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    PfSense 2.3.2-RELEASE-p1 squidGuard 1.4_15 running at 100% CPU

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Cache/Proxy
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    • C
      communityuk
      last edited by

      "top" from a system with 1 user;

      last pid: 55470;  load averages: 16.75, 16.86, 16.69                                                                              up 13+02:21:27  14:18:27
      98 processes:  17 running, 81 sleeping
      CPU: 99.8% user,  0.0% nice,  0.2% system,  0.0% interrupt,  0.0% idle
      Mem: 48M Active, 432M Inact, 463M Wired, 378M Buf, 2984M Free
      Swap: 8192M Total, 8192M Free

      PID USERNAME  THR PRI NICE  SIZE    RES STATE  C  TIME    WCPU COMMAND
      20741 squid      1  81    0 29468K  8352K RUN    0  20:02  29.98% squidGuard
      20270 squid      1  81    0 29468K  8332K RUN    0  21:26  29.69% squidGuard
      22297 squid      1  80    0 29468K  7940K RUN    1  10:11  29.30% squidGuard
      20163 squid      1  81    0 29468K  8332K RUN    0  46:39  28.56% squidGuard
      21987 squid      1  80    0 29468K  7920K RUN    1  19:53  27.20% squidGuard
      19791 squid      1  80    0 29468K  7920K RUN    1  47:35  26.56% squidGuard
      20536 squid      1  79    0 29468K  7920K RUN    1  20:54  25.88% squidGuard
      21295 squid      1  79    0 29468K  7920K CPU3    3  20:06  25.78% squidGuard
      21031 squid      1  79    0 29468K  7940K RUN    2  20:36  25.39% squidGuard
      20190 squid      1  79    0 29468K  8332K RUN    3  21:59  24.85% squidGuard
      21674 squid      1  79    0 29468K  7920K RUN    3  19:45  24.17% squidGuard
      19996 squid      1  79    0 29468K  7920K CPU0    0  47:56  23.10% squidGuard
      20609 squid      1  79    0 29468K  7940K RUN    3  20:54  22.46% squidGuard
      21525 squid      1  79    0 29468K  7920K CPU2    2  20:12  22.46% squidGuard
      20422 squid      1  78    0 29468K  7940K RUN    2  20:54  21.88% squidGuard
      22047 squid      1  78    0 29468K  8372K RUN    2  10:17  21.48% squidGuard
      47439 root        1  20    0 21856K  3148K CPU1    1  0:00  0.10% top
      24889 zabbix      1  20    0  103M 11160K nanslp  1  19:58  0.00% zabbix_proxy
      45186 root        1  52  20 17000K  2576K wait    1  3:47  0.00% sh
      31735 nobody      1  20    0 30188K  4308K select  0  3:00  0.00% dnsmasq
      27090 zabbix      1  20    0  103M 11024K nanslp  3  2:54  0.00% zabbix_proxy
      16586 root        1  20    0 32180K  5784K nanslp  3  2:51  0.00% zabbix_agentd
      38475 root        5  20    0 15012K  2292K accept  1  2:41  0.00% dpinger
      25283 root        2  40  20  432M  190M nanslp  1  2:41  0.00% snort
      15822 root        1  20    0 32180K  5600K nanslp  3  2:03  0.00% zabbix_agentd
      27338 root        1  20    0 30140K 17968K select  1  1:56  0.00% ntpd
      40566 root        1  20    0 39136K  7016K kqread  3  1:36  0.00% nginx
      40583 root        1  20    0 39136K  7028K kqread  1  1:36  0.00% nginx
      40361 root        1  20    0 39136K  7012K kqread  3  1:34  0.00% nginx
      40262 root        1  20    0 39136K  6996K kqread  1  1:33  0.00% nginx
      40629 root        1  20    0 39136K  7016K kqread  1  1:33  0.00% nginx
      39881 root        1  20    0 39136K  7004K kqread  0  1:32  0.00% nginx
      27677 zabbix      1  20    0  103M 11004K nanslp  1  1:31  0.00% zabbix_proxy
      27407 zabbix      1  20    0  103M 11004K nanslp  2  1:30  0.00% zabbix_proxy
      27467 zabbix      1  20    0  103M 11004K nanslp  3  1:30  0.00% zabbix_proxy
      27575 zabbix      1  20    0  103M 11004K nanslp  1  1:30  0.00% zabbix_proxy
      27944 zabbix      1  20    0  103M 10780K nanslp  1  1:29  0.00% zabbix_proxy
      42638 dhcpd      1  20    0 24812K 13600K select  1  1:16  0.00% dhcpd
      26009 root        1  20    0 39136K  7476K kqread  0  1:14  0.00% nginx
        269 root        1  20    0  262M 25076K kqread  3  1:13  0.00% php-fpm
      99986 root        1  20    0 14504K  2300K select  0  1:03  0.00% syslogd
      25702 root        1  20    0 39136K  7604K kqread  3  0:41  0.00% nginx
      6230 root        1  20    0 50312K  6980K select  0  0:34  0.00% mpd5
      25229 zabbix      1  20    0  105M 11812K nanslp  3  0:31  0.00% zabbix_proxy
      25076 zabbix      1  20    0  105M 11812K nanslp  2  0:31  0.00% zabbix_proxy
      25386 zabbix      1  20    0  105M 11812K nanslp  1  0:31  0.00% zabbix_proxy
      25568 zabbix      1  20    0  105M 11812K nanslp  3  0:31  0.00% zabbix_proxy

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • KOMK
        KOM
        last edited by

        Bizarre.  I was going to ask for top output and you've already posted it.  Does a reboot clear it up for a time or does it hammer the CPU right away?

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • A
          aGeekhere
          last edited by

          Try with ram cache at 1MB

          Never Fear, A Geek is Here!

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • C
            communityuk
            last edited by

            @KOM:

            Bizarre.  I was going to ask for top output and you've already posted it.  Does a reboot clear it up for a time or does it hammer the CPU right away?

            killall squidGuard (a couple of times usually) or a Reboot clear it.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • C
              communityuk
              last edited by

              @aGeekHere:

              Try with ram cache at 1MB

              Hi, thanks but could you explain the reasoning on that?

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • A
                aGeekhere
                last edited by

                Found it to cause high CPU usage in squid once it starts filling up

                Never Fear, A Geek is Here!

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • C
                  communityuk
                  last edited by

                  @aGeekHere:

                  Found it to cause high CPU usage in squid once it starts filling up

                  But this is squidGuard not squid :-)

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                  • KOMK
                    KOM
                    last edited by

                    No idea.  You might try uninstalling squidguard, blowing away its folders and then installing fresh to see if i makes any difference.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • C
                      communityuk
                      last edited by

                      @KOM:

                      No idea.  You might try uninstalling squidguard, blowing away its folders and then installing fresh to see if i makes any difference.

                      These are all fresh installs.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • KOMK
                        KOM
                        last edited by

                        Then it appears that you are cursed.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • C
                          communityuk
                          last edited by

                          @KOM:

                          Then it appears that you are cursed.

                          Or just maybe there is a  :( BUG!!  :( in squidGuard OMG how could it be.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • KOMK
                            KOM
                            last edited by

                            Anything is possible, but I have not seen anyone complain about this same issue before.  I've been using it myself for years.  squidguard hasn't been updated by its authors for years either, so even if it is a bug it's not likely to ever get fixed unless someone from the community picks it up.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • C
                              communityuk
                              last edited by

                              Yes we've been using it for years too with boxes installed all over the UK but it's only on these latest pfSense version boxes that we have this problem.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • KOMK
                                KOM
                                last edited by

                                It might be worthwhile to try and figure out exactly when it starts acting up, and then check squid's access.log & squidguard's Filter GUI log and Filter log to see if there is any correlation between what's going on when the problem starts happening.  Is it a particular site that triggers the behaviour?  Is it a particular Target Category that triggers it? etc etc.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • C
                                  communityuk
                                  last edited by

                                  @KOM:

                                  It might be worthwhile to try and figure out exactly when it starts acting up, and then check squid's access.log & squidguard's Filter GUI log and Filter log to see if there is any correlation between what's going on when the problem starts happening.  Is it a particular site that triggers the behaviour?  Is it a particular Target Category that triggers it? etc etc.

                                  Thanks but as I said at the start, we have not seen anything that we have identified yet over 15 servers, that are suffering this, that gives a symptom other than high CPU.
                                  We will continue to monitor the issue and if we do find some common factor a small party will be held to celebrate.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • C
                                    communityuk
                                    last edited by

                                    @KOM:

                                    Anything is possible, but I have not seen anyone complain about this same issue before.  I've been using it myself for years.  squidguard hasn't been updated by its authors for years either, so even if it is a bug it's not likely to ever get fixed unless someone from the community picks it up.

                                    It does not seem to be true to say that squidGuard has not been updated for years. The last update (1.4_15 on Freshports) was on the 8th of August this year.

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • KOMK
                                      KOM
                                      last edited by

                                      I was talking about the squidguard project itself, not just a FreeBSD port from some random person.  Their site hasn't been updated in years, and the links to their dev & bug pages are broken.  Then there's this from Wiki:

                                      Version 1.4, the current stable version, was released in 2009,[2] and version 1.5 was in development as of 2010.

                                      Finally, the changelog shows the last update being to 1.5 beta in Feb 2015, almost 2 years ago, and it was the only update since 2010.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • D
                                        doktornotor Banned
                                        last edited by

                                        Yeah, indeed. Upstream appears completely dead (HAVP was pretty much the sames story), plus the package would need rewriting from scratch. Noone fixes any bugs there in the pfSense package because you get lost in the code in 5 minutes and develop a severe headache due to the coding style.

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • C
                                          communityuk
                                          last edited by

                                          Ouch. I feel like I just got my wrist slapped for even using it.

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • C
                                            communityuk
                                            last edited by

                                            Done a lot more digging through log files today. Not squidGuard log files but system log files.
                                            It's looking like the squidGuard processes are not running as result of being fired up by squid
                                            but as a results of a cron task that performs a daily blacklist update.

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