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    Pfsense hangs every two weeks!

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
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    • jimpJ
      jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
      last edited by

      The + means that there is something else sharing that IRQ with your storage controller. Look through /var/log/dmesg.boot and see if anything else mentions irq 18  (grep 'irq 18' /var/log/dmesg.boot).

      Watch vmstat -i a bit to see what the interrupts are doing.

      Run top -SH from the shell and press "m" to switch to I/O mode and see if anything stands out there.

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      • F
        fneto
        last edited by

        The grep command shows:

        pcib3: <acpi pci-pci="" bridge="">irq 18 at device 28.2 on pci0
        atapci0: <intel ata="" controller="">port 0x5110-0x5117,0x5100-0x5103,0x50f0-0x50f7,0x50e0-0x50e3,0x50d0-0x50df,0x50c0-0x50cf irq 18 at device 31.2 on pci0
        atapci1: <intel ata="" controller="">port 0x50b0-0x50b7,0x50a0-0x50a3,0x5090-0x5097,0x5080-0x5083,0x5070-0x507f,0x5060-0x506f irq 18 at device 31.5 on pci0

        and the top -SH didn't show me anything different as you can see!

        last pid: 58807;  load averages:  0.10,  0.07,  0.06                                                                      up 3+01:09:04  17:29:29
        196 processes: 6 running, 169 sleeping, 21 waiting
        CPU:  1.0% user,  0.0% nice,  1.2% system, 15.1% interrupt, 82.7% idle
        Mem: 375M Active, 1547M Inact, 200M Wired, 56K Cache, 112M Buf, 1041M Free
        Swap: 8192M Total, 8192M Free

        PID USERNAME  VCSW  IVCSW  READ  WRITE  FAULT  TOTAL PERCENT COMMAND
          11 root        48 128158      0      0      0      0  0.00% {idle: cpu1}
          11 root        48 128158      0      0      0      0  0.00% {idle: cpu3}
          11 root        48 128158      0      0      0      0  0.00% {idle: cpu2}
          12 root    136977  7914      0      0      0      0  0.00% {irq18: atapci0+}
          11 root        48 128158      0      0      0      0  0.00% {idle: cpu0}
          12 root    136977  7914      0      0      0      0  0.00% {swi5: +}
        38589 proxy      295    74      0      0      0      0  0.00% squid
          12 root    136977  7914      0      0      0      0  0.00% {irq17: re0 ehci1}
          12 root    136977  7914      0      0      0      0  0.00% {swi4: clock}
          14 root          7      0      0      0      0      0  0.00% yarrow
          12 root    136977  7914      0      0      0      0  0.00% {irq16: re1 ehci0}
        33706 root        103      0      0      0      0      0  0.00% ntpd
          243 root          0      0      0      0      0      0  0.00% check_reload_status
        47036 root        23      3      0      0      0      0  0.00% winbindd
        36169 root        13      0      0      0      0      0  0.00% nmbd
        12702 root          2      0      0      0      0      0  0.00% syslogd
        37681 root        10      0      0      0      0      0  0.00% winbindd
            0 root          0      0      0      0      0      0  0.00% {swapper}
        12049 root          7      0      0      0      0      0  0.00% logger
        11891 root          2      0      0      0      0      0  0.00% tcpdump
          12 root    136977  7914      0      0      0      0  0.00% {swi1: netisr 0}
          22 root          1      0      0      0      0      0  0.00% syncer
          12 root    136977  7914      0      0      0      0  0.00% {swi4: clock}
            8 root          1      0      0      0      0      0  0.00% pfpurge
        54408 proxy        20      0      0      0      0      0  0.00% squidGuard
        37113 root          0      0      0      0      0      0  0.00% sh</intel></intel></acpi>

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        • jimpJ
          jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
          last edited by

          It was very idle in that output compared to the last one.

          The fact that it's all storage controllers on that IRQ means it would almost have to be a disk or optical drive on there causing it.

          Are there any BIOS options for IRQs or PnP or similar?

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          Do not Chat/PM for help!

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          • W
            wallabybob
            last edited by

            @fneto:

            I'm having a problem with an installation of PfSense that every 2 weeks stop working.

            What build of pfSense?

            Please provide more details of what you mean by "stop working"? Shuts down by itself? Stops forwarding packets? Stops responding to console keypresses?

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            • F
              fneto
              last edited by

              First thanks by your help and support!

              Below is the details that I think is relevant to help in find the solution of this problem ok!

              The hardware:
              Dell Optiplex 390
              Core i3-2120
              4Gb de RAM
              1 DVD-RW
              1 SATA 500GB Hard drive
              2 x Realtek 8111E Gigabit (1 onboard IRQ 16 and 1 offboard pci-express on IRQ 17)
              I have only one VGA monitor and the dell keyboard plugged in this machine.

              As I told you this is a production machine and is very difficult to me to reboot and check all the BIOS options, but I really don't remenber of IRQ or PNP options in this machine, I only remenber that when I was installing I could install it only in a specific SATA mode, but I don't remenber now what mode is it ok!

              What I want tell when I say the it stop work is the every 15 days exactly the machine stop forwarding packets on the network. One time that nobody is there to reboot the server it start to work again after 10 minutes, the other times that it happens we run until the machine and restart it using the console and choosing "Reboot Server"

              So the problem didn't freeze the consolebut it stops the packet forwarding.

              If you need more information fell free to ask me!

              thanks!

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              • W
                wallabybob
                last edited by

                What build of pfSense are you using? (See the version string on the home page for the box.)

                @fneto:

                What I want tell when I say the it stop work is the every 15 days exactly the machine stop forwarding packets on the network. One time that nobody is there to reboot the server it start to work again after 10 minutes, the other times that it happens we run until the machine and restart it using the console and choosing "Reboot Server"

                Before restarting the computer it would be good to get the output of the shell command```
                netstat -m

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                • F
                  fneto
                  last edited by

                  Sorry by the delay, the build that I'm using in this server is: 2.0.2-RELEASE (i386) built on Fri Dec 7 16:30:38 EST 2012

                  below is the output of the command that you suggest me, but now the server is running for 4 days only!

                  The only time that the server come back working without a reboot I analysed the RRD graphs and saw a little network outage as you can see in the image attached to this post. The blue circle show the hour that the server has failed!

                  $ netstat -m
                  518/2557/3075 mbufs in use (current/cache/total)
                  4/1408/1412/131072 mbuf clusters in use (current/cache/total/max)
                  3/893 mbuf+clusters out of packet secondary zone in use (current/cache)
                  1/215/216/12800 4k (page size) jumbo clusters in use (current/cache/total/max)
                  512/593/1105/6400 9k jumbo clusters in use (current/cache/total/max)
                  0/0/0/3200 16k jumbo clusters in use (current/cache/total/max)
                  4749K/9652K/14401K 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)
                  0/10/6656 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

                  graph.png
                  graph.png_thumb

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                  • W
                    wallabybob
                    last edited by

                    A single report from netstat is not sufficient to establish a trend. A single snapshot at the time of the "hang" would be useful to see if mbuf usage contributes to the hang.

                    The System -> Processor RRD graph shows number of processes. Is this graph flat or does it increase up to the time of the hangs then drop significantly on the reboots? (PERHAPS you are running low on free memory because something is starting new processes which aren't terminated.)

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                    • K
                      kejianshi
                      last edited by

                      Have you tried 2.03 or is the install time too much down time?

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                      • F
                        fneto
                        last edited by

                        Unfortunately I don't have the processor and memory graph from that day, but I attached the processor and memory graphs from these last days, maybe it can help.

                        The server was turned off because of a big maintence of the eletric power of the building, and the memory usage for me is strange but I'd like to hear your opinion!

                        About the upgrade to the latest 2.03 version, we don't do it until now because I work about 120 miles from the main build and these PC is working with a compiled and manual installation of the Realtek 8111E driver. We are afraid that after the update the system loose the network drivers (stored in /boot and called in loader.conf) and we can't turn the server again.

                        So we need to schedule a visit there to make the upgrade and if is the case manually install the network drivers again!

                        memory1.png
                        memory1.png_thumb
                        memory2.png
                        memory2.png_thumb
                        memory3.png
                        memory3.png_thumb
                        processor.png
                        processor.png_thumb

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                        • K
                          kejianshi
                          last edited by

                          Have them reboot every 3 days in the dead of night then if you don't get it worked out.

                          However, it looks like something one of mine was doing.  MBUFS and CPU usage climbing and climbing.

                          I reinstalled made the changes recommended for the MBUFS and for the specific NICs I have and the issue never returned.

                          But that doesn't sound like an option for you, so I'd recommend reboots as a chron job.

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                          • K
                            kejianshi
                            last edited by

                            Are you running squid?

                            Never mind.  I see it.

                            What are your memory cache settings?

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                            • F
                              fneto
                              last edited by

                              Hi kejianshi we are running squid and squidguard on this server. What MBUFS paramenter should I verify/change on the server?

                              Actually I have only it on system tunables: kern.ipc.nmbclusters="131072"

                              Thanks!

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                              • K
                                kejianshi
                                last edited by

                                Squid cache settings please?

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                                • F
                                  fneto
                                  last edited by

                                  The squid settings is attached ok!

                                  squid1.png
                                  squid1.png_thumb
                                  squid2.png
                                  squid2.png_thumb

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                                  • F
                                    fneto
                                    last edited by

                                    The squid settings is attached ok!

                                    squid3.png
                                    squid3.png_thumb
                                    squid4.png
                                    squid4.png_thumb

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                                    • K
                                      kejianshi
                                      last edited by

                                      Squid doesn't seem ok to me.  To me it seems there is far to much HD cache given his ram.

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                                      • K
                                        kejianshi
                                        last edited by

                                        How much Ram does this box have?

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                                        • K
                                          kejianshi
                                          last edited by

                                          I'll put it this way.  I have several times your RAM with basically the same size cache stipulated and I'll hit 35% in a couple days of running.  40% sometimes.  Mine used to crash daily til I reduced my disk cache and mem cache.  Indexing 40GB of drive can take upwards of 2GB ram or more if the cache is full of lots little things.

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                                          • F
                                            fneto
                                            last edited by

                                            This server has 4Gb of RAM, but I have another server with similar hardware (Processor speed, disk size and ram sise) in another installation with the same squid settings and it is working without a reboot for almost an year. We have rebooted it only to upgrade PfSense!

                                            So I really don't believe that squid is the cause of the problem!

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