Shutdown corruption
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I’m running pfsense 2.5 on a Dell Optiplex 790. I’m having an issue I haven’t been able to resolve. Upon shutting down (clean using halt or otherwise), I experience networking issues upon reboot. I cannot get out to the Internet nor can I get to a server on my network.
I shutdown today using halt to change a PSU. And upon rebooting I had the same issue. I have a media network named IOT and my main network. I decided to get onto the IOT WiFi, and it was working. But nothing was going through my main network. I have a backup pfsense with the same config running on a VM in unbraid that I am using now. The backup has always shut down and reboot without issue. (Clean or otherwise)
I don’t exactly know what made the main pfsense recover in the past. Multiple attempts at reinstalling finally got it to work. The last time I tried reinstalling and recovering from a working config multiple times without luck. The Optiplex doesn’t handle UEFI booting so I reinstalled in that format thinking it would wipe the drive differently. Then I reinstalled using the BIOS method, and somehow that got it operational. This time it did not.
My questions are as follows. Can this be hardware related? Because the VM has never had this issue. How can I prevent this from happening again? And why is a reinstall not working?
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@mlaustin , it's hard to tell, but one thing is for sure.. firewall in VM wasted a lot of my time. Maybe it is time for you to invest in (Netgate) hardware.
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I think there may be some confusion. My main pfsense is hardware based on the Dell. That is the one with the problems. Actually the VM has been stable.
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@mlaustin said in Shutdown corruption:
I think there may be some confusion. My main pfsense is hardware based on the Dell. That is the one with the problems. Actually the VM has been stable.
What I was trying to tell, that you have no probs running pfsense with VM, while I am not. I have no probs with running pfsense in physical hardware, while you are. If I can, I want to help you to repair your hardware, but right now maybe a new hardware is the solution.
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@mlaustin That's really a very broad issue you're describing. You would need to start at Layer 1 and work your way up the OSI model. Is there a good physical connection. Are you getting an IP. Can you ping the firewall internal IP. Can you ping the firewall external IP. Can you ping a public IP? Are you getting a DNS server in your DHCP profile? Is it reachable? What happens if you run nslookup against it? That kind of process. Just saying it doesn't work doesn't really give much information to go on.
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I mentioned that one network is working while the other is not. The vlan associated with the lan interface goes out to the Internet while the lan does not. I tried different switch ports with the same result. All links are working. I can login to the firewall so no need to ping it.
I reinstalled pfsense a few times, and it is back and running again. Like I said, there is no rhyme or reason. I bought another quad nic. Maybe the nic is having issues. It’s an inexpensive way to troubleshoot this. If that doesn’t work, I’ll probably get new hardware.
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@mlaustin said in Shutdown corruption:
The vlan associated with the lan interface goes out to the Internet while the lan does not. .... I bought another quad nic. Maybe the nic is having issues.
Go back to easy mode first : no VLANs.
As you have a quad NIC now you could make a WAN+LAN+OPT1 setup without VLAN (== without other equipment that decodes the VLAN at the other side of the wire). -
Removing the VLAN adds complexity in equipment. I would need 2 switches and 2 WAP's. I have an extra switch but I don't have an extra Ubiquity AP to attach to that switch. So VLAN's are the easiest option to fully segment the networks.
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Lots of good comments, but how are you installing pfSense? Perhaps confirm the download again (checksum) and use another USB key or media? I’ve had weird issues with corrupt install media.
Additionally, I would run a boot disc to confirm the stability of your PC hardware (RAM, CPU, etc...). If you had to replace the power supply, you might also have other flaky hardware.
Good luck!
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@mlaustin What NIC were/are you using?
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@stewart The current one is Intel. The other one I purchased is Intel Pro 1000. They are not Realtek cards.
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@mlaustin said in Shutdown corruption:
@stewart The current one is Intel. The other one I purchased is Intel Pro 1000. They are not Realtek cards.
I'm curious since you said the 4-port card was inexpensive so I was wondering what model you purchased from where. Glad you got Intel, though I've never experienced real issues with Realtek cards personally.
