NIC freezes on PFSense 2.2.4
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Hi,
From time to time the secondary NIC hangs on my PFSense box. The OS is still working. It's currently running version 2.2.4, but I have experienced the issue also on other 2.2.x versions.
This box (the one that's crashing) has 6 NIC's:
- 2x Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Connection 7.4.2: Dual NIC onboard
- 4x Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Connection version - 2.4.0 - Quad NIC (PCIe)
The Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Connection version - 2.4.0 NIC crashes/hangs from time to time. Sometimes after a few weeks but most of the time after one or two days
The connection and activity LED's of all ports on this NIC are also stuck in their last state. The system doesn't receive a connect/disconnect event when I unplugin or plug in the cable during the crash state of the NIC (checked dmesg).
Disabling and enabling the NIC again (with ifconfig) doesn't do anything with the hardware; but it doesn't report any errors. The only thing that solves this crash state is a reboot of the PFSense box.
I have already tried this fix: https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Tuning_and_Troubleshooting_Network_Cards#Intel_igb.284.29_and_em.284.29_Cards . But it doesn't work in my case.
There are no errors in the system logs. I have a 2nd PFSense box, this one has not issue at all, the hardware is exact the same. The only difference with the one that's crashing is the firmware version of the quad NIC, it's "7.4.2", the same as dual NIC.
A few questions…
- Does anyone have had similar issues?
- Is there a known issue with the "Intel Pro series - version 2.4.0"?
- Can it be faulty hardware (broken quad NIC)?
Thanks for your help.
Regards,
Sander -
I see no one else has replied.
The only known issues with the igb NICs (Intel) that I know of is the extra overhead of the driver but this shouldn't cause the NIC to lock up. It would likely cause the interface to become non-responsive because your MBUF is full.
Chances are if it has been working fine for a while and then out of the blue, with no changes to the configuration of PfSense it starts to lock up, then chances are the NIC may be dying and it may be best to just replace the NIC vs ruining your forhead ;D
If you look on this thread…
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=105188.0
They are talking about NICs and what are and are not good NICs. Looked to be good information.I too recently put a Intel Pro 1000 NIC into operation, I haven't seen any lock up as of yet, doesn't mean it won't happen. Hardware can do some weird stuff.
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Thanks for your reply.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing after reading some more on the internet…
I have applied a fix (https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Tuning_and_Troubleshooting_Network_Cards#mbuf_.2F_nmbclusters) a few days ago. The NIC crashed 4 times in the past week, in one of these cases the mbuf graph show a full buffer (100% utilized). I have had no crashes since I applied this fix... so let's hope my PFSense box stays up and running ;-)
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Thanks for your reply.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing after reading some more on the internet…
I have applied a fix (https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Tuning_and_Troubleshooting_Network_Cards#mbuf_.2F_nmbclusters) a few days ago. The NIC crashed 4 times in the past week, in one of these cases the mbuf graph show a full buffer (100% utilized). I have had no crashes since I applied this fix... so let's hope my PFSense box stays up and running ;-)
Do you have the LCDproc dev package running ?
Grtz
DeLorean