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    [solved] Question regarding MIM: Controller not having a static *public* IP possible?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Plus 24.11 Development Snapshots (Retired)
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    • stephenw10S
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @Bob.Dig
      last edited by

      @Bob-Dig said in Question regarding MIM: Controller not having a static *public* IP possible?:

      What is puzzling though, the Registration Data does contain my dynamic public IPv4-Address, still the status doesn't change.

      It doesn't try to connect to the external IPv4 the controller has?

      Bob.DigB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Bob.DigB
        Bob.Dig LAYER 8 @stephenw10
        last edited by Bob.Dig

        @stephenw10 said in Question regarding MIM: Controller not having a static *public* IP possible?:

        It doesn't try to connect to the external IPv4 the controller has?

        It does, still the status never changes for me.

        Screenshot 2024-11-08 085343.png

        Edit: Both sides are behind NAT but that shouldn't make any difference I guess.

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        • stephenw10S
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          Ok I guess I'm unclear exactly what's happening here. You have a number of IPs shown and they don't seem to match.

          You should be able to connect from some external resource to a controller behind a dynamic IP as long as it hasn't changed since it was configured. And as long as the traffic is forwarded to the controller if it's behind NAT.

          Bob.DigB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Bob.DigB
            Bob.Dig LAYER 8 @stephenw10
            last edited by Bob.Dig

            @stephenw10 said in Question regarding MIM: Controller not having a static *public* IP possible?:

            You should be able to connect from some external resource to a controller behind a dynamic IP as long as it hasn't changed since it was configured. And as long as the traffic is forwarded to the controller if it's behind NAT.

            Sure. And that is the case here. And if I disable and enable MIM it should reset, right? But as you can see in the last picture, it is "connecting" anyways because my public IP actually hasn't changed. It is changing roughly once a week.

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            • stephenw10S
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              Ah, OK. Well fqdn support is incoming....

              Bob.DigB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Bob.DigB
                Bob.Dig LAYER 8 @stephenw10
                last edited by

                @stephenw10 Good to know but still, it isn't working here like it should. But I am just reporting, don't need this feature. ๐Ÿ˜‰

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                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by

                  Hmm, so just to be clear, what is not working as expected? Disabling and re-enabling MIM does not clear the registration data.

                  Bob.DigB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Bob.DigB
                    Bob.Dig LAYER 8 @stephenw10
                    last edited by

                    @stephenw10 Status is still unknown. But the second part is interesting. So when my public IP is finally changing, then I can not test this anymore because the registration data is not changing?

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                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      With status unknown like that the client has never connected back to the controller. So the traffic is probably blocked somewhere because it looks like it's trying to connect.

                      Currently the client connects back to the 'server' using only the IP address(es) passed to it in the registration data. So if the server side changes IP the connection will fail. Thus only static IPs are really supported for that side. But FQDN support is coming.

                      Bob.DigB 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • Bob.DigB
                        Bob.Dig LAYER 8 @stephenw10
                        last edited by

                        @stephenw10 But it is not blocked, you can see that in the last picture I posted. It can talk to the MIM Port on my (private) WAN-IP at home, just saying.

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                        • Bob.DigB
                          Bob.Dig LAYER 8 @stephenw10
                          last edited by Bob.Dig

                          @stephenw10 Maybe it all is related to this?
                          Screenshot 2024-11-08 200050.png
                          Is this a timeout message? That VPS is horrible slow. Or there is an activation problem?

                          Log on Client

                          Nov 8 20:30:52 pfnet-controller 71929 797876 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] GET /api/device/controller (DONE 129.606ms) OK: success
                          Nov 8 20:30:52 pfnet-controller 71929 797876 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] GET /api/device/controller
                          Nov 8 20:30:48 pfnet-controller 71929 INFO Applying changes into config.xml
                          Nov 8 20:30:48 pfnet-controller 71929 711767 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/captiveportalbackup (DONE 5.991ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:48 pfnet-controller 71929 698279 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/logsbackup (DONE 0.958ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:48 pfnet-controller 71929 666789 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/dhcpbackup (DONE 1.080ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:48 pfnet-controller 71929 657424 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/rrdbackup (DONE 1.353ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:48 pfnet-controller 71929 401318 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/use_mfs_tmpvar (DONE 0.999ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:48 pfnet-controller 71929 344427 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/dpinger_dont_add_static_routes (DONE 1.147ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:48 pfnet-controller 71929 129633 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/keep_failover_states (DONE 1.041ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:48 pfnet-controller 71929 112933 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/remove_failover_states_default (DONE 1.065ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:48 pfnet-controller 71929 96084 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/schedule_states (DONE 1.204ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:48 pfnet-controller 71929 36961 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/pti_disabled (DONE 1.457ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:47 pfnet-controller 71929 936446 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/thermal_hardware (DONE 1.333ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:47 pfnet-controller 71929 926102 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/ipsec_mb (DONE 1.064ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:47 pfnet-controller 71929 914451 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/crypto_hardware (DONE 1.378ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:47 pfnet-controller 71929 566861 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/watchdogd_enable (DONE 1.040ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:47 pfnet-controller 71929 460392 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/powerd_enable (DONE 1.268ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:47 pfnet-controller 71929 451874 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/block_external_services (DONE 1.173ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:47 pfnet-controller 71929 437248 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/do_not_send_uniqueid (DONE 1.890ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:47 pfnet-controller 71929 416491 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/lb_use_sticky (DONE 1.015ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:47 pfnet-controller 71929 407598 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/proxypass (DONE 1.380ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:47 pfnet-controller 71929 402921 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/proxyuser (DONE 1.004ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:47 pfnet-controller 71929 397833 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/proxyport (DONE 0.944ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:47 pfnet-controller 71929 391868 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/proxyurl (DONE 1.263ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found
                          Nov 8 20:30:47 pfnet-controller 71929 328168 [/var/run/pfnet-controller.sock] DELETE /api/config/system/harddiskstandby (DONE 23.195ms) ERROR: (*urlhandler.HandlerError) 400 not found

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                          • stephenw10S
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by

                            Hmm, so the client is connecting out to the controller at the correct public IP but it never arrives at the controller?

                            Bob.DigB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • Bob.DigB
                              Bob.Dig LAYER 8 @stephenw10
                              last edited by

                              @stephenw10 It is working now! Most probably the VM needed more RAM than I thought. It had only 512 MB before. I will mark this solved.

                              Bob.DigB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • Bob.DigB
                                Bob.Dig LAYER 8 @Bob.Dig
                                last edited by

                                Today it is not working anymore but also there was the first IP change on my side. Doing some port magic didn't helped. So if I am able to, I will host the controller on a second instance in the cloud (with a static IP).

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                                • Bob.DigB
                                  Bob.Dig LAYER 8
                                  last edited by Bob.Dig

                                  Maybe some last thought about this in this thread. I now had the chance to use a third Plus-Installation, it is on a VPS (2) too.
                                  It worked right away to register it to the controller at home, while the other VPS (1) still didn't worked.

                                  I then removed all peers and toggled the controller on all instances and registered all peers to the controller on VPS 2. This worked out of the box. There is not much difference on those two VPS other than that VPS 1 is very slow and that VPN connections towards the pfSense at home differs.

                                  One problem I noticed with that new setup (on VPS 2) is that VPS 1 is still trying to connect at every second towards Home over one WireGuard tunnel. And I can't stop it other than blocking it. I will open another thread about this.

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                                  • Bob.DigB
                                    Bob.Dig LAYER 8
                                    last edited by Bob.Dig

                                    OT but didn't deserve its own thread I think: On 24.11-RC I noticed that on an installation (with 1 Gig RAM) the pfnet-controller Service wasn't running. I did a reboot, saw the same thing again. Starting it manually works. That controller is the actual controller of two other instances.
                                    Only thing I noticed:

                                    Screenshot 2024-11-14 115537.png

                                    No problem with my main-machine though. The service is running but it is not the controller of other instances.

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                                    • M
                                      marcosm Netgate
                                      last edited by

                                      Are the logs any different if you increase the log level?

                                      Bob.DigB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • Bob.DigB
                                        Bob.Dig LAYER 8 @marcosm
                                        last edited by Bob.Dig

                                        @marcosm Not really.

                                        Nov 14 17:07:10 	kernel 		controltun0: link state changed to DOWN 
                                        
                                        Nov 14 17:07:09 	pfnet-controller 	57413 	controltun0 packet from 185.*.*.*:*
                                        Nov 14 17:07:09 	pfnet-controller 	57413 	Unknown peerId in received packet from peer 4ae627
                                        Nov 14 17:07:09 	pfnet-controller 	57413 	NG System busy, will challenge peer
                                        Nov 14 17:07:09 	pfnet-controller 	57413 	NG Handshake received from 185.*.*.*:*
                                        Nov 14 17:07:09 	pfnet-controller 	57413 	controltun0 packet from 185.*.*.*:*
                                        Nov 14 17:07:09 	pfnet-controller 	57413 	Unknown peerId in received packet from peer 4ae627 
                                        

                                        Nothing after that for the MIM log.

                                        That IP is my very slow instance...

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                                        • M
                                          marcosm Netgate
                                          last edited by marcosm

                                          Would you please reproduce the issue, generate diagnostic data while it's still stopped, and upload it here?

                                          Also, are there any interesting logs from the client(s) when that happens?

                                          Bob.DigB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • Bob.DigB
                                            Bob.Dig LAYER 8 @marcosm
                                            last edited by Bob.Dig

                                            @marcosm said in [solved] Question regarding MIM: Controller not having a static *public* IP possible?:

                                            Would you please reproduce the issue

                                            Done. This time even more services hadn't started... It is a VPS in the oracle cloud with just 1 GB RAM.

                                            Edit2: Now it stopped again, I can't even get it working... While I see it now is supporting DDNS, I haven't used that and it is way less stable. Maybe I am supposed to make a new config(db) for it? No, latter doesn't change anything.

                                            And on my main machine at home I have a WireGuard problem it seems, service isn't running although most of the tunnels do... And I see this, not the first time.

                                            Screenshot 2024-11-15 092241.png

                                            So I guess I am looking forward to an all new Install-Image to start over... At least CrystalDiskInfo isn't showing any problems. ๐Ÿ™„

                                            Edit: A Reboot fixed this for my main machine, still, I have never seen this before on it. Also did a RAM-check, no problems found.

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