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    Memory consumption keeps rising until reboot

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • W
      wallabybob
      last edited by

      What version of pfSense are you running?

      What interfaces are in use? (Please post the output of pfSense shell command```
      /etc/rc.banner

      
      @Tillebeck:
      
      > every time a user calls in complaining about poor performance I reboot the router and thereby release the used memory.
      
      That suggests you might have a memory leak - some kernel component s allocating "dynamic" memory but not releasing the memory when the component has finished using it. Network performance suffers when dynamic memory is nearly exhausted.
      
      It would probably be a good idea to monitor mbuf usage (say at start and end of a day for a couple of weeks) to look for trends. mbuf usage will generally climb soon after startup and then level out. If it keeps climbing significantly after a few days uptime you probably have a problem. pfSense shell command```
      # netstat -m
      ```will show mbuf usage. Here is an example from my system (256MB RAM):
      
      > $ netstat -m
      > 173/472/645 mbufs in use (current/cache/total)
      > 171/219/390/8000 mbuf clusters in use (current/cache/total/max)
      > 170/214 mbuf+clusters out of packet secondary zone in use (current/cache)
      > 0/20/20/4000 4k (page size) jumbo clusters in use (current/cache/total/max)
      > 0/0/0/2000 9k jumbo clusters in use (current/cache/total/max)
      > 0/0/0/1000 16k jumbo clusters in use (current/cache/total/max)
      > 385K/636K/1021K bytes allocated to network (current/cache/total)
      > 0/0/0 requests for mbufs denied (mbufs/clusters/mbuf+clusters)
      > 0/0/0 requests for jumbo clusters denied (4k/9k/16k)
      > 0/5/2256 sfbufs in use (current/peak/max)
      > 0 requests for sfbufs denied
      > 0 requests for sfbufs delayed
      > 0 requests for I/O initiated by sendfile
      > 0 calls to protocol drain routines
      > $
      
      Do the performance complaints seem correspond to any particular activity? (Maybe you need to tweak your system for a regular peak load.)
      
      What is the nature of the performance complaints? (slow? connection attempts fail? …)
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      • jimpJ
        jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
        last edited by

        It would also help to see the full output of "ps uxawww" and "top -SH"

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        • T
          Tillebeck
          last edited by

          Thanks

          Complains are:
          Slow speeds, timeout of DNS (that might not be a router issue), problems getting an DHCP IP from router.

          $ netstat -m
          405/795/1200 mbufs in use (current/cache/total)
          392/646/1038/8640 mbuf clusters in use (current/cache/total/max)
          391/633 mbuf+clusters out of packet secondary zone in use (current/cache)
          0/20/20/4320 4k (page size) jumbo clusters in use (current/cache/total/max)
          0/0/0/2160 9k jumbo clusters in use (current/cache/total/max)
          0/0/0/1080 16k jumbo clusters in use (current/cache/total/max)
          885K/1570K/2456K bytes allocated to network (current/cache/total)
          0/0/0 requests for mbufs denied (mbufs/clusters/mbuf+clusters)
          0/0/0 requests for jumbo clusters denied (4k/9k/16k)
          0/4/2416 sfbufs in use (current/peak/max)
          0 requests for sfbufs denied
          0 requests for sfbufs delayed
          0 requests for I/O initiated by sendfile
          0 calls to protocol drain routines

          /etc/rc.banner
          This one stopped the router from responding over the web. It is stille routing and I can access other equipment set up with NAT through the router. But the webinterface did not come up again. Right now I have been waiting aprox. 15minuttes and the webinterface is still not up. It does not timeout. Just keeps loading and loading. So I will have to come back with the results from the the other commands later.

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          • R
            rplattn
            last edited by

            Hi!

            I have the same problems with pfsense 2.0.1 64bit on intel hw.
            The memory consumption is rising until reboot.
            We noticed that the tcpdump process is consuming the memory over time!

            /usr/sbin/tcpdump -n -e -ttt -i pflog0

            Any suggestions?

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            • stephenw10S
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              @Tillebeck:

              /etc/rc.banner
              This one stopped the router from responding over the web. It is still routing and I can access other equipment set up with NAT through the router.

              Did you run that from the CLI or via the webGUI: Diagnostics: Command Prompt: ?

              The GUI Command Prompt function will fail if you try to run something that doesn't finish. It will result in a stuck php process that locks up the web gui. I have no idea how it would handle rc.banner. Like it says 'this function is unsupported. Use it on your own risk!'.  ;)
              You can escape from that situation by killing php from the CLI.

              Steve

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              • R
                rplattn
                last edited by

                It could be a stuck tcpdump. Under normal conditions no tcpdump is running?

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                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by

                  tcpdump is used for logging and should be running normally. If you search the forum there have been a few instances of tcpdump using excess memory lately though. I would guess that's your problem.

                  Steve

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                  • R
                    rplattn
                    last edited by

                    When I look at Status: System logs: Firewall a tcpdump process is started for logging?

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                    • R
                      rplattn
                      last edited by

                      Looks like a tcpdump problem?

                      tcpdump version 4.0.0
                      libpcap version 1.0.0

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                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        See this post/thread: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,55441.msg296357.html#msg296357

                        Steve

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