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    Unbound and dnsmasq frequently crash

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved DHCP and DNS
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    • GertjanG
      Gertjan
      last edited by Gertjan

      @kjiwa said in Unbound and dnsmasq frequently crash:

      As long as you see a

      info: service stopped (unbound 1.8.1).

      Followed by a

      info: start of service (unbound 1.8.1).

      You will now know that it isn't a crash but a restart.
      A crash is easy to recognize : the process is still in memory, but doing nothing. Also : a crash will not log out "service stopped".
      Unbound, most often, will not restart itself, it is instructed to do so.
      The DNS log can reveal many clues about the reason.
      An interface goes up and down.
      Another service goes up and down.
      DHCP could be a (a very known) reason.
      Other packages that work a lot with DNS can restart unbound.

      And yes, dns resolving stops during unbound restarts. It's just a side effect, one more reason to take some time and and investigate the issue.
      On a default system, this one : "Set unbound to not register dhcp leases, only static reservations" will bring unbound restarting to a halt (except maybe for some interfaces going up and down).

      Some packages are known for unbound/dnsmasq kicking.

      No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
      Edit : and where are the logs ??

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      • johnpozJ
        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
        last edited by

        when you say over an over again on the restarts... How often, once a minute, day, hour what?

        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 2.7.2, 24.11

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        • K
          kjiwa
          last edited by

          Thank you both for your responses. @Gertjan You are correct that the static mappings part is not part of the default configuration, but I turned it off earlier and then back on after johnpoz's feedback.

          unbound is restarting approximately every 10 seconds. In the most recent logs it restarted 3 times in the span of 24 seconds.

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          • johnpozJ
            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
            last edited by

            Well yeah that would make it completely useless then sure..

            Do you have anything else installed? Any other packages?

            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 2.7.2, 24.11

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            • K
              kjiwa
              last edited by

              No, it was a pretty fresh install. I had 2.4.4-RELEASE-p1 installed from a memstick installer, and then upgraded to p2.

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              • johnpozJ
                johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                last edited by

                well clearly it shouldn't be doing that.. Mine restarts every few days maybe..

                What is in your system log?

                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 2.7.2, 24.11

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                • K
                  kjiwa
                  last edited by

                  I see these messages repeated:

                  Jan 12 17:24:15 unbound 21782:0 info: server stats for thread 0: 8 queries, 0 answers from cache, 8 recursions, 0 prefetch, 0 rejected by ip ratelimiting
                  Jan 12 17:24:15 unbound 21782:0 info: server stats for thread 0: requestlist max 2 avg 0.5 exceeded 0 jostled 0
                  Jan 12 17:24:15 unbound 21782:0 info: average recursion processing time 0.133886 sec
                  Jan 12 17:24:15 unbound 21782:0 info: histogram of recursion processing times
                  Jan 12 17:24:15 unbound 21782:0 info: [25%]=1e-06 median[50%]=0.065536 [75%]=0.262144
                  Jan 12 17:24:15 unbound 21782:0 info: lower(secs) upper(secs) recursions
                  Jan 12 17:24:15 unbound 21782:0 info: 0.000000 0.000001 2
                  Jan 12 17:24:15 unbound 21782:0 info: 0.032768 0.065536 2
                  Jan 12 17:24:15 unbound 21782:0 info: 0.065536 0.131072 1
                  Jan 12 17:24:15 unbound 21782:0 info: 0.131072 0.262144 1
                  Jan 12 17:24:15 unbound 21782:0 info: 0.262144 0.524288 2
                  Jan 12 17:24:15 unbound 21782:0 info: server stats for thread 1: 0 queries, 0 answers from cache, 0 recursions, 0 prefetch, 0 rejected by ip ratelimiting
                  Jan 12 17:24:15 unbound 21782:0 info: server stats for thread 1: requestlist max 0 avg 0 exceeded 0 jostled 0
                  Jan 12 17:24:19 unbound 80355:0 notice: init module 0: validator
                  Jan 12 17:24:19 unbound 80355:0 notice: init module 1: iterator
                  Jan 12 17:24:19 unbound 80355:0 info: start of service (unbound 1.8.1).
                  Jan 12 17:24:20 unbound 80355:0 info: generate keytag query _ta-4f66. NULL IN
                  Jan 12 17:24:22 unbound 80355:0 info: service stopped (unbound 1.8.1).

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                  • GertjanG
                    Gertjan
                    last edited by

                    Ok : these are the startup bla-bla of unbound.

                    How many

                    info: start of service (unbound 1.8.1)
                    

                    a day ?

                    No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                    Edit : and where are the logs ??

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                    • K
                      kjiwa
                      last edited by

                      I inspected /var/log/resolver.log and found that it contains approximately 4800 lines for around 30 minutes.

                      # grep "start of service" /var/log/resolver.log | wc -l
                      479
                      
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                      • K
                        kjiwa
                        last edited by

                        Thanks for pointing out that unbound will restart whenever an interface changes status. Separately I found another thread where a user describes a similar issue (https://forum.netgate.com/topic/139513/dns-resolver-fails-to-work-when-pfsense-has-an-ipv6-address/).

                        I inspected my DHCP log and found that the dhcp6 client was repeatedly releasing and renewing its lease, which then led me to find an erroneous setting in my modem. Unbound now appears to operate stably.

                        Thank you both @johnpoz and @Gertjan. I doubt I'd have discovered the issue without your help and advice.

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