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    "Tailscale is not online" problem

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

      @chudak

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

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        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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                                  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
                                        • M
                                          mcury Rebel Alliance @chudak
                                          last edited by

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

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

                                          You can search old system logs in /var/log directory if I'm not mistaken. Shouldn't be hard to find it, I mean, if problem started yesterday at 15:00hrs, so there you go.

                                          dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

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

                                            TS in conjunction with pfS instability is really frustrating
                                            I’m travelling now and TS is simply down with the error:

                                            Error executing command (/usr/local/bin/tailscale status)

                                            Health check:

                                            - not logged in, last login error=invalid key: API key does not exist

                                            unexpected state: NoState

                                            So far nothing I’ve done, rebooting, deleting a lock file, nothing helped.

                                            Thx G.. I still have OpenVPN as a backup option.
                                            I’m surprised no one else is complaining about this…

                                            M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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