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    PfSense 2.0.1 locking up (hard)

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

      If the only difference is the NIC perhaps look at this:
      http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Tuning_and_Troubleshooting_Network_Cards#Intel_igb.284.29_and_em.284.29_Cards

      Steve

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      • B
        bkamen
        last edited by

        I'll take a look.

        The card that faces into the network is an Intel card (but comes up as em(x) which still applies in that FAQ)
        (I think the 2 on the MB are Intel as well sooo)

        Thanks!!

        -Ben

        –
        Ben - O.D.T., S.P.

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        • C
          clarknova
          last edited by

          I have a SM-based pfsense with a D510 and a pair of Intel (em) on-board NICs. MBUF usage grows continually until exhausted, followed by a full lockup. The "kern.ipc.nmbclusters="131072"" setting puts your MBUF limit much higher than default and will postpone or prevent lockup, depending on how much you need. I think you can always set that number higher if you have the RAM to back it.

          db

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          • B
            bkamen
            last edited by

            @clarknova:

            I have a SM-based pfsense with a D510 and a pair of Intel (em) on-board NICs. MBUF usage grows continually until exhausted, followed by a full lockup. The "kern.ipc.nmbclusters="131072"" setting puts your MBUF limit much higher than default and will postpone or prevent lockup, depending on how much you need. I think you can always set that number higher if you have the RAM to back it.

            Thanks for the note… it's good to hear from people with similar hardware.

            I have the same MB at home (not for this install though, I got the D525 for the client) -- and THEN bought the D510 since I had parts for it laying around and don't need the mem speed for it.

            Your proposition gives me the willies. What? Am I supposed to schedule a reboot every weekend? Turn on the BMC watchdog? (need to test that at home first) Yikes.

            I do have 4GB in the unit -- but I am running pfSense-2.0.1-embedded_AM64 off an SSD... so RAM isn't exactly wild-free-and-open. But, I'll bump up the bufs later.

            right not seems to have a fairly static 5574/25600 and the client is getting their full 50Mb/s BW to the internet. So overall, provided the system stays up, we're pretty happy.

            As always, the open source community does some excellent stuff.

            stay tuned,

            -Ben

            –
            Ben - O.D.T., S.P.

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            • C
              clarknova
              last edited by

              Theoretically the MBUF usage should level off at some point. Mine are at 34652/131072 and growing with 21 days of uptime. This is approximately the same uptime I had 21 days ago when one of the NICs stopped passing traffic, so I have yet to see my MBUF usage level off on this system. Mind you I have hundreds of users, so I can only guess that that is a factor, because my internet connection is less than 40 Mbps.

              db

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              • C
                clarknova
                last edited by

                I should add that increasing your max MBUFS is not going to put much of a dent in 4G of RAM. My system has 4G and no swap and is currently reporting 10% memory usage. My current states are reporting at 11795/389000 but I've seen them as high as 34000. I think memory is allocated on your max rather than current, so you can see that increasing your nmbclusters isn't likely to be a problem on your system.

                db

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                • B
                  bkamen
                  last edited by

                  @clarknova:

                  Theoretically the MBUF usage should level off at some point. Mine are at 34652/131072 and growing with 21 days of uptime. This is approximately the same uptime I had 21 days ago when one of the NICs stopped passing traffic, so I have yet to see my MBUF usage level off on this system. Mind you I have hundreds of users, so I can only guess that that is a factor, because my internet connection is less than 40 Mbps.

                  Hmmm…

                  This user has 50Mb/s and about 3,000 PC's (Mac/Windows Mix - but mostly probably 90% Mac).

                  I just need to watch it. So far, the CPU has been pretty sleepy according to RRD. Peaks of 25% with most daily usage under 20%.
                  (I'm assuming that's system total consider this is a dual-core w/HyperThreading mb)

                  Very nice.

                  The state table I've seen peak around 20,000 of 390,000. So.Also nice.

                  Thanks for the data. I'll keep sharing as I watch this systems first day in "production" mode. (scaaaarrryyy... hahahah)

                  -Ben

                  –
                  Ben - O.D.T., S.P.

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                  • B
                    bkamen
                    last edited by

                    @clarknova:

                    I should add that increasing your max MBUFS is not going to put much of a dent in 4G of RAM. My system has 4G and no swap and is currently reporting 10% memory usage. My current states are reporting at 11795/389000 but I've seen them as high as 34000. I think memory is allocated on your max rather than current, so you can see that increasing your nmbclusters isn't likely to be a problem on your system.

                    Agreed. I didn't think adding more MBUFs would be a big impact either. (thanks for the note though)

                    Cheers,

                    -ben

                    –
                    Ben - O.D.T., S.P.

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                    • B
                      bkamen
                      last edited by

                      BTW,

                      Does MBUF's recent over idle time or do they allocate and then (ideally) stick at some average level?

                      (i.e. what kind of behavior should I see if everything were running correctly?)

                      -Ben

                      –
                      Ben - O.D.T., S.P.

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                      • C
                        clarknova
                        last edited by

                        I've never seen them decrease except with a reboot. I think best case is that they level off and stop increasing at some point.

                        db

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                        • B
                          bkamen
                          last edited by

                          K.

                          Good to know - I'll be watching.

                          Thanks,

                          -ben

                          –
                          Ben - O.D.T., S.P.

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                          • M
                            mattlach
                            last edited by

                            @clarknova:

                            I have a SM-based pfsense with a D510 and a pair of Intel (em) on-board NICs. MBUF usage grows continually until exhausted, followed by a full lockup. The "kern.ipc.nmbclusters="131072"" setting puts your MBUF limit much higher than default and will postpone or prevent lockup, depending on how much you need. I think you can always set that number higher if you have the RAM to back it.

                            Forgive my possibly noobish question, but how do I set this setting?

                            Do I just add it on the:  "System -> Advanced -> System Tunables" page?

                            Does this setting require a reboot of the system?

                            If no, does changing the setting drop any current states?

                            Much obliged,
                            Matt

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                            • B
                              bkamen
                              last edited by

                              @mattlach:

                              @clarknova:

                              I have a SM-based pfsense with a D510 and a pair of Intel (em) on-board NICs. MBUF usage grows continually until exhausted, followed by a full lockup. The "kern.ipc.nmbclusters="131072"" setting puts your MBUF limit much higher than default and will postpone or prevent lockup, depending on how much you need. I think you can always set that number higher if you have the RAM to back it.

                              Forgive my possibly noobish question, but how do I set this setting?

                              Do I just add it on the:  "System -> Advanced -> System Tunables" page?

                              You have to look at the link above. There's a file in /boot you need to create and put those parms in.

                              Does this setting require a reboot of the system?
                              If no, does changing the setting drop any current states?

                              Yes. it needs a reboot. (so that should answer the 2nd part of that question)

                              It worked for me with no issues.. and I'm seeing a level off at about 7200 (7174) of 131072 after a day over heavy operation.

                              Shout if you need more,

                              -Ben

                              –
                              Ben - O.D.T., S.P.

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                              • C
                                clarknova
                                last edited by

                                Some settings can be set from the system tunables page, however this one cannot. You must add it to /boot/loader.conf.local (create the file if it does not exist) and then reboot for it to take effect. Do not add it to /boot/loader.conf, as this will be overwritten on the next system upgrade.

                                db

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                                • S
                                  soyers
                                  last edited by

                                  Hi!

                                  I have similar problem.
                                  About month ago, when I updated to 2.0.1. version I have got situations, when pfsense freeezees.
                                  Pfsense is installed on old HP E800 series server with PIII 1ghz CPU, 512Mb RAM and 17Gb SCSI hdd.
                                  Firstly I though, that it is from bad RAM or HDD, but after changing them, everything continues.
                                  I setted up another hardware, simple pc with 1,7Ghz Celeron Intel CPU, 768Mb RAM and 40Gb hdd.
                                  Two days everything was ok, but then in one day it stops 3 TIMES!!
                                  Then I thought, that it has got something common with ACPI, even I have got UPS.
                                  Turned off ACPI support in pfsense.
                                  Few days everything was OK after turning of ACPI in pfsense, but this night again it stops.
                                  And I am a little bit desperate.
                                  If hardware change doesn't help, it could be MBUFs?
                                  Right now it is = 0.
                                  In pfsense first page it shows 518/24896 MBUFs usage.

                                  Any Ideas?

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