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    Increased Memory and CPU Spikes (causing latency/outage) with 2.4.5

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software
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    • T
      t41k2m3 @ScottishTom
      last edited by

      @ScottishTom said in Increased Memory and CPU Spikes (causing latency/outage) with 2.4.5:

      Just to add another data point : following upgrade to 2.4.5 from 2.4.4p3, I've noticed an increase in memory usage on a pfSense instance installed on a physical machine, but not any drastic increase in CPU usage. Memory usage jumped from ~7% to ~64% with no other changes bar the pfSense upgrade.

      Machine info : Intel J3160, 4GB DDR3, Dual Intel 82576EB NIC.

      Packages installed : openvpn-client-export, pfBlockerNG

      4c61e85d-a315-413e-a07e-28d0145b2e9b-image.png

      If any more info desired please just let me know.

      This seems like virtually the same or similar setup and problem as previously described (with qualification that a process at fault was not yet identified/hypothesized).

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • BBcan177B
        BBcan177 Moderator @t41k2m3
        last edited by BBcan177

        @t41k2m3
        I posted above two commands that you can use to find what is using memory. Report back with what you find. I haven't spent much time with the release of 2.4.5 as things have been hectic. I haven't checked if the version of Unbound has changed from 2.4.3/4. That might be a reason if something has changed in the Resolver code.
        In regards to the upcoming Unbound python integration, what you see in the Resolver settings will allow for a future release to integrate with the Resolver. It's just the plumbing and nothing else. There is no Python integration released yet.

        "Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."

        Website: http://pfBlockerNG.com
        Twitter: @BBcan177  #pfBlockerNG
        Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pfBlockerNG/new/

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        • ScottishTomS
          ScottishTom @BBcan177
          last edited by ScottishTom

          @BBcan177

          Hi, thanks for the prompt reply.

          Currently running version 2.1.4_21 as installed from pfSense's package manager.

          Output of ps auxwww sorted by memory usage:

          2d6a158e-ea39-4c98-b4f8-93c0ddf44ef4-image.png

          Output of top -aSH sorted by size

          37fd45f0-cf1f-4730-ae22-dfecdcb7d61a-image.png

          Reboot does not appear to change anything, will just go try the devel version. Hope that helps.

          BBcan177B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • BBcan177B
            BBcan177 Moderator @ScottishTom
            last edited by BBcan177

            @ScottishTom
            Would recommend to uninstall pfBlockerNG and install pfBlockerNG-devel. Then see how that goes. Ensure "Keep settings" is enabled. You will need to re-enter the MaxMind key into the IP tab. Also best to reboot to clear Unbound.

            "Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."

            Website: http://pfBlockerNG.com
            Twitter: @BBcan177  #pfBlockerNG
            Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pfBlockerNG/new/

            ScottishTomS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • ScottishTomS
              ScottishTom @BBcan177
              last edited by

              @BBcan177

              Have done as requested, now running pfBlockerNG-devel 2.2.5_29.

              • uninstalled pfBlockerNG

              • installed pfBlockerNG-devel

              • rebooted

              • force-updated DNSBL as it was complaining about being out of date.

              • rebooted again

              Still appear to be at ~64-65% memory usage

              FWIW I'm not complaining at all personally, the software is working fine for me and I'm seeing packets being intercepted by the block lists. Just seems strange to have had an almost 10x memory usage increase.

              Appreciate the blocker software and your work on it very much, really simplifies things :)

              BBcan177B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • BBcan177B
                BBcan177 Moderator @ScottishTom
                last edited by

                @ScottishTom
                Thanks for reporting back. Will check it out tomorrow.

                "Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."

                Website: http://pfBlockerNG.com
                Twitter: @BBcan177  #pfBlockerNG
                Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pfBlockerNG/new/

                T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • J
                  JohnGalt1717
                  last edited by JohnGalt1717

                  I'm getting the same thing with Hyper-V host, 2 deticated NICs all offloading turned off.

                  Interesting tidbit is that with me if I make any settings change and save it, it hanges for 20-30 seconds then pins the CPU, pings even over the lan to pfSense won't respond. Then it slowly comes back.

                  I have OpenVPN running but had no issues with 2.4.4. In the OpenVPN logs there is now an endless stream of: AEAD Decrypt error: bad packet ID (may be a replay): that weren't there before. The System time is correct.

                  AES-NI On or off doesn't make a difference (even after restart)

                  Internet is PPPoE if that makes a difference.

                  Download speed is normal. Upload speed is about half of what it should be compared to 2.4.4.

                  Note traffic shaper is enabled and I have some floating rules for Google Hangouts.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • ?
                    A Former User
                    last edited by A Former User

                    One thing to try would be to disable the Spectre/Meltdown mitigation, reboot, and see if that improves things.
                    I wonder if improvements have been made to it in FreeBSD 11.3 but those improvements maybe don't play well with virtualisation.

                    I'm not in a position to test at the moment, can anyone else give this idea a go?

                    S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • S
                      snarfattack @A Former User
                      last edited by

                      @muppet I just disabled the meltdown mitigation, rebooted. Still have 100% CPU

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • S
                        ShadowBlade72
                        last edited by

                        I'm experiencing similar issues with 2.4.5. My CPU usage spikes to 100% anytime I access a website and causes an outage for about 20 seconds.

                        Specs:
                        Proxmox 6.1-8
                        CPU: 8 vCPUs
                        Memory: 8GB

                        Packages:
                        acme 0.6.5
                        Avahi 2.1_1
                        openvpn-client-export 1.4.20
                        pfBlockerNG 2.1.4_21
                        Service_Watchdog 1.8.6
                        snort 3.2.9.10_2
                        softflowd 1.2.6
                        squid 0.4.44_15
                        Status_Traffic_Totals 2.3.1

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • S
                          snarfattack
                          last edited by

                          I finally got my Hyper-V virtualized install back to mostly working by removing all IP alias lists that PFBlocker had created, except one that was critical for me. Once this was done, I only get 100% cpu for a second or two during the times pfctl runs. I can deal with that over the 5 minutes lockups that were occuring before.

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                          • T
                            t41k2m3 @BBcan177
                            last edited by

                            @BBcan177 said in Increased Memory and CPU Spikes (causing latency/outage) with 2.4.5:

                            @ScottishTom
                            Thanks for reporting back. Will check it out tomorrow.

                            @BBcan177 realizing this is going to sound somewhat odd... everything went back to normal on its own over night (typical state prior to the 2.4.5 upgrade - i.e. memory usage around 20%). None of the other issues - e.g. CPU spikes, latency, outage - manifested themselves on this setup. Also implemented your fix for Shalla and UT1 found here: https://forum.netgate.com/topic/151689/shallalist-and-ut1-lists-not-working-on-2-4-5-release-pfblockerng-devel-2-2-5_29
                            Thanks for your help debugging.

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                            • V
                              ViniciusBr
                              last edited by

                              Hi,

                              I reverted 3 upgrades already due to performance issues, all 3 uses pfblocker, 2 are virtualized with vmware and one with hyper-v (gen 1 vm).

                              Look at the before/after graphs, impossible to upgrade to be honest:

                              pfsense-01-cpu.JPG pfsense-02-cpu.JPG pfsense-01-mem.JPG pfsense-02-mem.JPG

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • W
                                WALK3R
                                last edited by

                                The new release is like how the RC was for me 100% CPU usage locks the system up so you can't do anything. I did a fresh install no packages less than 6 firewall rules and basic setup for routing and it started locking up today lasted about 2 days before I had to roll back to 2.4.4; only thing I changed was the subnet.

                                I'm running proxmox with:

                                CPU(s)

                                24 x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5675 @ 3.07GHz (2 Sockets)
                                Kernel Version

                                Linux 5.3.10-1-pve #1 SMP PVE 5.3.10-1 (Thu, 14 Nov 2019 10:43:13 +0100)
                                PVE Manager Version

                                pve-manager/6.1-3/37248ce6

                                alt text
                                alt text

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • J
                                  justinhow
                                  last edited by justinhow

                                  I also did an upgrade from 2.4.4p3 to 2.4.5 that failed to run smoothly after. I had to roll back immediately.
                                  Running PFBlockerNG and OpenVPN Export packages and running OpenVPN Server and client.
                                  Virtual Machine VM running on Windows Server 2016 with 1GB RAM.
                                  Will delete packages, disable OpenVPN and add another 1GB memory and see if it goes any better.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • BBcan177B
                                    BBcan177 Moderator
                                    last edited by

                                    Out of curiosity, can the users experiencing Increased memory and CPU spikes in 2.4.5 try to increase this setting?

                                    Start at 2M and go up from there.

                                    pfSense > Advanced > Firewall & NAT > Firewall Maximim Table Entries

                                    A "Filter Reload" should be sufficient, but a reboot may be necessary to enable the change.

                                    "Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."

                                    Website: http://pfBlockerNG.com
                                    Twitter: @BBcan177  #pfBlockerNG
                                    Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pfBlockerNG/new/

                                    T T 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • G
                                      Gabri.91
                                      last edited by Gabri.91

                                      Just for reference, I've upgraded few hours ago my CARP nodes:

                                      • ESXi 6.7U3, 1 Virtual CPU, 1GB RAM
                                      • Packages => avahi, bandwidthd, cron, FTP_Client_Proxy, mailreport, nmap, Open-VM-Tools, openvpn-client-export, pfBlockerNG-devel, RRD_Summary
                                      • GeoIP not used in pfBlocker, only DNSBL
                                      • Firewall Maximim Table Entries already set at 5M

                                      RAM usage (from inside pfSense) it's more or less the same at around 80%, CPU usage looks even a little bit better (from ESXi):pfSense2.png

                                      No other issues with latency/filter reload etc..

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                                      • T
                                        t41k2m3 @BBcan177
                                        last edited by

                                        @BBcan177 said in Increased Memory and CPU Spikes (causing latency/outage) with 2.4.5:

                                        Out of curiosity, can the users experiencing Increased memory and CPU spikes in 2.4.5 try to increase this setting?

                                        Start at 2M and go up from there.

                                        pfSense > Advanced > Firewall & NAT > Firewall Maximim Table Entries

                                        A "Filter Reload" should be sufficient, but a reboot may be necessary to enable the change.

                                        @BBcan177 spoke too soon as mem spikes problems are back... updated to devel 2.2.5_30 and increased max table entries as you suggested to 2.5 and 3.0 M.

                                        Neither made a significant dent in that mem usage stays at or around 80%. One piece of good news is functionality degradation seems to not happen (other than fitful keystroke lag in ssh, no or limited latency or packet loss).

                                        Looking at ps and top results per your request, found the following (suggesting unbound is the culprit, perhaps together with or partly due to the size of DNSBL entries):

                                        ps -auxwwwm
                                        USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TT STAT STARTED TIME COMMAND
                                        unbound 5896 0.0 47.7 7398308 3973492 - Ss 11:59 0:31.38 unbound -c unbound.conf

                                        Notice high % of MEM (47%, second highest process is at 3%)

                                        top -aSH -o size
                                        PID USERNAME PRI NICE SIZE RES STATE C TIME WCPU COMMAND
                                        5896 unbound 20 0 7225M 3880M kqread 0 0:31 0.00% unbound -c unbound.conf{unbound}
                                        5896 unbound 20 0 7225M 3880M kqread 2 0:00 0.00% unbound -c unbound.conf{unbound}
                                        5896 unbound 20 0 7225M 3880M kqread 2 0:00 0.00% unbound -c unbound.conf{unbound}
                                        5896 unbound 20 0 7225M 3880M kqread 2 0:00 0.00% unbound -c unbound.conf{unbound}

                                        Notice high SIZE (second highest process uses about 11% of an unbound thread utilization)

                                        You had also mentioned earlier that you were not sure what had changed in 2.4.5 as far as unbound. From what I am seeing, unbound was upgraded from 1.9.1 to 1.9.6 (w/python support). Please let me know if any of this data may trigger any ideas on what to look for further to debug this thing.

                                        BBcan177B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • BBcan177B
                                          BBcan177 Moderator @t41k2m3
                                          last edited by

                                          @t41k2m3
                                          Do you have TLD enabled in DNSBL? How many domains are enabled in DNSBL? You can post the snipet from the pfblockerng.log when DNSBL updates.

                                          To compare memory usage, you need to see how it was in previous pfSense versions? DNSBL will consume memory depending on how its setup in Unbound.

                                          Also the changelog in Unbound is huge:
                                          https://nlnetlabs.nl/projects/unbound/download/

                                          "Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."

                                          Website: http://pfBlockerNG.com
                                          Twitter: @BBcan177  #pfBlockerNG
                                          Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pfBlockerNG/new/

                                          T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • T
                                            t41k2m3 @BBcan177
                                            last edited by

                                            @BBcan177 said in Increased Memory and CPU Spikes (causing latency/outage) with 2.4.5:

                                            @t41k2m3
                                            Do you have TLD enabled in DNSBL? How many domains are enabled in DNSBL? You can post the snipet from the pfblockerng.log when DNSBL updates.

                                            To compare memory usage, you need to see how it was in previous pfSense versions? DNSBL will consume memory depending on how its setup in Unbound.

                                            Also the changelog in Unbound is huge:
                                            https://nlnetlabs.nl/projects/unbound/download/

                                            To asnwer your questions (same settings pre/post upgrade):
                                            DNSBL TLD enabled - yes;
                                            DNSBL Domain/IP Counts: ~1M
                                            Alias table IP Counts: ~330K
                                            pfsense Table Usage Count: ~330K
                                            based on empirical data prior to upgrading and Status - Monitoring of System Memory post upgrade, memory usage was around 20% before and may oscillate between 65-80% after upgrade (except period it went back to normal).

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