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    "Tailscale is not online" problem

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Tailscale
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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

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • M
          mcury @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.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • 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

              M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • M
                mcury @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?

                  M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • M
                    mcury @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.

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

                                    @chudak did you create the key at the tailscale's console and then imported it to pfsense ?
                                    also, set the key to do not expire.

                                    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 did you create the key at the tailscale's console and then imported it to pfsense ?
                                      also, set the key to do not expire.

                                      I did set my key to not expire.
                                      I have used the original key with pfS and did not regenerate it
                                      And have seen it’s working normally after this error.
                                      So suspecting it’s unrelated

                                      I’m hesitant to mess up with keys now as it used to work literally two days ago.

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

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

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

                                        @chudak did you create the key at the tailscale's console and then imported it to pfsense ?
                                        also, set the key to do not expire.

                                        I did set my key to not expire.
                                        I have used the original key with pfS and did not regenerate it
                                        And have seen it’s working normally after this error.
                                        So suspecting it’s unrelated

                                        I’m hesitant to mess up with keys now as it used to work literally two days ago.

                                        Ok, if the problem happens again, try to create a key, import it, and then set it to "don't expire".

                                        dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

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

                                          I want to improve the script above to make it "force" direct connections.

                                          Another issue with this script is that its pinging only once and if that ping fails, it stops and then starts the service.

                                          I think it would be much better if the script pings 10 times, and if 10 out of 10 fails, it will restart the service.
                                          This would increase the reliability of the script and also in the same time, make connections leave the relay and connect directly.

                                          But I'm failing to do so, any ideas to improve the code with the insights above in mind ?

                                          Edit:

                                          I think I got it..

                                          1- It will ping "headquarters" 10 times using tailscale.
                                          This will help connections through tailscale prefer "direct" instead of relay.
                                          2- If at least one of the tailscale ping works, it won't do anything.
                                          This will avoid the service to being brought down every time.
                                          3- If all pings fails, it will restart the tailscale service.

                                          #!/bin/sh
                                          
                                          DEST="headquarters"
                                          SUCCESS=0
                                          COUNT=0
                                          
                                          while [ $COUNT -le 9 ]
                                          do
                                                  for DEST in $DEST
                                                  do
                                                          COUNT=`expr $COUNT + 1`
                                                          tailscale ping --c 1 -timeout 1s $DEST >/dev/null 2>/dev/null
                                          #                ping -c 1 -t 100 $DEST
                                                  if [ $? -eq 0 ]
                                                          then
                                                          SUCCESS=`expr $SUCCESS + 1`
                                                  fi
                                                  done
                                          done
                                          if [ $SUCCESS -ge 1 ] && [ $COUNT -eq 10 ]
                                                  then
                                                  exit 0
                                          else
                                                          /usr/local/sbin/pfSsh.php playback svc stop tailscale
                                                          sleep 5
                                                          /usr/local/sbin/pfSsh.php playback svc start tailscale
                                                          sleep 5
                                                  exit 1
                                          fi
                                          done
                                          

                                          One important observation is, if there are more peers in the tailscale network, you can and should add them to this script.
                                          See, if you are only pinging one host, if that host goes down, the script will take the entire tailscale service down affecting other hosts.

                                          Code for multiple hosts

                                          #!/bin/sh
                                          
                                          DEST="server-1"
                                          DEST1="server-2"
                                          DEST2="servier-3"
                                          SUCCESS=0
                                          COUNT=0
                                          
                                          while [ $COUNT -le 9 ]
                                          do
                                                  for DEST in $DEST
                                                  do
                                                          COUNT=`expr $COUNT + 1`
                                                          tailscale ping --c 1 --timeout 1s $DEST >/dev/null 2>/dev/null
                                          #               ping -c 1 -t 100 $DEST
                                                  if [ $? -eq 0 ]
                                                          then
                                                          SUCCESS=`expr $SUCCESS + 1`
                                                  fi
                                                          tailscale ping --c 1 --timeout 1s $DEST1 >/dev/null 2>/dev/null
                                          #               ping -c 1 -t 100 $DEST1
                                                  if [ $? -eq 0 ]
                                                          then
                                                          SUCCESS=`expr $SUCCESS + 1`
                                                  fi
                                                          tailscale ping --c 1 --timeout 1s $DEST2 >/dev/null 2>/dev/null
                                          #               ping -c 1 -t 100 $DEST2
                                                  if [ $? -eq 0 ]
                                                          then
                                                          SUCCESS=`expr $SUCCESS + 1`
                                                  fi
                                                  done
                                          done
                                          if [ $SUCCESS -ge 1 ] && [ $COUNT -eq 10 ]
                                                  then
                                                  exit 0
                                          else
                                                          /usr/local/sbin/pfSsh.php playback svc stop tailscale
                                                          sleep 5
                                                          /usr/local/sbin/pfSsh.php playback svc start tailscale
                                                          sleep 5
                                                  exit 1
                                          fi
                                          done
                                          

                                          The code above will sum SUCCESS variable, and if any of the hosts answers, tailscale service will be considered to be UP and no actions will be taken.

                                          dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

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