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    Web UI crash every 5 minutes or so

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • S
      Synack 0
      last edited by

      Hi there :)

      First I'd like to thank people contributing to the pfSense project. I've been using it for a few years now, and it's very usefull.

      Unfortunately, I had an issue with the web UI today. To be sure it wasn't me, i installed pfSense 3 times : amd64, amd64 again, i386.
      All I did was installing it (quick mode) and configuring two interfaces. I then accessed the web UI and it was fine. But 5 minutes later, the page was not responding anymore.

      A (quite) quick fix is to reboot the VM, but 5 minutes later, crap, it does it again.
      When this bug happens, only the web UI crashes. VPN, routing, firewalling still work great.
      I checked the logs but nothing seems wrong.
      It this a well-known issue ?

      Thanks very much for your help.

      Kate.

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      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        Which version are you using? 2.0.2?
        The webgui can appear to freeze under some circumstances when it tries to resolve a URL but DNS isn't available. Is you VM fully connected up?

        If it's just the webgui that stops working it could be a php error. The logs are in /tmp, you view it like so:

        [2.0.2-RELEASE][root@pfsense.fire.box]/(5): clog /tmp/PHP_errors.log
        
        

        Steve

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        • S
          scientific
          last edited by

          Hi and welcome to the forum.. as you can see Im new also but also noticed my web gui crashing a few times.

          1. after installing some packages (had to reset the pfsence box)
          2.going through the options in diognostics 1 by 1 ( also had to reset)

          The good thing is I thing the web Gui is separate from the router/firewall cause the first crash I had it running for 2 days no problem.
          I did try to restart the Web Gui from the pfsence box with no luck.

          what is your setup..?
          Version 2.0.2-RELEASE ?
          CPU
          RAM
          WAN
          LAN
          Motherboard..

          The first thing everybody will ask is what nics are you using and specs so put that in your sig. :)

          Crashing every 5 mins is very extreme. Could be hardware related. You said you had it running for a few years now and only now your having this problem?.same PC then maybe a nic going bad.. Again I'm new so just guessing. hopefully we can both get some answers about the web Gui crashing.

          DELL Dimension 3000
          Intel P4 HT 3.00GHz, 2GB RAM, 80GB IDE
          LAN: TP Link TG-3269 Gigibit Pci
          WAN: Intel Pro 100M Integrated PCI NIC Card
          Switch: Tp Link TL-SG1005D 5port/1000Mbits

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          • S
            Synack 0
            last edited by

            Hi again !

            I've forgotten to say I use the 2.0.2 version and I updated it with the console (option #13 & auto).
            Everything is ok for the DNS (8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4), and I already checked if the router was able to resolve domain names.

            I'll check the php logs when i'll be back in front of this pfSense VM.

            Thanks very much for your help.

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            • S
              Synack 0
              last edited by

              Hi again !

              This problem still gets on my nerves.
              No information in the /tmp/PHP_errors.log file.

              Any idea ?

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              • T
                tim.mcmanus
                last edited by

                I had a few UI issues in 2.0.2.  I've upgraded (manual firmware update) to the most recent 2.0.3 release (Feb. 9) and that resolved all of my UI issues.  You might want to do that.  Download the latest .tgz image and manually update your pfSense firmware.  IMHO it's very stable and I have a feeling it'll resolve your issues.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by

                  If you can still SSH into the box, what happens if you restart the web gui (menu option 11)?
                  If you run top does it show some process using all the cpu cycles?

                  Steve

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                  • C
                    cmb
                    last edited by

                    Upgrade to 2.0.3. We would have released it already but we're awaiting the "any day now" FreeBSD security advisory for the recent openssl issue.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • S
                      Synack 0
                      last edited by

                      Thanks for your answers. I had already tried restarting the webgui with console option #11, without any change.
                      I'm upgrading to 2.0.3 and I'll tell you if it works :)

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                      • S
                        Synack 0
                        last edited by

                        Tried v2.0.3, still crashes :(

                        I'm using a ESXi 5.1 based VM. Host is using a Xeon E5620 CPU (2.40GHz).

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                        • T
                          tim.mcmanus
                          last edited by

                          Anything in the system logs?  Also check the lighttpd logs too.

                          clog /var/log/lighttpd.error.log

                          and

                          clog /var/log/lighttpd.log

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • S
                            Synack 0
                            last edited by

                            Anything in the logs… This is quite bad.

                            When i'm connected to pfSense whith SSH, it seems like it takes a longer time to crash (I managed to keep control of the UI for 43 minutes yesterday).

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • W
                              wallabybob
                              last edited by

                              Could you give a bit more detail on what you mean by "crash"? the page doesn't complete loading? you get an unexpected error report? (If so, what is the report?)

                              What happens when you close and restart the web browser?

                              Can you reliably get it to "crash" by going to a particular page? If so, what page?

                              Please post the output of pfSense shell command```
                              top -S -H -d 2

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                              • W
                                wallabybob
                                last edited by

                                I don't know if this is specific to the version of pFsense I am running or is a general problem. I don't know if it related to the problem reported in this thread.

                                I went to Diagnostics -> Command Prompt, typed a command in the Command box and hit the Enter key. The web page is "stalled", the browser reporting (after some minutes) Waiting for … (the name of my pfSense box).

                                I clicked on the browser "Abort" button then attempted to go to the home page of my pfSense box and the browser again reported Waiting for …

                                I am using Chromium. I then used Firefox (without exiting from Chromium) and connected to the home page of my pfSense box. My pfSense box is running

                                2.0.1-RELEASE (i386)
                                built on Mon Dec 12 17:53:52 EST 2011
                                FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE-p4

                                as reported on the home page.

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                                • C
                                  cmb
                                  last edited by

                                  @wallabybob:

                                  I went to Diagnostics -> Command Prompt, typed a command in the Command box and hit the Enter key. The web page is "stalled", the browser reporting (after some minutes) Waiting for … (the name of my pfSense box).

                                  If you run a command there that never ends, like "ping google.com", that's the expected result.

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                                  • W
                                    wallabybob
                                    last edited by

                                    The command was```
                                    /etc/rc.banner

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                                    • S
                                      Synack 0
                                      last edited by

                                      @wallabybob:

                                      Could you give a bit more detail on what you mean by "crash"? the page doesn't complete loading? you get an unexpected error report? (If so, what is the report?)

                                      No HTTPS response is returned to my browser (not even a 4XX or 5XX code). Nothing. Chrome says "This webpage is not available". You don't say…
                                      I'll try HTTP.

                                      @wallabybob:

                                      What happens when you close and restart the web browser?

                                      Nothing. Tried rebooting, switching to other browsers, it didn't work… This is a server-side error.

                                      @wallabybob:

                                      Can you reliably get it to "crash" by going to a particular page? If so, what page?

                                      Nope, it's a random crash. Sometime i'm just managing my firewall rules, then I take a brake and when I come back, bam ! Crash.

                                      @wallabybob:

                                      Please post the output of pfSense shell command```
                                      top -S -H -d 2

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                                      • S
                                        Synack 0
                                        last edited by

                                        Edit : Holy **** ! It still crashes using HTTP : "No data received".

                                        Just to let you know : i reverted to HTTP (Console –> Set interface(s) IP address --> x.x.x.x /x --> DHCP ? (n) --> Revert to HTTP ? (y)).

                                        Web gui came back without needing a reboot ! This is great. Hope it won't crash anymore, but this already seems to be an improvement.
                                        HTTPS isn't usefull at all in my case (separate network for gui), so i'll just keep HTTP and let you know if it stays up. :)

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                                        • T
                                          tim.mcmanus
                                          last edited by

                                          @tim.mcmanus:

                                          Anything in the system logs?  Also check the lighttpd logs too.

                                          clog /var/log/lighttpd.error.log

                                          and

                                          clog /var/log/lighttpd.log

                                          I never saw these logs posted.  These logs are the service logs and will most definitely determine why this particular service is crashing.  Please post them.

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • S
                                            Synack 0
                                            last edited by

                                            As I already said, those files contain absolutely nothing.
                                            As a matter of fact, the lighttpd.error.log file doesn't even exists.

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