Zotac CI323 Crashing pfSense 2.3.2 - WAN interface says up but no IP??
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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..
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I will see if there is an iperf comparable prog for Win?
https://iperf.fr/iperf-download.php#windows
that fact that it follows the WAN interface leads me to believe it might have something to do with the pfsense install.
Perhaps, but there isn't yet enough information.
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Hmm crashed again, this time i noticed that the NIC Link light for the WAN is red steady, except for a bootup when its green.
LAN NIC Led is steady green (1Gbps)
I force the WAN link to 100Mbps and its steady green.. Seems the LED's are different on each NIC? I think its about time i try an older release.
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Check your Zotac manual or support site to see what their colour scheme is. The red LED might be a clue. I'm also very curious to hear about the outcome of your test. Pound a smuch UDP data as you can from node to node and see if it can sustain a high throughput for a significant period of time.
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Updating for closures sake
After a few weeks of trying to fix it i think i finally have my zotac box stable, no "watchdog timeout" and loss of WAN IP under heavy load in about 8 days. Longest run ever.
Need to test for a longer period of time for stability , but what i did was compile the latest realtek freeBSD driver (1.92) and load it on start up using kldload. Seems ok for now.
Before all this NOTHING was working stable. Always crashed on the WAN ip (watchdog timeout) no matter what interface it was assigned to (re0 - re1)
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Thanks for the update. The notorious Realtek NIC strikes again. I would much rather have one of those little Chinese mini-PCs with the Intel NICs than the ZBox, I suspect.
