What webserver does pfSense 1.2.3 use? I need to see the error logs

torontob · Nov 4, 2010, 11:21 PM

Hi Everyone,

I have a few pfSense boxes that are failing to browse their admin page after being in production in a month or so. What webserver program does pfsense run? where are the SSL and HTTP error logs located?

Thanks

Cry Havok · Nov 5, 2010, 9:51 AM

It uses lighttpd - you can restart it by logging in via SSH/console and picking option 11. Logs are in /var/log as usual.

torontob · Nov 5, 2010, 3:29 PM

Would using option 11 temporary put the router out of work? Because during production days if one can't reach the portal then you have to wait till the end of the day to do this.

But if you are sure option 11 just restarts the web server program then it's all good.

Thanks

Cry Havok · Nov 5, 2010, 4:50 PM

Yes, it just restarts the web interface. All routing is handled in the kernel, not userspace.

torontob · Nov 5, 2010, 9:23 PM

There is something wrong with the logs. First file doesn't have anything but one line in it. The second file is huge but has only symbol charecters. There is gotta be some other log related to the web server program that can point me to errors, start, stop, browsing access, ssl error, etc….just like apache and httpd does on CentOS. Can someone point me to that please or tell me if my logs are corrupted somehow?

/var/log/lighttpd.error.log (Size 49):
2010-11-02 17:59:05: (log.c.172) server started

/var/log/lighttpd.log (Size 65535):
��

I mean do the logs get rotated or deleted somehow? I have done few restarted in the past three months and I see only one restart in the lighttpd.error.log and the lighttpd.log is definitely not a language I have learned in school.

Thansk

Cry Havok · Nov 5, 2010, 11:16 PM

ISTR that's pretty normal. You may need to check them via the GUI once you restart it - you should find more on the forum.

torontob · Nov 5, 2010, 11:30 PM

Thanks for the input.

Where exactly on the GUI are you talking about?

But also the GUI should be taking it's logs from a raw file, shouldn't it?

Thanks

Guest · Nov 6, 2010, 6:15 AM

You can also view the logs from the command line, just remember that all pfSense logs are circular logs. Here are the details for viewing the logs:

http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Why_can%27t_I_view_view_log_files_with_cat/grep/etc%3F_%28clog%29

torontob · Nov 7, 2010, 4:25 AM

Thanks but link is broken. Petty, that lots of the documentation has it's links contents removed with text like "the documentation was unreliable; refer to pfsense book"

Guest · Nov 7, 2010, 11:08 AM

"Refer to the book" is excellent advice. Its definitely the definitive source of documentation for pfSense.

jimp · Nov 8, 2010, 3:29 PM

@torontob:

Thanks but link is broken. Petty, that lots of the documentation has it's links contents removed with text like "the documentation was unreliable; refer to pfsense book"

(a) That link is not broken. It works fine. Your browser may not have followed it properly. Try: this link.
(b) No content was removed from the Wiki like that. We may say to refer to the book, but we did not cut valid, working text from the public docs for that purpose. The revision history for every wiki page is intact, you can check for yourself.

If content was removed it was removed because the information was incorrect. It was not removed to increase book sales.

torontob · Nov 8, 2010, 7:24 PM

I guess I was missing a ) at the end of the URL with the first link click for some reason. It works. Thanks

torontob · Nov 8, 2010, 8:38 PM

Here is what I got using clog - basically not working:

[root@151-redbox.local]/var/log(20): clog lighttpd.log 
[1.2.3-RELEASE]                                                   
```                                                                                          [root@151-

While the file size is more than one line why do I get only one line?
redbox.local]/var/log(21): ls -la
total 1584
drwxr-xr-x  2 root  wheel    512 Nov  8 00:20 .
drwxr-xr-x  12 root  wheel    512 Nov  8 00:20 ..
-rw–-----  1 root  wheel  65535 Nov  9 00:31 dhcpd.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel    4278 Nov  8 00:19 dmesg.boot
-rw-------  1 root  wheel  512144 Nov  9 00:31 filter.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  65535 Nov  8 00:19 ipsec.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel      28 Nov  9 00:28 lastlog
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel      98 Nov  9 00:16 lighttpd.error.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  65535 Nov  8 00:19 lighttpd.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  65535 Nov  8 00:19 ntpd.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  65535 Nov  8 23:29 openvpn.log
-rw-------  1 root  wheel  65535 Nov  8 00:19 portalauth.log
-rw-------  1 root  wheel  65535 Nov  8 00:19 slbd.log
-rw-------  1 root  wheel  512144 Nov  9 00:29 system.log
-rw-------  1 root  wheel    1500 Nov  9 00:16 userlog
-rw-------  1 root  wheel  65535 Nov  8 00:19 vpn.log
[1.2.3-RELEASE]                                                                                                                                            [root@151-redbox.local]/var/log(22):

Thanks