Remote monitoring using iOS?

Mellowlynx

Hmm, did I imagine the php log? Perhaps from some other discussions about another OS? Possibly. ::)

Hahahah

The reason istat stops working after a reboot is that the daemon does not auto start at boot. The pkg includes an rc file (in /usr/local/etc/rc.d) but it probably isn't triggered. If you look at the file it is looking for a start flag set in a conf file. It's probably not appropriate in pfSense. You could modify the rc file to always start it instead.

That I did know, but I don't want to let it startup on boot if I can't access the webgui

@stephenw10:

Have you tried restarting the webgui via the ssh menu when it isn't working?

First thing I did, or it will not shutdown, or is just stops after the start.

@stephenw10:

I have no idea why it stops. I could believe that installing istat restarts some critical process.

After you have rebooted if you manually run istat again (without reinstalling it) does it break the webgui again?

Steve

Yes, if I start istat again after a reboot the webgui will not work.

stephenw10

@rcktboy:

@stephenw10:

Hmm, did I imagine the php log? Perhaps from some other discussions about another OS? Possibly. ::)

Hahahah

Turns out I haven't lost it completely, yet. It's here: /tmp/PHP_errors.log

Ok, so we've narrowed it down to the istatd process is preventing the webgui from being displayed for some reason. It's not related to the pkg install.
If you kill istatd does the webgui become available?

Presumably the box is still routing OK while istatd is running, it's not using all the resources for some reason?

Steve

Mellowlynx

Here is all whats in PHP_errors.log

[18-Nov-2012 10:56:38 UTC] PHP Warning:  Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /etc/inc/authgui.inc:212) in /usr/local/www/guiconfig.inc on line 49
[18-Nov-2012 10:56:38 UTC] PHP Warning:  Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /etc/inc/authgui.inc:212) in /usr/local/www/guiconfig.inc on line 50
[18-Nov-2012 10:56:38 UTC] PHP Warning:  Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /etc/inc/authgui.inc:212) in /usr/local/www/guiconfig.inc on line 51
[18-Nov-2012 10:56:38 UTC] PHP Warning:  Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /etc/inc/authgui.inc:212) in /usr/local/www/guiconfig.inc on line 52
[18-Nov-2012 10:56:38 UTC] PHP Warning:  Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /etc/inc/authgui.inc:212) in /usr/local/www/guiconfig.inc on line 53

How can I kill istas using ssh? and I will try it.
(Just kill istatd??)

istat show's the CPU load and that is fine, also internet is up as fast as it should be :)

stephenw10

And is 10.56 a relevant time? Nothing at 11.52 as you mentioned earlier.

Two ways to kill istatd.
1. From the CLI, menu option 8, run 'top'. Press 'q' to quit.
From there you will see the process number for istatd and you can stop it with 'kill 24675' or whatever the number is.
2. Since there is only one process called istatd (unless something is wrong) you can kill it directly with 'killall istatd'.

Steve

Mellowlynx

@stephenw10:

And is 10.56 a relevant time? Nothing at 11.52 as you mentioned earlier.

Not that I know of…

@stephenw10:

Two ways to kill istatd.
1. From the CLI, menu option 8, run 'top'. Press 'q' to quit.
From there you will see the process number for istatd and you can stop it with 'kill 24675' or whatever the number is.
2. Since there is only one process called istatd (unless something is wrong) you can kill it directly with 'killall istatd'.

Steve

If I kill it, webgui will work and first time it showed.


$ istatd [-c] [-a 172.16.32.1] [-p] [-d]
Could not get disk data for '/home'. Device not found.

If I command out that line, webgui is still not working after start istat

Here is the full istat config


#
# /etc/istat.conf: Configuration for iStat server
#

#network_addr           127.16.32.1
network_port           5109
server_code              12345
server_user              nobody
server_group             nobody
# server_socket          /tmp/istatd.sock
server_pid               /var/run/istatd.pid
cache_dir                /var/db/istatd

# Note: Only support for one network interface, limited by client.
monitor_net            ( re0 )

# Array of disks to monitor. Specify mount path or device name.
#monitor_disk             ( / /home )

# Set to 1 if you want to use mount path as label instead of the device name.
disk_mount_path_label    1

# Try to probe the filesystem for disk label, will override the mount path label.
disk_filesystem_label    1

# Set custom disk label. Will override all other labels.
# disk_rename_label        /dev/sda1  "root"
# disk_rename_label        /home      "home"

# End of file

phil.davis

@rcktboy:

Here is all whats in PHP_errors.log

[18-Nov-2012 10:56:38 UTC] PHP Warning:  Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /etc/inc/authgui.inc:212) in /usr/local/www/guiconfig.inc on line 49
[18-Nov-2012 10:56:38 UTC] PHP Warning:  Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /etc/inc/authgui.inc:212) in /usr/local/www/guiconfig.inc on line 50
[18-Nov-2012 10:56:38 UTC] PHP Warning:  Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /etc/inc/authgui.inc:212) in /usr/local/www/guiconfig.inc on line 51
[18-Nov-2012 10:56:38 UTC] PHP Warning:  Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /etc/inc/authgui.inc:212) in /usr/local/www/guiconfig.inc on line 52
[18-Nov-2012 10:56:38 UTC] PHP Warning:  Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /etc/inc/authgui.inc:212) in /usr/local/www/guiconfig.inc on line 53

Those are "normal" messages that are spat out when the WebConfigurator is started at boot time.
Coincidentally, these warnings have been fixed/removed by a recent commit a couple of days ago: https://github.com/bsdperimeter/pfsense/commit/73ebd062315c78bc64adff529ce3862d91ce2e4b
If you are on a very recent 2.1 snapshot then you should find that /tmp/PHP_errors.txt does not even exist when bootup is finished - there are no warnings any more. The file is only created when the first PHP warning or error happens.

stephenw10

@rcktboy:

#network_addr 127.16.32.1

I assume this is a typo and you mean 172.16.32.1?

If not that is conflicting with the address you are sending via the start command.
Since the only thing you are specifying via the command line switches is the address, and that's in the config file anyway, you should be able to start it with simply 'istatd'.

I don't think /home is a mount point, though I only have a Nano install of 2.0.1 to check against.

Also your monitoring of / doesn't agree with your labeling of /dev/sda1 but since all the precedding options seem to overide each other it's hard to say what should happen there.

Steve

Mellowlynx

Yes, thats a typo.

But I tried something else…
I did not execute the istat [-d] in the webgui
but in the ssh console and istat runs AND the webgui is still working!

Can I add the istat rule so it starts as startup somewhere?
Or do I have to modify the rc file?

stephenw10

Ah that explains it! I didn't realise you were using the gui command tool.
Yes you can't run a function there that does not finish. It will just cause a php process to wait endlessly and, as you found, kills the webgui. You can breakout of that by killing all the php processes, 'killall php'.

Here is the file as put in place by the package:


#!/bin/sh

# PROVIDE: istatd
# REQUIRE: LOGIN
#
# Add the following lines to /etc/rc.conf.local or /etc/rc.conf
# to enable this service:
#
# istatd_enable (bool):   Set to NO by default.
#               Set it to YES to enable istatd.
#

. /etc/rc.subr

name="istatd"
rcvar=istatd_enable

command=/usr/local/bin/${name}

load_rc_config $name

: ${istatd_enable="NO"}
: ${istatd_config="/usr/local/etc/istat.conf"}

command_args="-d -c $istatd_config"

run_rc_command "$1"

It expects you to add 'istatd_enable="YES"' to /etc/rc.conf. However in pfSense all the conf files in /etc are generated at boot by a series of scripts from settings in the pfSense config.xml file. Hence if you add that line it will be overwritten at boot. I'm unsure of the correct way to do this. :-\

Steve

stephenw10

You could do something crude, as I have in the past.
Create a file called, say. istatd.sh in /usr/local/etc/rc.d and put in it:


#!/bin/sh
#
#File to start istatd until a proper package is created.

/usr/local/bin/istatd -c /usr/local/etc/istat.conf -d

Set the file permissions so it can be executed. Cross your fingers and reboot. ;)

Steve

Mellowlynx

I googled and found this :)

"Executing commands at boot time"

The hidden config.xml option <shellcmd>will run the command specified towards the end of the boot process.
Above the line, add a line such as the following:
<shellcmd>mycommand -a -b -c 123</shellcmd>
Where "mycommand -a -b -c 123" is the command to run. You can add multiple <shellcmd>lines to execute multiple commands. Save your changes and restore the modified configuration.</shellcmd></shellcmd>

(source: http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Executing_commands_at_boot_time)

Did that, rebooted and YAY, it works :)

BIG thanks for your help! :)

stephenw10

Good call that's a better way to do it. Don't know why I didn't suggest that. ::)

Screenshots (from your phone) to encourage others to try it?

Steve

Mellowlynx

~~Working on that :)~~

Here is a iPhone 5 screenshot

And here a iPad one

stephenw10

Nice. :)

Steve