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    Update from 24.11 to 25.07 failed and possible corrupt system

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • stephenw10S Offline
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
      last edited by stephenw10

      Yes that will work fine and is often a good idea anyway if it's been upgraded for years without reinstalling. It will definitely get you to 25.07.

      One other thing you could check is the contents of /conf/backup. There was a bug a while ago that created corrupt backup files there that are much too large. Those can cause problems at upgrade.

      Edit: Oops missed the posts above! Yes check for rogue backup files. This bug: https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/15994

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      • E Offline
        eloich @abw
        last edited by

        @abw said in Update from 24.11 to 25.07 failed and possible corrupt system:

        /cf/conf/backup

        Thanks for that! This is exactly what I was experiencing. In my case, the conf history is/was filled with the following:

        (system): pfBlockerNG: saving DNSBL changes
        

        I guess I just have to remember to clean this up on a regular basis.

        Cheers!

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        • stephenw10S Offline
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          It's fixed in 25.07 so you shouldn't have any problems going forward.

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          • E Offline
            eloich @stephenw10
            last edited by

            @stephenw10
            Just confirming that the /conf/backup folder is still getting flooded by pfBlocker config backups with 25.07. Happens every hour:

            Screenshot From 2025-08-06 15-14-07.png

            Searching through these forums, it's been noted before.

            Note that while I'm using pfBlocker, I've not activated DNSBL at all.

            Looked through pfBlocker's config options and can't find a flag that would prevent DNSBL from saving config changes every hour.

            Anything you need from me/us to investigate further, let me know. Also, if there is a setting that I've missed, please let me know where it is.

            In the meantime, I've added a task to the pre-work of updating the firewall (i.e. clean up the /conf/backup folder before update).

            Cheers,

            E 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • E Offline
              eloich @eloich
              last edited by

              Replying to myself here...

              scrolling down, we can see this:

              Screenshot From 2025-08-06 15-27-46.png

              I guess I was too lazy to consider scrolling... ๐Ÿ˜‰

              That would/will fix it, right?

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              • stephenw10S Offline
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                pfBlocker updates will still create a new config backup. What has been fixed is the 30 backups limit in the folder. Previously it was possible to end up with a very large number of backups if you did not visit the backup page. And that's what was causing the issue at upgrade when the folder is parsed.

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                • E Offline
                  eloich @stephenw10
                  last edited by

                  @stephenw10
                  Thanks for confirming! Tried to upvote your post as well as abw's post but unable to at this time since I haven't yet reached a sufficient reputation level.
                  Cheers!

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                  • S Offline
                    SteveITS Rebel Alliance @abw
                    last edited by

                    @abw said in Update from 24.11 to 25.07 failed and possible corrupt system:

                    little over 12,500 backup files in the /cf/conf/backup directory

                    FWIW if using pfBlocker there are two issues. One, at every cron/update run pfBlocker changes an internal timestamp in the config file (thus creating a backup), even if nothing else changed. Two, if using pfBlocker in HA, pfBlocker doesn't sync changes to the secondary properly (without a force update) which can result in double the number of config backups on the secondary. (haven't tried pfBlocker in 25.07 yet)

                    Viewing the history page should clean out the old files but since that times out it may take a few runs.
                    ref: https://forum.netgate.com/topic/197685/config-history-not-pruning-on-ha-pair-has-3400-files

                    If it's problematic for upgrades it might be best if the upgrade process pruned out old files, or checked for "over $backupcount" files and warned.

                    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 reboot, or more depending on packages, and device or disk speed.
                    Upvote ๐Ÿ‘ helpful posts!

                    S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • S Offline
                      steve1515 @SteveITS
                      last edited by

                      Just wanted to update everyone. My issue also ended up being the backup config files. Once I deleted the ones older than 7 days, the update went through perfectly.

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                      • N Offline
                        nedyah700 Rebel Alliance
                        last edited by

                        Updated to 25.07 today and had the same issue. Hung at updating configuration for about 10 minutes. Reverted back to 24.11, cleared all the pfBlocker config backups (~7k), updated went smooth.

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