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    Every couple of weeks pfSense completly stops responding?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • J
      JohnnyBeGood
      last edited by

      Thanks for the reply!
      pfSense is already on UPS and I just setup syslog to my other Ubuntu server but I'm not sure what from these log would tell me the cause of no response?

      root@ts-ubuntu:~# ls -la /var/log/pfsense.mydomain.net/
      total 568
      drwxr-xr-x  2 syslog syslog   4096 Feb 16 13:57 .
      drwxrwxr-x 20 root   syslog   4096 Feb 16 13:48 ..
      -rw-r-----  1 syslog adm      2724 Feb 16 14:13 dhcpd.log
      -rw-r-----  1 syslog adm       440 Feb 16 14:13 dhcpleases.log
      -rw-r-----  1 syslog adm     46517 Feb 16 14:14 filterlog.log
      -rw-r-----  1 syslog adm       917 Feb 16 14:10 .log
      -rw-r-----  1 syslog adm    496753 Feb 16 14:14 nginx.log
      -rw-r-----  1 syslog adm       261 Feb 16 13:48 php-fpm.log
      root@ts-ubuntu:~#
      

      Can you please explain this "Open at least a SSH connection - or better : console access and leave it open. See what it captures." I'm in the shell in ubuntu but I'm not seeing changes as they happen?

      I like to fill my tub up with water, then turn the shower on and act like I'm in a submarine that's been hit!

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      • T
        tim.mcmanus
        last edited by

        Are you using RealTek NICs?

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • stephenw10S
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          When it stops responding on the GUI is it completely unresponsive? I.e. cannot ping it, cannot SSH into, the direct console is dead?

          What hardware is this? What pfSense version?

          Steve

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          • J
            JohnnyBeGood
            last edited by

            dmesg shows "<RTL8251 1000BASE-T media interface>" so it is RealTek and its been working without this issue for few years now in a Shuttle DS437

            pfSense 2.4.4-RELEASE-p2 (amd64)

            I like to fill my tub up with water, then turn the shower on and act like I'm in a submarine that's been hit!

            T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • T
              tim.mcmanus @JohnnyBeGood
              last edited by

              @johnnybegood said in Every couple of weeks pfSense completly stops responding?:

              dmesg shows "<RTL8251 1000BASE-T media interface>" so it is RealTek and its been working without this issue for few years now in a Shuttle DS437

              pfSense 2.4.4-RELEASE-p2 (amd64)

              I am incredibly biased against ReakTek NICs. I've had them take down countless pfSense/ESXi boxes over the years. So I tend to stay away from them.

              I had to ask because that was usually the RC in my random lockups.

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              • J
                JohnnyBeGood
                last edited by

                Ok, if it would be a regular desktop I would put Intel NICs but this is as it looks AIO without option to swap out anything 🙄

                I like to fill my tub up with water, then turn the shower on and act like I'm in a submarine that's been hit!

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                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by

                  You might try the alternative Realtek driver:
                  https://forum.netgate.com/topic/135850/official-realtek-driver-binary-1-95-for-2-4-4-release

                  That has resolved similar issues for some.

                  Steve

                  J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • johnpozJ
                    johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                    last edited by

                    You happen to be running arpwatch?

                    Not saying that is it, but had a problem on my sg4860.. After installing arpwatch.. All of sudden could not access, no gui, no ssh and even console just nothing.. Had to power cycle..

                    This happened a few times... I uninstalled arpwatch, and never happened again.. So if your running arpwatch - try removing it for a few weeks and see if your problem goes away.

                    An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                    If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                    Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                    SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

                    J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • J
                      JohnnyBeGood @stephenw10
                      last edited by

                      @stephenw10 I'm hesitant to mess with the drivers since it was working good for a long time.

                      I like to fill my tub up with water, then turn the shower on and act like I'm in a submarine that's been hit!

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • J
                        JohnnyBeGood @johnpoz
                        last edited by

                        @johnpoz said in Every couple of weeks pfSense completly stops responding?:

                        You happen to be running arpwatch?

                        No, I never used arpwatch ☹

                        I like to fill my tub up with water, then turn the shower on and act like I'm in a submarine that's been hit!

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                        • stephenw10S
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by

                          So how many times has it done this?

                          Did it start after you upgraded perhaps? Or made some other change?

                          Just how dead is it when it stops? Does the console still respond?

                          I would still try that driver myself. It has helped a lot of people who were seeing issues with Realtek NICs. If you can't swap out the Realtek for a real NIC of course! But with a locked NIC you usually still see traffic on the other NICs and the console remains responsive.

                          Steve

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                          • J
                            JohnnyBeGood
                            last edited by

                            This is 2d time with same issue. No access to GUI, does not responds to ping and every device on the network can't see each other.
                            Last upgrade was to v.2.4.4 and I did not notice any issues afterwards. This started out of nowhere and I did not made any changes nor did I installed any new packages so I'm confused. Remote log files don't have any useful info http://prntscr.com/mmupuy

                            I do have really old HD in it though. Can that be an issue? Should I upgrade to a small SSD?
                            If I remember correctly, a while back I read that pfSense once its running it loads everything into the memory and does not use HD?

                            I like to fill my tub up with water, then turn the shower on and act like I'm in a submarine that's been hit!

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • johnpozJ
                              johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                              last edited by johnpoz

                              @johnnybegood said in Every couple of weeks pfSense completly stops responding?:

                              every device on the network can't see each other.

                              That has nothing to do with pfsense.. Your router/gateway has ZERO to do with clients talking to each other.. Your router is how you get off the network, to a different L3.. How a client talks to another client on the same L2 has zero to do with the L3 router.

                              So unless your box failed in such a fashion that is was flooding the network with so much traffic that prevents others from talking.. You can turn pfsense off, unplug it from the network and box A can still talk to B.. Only at such time that their dhcp lease expires and the dhcp server is not there (pfsense) would it matter, or if they were trying to resolve a name and pfsense is not there to resolve it, etc.

                              An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                              If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                              Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                              SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

                              J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • J
                                JohnnyBeGood @johnpoz
                                last edited by

                                @johnpoz said in Every couple of weeks pfSense completly stops responding?:

                                So unless your box failed in such a fashion that is was flooding the network with so much traffic that prevents others from talking.. You can turn pfsense off, unplug it from the network and box A can still talk to B.. Only at such time that their dhcp lease expires and the dhcp server is not there (pfsense) would it matter, or if they were trying to resolve a name and pfsense is not there to resolve it, etc.

                                Thanks for the explanation, makes perfect sense.

                                I remember that pfSense was not responding to pings nor I could get GUI to respond.

                                I like to fill my tub up with water, then turn the shower on and act like I'm in a submarine that's been hit!

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                                • johnpozJ
                                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                                  last edited by

                                  @johnnybegood said in Every couple of weeks pfSense completly stops responding?:

                                  I remember that pfSense was not responding to pings nor I could get GUI to respond.

                                  Ok that has nothing to do with box A pinging box B on your network - if that is not working then you got something more wrong than just pfsense locking up..

                                  So either it failed in spectacular fashion and is flooding your network with crap which prevents anyone else from talking.. That would be RARE!!! Or yeah it failed hard, if you can not get to console then yeah something major wrong..

                                  An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                                  If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                                  Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                                  SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                                  • J
                                    JohnnyBeGood
                                    last edited by

                                    I've tried pings from box A to pfSense and box B to pfsense. No response.
                                    After I did reboot (power button once) 3 days ago its working normal like before. I think I should get SSD to rule out problem with my old HD.

                                    I like to fill my tub up with water, then turn the shower on and act like I'm in a submarine that's been hit!

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • johnpozJ
                                      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                                      last edited by

                                      And did you ping from A to B? ;)

                                      An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                                      If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                                      Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                                      SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                                      • J
                                        JohnnyBeGood
                                        last edited by

                                        Now I question my self if I did :)

                                        I like to fill my tub up with water, then turn the shower on and act like I'm in a submarine that's been hit!

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • stephenw10S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                          last edited by

                                          @johnnybegood said in Every couple of weeks pfSense completly stops responding?:

                                          I remember that pfSense was not responding to pings nor I could get GUI to respond.

                                          Both those things would happen if the LAN NIC locked up as Realtek NICs sometimes do.

                                          But that would not stop the console responding and that's an important test. In the console is still responsive then you know you have a NIC issue. It is isn't you probably have some other hardware issue, bad ram overheating etc.

                                          Steve

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                                          • DerelictD
                                            Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                                            last edited by

                                            Could also be something else coming online with the same IP address as pfSense. But still has nothing to do with hosts on the same L2 communicating with each other.

                                            Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                                            A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                                            DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                                            Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

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