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    Unbound seems to be restarting frequently

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved DHCP and DNS
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    • W
      waingro
      last edited by

      @kejianshi:

      Most if not all of the problems people are having is caused by bad settings.

      I get this alot with people where they don't read or follow directions or advice fully and go their own way with part of the setup and then blame the hardware/software/instructions when things don't work as they should.  Pretty much this entire thread at this point is totally just people shooting themselves in the foot.  Unbound is fine.

      I disagree. I have followed the direction meticulously and studied the problem deeply. Forwarder is fine, Unbound is not.

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      • K
        kejianshi
        last edited by

        You only think you have followed directions.  At some point you will discover some little something you have either changed or not done correctly.

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        • W
          waingro
          last edited by

          @kejianshi:

          You only think you have followed directions.  At some point you will discover some little something you have either changed or not done correctly.

          Nope, the problems are real.

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          • K
            kejianshi
            last edited by

            So why is it not broken for me at a dozen places?  Does it just like me better than you?

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            • W
              waingro
              last edited by

              @kejianshi:

              So why is it not broken for me at a dozen places?  Does it just like me better than you?

              Oh come on, you're not really that dense, are you? A number of people are reporting this problem here and elsewhere.

              The fact that some, not all, experience issues is due to differences in hardware, how pfSense is used, etc.

              This is the nature of many bugs, of course, and if you don't agree with this, you're either dense or just trolling. Which is it?

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              • K
                kevindd992002
                last edited by

                @kejianshi:

                So why is it not broken for me at a dozen places?  Does it just like me better than you?

                Why is it that if it's not a problem for you then you will defend it all the way until you become offensive to others? It's obvious, based on the logs, that there is a problem. This is very true to most of your posts. Instead of trying to help others, you choose to be sarcastic and offensive.

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                • K
                  kejianshi
                  last edited by

                  You can click that smite button til you are blue in the face.  It won't change the fact that if you set unbound up correctly it works fine and if you don't it doesn't.

                  There are alot of settings that affect unbound.  Setting up dnsmasq is easier.  I'll say that much.

                  I also had problems with unbound when I first started playing with it but after changing a few of the advanced setting and fixing my stupid settings I had entered into general setup, all problems disappeared.

                  Maybe it only works for dense people?

                  BTW - Why is it offensive to you that I think that more than likely bad setting cause most of the problems with unbound?

                  My definition of a problem is "DNS doesn't work".  Not - "Ohhhhh I see that DNS restarts sometimes".

                  If my computers were not resolving websites and the web was acting flakey for me I'd be right along with the rest complaining.

                  However, fact is, its working fine.  Since I have no special magic happening here, I have to believe this is a setting problem.

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                  • W
                    waingro
                    last edited by

                    @kejianshi:

                    You can click that smite button til you are blue in the face.  It won't change the fact that if you set unbound up correctly it works fine and if you don't it doesn't.

                    There are alot of settings that affect unbound.  Setting up dnsmasq is easier.  I'll say that much.

                    I also had problems with unbound when I first started playing with it but after changing a few of the advanced setting and fixing my stupid settings I had entered into general setup, all problems disappeared.

                    Maybe it only works for dense people?

                    Maybe. My secondary pfSense install has problems too once a few wireless clients connect -> restart and intermittent resolve errors.

                    Funny thing, considering this is a stock forwarding setup according to docs - no advanced settings, no nothing.

                    No wonder so many people are seeing this, clearly there are bugs…

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                    • K
                      kejianshi
                      last edited by

                      BTW - I see alot of people doing alot of really silly things with pfsense and the one thing all those people have in common it they all think their way should be fine and its got to be that pfsense is brrrrrroooooooked.

                      Anyway - Hope you figure it out.

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                      • W
                        waingro
                        last edited by

                        @kejianshi:

                        BTW - I see alot of people doing alot of really silly things with pfsense and the one thing all those people have in common it they all think their way should be fine and its got to be that pfsense is brrrrrroooooooked.

                        Anyway - Hope you figure it out.

                        I did. Solution is not to use unbound.

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                        • K
                          kejianshi
                          last edited by

                          Well - For forwarding, I agree with you there.  Even if unbound worked flawlessly for you, I'd recommend dnsmasq for forwarding and unbound for recursive resolver.

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                          • GertjanG
                            Gertjan
                            last edited by

                            Compare time of these:
                            In the DHCP log :
                            Apr 22 23:20:41    dhcpd: Wrote 250 leases to leases file.
                            Apr 22 23:20:41    dhcpd: Wrote 0 new dynamic host decls to leases file.
                            Apr 22 23:20:41    dhcpd: Wrote 0 deleted host decls to leases file.

                            with these (in the Resolver log):
                            Apr 22 23:20:41    unbound: [68253:0] info: start of service (unbound 1.5.3).
                            Apr 22 23:20:41    unbound: [68253:0] info: service stopped (unbound 1.5.3).

                            I tend to say: when leases are written, unbound is restarted.
                            Or: every time a new lease (unkown before) pops in, unbound is restarted.
                            If you have many (many !) device on your LAN (or a very short DHCP lease time like the default 7200 sec) then ….. well .... you'll see what you see.

                            Read also https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=88240.msg514643#msg514643

                            No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                            Edit : and where are the logs ??

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                            • K
                              kejianshi
                              last edited by

                              Could be - But is that broken or is that normal function?

                              (I'm definitely not seeing lots of restarts BTW)

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                              • K
                                kevindd992002
                                last edited by

                                @Gertjan:

                                Compare time of these:
                                In the DHCP log :
                                Apr 22 23:20:41    dhcpd: Wrote 250 leases to leases file.
                                Apr 22 23:20:41    dhcpd: Wrote 0 new dynamic host decls to leases file.
                                Apr 22 23:20:41    dhcpd: Wrote 0 deleted host decls to leases file.

                                with these (in the Resolver log):
                                Apr 22 23:20:41    unbound: [68253:0] info: start of service (unbound 1.5.3).
                                Apr 22 23:20:41    unbound: [68253:0] info: service stopped (unbound 1.5.3).

                                I tend to say: when leases are written, unbound is restarted.
                                Or: every time a new lease (unkown before) pops in, unbound is restarted.
                                If you have many (many !) device on your LAN (or a very short DHCP lease time like the default 7200 sec) then ….. well .... you'll see what you see.

                                Read also https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=88240.msg514643#msg514643

                                But even though it restarts, it doesn't lose any "resolving" capability, right?

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                                • K
                                  kejianshi
                                  last edited by

                                  Here is a clip from my logs:

                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] info: start of service (unbound 1.5.3).
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] notice: init module 1: iterator
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] notice: init module 0: validator
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] notice: Restart of unbound 1.5.3.
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] info: server stats for thread 1: requestlist max 6 avg 3.88889 exceeded 0 jostled 0
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] info: server stats for thread 1: 9 queries, 0 answers from cache, 9 recursions, 0 prefetch
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] info: server stats for thread 0: requestlist max 21 avg 11.6667 exceeded 0 jostled 0
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] info: server stats for thread 0: 39 queries, 0 answers from cache, 39 recursions, 0 prefetch
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] info: service stopped (unbound 1.5.3).
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] info: start of service (unbound 1.5.3).
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] notice: init module 1: iterator
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] notice: init module 0: validator
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] notice: Restart of unbound 1.5.3.
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] info: server stats for thread 1: requestlist max 2 avg 1.33333 exceeded 0 jostled 0
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] info: server stats for thread 1: 3 queries, 0 answers from cache, 3 recursions, 0 prefetch
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] info: server stats for thread 0: requestlist max 0 avg 0 exceeded 0 jostled 0
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] info: server stats for thread 0: 1 queries, 0 answers from cache, 1 recursions, 0 prefetch
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] info: service stopped (unbound 1.5.3).
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] info: start of service (unbound 1.5.3).
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] notice: init module 1: iterator
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] notice: init module 0: validator
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] notice: Restart of unbound 1.5.3.
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] info: server stats for thread 1: requestlist max 0 avg 0 exceeded 0 jostled 0
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] info: server stats for thread 1: 0 queries, 0 answers from cache, 0 recursions, 0 prefetch
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] info: server stats for thread 0: requestlist max 0 avg 0 exceeded 0 jostled 0
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] info: server stats for thread 0: 0 queries, 0 answers from cache, 0 recursions, 0 prefetch
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] info: service stopped (unbound 1.5.3).
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] info: start of service (unbound 1.5.3).
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] notice: init module 1: iterator
                                  Apr 15 20:02:42 unbound: [53580:0] notice: init module 0: validator
                                  Mar 29 23:23:26 unbound: [88947:0] info: start of service (unbound 1.5.3).
                                  Mar 29 23:23:26 unbound: [88947:0] notice: init module 1: iterator
                                  Mar 29 23:23:26 unbound: [88947:0] notice: init module 0: validator
                                  Mar 29 23:23:26 unbound: [88947:0] notice: Restart of unbound 1.5.3.
                                  Mar 29 23:23:26 unbound: [88947:0] info: 2.000000 4.000000 1
                                  Mar 29 23:23:26 unbound: [88947:0] info: 1.000000 2.000000 1
                                  Mar 29 23:23:26 unbound: [88947:0] info: 0.524288 1.000000 8
                                  Mar 29 23:23:26 unbound: [88947:0] info: 0.262144 0.524288 50
                                  Mar 29 23:23:26 unbound: [88947:0] info: 0.131072 0.262144 91

                                  So, to me, it looks like its only really restarting when its supposed to to deal with attacks against it, badly formed DNS entries etc etc. 
                                  It went 15 days without a restart from Mar 29 - April 15 and whats today?  23rd?  so its been 8 days since last restart of unbound?

                                  Doesn't seem too broken to me….

                                  However, I really do think setting matter.  Alot.

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                                  • dennypageD
                                    dennypage
                                    last edited by

                                    I'm guessing you have "Register DHCP leases in the DNS Resolver" disabled, or you don't have DHCP leases with dynamic address.

                                    I've just turned this off in my configuration, and waiting/watching to see if it resolves my issues.

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                                    • K
                                      kejianshi
                                      last edited by

                                      Nope - I have those things enabled.  Both of them.

                                      But I don't have IP conflicts and nor am I connected to one machine with both wire and wireless.

                                      And the general settings matter and so does the advanced setting in unbound.

                                      Without looking at people's pfsense with my own eyes and going through all the setting its hard to know what is causing some people problems.

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                                      • dennypageD
                                        dennypage
                                        last edited by

                                        @kejianshi:

                                        Nope - I have those things enabled.  Both of them.

                                        Hmm… only one of these things is a setting (in the General tab) that can be enabled. The other is a dynamic artifact of the environment and DHCP mapping.

                                        But I don't have IP conflicts and nor am I connected to one machine with both wire and wireless.

                                        I also do not have this.

                                        And the general settings matter and so does the advanced setting in unbound.

                                        Just for clarity, can you explain what you are referring to in the settings? In particular, is there anything other than "Enable DNSSEC Support" and "Register DHCP leases in the DNS Resolver" (mentioned above) that you are referring to?

                                        Thanks

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                                        • K
                                          kejianshi
                                          last edited by

                                          I can tell you my settings…

                                          Enabled:

                                          DNSSEC

                                          DHCP Registration

                                          Static DHCP

                                          In advanced Settings besides what came enabled, I also Enabled:
                                          Hide Identity
                                          Hide Version
                                          Prefetch Support
                                          Prefetch DNS Key Support
                                          Harden DNSSEC data
                                          Unwanted Reply Threshold 10 million

                                          I have no DNS IPs in the general settings of pfsense.  None.

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                                          • W
                                            waingro
                                            last edited by

                                            @kevindd992002:

                                            But even though it restarts, it doesn't lose any "resolving" capability, right?

                                            Depends. Often it takes about 30 seconds after a restart before it starts resolving, long enough to be annoying since it happens all the time on some routers.

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