53.

          Maybe check that no Unbound instance is running. Under Diagnostics / Command Prompt and run:

          ps aux | fgrep -i unbound
          unbound 38035   0.0  4.3 210648 175800  -  Is   16:11      0:47.64 /usr/local/sbin/unbound -c /var/unbound/unbound.conf
          root    52767   0.0  0.1  13400   3020  -  S    14:20      0:00.00 sh -c ps aux | fgrep -i unbound 2>&1
          root    53148   0.0  0.1  12832   2496  -  S    14:20      0:00.00 fgrep -i unbound
          

          And set LogLevel to at least 2 for the testing.

          K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • fireodoF
            fireodo @KKIT
            last edited by

            @KKIT said in Unbound DNS Resolver not starting:

            tail: /var/log/resolver/log: No such file or directory

            tail -f /var/log/resolver.log

            Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
            SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
            pfsense 2.8.0 CE
            Packages: Apcupsd Cron Iftop Iperf LCDproc Nmap pfBlockerNG RRD_Summary Shellcmd Snort Speedtest System_Patches.

            K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • K
              KKIT @patient0
              last edited by

              @patient0 said in Unbound DNS Resolver not starting:

              unbound 38035 0.0 4.3 210648 175800 - Is 16:11 0:47.64 /usr/local/sbin/unbound -c /var/unbound/unbound.conf

              I get this when putting in line 2

              Screenshot 2024-06-19 at 14.38.36.png

              patient0P GertjanG 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • patient0P
                patient0 @KKIT
                last edited by

                @KKIT I'm sorry I wasn't clear: you enter only the first line ps aux | fgrep -i unbound and the other lines are the result of that command in my case.

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

                  @KKIT

                  Nooooo.
                  Never - ever use the GUI Diagnostics > Command Prompt
                  GUI command line is ... bad, or worse.
                  Use SSH.

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

                  K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • K
                    KKIT @fireodo
                    last edited by

                    @fireodo said in Unbound DNS Resolver not starting:

                    @KKIT said in Unbound DNS Resolver not starting:

                    tail: /var/log/resolver/log: No such file or directory

                    tail -f /var/log/resolver.log

                    I did and nothing changes in the log when I try to adjust anything
                    Screenshot 2024-06-19 at 14.40.54.png

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

                      @Gertjan

                      Thanks, I get this:

                      root 64053 0.0 0.0 13412 3064 - S 14:46 0:00.00 sh -c ps aux | fgrep -i unbound 2>&1
                      root 64286 0.0 0.0 12840 2532 - S 14:46 0:00.00 fgrep -i unbound

                      patient0P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • GertjanG
                        Gertjan @KKIT
                        last edited by

                        @KKIT said in Unbound DNS Resolver not starting:

                        I did and nothing changes in the log when I try to adjust anything

                        With :

                        a0aafba5-973a-4879-8856-a9609d19fba6-image.png

                        you will only see the start and stop lines.
                        When a stop arrives, unbound will log about 30 "info" lines, the ones you've showed above.

                        Btw : when you change edit whatever do something with the 3 unbound (revolver) settings pages, unbound won't get restarted. So no log lines.
                        Only when you click on Apply on the top of any resolver settings page, unbound will get stopped, a new config file gets created, and unbound gets started. Then you see the the stop announcement, dump of the info and the the restart line.

                        With a log level of 3, 4 or a whopping 5 you will see much more.
                        Remember to reset to "1" when you're done (and apply ^^), as with level 5 unbound will log huge quantities.

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

                        K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • patient0P
                          patient0 @KKIT
                          last edited by

                          @KKIT said in Unbound DNS Resolver not starting:

                          @Gertjan

                          Thanks, I get this:

                          root 64053 0.0 0.0 13412 3064 - S 14:46 0:00.00 sh -c ps aux | fgrep -i unbound 2>&1
                          root 64286 0.0 0.0 12840 2532 - S 14:46 0:00.00 fgrep -i unbound

                          Ok, that means no Unbound instance is running at that time. Next I'd set the LogLevel to > 1.

                          Do you have a fairly standard Unbound config? Running as a resolver or forwarder? Nothing else listening to port 53?

                          K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • K
                            KKIT @Gertjan
                            last edited by

                            @Gertjan

                            Unfortunately absolutely nothing happens when I set it to 5, I am still connected via SSH and within the logfile with tail, I also made sure to apply the settings as well as manually start the service under the "Services" section, nothing :(

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • K
                              KKIT @patient0
                              last edited by

                              @patient0

                              I set the log level to 5 and still nothing, only the second node is listening on port 53 and the resolver is running as expected. No custom configuration on unbound and no DNS forwarder active.

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

                                @KKIT

                                I've just :

                                tail -f /var/log/resolver.log
                                

                                and then :

                                29de1c31-75cb-4359-9403-ef44292c37b8-image.png

                                and then

                                8b64784e-97d2-4534-83e0-9a7bce03cd4a-image.png

                                and oh boy .... the tail command had a hard time keeping up with the pace. tens of lines a second, impossible to follow.

                                Btw : I've no HA setup, just one box, and about 5 PC connected and some other stuff.
                                I know that every device in my network uses my 'pfSense' as a DNS source, not some 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 or other data collector.

                                If your unbound doesn't log anything on level 5 : isn't that a sign that LAN devices uses another device, and not (this !) pfSense, to do DNS requests ?

                                Another trick : GUI this time ^^

                                7ed086bc-70b0-449c-a549-a6b27281d516-image.png

                                Set interface to your LAN interface, or any other LAN type interface.
                                Set the port to '53' (DNS, recall)
                                And hit Start.

                                Now you should see "destination port 53".

                                Add the IP of your pfSense, so now you'll see what LAN devices want to talk to your pfSense for DNS needs :

                                f38a44cd-06a0-415b-b2ea-8b2bec8506f6-image.png

                                Btw : I presume the default 192.168.1.1
                                if there is no ore little DNS traffic, its normal that unbound doesn't 'log' ^^

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

                                K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • K
                                  KKIT @Gertjan
                                  last edited by

                                  @Gertjan
                                  I appreciate the input, but I think we are looking at the wrong end here. The Unbound service is not running at all, as confirmed above. Additionally, the node is currently in maintenance mode, I already tried putting it back into production but I wouldn't accept any requests. At this point I assume that either pfBlocker messed it up or I improperly shut the service down. I will go for a reinstall and see from there. THanks so far, really appreciate it and will keep you guys updated!

                                  K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • K
                                    KKIT @KKIT
                                    last edited by

                                    @KKIT

                                    So I wanted to give a followup on this issue, I dug a little deeper and looking at this post:
                                    https://forum.netgate.com/topic/154372/unbound-dns-resolver-will-not-start/3

                                    I am pretty sure it has something to do with pfBLockerNG messing up my config file. I checked the directory of the config file and see that there are two with one having a ".error" added to it:

                                    Screenshot 2024-06-20 at 14.19.06.png

                                    Trying to reload unbound via shell shows this error:
                                    unbound-control[85585:0] error: connect: Connection refused for 127.0.0.1 port 953

                                    Unfortunately I lost my backups after the reinstall so my question is if I can transfer the unbound.conf from my functioning pfSense (Node B) to make it work again?

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

                                      @KKIT said in Unbound DNS Resolver not starting:

                                      I am pretty sure it has something to do with pfBLockerNG messing up my config file.

                                      Easy to test.
                                      Remove pfBlockerng from your pfSEnse, and get a copy from the unbound config file.
                                      /var/unbound/unbound.conf

                                      Install pfBlockerng, activate it, give it some DNSBL feeds and get a copy again from the unbound config file.

                                      Compare the two copies.

                                      You'll find a single difference, at the end :
                                      If you use Python mode :

                                      # Python Module
                                      python:
                                      python-script: pfb_unbound.py
                                      

                                      IMHO : this small python script file is very well tested by now.

                                      Not python mode :
                                      It "includes" a (one) 'master DNSBL' file ... forget about that file, as I switched to python mode (after years asking for it).

                                      So, no, sorry, dead end.

                                      pfBlockerng can restart unbound ones in a while (you decide how often).
                                      But pfBlockerng isn't the only one doing so, other, network events for example, can also restart many services.

                                      Edit :

                                      Your unbound. conf file is rather big = 4k.
                                      Mine is just over 2k.
                                      Can you show it ?

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

                                      K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • K
                                        KKIT @Gertjan
                                        last edited by KKIT

                                        @Gertjan

                                        Sure

                                        ##########################

                                        Unbound Configuration

                                        ##########################

                                        Server configuration

                                        server:

                                        chroot: /var/unbound
                                        username: "unbound"
                                        directory: "/var/unbound"
                                        pidfile: "/var/run/unbound.pid"
                                        use-syslog: yes
                                        port: 53
                                        verbosity: 1
                                        hide-identity: yes
                                        hide-version: yes
                                        harden-glue: yes
                                        do-ip4: yes
                                        do-ip6: yes
                                        do-udp: yes
                                        do-tcp: yes
                                        do-daemonize: yes
                                        module-config: "iterator"
                                        unwanted-reply-threshold: 0
                                        num-queries-per-thread: 512
                                        jostle-timeout: 200
                                        infra-keep-probing: yes
                                        infra-host-ttl: 900
                                        infra-cache-numhosts: 10000
                                        outgoing-num-tcp: 10
                                        incoming-num-tcp: 10
                                        edns-buffer-size: 1432
                                        cache-max-ttl: 86400
                                        cache-min-ttl: 0
                                        harden-dnssec-stripped: no
                                        msg-cache-size: 4m
                                        rrset-cache-size: 8m

                                        num-threads: 4
                                        msg-cache-slabs: 4
                                        rrset-cache-slabs: 4
                                        infra-cache-slabs: 4
                                        key-cache-slabs: 4
                                        outgoing-range: 4096
                                        #so-rcvbuf: 4m

                                        prefetch: yes
                                        prefetch-key: yes
                                        use-caps-for-id: no
                                        serve-expired: no
                                        sock-queue-timeout: 0
                                        aggressive-nsec: no

                                        Statistics

                                        Unbound Statistics

                                        statistics-interval: 0
                                        extended-statistics: yes
                                        statistics-cumulative: yes

                                        TLS Configuration

                                        tls-cert-bundle: "/etc/ssl/cert.pem"

                                        Interface IP addresses to bind to

                                        interface: WAN NODE B
                                        interface: 172.16.71.2
                                        interface: 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334
                                        interface: 172.16.1.2
                                        interface: 10.0.20.2
                                        interface: 10.0.30.2
                                        interface: 10.0.90.2
                                        interface: 10.0.91.2
                                        interface: 10.0.31.2
                                        interface: 172.16.71.1
                                        interface: WAN NODE A
                                        interface: 10.0.20.1
                                        interface: 10.0.30.1
                                        interface: 10.0.90.1
                                        interface: 10.172.17.1
                                        interface: 10.0.91.1
                                        interface: NETWORK A
                                        interface: NETWORK B
                                        interface: NETWORK C
                                        interface: 10.0.40.1
                                        interface: NETWORK D
                                        interface: NETWORK E
                                        interface: 10.0.31.1
                                        interface: NETWORK F
                                        interface: 127.0.0.1
                                        interface: ::1

                                        Outgoing interfaces to be used

                                        outgoing-interface: WAN NODE B
                                        outgoing-interface: 172.16.71.2
                                        outgoing-interface: xxx
                                        outgoing-interface: 172.16.1.2
                                        outgoing-interface: 10.0.20.2
                                        outgoing-interface: 10.0.30.2
                                        outgoing-interface: 10.0.90.2
                                        outgoing-interface: 10.0.91.2
                                        outgoing-interface: 10.0.31.2
                                        outgoing-interface: 172.16.71.1
                                        outgoing-interface: WAN NODE A
                                        outgoing-interface: 10.0.20.1
                                        outgoing-interface: 10.0.30.1
                                        outgoing-interface: 10.0.90.1
                                        outgoing-interface: 10.172.17.1
                                        outgoing-interface: 10.0.91.1
                                        outgoing-interface: NETWORK A
                                        outgoing-interface: NETWORK B
                                        outgoing-interface: NETWORK C
                                        outgoing-interface: 10.0.40.1
                                        outgoing-interface: NETWORK D
                                        outgoing-interface: NETWORK E
                                        outgoing-interface: 10.0.31.1
                                        outgoing-interface: NETWORK F
                                        outgoing-interface: 127.0.0.1
                                        outgoing-interface: ::1

                                        DNS Rebinding

                                        For DNS Rebinding prevention

                                        private-address: 127.0.0.0/8
                                        private-address: 10.0.0.0/8
                                        private-address: ::ffff:a00:0/104
                                        private-address: 172.16.0.0/12
                                        private-address: ::ffff:ac10:0/108
                                        private-address: 169.254.0.0/16
                                        private-address: ::ffff:a9fe:0/112
                                        private-address: 192.168.0.0/16
                                        private-address: ::ffff:c0a8:0/112
                                        private-address: fd00::/8
                                        private-address: fe80::/10

                                        Access lists

                                        include: /var/unbound/access_lists.conf

                                        Static host entries

                                        include: /var/unbound/host_entries.conf

                                        dhcp lease entries

                                        include: /var/unbound/dhcpleases_entries.conf

                                        Domain overrides

                                        include: /var/unbound/domainoverrides.conf

                                        Forwarding

                                        forward-zone:
                                        name: "."
                                        forward-tls-upstream: yes
                                        forward-addr: ::1@853
                                        forward-addr: 1.1.1.1@853#one.one.one.one
                                        forward-addr: 1.0.0.1@853#one.one.one.one
                                        forward-addr: 8.8.8.8@853#dns.google
                                        forward-addr: 8.8.4.4@853#dns.google

                                        Remote Control Config

                                        include: /var/unbound/remotecontrol.conf

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

                                          @KKIT

                                          Worth trying for a while : instead of detailing all interface roles, go for the simple :

                                          c11c6bf4-02d0-492b-83ad-75b36a60fe8e-image.png

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

                                          K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • K
                                            KKIT @Gertjan
                                            last edited by

                                            @Gertjan

                                            Unbelievable, it worked. I can't wrap my head around why that would be the case though. Thank you so much for taking the time man

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