Bribing pfSense

Mr. Jingles

I had similar problems (horrid GUI lag) and the issue turned out to be related to DNS lookups from the firewall itself. I had disabled the DNS Forwarded/DNS Resolver but failed to tick the box 'Do not use the DNS Forwarder as a DNS server for the firewall ' in the General setup. The GUI was waiting for DNS time out on every single page load, no matter if the page needed outside content or not.

Perhaps the underlying issue is that DNS queries are being run when every GUI page loads?

Thanks :-*

I, however, did tick that box 'Do not use DNS-forwarder' because my OpenVPN-client otherwise is leaking DNS (appears a feature, not a bug, so I've read).

Could I ask, what do you mean with this:

I had disabled the DNS Forwarded/DNS Resolver

You need the DNS server to service your LAN, no (?). Why did you disable that? LAN doesn't work without a DNS service(?)

KOM

You need the DNS server to service your LAN, no (?).

If they're in an AD environment, for instance, then they would be using MS DNS on some other server.

Mr. Jingles

@KOM:

You need the DNS server to service your LAN, no (?).

If they're in an AD environment, for instance, then they would be using MS DNS on some other server.

'This why you know these things; I didn't think about other servers doing these things. But, of course, in corporate environments it makes sense to not bother the firewall with these other tasks.

My setting basically is SOHO Ltd. GmbH AG NV Sarl SPRL Inc.( ;D ).

So I don't have different servers for different roles (whereas I completely understand the need for them in big companies). I have a box with 6 users, me and 5 women doing accounting stuff.

doktornotor

@Mr.:

Btw: pic1: CPU doesn't update in 10 seconds; it never updates.

Well this is normally fixed by wiping your browser cache. (And no, no idea why, don't ask me…)

KOM

I have a box with 6 users, me and 5 women doing accounting stuff.

Heh, "accounting stuff"…

I would like to see this box you keep your women in.

johnpoz

Can you run any more services on this box?

You need both snort and suricata – really?

Pages on my webgui doesn't even take 1001, going to the main dashboard page with lots of widgets on it from a say the service status page takes 1001, 1002

Mr. Jingles

@doktornotor:

@Mr.:

Btw: pic1: CPU doesn't update in 10 seconds; it never updates.

Well this is normally fixed by wiping your browser cache. (And no, no idea why, don't ask me…)

It once again proves I'm not normal (tell me something new): doesn't solve it (cache gets deleted automatically on browser close). I did notice it is a little bit faster in Firefox, but not that much faster.

Mr. Jingles

@KOM:

I have a box with 6 users, me and 5 women doing accounting stuff.

Heh, "accounting stuff"…

I would like to see this box you keep your women in.

Pic1: only when the IRS comes.
Pic2: the empire I'm secretly building.

![women in box.jpg](/public/imported_attachments/1/women in box.jpg)
![women in box.jpg_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/women in box.jpg_thumb)
![the empire.jpg](/public/imported_attachments/1/the empire.jpg)
![the empire.jpg_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/the empire.jpg_thumb)

Mr. Jingles

@johnpoz:

Can you run any more services on this box?

Yes, look in system/packages/available -> there's many more there (don't tell me you didn't know this, John :o ).

@johnpoz:

You need both snort and suricata – really?

@Mr.:

For those wondering: Snort runs on WAN2, Suricata on WAN1 (testing). Bill said this is no problem.

Guest

For those wondering: Snort runs on WAN2, Suricata on WAN1 (testing).

Not really,

Bill said this is no problem.

Hmm, from moin point of view I was seeing on an Alix board is was slow, on an Alix APU board it
was faster but not fast and on an C2758 it is really wicked fast. But mostly pending on what you
have all installed, running services, installed widgets and so on.

Double IDS/IPS should be narrowing down this also a really bit I think.

I did notice it is a little bit faster in Firefox, but not that much faster.

What kind of services you are running?
Squid, SuidGuard, HAVP, DNS, DPI, VLANs, heavy QoS,…........

Mr. Jingles

@BlueKobold:

For those wondering: Snort runs on WAN2, Suricata on WAN1 (testing).

Not really,

Yes, really ( ;D ) (Meaning: what did you mean?)

@BlueKobold:

Bill said this is no problem.

Hmm, from moin point of view I was seeing on an Alix board is was slow, on an Alix APU board it
was faster but not fast and on an C2758 it is really wicked fast. But mostly pending on what you
have all installed, running services, installed widgets and so on.

Isn't my CPU and my 16GB RAM slightly more powerful than Alix?

@BlueKobold:

Double IDS/IPS should be narrowing down this also a really bit I think.

What do you mean? CPU = 28%, RAM = 1,8GB (13%). That's not shocking I think, and nothing that would prevent the GUI-subsystem from responding.
@BlueKobold:

I did notice it is a little bit faster in Firefox, but not that much faster.

What kind of services you are running?
Squid, SuidGuard, HAVP, DNS, DPI, VLANs, heavy QoS,…........

Those in the screenshot + traffic shaping ;D

Gertjan

@Mr.:

@BlueKobold:

For those wondering: Snort runs on WAN2, Suricata on WAN1 (testing).

Not really,

Yes, really ( ;D ) (Meaning: what did you mean?)

He means that even when each one deserves ONE NIC, not two, they are still running both at the same time on the box.
These two are cycle eaters.
Slow GUI could mean: you are running out of these cycles.

[ Or, other broken stuff like a brainless DNS would do even better ]

Btw: the "updating in 10 secondes" could be the result of a slow GUI problem - OR : you have a browser cache problem, some old Java scripts are still present: nuke browser cache to be sure.

Access your pfSEnse box using the medic entrance : put on your gloves, and SSH in.
When you see the menu, go for option 8, don't worry, it dark in there, that's ok.
Type this command
top

Show us a screen (text !!) copy using the "Code" bbcode.
Something like this

last pid: 19531;  load averages:  0.16,  0.17,  0.13                                up 9+00:53:58  13:05:15
71 processes:  1 running, 70 sleeping
CPU:  0.4% user,  0.0% nice,  0.2% system,  0.4% interrupt, 99.0% idle
Mem: 14M Active, 295M Inact, 153M Wired, 192K Cache, 204M Buf, 1489M Free
Swap: 4096M Total, 4096M Free

  PID USERNAME  THR PRI NICE   SIZE    RES STATE   C   TIME    WCPU COMMAND
81667 root        1  20    0   223M 33072K nanslp  0   0:00   0.29% php-fpm
 5528 root        1  20    0 65132K 17360K kqread  1  28:15   0.00% lighttpd
20764 root        1  20    0 12456K  2168K select  1   5:18   0.00% apinger
 4879 root        1  20    0 52844K  6960K kqread  1   1:54   0.00% lighttpd
94541 nobody      1  20    0 30264K  4960K select  1   1:43   0.00% dnsmasq
57214 root        1  28    0 49820K 12296K select  1   0:52   0.00% perl
32771 root        1  52   20 17136K  2700K wait    1   0:34   0.00% sh
71546 root        1  20    0 18984K  2768K select  1   0:32   0.00% usbhid-ups
87976 root        1  20    0 50800K 10828K kqread  0   0:23   0.00% lighttpd
31143 root        1  20    0 14656K  2340K select  0   0:23   0.00% syslogd
29813 dhcpd       1  20    0 24844K 13708K select  0   0:23   0.00% dhcpd
  243 root        1  25    0   219M 21308K kqread  0   0:22   0.00% php-fpm
30581 dhcpd       1  20    0 24972K 11736K select  1   0:20   0.00% dhcpd
20996 root        1  20    0 28344K  3008K piperd  0   0:19   0.00% rrdtool
16790 root        1  20    0 16804K  2308K bpf     0   0:13   0.00% filterlog
 6307 root        1  20    0 43608K  6344K select  0   0:12   0.00% mpd5
80158 root        1  20    0 28168K 18052K select  1   0:09   0.00% ntpd
98277 root        1  20    0 14532K  2224K select  0   0:08   0.00% radvd
35631 root        1  23    0   227M 41308K accept  1   0:07   0.00% php
74158 root        1  20    0 18844K  2572K select  0   0:07   0.00% upsd
 3844 root        5  52    0 27568K  3128K uwait   0   0:06   0.00% filterdns
56128 root        1  20    0   223M 34980K accept  1   0:06   0.00% php
76711 uucp        1  20    0 18832K  2592K nanslp  1   0:05   0.00% upsmon
56214 root        1  21    0   223M 34976K accept  1   0:05   0.00% php
26234 root        1  20    0   223M 34980K accept  1   0:04   0.00% php
10743 root        1  21    0   223M 34976K accept  1   0:03   0.00% php
10397 root        1  20    0   227M 41796K accept  1   0:02   0.00% php
 6188 root        1  25    0 12404K  1916K nanslp  1   0:01   0.00% minicron
 8910 root        1  21    0   227M 41500K accept  0   0:01   0.00% php
34702 root        1  20    0 16664K  2296K nanslp  0   0:01   0.00% cron
 8161 root        1  20    0   227M 41788K accept  0   0:01   0.00% php
17633 root        1  20    0 18780K  2376K select  0   0:01   0.00% inetd
 7340 root        1  20    0   227M 41904K accept  1   0:01   0.00% php
 8855 root        1  20    0   219M 22360K wait    0   0:00   0.00% php
 9200 root        1  20    0   223M 34972K accept  1   0:00   0.00% php
42716 root        1  40    0 12404K  1916K nanslp  1   0:00   0.00% minicron
  272 root        1  20    0 13160K  4476K select  1   0:00   0.00% devd
  259 root        1  40   20 19024K  2588K kqread  1   0:00   0.00% check_reload_status
 6702 root        1  52    0   219M 22360K wait    1   0:00   0.00% php
 8598 root        1  26    0   219M 22360K wait    0   0:00   0.00% php
 7146 root        1  52    0   219M 22360K wait    0   0:00   0.00% php
 5022 root        1  52    0   219M 22360K wait    1   0:00   0.00% php

jimp

2.3 will have a shiny new Bootstrap-based GUI, so that should at least be different, if not faster. :-)

Mr. Jingles

@Gertjan:

don't worry, it dark in there, that's ok.

;D ;D ;D

(Bedankt GJ :P )

It's not a cache problem, cache is cleared on every browser close.

Topperdepop (I'm fine with that, as long as it isn't 'De Toppers', although I admire their lighting engineers (this is Dutch secret insiders knowledge 8) ;D ;D ;D )):


 last pid: 16659;  load averages:  0.38,  0.49,  0.49                                                                                                                                                                 up 4+02:10:34  17:18:00
112 processes: 1 running, 103 sleeping, 8 zombie
CPU: 12.4% user, 18.5% nice,  3.0% system,  0.2% interrupt, 65.9% idle
Mem: 679M Active, 4992M Inact, 1389M Wired, 492K Cache, 1340M Buf, 8676M Free
Swap: 32G Total, 32G Free

  PID USERNAME    THR PRI NICE   SIZE    RES STATE   C   TIME    WCPU COMMAND
34328 root          2  40   20   997M   605M nanslp  1 365:43  33.98% snort
20752 proxy         1  27    0   460M   369M kqread  0  14:54   8.40% squid
34395 root          2  40   20  1841M  1253M nanslp  1  55:18   0.98% snort
68239 root         15  20    0   243M   119M nanslp  1  41:21   0.10% ntopng
68918 root          8  40   20  1748M  1645M uwait   1   2:27   0.10% suricata
28135 root          1  20    0 21720K  5864K select  1  56:32   0.00% openvpn
27561 root        150  20    0   108M 22960K uwait   1   2:28   0.00% filterdns
64168 root          3  24    0 24572K  5656K uwait   0   2:04   0.00% redis-server
 2077 nobody        1  20    0 19060K  3996K select  1   1:51   0.00% darkstat
11438 unbound       2  20    0   154M   123M kqread  0   1:21   0.00% unbound
33291 root          1  20    0 14656K  2424K select  0   1:17   0.00% syslogd
37369 root          1  20    0 12456K  2172K select  0   1:04   0.00% apinger
92995 root          1  20    0 21720K  5896K select  0   0:39   0.00% openvpn
44385 root          1  20    0 54884K 12808K kqread  0   0:31   0.00% lighttpd
28647 root          1  20    0 16804K  2844K bpf     0   0:27   0.00% filterlog
34210 root          2  40   20   787M   392M nanslp  0   0:23   0.00% snort
81842 root          1  20    0 14540K  1984K select  1   0:23   0.00% powerd
19443 root          1  52   20 17136K  2708K wait    1   0:10   0.00% sh
18589 dhcpd         1  20    0 24812K 13732K select  0   0:09   0.00% dhcpd
  249 root          1  20    0   224M 23864K kqread  0   0:06   0.00% php-fpm
52746 root          1  20    0 55720K  8208K bpf     1   0:06   0.00% bandwidthd
51691 root          1  20    0 55720K  8208K bpf     1   0:06   0.00% bandwidthd
52256 root          1  20    0 55720K  7784K bpf     0   0:06   0.00% bandwidthd
53072 root          1  20    0 55720K  7784K bpf     0   0:06   0.00% bandwidthd
52390 root          1  20    0 55720K  7592K bpf     0   0:06   0.00% bandwidthd
53363 root          1  20    0 55720K  7592K bpf     1   0:06   0.00% bandwidthd
52369 root          1  20    0 55720K  7592K bpf     0   0:06   0.00% bandwidthd
53433 root          1  20    0 55720K  7592K bpf     1   0:06   0.00% bandwidthd
74125 root          1  20    0 28164K 18052K select  1   0:04   0.00% ntpd
21345 proxy         1  20    0 26420K  3496K msgrcv  1   0:03   0.00% diskd
37674 root          1  20    0 28344K  3004K piperd  1   0:03   0.00% rrdtool
21331 root          1  24    0 17136K  2472K wait    0   0:02   0.00% sh
 5939 root          1  20    0 43604K  6296K select  0   0:02   0.00% mpd5
76391 root          1  52    0 16664K  2580K nanslp  0   0:02   0.00% cron
62926 uucp          1  20    0 18832K  2580K nanslp  1   0:02   0.00% upsmon
 2449 root          6  20    0   841M 19180K usem    0   0:01   0.00% radiusd
51508 proxy         1  20    0 39948K 13320K sbwait  1   0:00   0.00% squidGuard
29824 root          1  20    0 18780K  2344K select  0   0:00   0.00% inetd
84405 root          1  20    0   228M 40988K accept  0   0:00   0.00% php-fpm
26787 proxy         1  20    0 39948K 13320K sbwait  1   0:00   0.00% squidGuard
  277 root          1  20    0 13164K  4468K select  0   0:00   0.00% devd
21859 root          1  36    0 12404K  2008K nanslp  1   0:00   0.00% minicron
  264 root          1  40   20 19024K  2580K kqread  0   0:00   0.00% check_reload_status
21741 _dhcp         1  20    0 14696K  2432K select  0   0:00   0.00% dhclient
67699 proxy         1  20    0 39948K 13320K sbwait  1   0:00   0.00% squidGuard
70370 proxy         1  20    0 39948K 13256K sbwait  1   0:00   0.00% squidGuard
14139 root          1  26    0 14696K  2304K select  0   0:00   0.00% dhclient
75957 proxy         1  20    0 39948K 13204K sbwait  0   0:00   0.00% squidGuard
78957 proxy         1  20    0 39948K 13032K sbwait  1   0:00   0.00% squidGuard
73199 proxy         1  20    0 39948K 13276K sbwait  1   0:00   0.00% squidGuard
88656 proxy         1  20    0 39948K 12832K sbwait  1   0:00   0.00% squidGuard
80350 proxy         1  20    0 39948K 12892K sbwait  0   0:00   0.00% squidGuard
83638 proxy         1  20    0 39948K 12992K sbwait  0   0:00   0.00% squidGuard
88080 proxy         1  20    0 39948K 12932K sbwait  0   0:00   0.00% squidGuard
93258 proxy         1  20    0 39948K 12812K sbwait  1   0:00   0.00% squidGuard
21949 proxy         1  52    0 39948K 12284K sbwait  0   0:00   0.00% squidGuard
44222 proxy         1  20    0 39948K 12532K sbwait  1   0:00   0.00% squidGuard
58083 proxy         1  20    0 39948K 12424K sbwait  1   0:00   0.00% squidGuard
46334 proxy         1  20    0 39948K 12652K sbwait  0   0:00   0.00% squidGuard
41249 proxy         1  20    0 39948K 12532K sbwait  0   0:00   0.00% squidGuard
72968 proxy         1  20    0 39948K 12424K sbwait  1   0:00   0.00% squidGuard
49510 proxy         1  20    0 39948K 12532K sbwait  1   0:00   0.00% squidGuard
54945 proxy         1  20    0 39948K 12384K sbwait  1   0:00   0.00% squidGuard
52169 proxy         1  20    0 39948K 12484K sbwait  0   0:00   0.00% squidGuard

Mr. Jingles

@jimp:

2.3 will have a shiny new Bootstrap-based GUI, so that should at least be different, if not faster. :-)

I admire your efforts, yet I'm still on 2.2.1; upgrading to 2.2.2 gave problems so rolled back; hoping 2.2.3 would skip the 2.2.2 problems so I upgraded that and rolled back again to 2.2.1. I'm afraid to upgrade to any new version, ever since 2.0 every upgrade required a fresh install + days of customizing the packages by hand, as the 'restore configuration' never worked :-[

So I will probably see the new GUI at pfSense 167.2.9 ;D ;D ;D

jimp

2.2.4 will be out soon (today, probably) and should be even better. Certainly better than 2.2.3 or 2.2.2.

2.3 with Bootstrap will be a few months out yet. Not sure on an ETA, probably sometime this fall.

ivor

@Mr.:

@jimp:

2.3 will have a shiny new Bootstrap-based GUI, so that should at least be different, if not faster. :-)

I admire your efforts, yet I'm still on 2.2.1; upgrading to 2.2.2 gave problems so rolled back; hoping 2.2.3 would skip the 2.2.2 problems so I upgraded that and rolled back again to 2.2.1. I'm afraid to upgrade to any new version, ever since 2.0 every upgrade required a fresh install + days of customizing the packages by hand, as the 'restore configuration' never worked :-[

So I will probably see the new GUI at pfSense 167.2.9 ;D ;D ;D
[/quote]

That's strange. I have installs upgrading since 2.1.x to 2.2.x with no issues. Restoring config as well. Could be that there is something in your pfSense setup that is messed up due rollbacks, packages who knows. How big is your backup config?

Gertjan

Ok, I saw your 'top'.

snort and squid eat already 45% of your CPU time.
Note that you have some zombies to (8). THis means processes are crashing in your box.
But all this isn't very conclusive for me.

This might a be a nasty one: you have a boatload of packages running or your box.
I guess it might be worth the shot to disable them all, enable one by one and see when the GUI (simple web server+ PHP) starts slowing down.

It can't be your hardware, you have more horse power in the box as I have, but still, the "software load" bogs it down …

Mr. Jingles

@ivor:

@Mr.:

@jimp:

2.3 will have a shiny new Bootstrap-based GUI, so that should at least be different, if not faster. :-)

I admire your efforts, yet I'm still on 2.2.1; upgrading to 2.2.2 gave problems so rolled back; hoping 2.2.3 would skip the 2.2.2 problems so I upgraded that and rolled back again to 2.2.1. I'm afraid to upgrade to any new version, ever since 2.0 every upgrade required a fresh install + days of customizing the packages by hand, as the 'restore configuration' never worked :-[

So I will probably see the new GUI at pfSense 167.2.9 ;D ;D ;D
[/quote]

That's strange. I have installs upgrading since 2.1.x to 2.2.x with no issues. Restoring config as well. Could be that there is something in your pfSense setup that is messed up due rollbacks, packages who knows. How big is your backup config?

Thanks Igor. I just test that, and created a screenshot.

ivor

@Mr.:

@ivor:

@Mr.:

@jimp:

2.3 will have a shiny new Bootstrap-based GUI, so that should at least be different, if not faster. :-)

I admire your efforts, yet I'm still on 2.2.1; upgrading to 2.2.2 gave problems so rolled back; hoping 2.2.3 would skip the 2.2.2 problems so I upgraded that and rolled back again to 2.2.1. I'm afraid to upgrade to any new version, ever since 2.0 every upgrade required a fresh install + days of customizing the packages by hand, as the 'restore configuration' never worked :-[

So I will probably see the new GUI at pfSense 167.2.9 ;D ;D ;D
[/quote]

That's strange. I have installs upgrading since 2.1.x to 2.2.x with no issues. Restoring config as well. Could be that there is something in your pfSense setup that is messed up due rollbacks, packages who knows. How big is your backup config?

Thanks Igor. I just test that, and created a screenshot.

That's ungodly big config backup.