PfSense 2.2 on VMware ESXi 5.5 hangs

Ha-Pe

Thank you both!

Now i have a few tests with some other hardware settings i can do over the next few days.

Will get back to you with results.

Pakken

Just to add an additional feedback, I've been running pfsense on ESXi 5.5 for more than a year without any kind of problem.
Started with pfsense 2.1, updated to 2.2 1 month ago.

2 vcpu out of an octa-core dual Xeon setup, 1 GB ram and 20GB hard drive space on a blazingly fast SSD drive. Open vm tools installed.
Not much to say but the fact that pfsense is running smooth 24/7.

Happily upgraded v-nics to vmxnet3 (data transfer across networks routed through the fw and throughput stability improved by a fair amount) upon upgrading to 2.2 build. :)

biggsy

Two things to check:

Did you make the mistake of setting up a Linux VM instead of FreeBSD
Are you sure you matched the 32/64-bit VM setup to the pfSense you installed?

Sorry if these seem obvious to you. Both situations have appeared in these forums before.

nikkon

Did the same install (2.2 x64 full image) on 2 vm's in order to test CARP and seems to work just fine.

freebsd x64 + 3 nics (all as E1000) on LSI Logic parallel
seems to work fine

A Former User

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KOM

Brainlesscurls, are you using the same ancient version of ESXi as Ha-Pe?

Ha-Pe, can you describe exactly what you did when you say you made some changes to the firewall and then everything stopped working?

A Former User

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KOM

So it's isolated to that one ESXi host? What's so special about that host as compared to the other(s)? Does pfSense live on if you don't configure the CARP stuff?

A Former User

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A Former User

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Ha-Pe

I could do some test based on the recommendations by KOM and johnpoz. For my situation, it seems i was to stingy with the hardware settings on my vm's.

Since i upgraded vCPU's from 1 to 2 and vRAM from 512mb to 1024mb, the problems are gone.

While setting up the appliances i configured with this guide: https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/PfSense_2_on_VMware_ESXi_5.
There they speak about 1vCPU and 512mb vRAM if you have e few or no packages. I only use OPENVPN Client Export Packages in addition to the baseimage. So i thought 512mb will be enough.

Now the error/problem is reproducable. when i go back to 512mb vRAM and change some NAT/firewall rules (only enabling/disabling) pfSense stops working as described earlier after about 20-30klicks.
With 1024mb vRAM the error does not occour, even with 100dreds of klicks. ;)

My presumption ist that pfSense 2.2 with FreeBSD 10.x requires more vRAM the in older releases.

Here for Reference my complete seetings:
ESXi 5.5 Build 2456374 / pfSenseVM: HW-Version 8, FreeBSD 64bit, 2vCPU, 1024MB vRAM, 8GB vDisk Thick, 2xE1000 NIC

BTW: the ancient ESXi Version i was using before has nothing to do with the problem. the problem is reproduced on the my old ESXi box aswell on the new.

A Former User

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