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    Extremely strange network issue with virtualised pfsense

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Virtualization
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    • M
      Mike-Bracknell
      last edited by

      No, just checked (was going to kick myself if I had), but it's FreeBSD 64bit (identical settings and identical ISO that I built my HP Microserver pfsense from that i'm typing this behind).

      The only difference my HP Microserver ESXi has is that it's running 4.1.0 build 502767 versus build 348481 on the Dell.

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      • M
        Mike-Bracknell
        last edited by

        Hold on….......

        Does "2.0.1 release (i386)" mean it's a 32bit ISO in a 64bit VM??

        This might explain something..... (although it wouldn't explain why the HP Microserver at my home is working fine).

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        • S
          Supermule Banned
          last edited by

          348481 is 4.1U1 and the 502767 is 4.1U2

          So different ESXi :)

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          • B
            biggsy
            last edited by

            …although it wouldn't explain why the HP Microserver at my home is working fine

            Maybe your customer's machine is under bit more load than yours and some situation just doesn't get handled properly.

            Not sure about that 32-bit image running in a 64-bit VM thing but it's gotta be suspect.

            It's probably easier to go straight to 5.1 than it is to update 4.1u1 to u2 or u3.

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            • S
              Supermule Banned
              last edited by

              5.1 has some issues relating to FreeBSD and I would suggest 4.1U3 until 5.1U1 is released.

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              • B
                biggsy
                last edited by

                @Supermule:

                5.1 has some issues relating to FreeBSD and I would suggest 4.1U3 until 5.1U1 is released.

                What sort of issues?  I thought I'd checked pretty thoroughly for any reported problems before going to 5.1 about a week ago.

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                • johnpozJ
                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                  last edited by

                  Been running my pfsense on 5.1 since the day it released and not issue one.. So what are these issues your going on about?

                  An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                  If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                  Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                  SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                  • S
                    Supermule Banned
                    last edited by

                    http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2032803

                    Cant find the rest right now…

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                    • M
                      Mike-Bracknell
                      last edited by

                      Well, whichever it is i'll be doing it in a week or so's time.  I've just built an identical pfsense Microserver here in the office so that we can try it out for a week, then at least I know there's likely to be a solution for my customer (despite me needing to migrate VMs across whilst I upgrade the server).

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                      • S
                        Supermule Banned
                        last edited by

                        Are you using E1000 NIC's in both boxes?

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                        • johnpozJ
                          johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                          last edited by

                          "Enhanced VMXNET adapter cannot obtain a DHCP IP address with FreeBSD 8.2"

                          Ok not using vmxnet, nor are we using 8.2 of freebsd ;)

                          So that would explain why this has been non issue for me..  And would never have used the vmxnet2 in the first place, article states it works with vmxnet3.  But using e1000, there was a benchmark done a few threads back and they sure didn't notice any real performance increase with them, and I had some issues with access ipsec vpn on the outside of the pfsense box from clients inside when using them.  Went back to e1000 and no issues.

                          An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                          If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                          Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                          SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                          • P
                            podilarius
                            last edited by

                            I have used pfsense on a dell r710 before and it worked … I was not firewalling though ... just a soft router. I also have 128GB of memory and 4 CPUs, so I was not hurting for resources. Even though I had upwards of 30 VMs running at one time. props to pfsense.

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                            • B
                              biggsy
                              last edited by

                              @Mike-Bracknell:

                              Well, whichever it is i'll be doing it in a week or so's time.

                              Please post again and let us know how it goes.

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                              • M
                                Mike-Bracknell
                                last edited by

                                @Supermule:

                                Are you using E1000 NIC's in both boxes?

                                Yes, I have no need to go to VMXNET-based NICs, and one nagging doubt I had was that there may have been E1000-based code in FreeBSD which didn't translate well to the Broadcom NIC, but I must say it was incredibly weird to find that other VMs on the server were affected by the pfsense VM.

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                                • M
                                  Mike-Bracknell
                                  last edited by

                                  @biggsy:

                                  @Mike-Bracknell:

                                  Well, whichever it is i'll be doing it in a week or so's time.

                                  Please post again and let us know how it goes.

                                  Will do.  However, so far so good with the Microserver running a 32bit VM of a 32bit OS, and i'm sure my web developers will test pfsense a hell of a lot more than a training company do :)

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                                  • M
                                    Mike-Bracknell
                                    last edited by

                                    Just to close off on this, I have rebuilt the 32-bit PFSense in a 32-bit VM container, and it's been stable for a week now.  I think that must have been the issue.  Glad to have spotted that or it would have driven me round the bend!

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