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    Pfsense on a HP Netserver LPr

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    • U
      ugob
      last edited by

      Hi,

      I got a robust HP netserver LPr (dual PIII 750, 1GB RAM) and I'd like to use it as a firewall (PfSense).  There is no standard IDE controller (only a small IDE interface, for the slim cdrom… I don't think I could connect an IDE-to-compactFlash on this.  So I thought I have 2 solutions:

      1- Buy a regular IDE controller and an IDE-to-flash adapter, so that I can use a flash card... I don't have neither of them so trying out may make me waste money
      2- Run the LiveCD and keep config on a flash card.
      3- Install on HDD.  Since these are SCSI disks, they are quite expensive, so I'd rather use something else... and... does PfSense support software RAID?

      So I tried 2- first, since I had a spare usb PCI card.  However, it won't work.  The card is a VIA VT6212L and the system kind of hangs just after the GEOM_LABEL.  After many minutes, I get some output, lookin like:

      umass0 : BBB reset failed TIMEOUT

      Then some other errors about bulk-in clear stall failed and bulk-out clear stall failed.

      As soon as I remove the USB stick, it boots w/o problem.

      What should I do... buy another USB PCI card based on another chipset?  Use an alternate boot method?

      Thanks,

      Ugo

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      • U
        ugob
        last edited by

        Replying to myself… I figured out I could try a floppy as media for the config...  It is working, but I trust more USB keys than floppies... This firewall will be in a datacenter, so we don't really want anything physical to break.  Any ideas regarding my original post?

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        • S
          sai
          last edited by

          yes I wouldn't trust floppies either but usb just dont seem to work with freeBSD. The only time you would need the floppy is at boot time but it is not a good solution. I have had too many floppies die on me - just dont use them any more.
          I'd go for another machine.

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          • jahonixJ
            jahonix
            last edited by

            If your HP netserver is going to live in a DataCenter, you'll probably like the improved reliability and speed of a small SCSI HD. The latter helps when/if you use squid on that machine. A SCSI HD always is a good investment in reliability.

            On the other hand the small IDE interface naturally IS an IDE port. "All" you need is an adequate adapter but I don't know if something like that is readily available or would have to be built by yourself.

            Chris

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            • U
              ugob
              last edited by

              @jahonix:

              If your HP netserver is going to live in a DataCenter, you'll probably like the improved reliability and speed of a small SCSI HD. The latter helps when/if you use squid on that machine. A SCSI HD always is a good investment in reliability.

              But does PfSense supports software RAID?  I think a LiveCD + floppy is more reliable (at least for running) than a single disk.  The only RAID controller I have here is an HP NetRAID 1-M.  Will it work?
              @jahonix:

              On the other hand the small IDE interface naturally IS an IDE port. "All" you need is an adequate adapter but I don't know if something like that is readily available or would have to be built by yourself.

              Hmmm, and even if I find a way to get an IDE-to-flash to work there, I still have the problem of the physical location of this thing… it is a 2U server made for only 2 SCSI HDD...

              Thanks,

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              • P
                Perry
                last edited by

                don't know about raid ( you can always backup the config file ). but you will be better of with 2 pc and carp cluster imo.

                /Perry
                doc.pfsense.org

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                • U
                  ugob
                  last edited by

                  Hmmm, it is a bit expensive to set 2 servers in a datacenter, so I'd rather have only this 2U server, with the most reliable config possible with this kind of hardware.

                  Thanks,

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • M
                    Matts
                    last edited by

                    How about the Dual CPU ? I have installed it also on a Dual CPU machine and see only one CPU.

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                    • U
                      ugob
                      last edited by

                      I haven't checked really, but I think it sees only 1 CPU.  I don't really care if it sees only one though.

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                      • M
                        Matts
                        last edited by

                        @ugob:

                        I haven't checked really, but I think it sees only 1 CPU.  I don't really care if it sees only one though.

                        No I don't care if it sees one, but I want to be sure it uses both.

                        This is what I see:

                        kern.smp.cpus: 1

                        So if it sees one extra CPU for SMP or at total one.

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                        • U
                          ugob
                          last edited by

                          @ugob:

                          But does PfSense supports software RAID?  I think a LiveCD + floppy is more reliable (at least for running) than a single disk.  The only RAID controller I have here is an HP NetRAID 1-M.  Will it work?

                          I just tested and it works with th HP NetRAID 1-M.  I'll get 2 small SCSI disks and I'll use that.

                          Anyone knows how to monitor for failed drives this way?  If it was on linux, I'd check /proc, but I don't know about freebsd.

                          Thanks!

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                          • M
                            Matts
                            last edited by

                            @ugob:

                            @ugob:

                            But does PfSense supports software RAID?  I think a LiveCD + floppy is more reliable (at least for running) than a single disk.  The only RAID controller I have here is an HP NetRAID 1-M.  Will it work?

                            I just tested and it works with th HP NetRAID 1-M.  I'll get 2 small SCSI disks and I'll use that.

                            Anyone knows how to monitor for failed drives this way?  If it was on linux, I'd check /proc, but I don't know about freebsd.

                            Thanks!

                            Yes for Linux I know it too, but I will check it.

                            Were you able to monitor the controller for failing disks ?

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                            • U
                              ugob
                              last edited by

                              @Matts:

                              @ugob:

                              I haven't checked really, but I think it sees only 1 CPU.  I don't really care if it sees only one though.

                              No I don't care if it sees one, but I want to be sure it uses both.

                              This is what I see:

                              kern.smp.cpus: 1

                              So if it sees one extra CPU for SMP or at total one.

                              Mine sees and uses both.

                              In top, I can sometimes see process using CPU1 when I hold the spacebar.

                              From dmesg:```
                              FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 2 CPUs
                              cpu0 (BSP): APIC ID:  1
                              cpu1 (AP): APIC ID:  0

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                              • U
                                ugob
                                last edited by

                                @Matts:

                                @ugob:

                                @ugob:

                                But does PfSense supports software RAID?  I think a LiveCD + floppy is more reliable (at least for running) than a single disk.  The only RAID controller I have here is an HP NetRAID 1-M.  Will it work?

                                I just tested and it works with th HP NetRAID 1-M.  I'll get 2 small SCSI disks and I'll use that.

                                Anyone knows how to monitor for failed drives this way?  If it was on linux, I'd check /proc, but I don't know about freebsd.

                                Thanks!

                                Yes for Linux I know it too, but I will check it.

                                Were you able to monitor the controller for failing disks ?

                                No, all I found is this:

                                amrstat is available as a package, but since my pfsense is not connected to the 'net right now, I can't try.

                                However, since there is no mta on pfsense, another system would have to run a script via ssh and send an e-mail if one drive is failing.

                                It would be easier using snmp.

                                Please let me know if you find anything.

                                http://www.unixadmintalk.com/f41/monitoring-raid-arrays-51889/

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                                • U
                                  ugob
                                  last edited by

                                  I found something:

                                  # pkg_add -r http://ftp.id.freebsd.org/ports/packages/All/amrstat-20070216.tbz
# rehash
# amrstat
Logical volume 0:       degraded (16.96 GB, RAID1)
Physical drive 0:0      rebuild
Physical drive 0:1      online

                                  Now you can use a remote server to execute amrstat remotely via ssh and grep for 'degraded'.  If grep returns 0, send an e-mail.

                                  Ugo

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                                  • U
                                    ugob
                                    last edited by

                                    See this post to follow-up on the monitoring… http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,5263.0.html

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                                    • M
                                      Matts
                                      last edited by

                                      I have installed the AMRSTAT Port, but I can;t get it working.

                                      FreeBSD is actually quite new for me :) If it was Linux.. it was more simple ;)

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                                      • U
                                        ugob
                                        last edited by

                                        Look http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,5252.msg31671.html#msg31671

                                        3 simple commands.

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                                        • M
                                          Matts
                                          last edited by

                                          @ugob:

                                          I found something:

                                          # pkg_add -r http://ftp.id.freebsd.org/ports/packages/All/amrstat-20070216.tbz
# rehash
# amrstat
Logical volume 0:       degraded (16.96 GB, RAID1)
Physical drive 0:0      rebuild
Physical drive 0:1      online

                                          Now you can use a remote server to execute amrstat remotely via ssh and grep for 'degraded'.  If grep returns 0, send an e-mail.

                                          Ugo

                                          Hi,

                                          I already installed it using this:

                                          pkg_add -r amrstat

                                          This is what I get because I already installed the latest version I thought

                                          # pkg_add -r http://ftp.id.freebsd.org/ports/packages/All/amrstat-20070216.tbz
Fetching http://ftp.id.freebsd.org/ports/packages/All/amrstat-20070216.tbz... Done.
pkg_add: package 'amrstat-20070216' or its older version already installed
#

                                          And I get this now:

                                          
# amrstat
open: No such file or directory
# where amrstat
/usr/local/sbin/amrstat
# /usr/local/sbin/amrstat
open: No such file or directory
# /usr/local/sbin/amrstat --help
amrstat: illegal option -- -
usage: /usr/local/sbin/amrstat [-a num] [-b] [-c ctlr|-f dev] [-g] [-l vol]
                [-p drive|-s bus[:target]] [-t usec] [-v]

        -a num          number of retries
        -b              battery status
        -c ctrl         controller ID
        -f dev          device path
        -g              print global parameters
        -l vol          logical volume ID
        -p drive        physical drive ID
        -s bus[:target] SCSI bus (and optinal target)
        -t usec         sleep time between retries
        -v              verbose output
#
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                                          • U
                                            ugob
                                            last edited by

                                            Maybe your RAID controller is not supported by this program.  How are labeled your disks?

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