Zotac CI323 Crashing pfSense 2.3.2 - WAN interface says up but no IP??
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My pfSense 2.3.2-RELEASE-p1 is crashing under heavy load every day or so. I lose Web GUI access but can still get to it via SSH, so when I log in I see the WAN interface says "up" but no IP is assigned? I tried rebooting the modem that is connected to the WAN and that does not help. Only way to get it back is to reboot.
Is there any loge i can collect when it does this fro the SSH console to help diagnose the issue?
I get alot of these in the Gateway log : Nov 15 16:31:11 dpinger WAN_DHCP XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX: sendto error: 65
Couple of these also :
Nov 13 12:44:38 dpinger send_interval 500ms loss_interval 2000ms time_period 60000ms report_interval 0ms data_len 0 alert_interval 1000ms latency_alarm 500ms loss_alarm 20% dest_addr XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX bind_addr 107.171.196.74 identifier "WAN_DHCP "
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I don't know if this will help but you could try turning off gateway monitoring and see what happens. Maybe your ISP is doing something weird. Maybe the Realtek NICs are choking under load but I don't remember this being a problem with the ZBox. Maybe you have a bad WAN NIC that hangs under load? You could reverse them and reassign the interfaces to see if the problem starts happening on LAN instead of WAN eg you can't get to the GUI or via SSH when the problem happens.
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Gateway_Settings
Otherwise, check the System log at or just before the incident happens.
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thx for the help
I will try and reverse them, seems odd though ?
How can i view/collect system logs through SSH? as you can prob tell linux is not my strong suit :)
is it possible my ISP is doing something? is this something that has been heard of?
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Most logs are in /var/log
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pfSense is FreeBSD, not Linux.
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Ahh freeBSD, Linux.. same lack of knowledge from my side :-[
So i will be able to find the system log in /var/log then i just need to be able to send it somewhere I guess. or list it there and look for anything that pops out.
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@KOM:
Maybe the Realtek NICs are choking under load but I don't remember this being a problem with the ZBox.
On my Zotac ZBOX ID92 (with Realtek NICs), I had to check "Disable hardware checksum offload" or else the WAN NIC would lock up under heavy load and not recover by itself. With offloading disabled, I haven't had any issues, though that NIC's interrupts consume something like 14% of the CPU at 100mbps throughput.
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I had to check "Disable hardware checksum offload" or else the WAN NIC would lock up under heavy load
Good to know.
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@KOM:
I had to check "Disable hardware checksum offload" or else the WAN NIC would lock up under heavy load
Good to know.
So you had to disable this in the BIOS? not on the pfSense software right?\
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not on the pfSense software right?
It's in pfSense. From memory here, go to Advanced Setup - Networking and check the bottom of the page.
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Ok made the change now let's see if it lasts.. thx again
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Please report back in a week or so if you're convinced it fixed your issue.
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Will do
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No go! crashed after 3 days..
Again no WAN IP.. Reboot.. Still no WAN IP, had to reboot modem this time
Called my ISP they are looking into it, seems my neighbors had same issues as me in the past few weeks at the exact same time (goes down for me, goes down for them) they say they fixed the issue on the 17th, so maybe today was just a fluke.. I will monitor it..
thx again for all the help guys
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Well still same issues, trying swapping the interfaces, same thing. it will eventually crash and no IP on WAN interface.
Updated the zotac to latest BIOS also.
When its happening, the physical NIC on the back has one steady orange led on the left and a blinking yellow on the right. Will have to look up what that means on the zotac site i guess as different manufacturers could have different color schemes ?
Maybe i can try and install an earlier release of pfSense? see if that helps? is there one you suggest?
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So the problem follows WAN and not a specific interface? The NIC that gets the traffic first dies? Could be those NICs are choking under load, but it's hard to say for sure.
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Yes it follows the WAN interface.. :-\
Is there some kind of troubleshooting/diag I can do do gather some useful info for the devs?
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Not that I'm aware of. Since others are using this same unit without issue, there might not be anything to be done in general. You might have a cursed unit. Have you contacted Zotac to see what they have to say?
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But are there others using this without issue? and at the speeds i am using? > 120MBit WAN?
I see a few posts about these and realtek NICS dropping..
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I have no idea as to the bandwidth other ZBox users had so I can't vouch for that, but I would be surprised that a Gigabit interface was dying when under about 25% of its maximum realworld load. Here's another potential test. Take the unit offline and hang a linux box off of each interface, then run iperf from one node to the other. Do your ZBox interfaces act up when being pounded by iperf?
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that might be hard to do, my home is strictly windows :)
I will see if there is an iperf comparable prog for Win? that fact that it follows the WAN interface leads me to believe it might have something to do with the pfsense install..
