2.4.5.a.20200110.1421 and earlier: High CPU usage from pfctl
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@Uncle_Bacon Have you tried adding cpu later (after the upgrade)? I noticed that maximum vcpu is 4 before it starts going crazy.
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@slim2016 said in 2.4.5.a.20200110.1421 and earlier: High CPU usage from pfctl:
@Uncle_Bacon Have you tried adding cpu later (after the upgrade)? I noticed that maximum vcpu is 4 before it starts going crazy.
I have upped it to 8 so far and it runs pretty stable. Havent noticed a crash report yet.
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It doesn't work properly with more than one vCPU (in my experience)
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@Cool_Corona You are right, iv'e just added a total of 8 vcpu and gave it time to settle down after a boot, it seems to stabilise itself after a short while.
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@slim2016 The point is its completely unstable with more than one cpu (when it doesn't work) including dropped packets.
This isn't acceptable to simply 'wait for it' to settle down. Also the boot times with multiple CPU are magnitudes slower that it should be, again not acceptable for a firewall.
If the root cause isn't determined are you happy for the firewall to randomly drop packets and generally die?
It's not happening for everyone but it is a bug and it needs to resolved.
The silence from NetGate is deafening. I understand its not happening on NetGate hardware - Does anyone have a subscription on a virtual machine that NetGate can address?
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@timboau-0 I was responding to Cool_Corona
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@timboau-0 said in 2.4.5.a.20200110.1421 and earlier: High CPU usage from pfctl:
@slim2016 The point is its completely unstable with more than one cpu (when it doesn't work) including dropped packets.
This isn't acceptable to simply 'wait for it' to settle down. Also the boot times with multiple CPU are magnitudes slower that it should be, again not acceptable for a firewall.
If the root cause isn't determined are you happy for the firewall to randomly drop packets and generally die?
It's not happening for everyone but it is a bug and it needs to resolved.
The silence from NetGate is deafening. I understand its not happening on NetGate hardware - Does anyone have a subscription on a virtual machine that NetGate can address?
Its happening on Netgate hardware as well. They are not so fortunate to have the workaround reducing the number of cores as are the VM's.
Reducing it to 1 core and get it up and running stable is no problem. Then add cores as you like.
Yes the boot time is quicker with 1 core then with 8 cores.
Yes I would like it to be resolved as well. I think its an BSD issue and therefore needs to be forwarded in the ECO system of BSD.
I am running 8 cores as of now and no issues so far.
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@slim2016 I haven't tried that. Unfortunately my backups don't run as deep as they should so I have no 2.4.4 backup. I am going to try a fresh install and restore config from 2.4.5 to see if that helps. Thank you for the suggestion. It's nice to have the ability to create/re-create as many instances of it that I want. I'll post back.
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@Uncle_Bacon I haven't used Proxmox for many years and when I did it was for a short while. With Esxi you just create a snapshot before you upgrade or update and if something goes wrong you just restore the snapshot.
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@Uncle_Bacon said in 2.4.5.a.20200110.1421 and earlier: High CPU usage from pfctl:
@slim2016 I haven't tried that. Unfortunately my backups don't run as deep as they should so I have no 2.4.4 backup. I am going to try a fresh install and restore config from 2.4.5 to see if that helps. Thank you for the suggestion. It's nice to have the ability to create/re-create as many instances of it that I want. I'll post back.
Install everything with 1 CORE only! After you are done and the backup is on the box, then reboot, install packages, reboot and upgrade number of cores.
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@slim2016 It's the same for Proxmox but I guess I need to get back in to the habit of doing that before any updates, especially to pfSense.
@Cool_Corona Done and done. Back up and running and have my metric server monitoring and will notify of any issues that may arise. Fingers crossed!
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@Uncle_Bacon Keep us updated about the stability of your system.
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I just noticed that pfsense doesn't start properly after installing arp-watch, some of the services wouldn't start, after removing it everything started fine.
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So just a quick update.
For some context, this problem originally only started when one of my WAN connections dropped and pfSense failed over to the other. So I went to do some testing. I disconnected one gateway and it switched to the other with moderate CPU use and then continued on to normal levels. Upon reconnecting it however, pfSense switched back to my main WAN and I noticed the pfctl process running high CPU and all sorts of notifications about that from my metrics. Latency on all of my network connections increased 10 fold as well and barely anything was getting through the network.
If I recall when I installed this newest update, the router ran fine for a while, at least since the start of April before this problem came up more recently.
I am not overly confident that either a) my having to reinstall and restore from a 2.4.5 config was successful or b) the issue isn't solved by only adding more CPUs/cores after the upgrade. or OR my configuration is unique/flawed.
I'll keep posting updates as they come in.
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pfsense environment:
VM - hyper-v gen2 (uefi)
zfs
4-cpu
6GB-RAM
40GB-hdd
VM on windows server 2016.I upgraded this pfsense 2.4.4p2 to 2.4.5. In this now upgraded vm instance, clicking "Filter Reload" causes a full outage of pfsense's OS for 20 seconds. 100% cpu spike of all 4 cores, and no network activity gets through. Console session watching 'top' also locks up, after the freeze I briefly see "PFCTL" with very high CPU, but goes away after the first top refresh after the un-freeze.
Now the weird part, I then reset to factory defaults to eliminate my config and packages as the cause on 2.4.5. But the issue persists, even in a default config. Clicking "Filter Reload" gives total outage and cpu spike to 100%, console goes unresponsive, all traffic to all interfaces stop.
Now I suspect the VM/Hardware has issues with 2.4.5. So in the same VM I re-install and re-format to 2.4.5 this time from ISO instead of upgrade. I do not import config. This newly installed 2.4.5 instance of pfsense on the same vm has no issues. Reset to factory default, still no issues. Able to filter reload any time without any CPU spike, nor outage, filter reloads instantly.
In the clean install of 2.4.5, importing the config from the "bad install" also works without issue. The freeze issue doesn't re-appear after importing config.
Also if I factory reset the VM on 2.4.4p2 to defaults, then upgrade to 2.4.5, the issue is not present. So it implies there's something in my config that causes permanent OS damage if upgraded to 2.4.5.
Only a format/full-reinstall of pfsense can "clear" the issue once it's present.I've copied this vm to a few different Hyper-V servers, Win 10 1909, Server 2016, Server 2019, the issue occurs on all of them with this VM. I don't have install media for 2.4.4p2 (not sure it ever existed), so I can't accurately recreate the scenario on arbitrary vms. But I have two unique pfsense VMs in different parts of the country that have both exhibited this issue during upgrade to 2.4.5.
The freeze issue manifests at seemingly random times too, but can always be re-created on demand with a "Filter Reload".
Because a clean install works perfect, I don't think there's any fundamental issue with 2.4.5. But during the upgrade process, it's like something isn't being installed/replaced correctly, but only in some instances with a particular config item.
I have copies of the VM pre-upgrade (40GB) I can share for debugging if needed. Upgrading this vm always results in the pfctl freeze bug.
I've now worked-around the issue by exporting config pre-upgrade, clean install 2.4.5 into same vm, import config. No issues in 2.4.5 on these clean installs. This implies there's something being missed by the installer during upgrade.
Related issues:
https://forum.netgate.com/topic/151949/2-4-5-new-install-slow-to-boot-on-hyper-v-2019/16
https://forum.netgate.com/topic/149595/2-4-5-a-20200110-1421-and-earlier-high-cpu-usage-from-pfctl/25
https://forum.netgate.com/topic/152131/hyper-v-vm-constant-100-cpu-load-in-2-4-5/5 -
I cant get an 2.4.5 installed in a VM.
It always says no boot loader....
To get a Pfsense going, I needed to use 2.4.4p3 and then upgrade.
I havent tried installing it on 1 core VM yet. Only 32 cores as it was before...
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@Cool_Corona if using hyper-v, Disable "Secure Boot" to fix that issue. Or switch to a Gen1 VM. the 2.4.5 iso boots fine in gen2 hyper-v vm when secure boot is disabled.
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I run it on ESXi.... :)
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Great suggestion, a fresh install of 2.4.5 on my Proxmox VM 2 sockets, 2 cores 8GB RAM. Should have tried it sooner.
Initial tests (filter reload, manual drop of gateways for failover) have yielded positive results. CPU spiked, pfctl did it's thing and returned to running levels. There was no detectable loss of connection anywhere on the network, a seamless swap.
It would seem @carl2187 is on to something with the problem only existing from an upgrade and not a fresh install. Plus, my config was restored from an upgraded 2.4.4p3 to 2.4.5 system (as my non-upgraded 2.4.4 backups were quite dated). Boot speed appears to be comparable if not the same to 2.4.4 as well.
I'm going to run this for now, continue with load tests and see what happens.
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@Uncle_Bacon good to hear your getting going again with a clean install. It seems like clean install is the only way to go right now for 2.4.5.
There's something really wrong somewhere on the file-system or boot config post-upgrade to 2.4.5 that doesn't occur in a clean install of 2.4.5.
I have an upgraded-broken 2.4.5 and a clean install of 2.4.5 where both have now been factory reset. Upgraded VM has the issue, clean install does not have the issue, even after the factory reset. I'm going to try to compare file system contents and boot loader settings to see if something didn't actually get upgraded during the 2.4.4->2.4.5 upgrade process.
Just this morning I got report of "intermittent" outages in a branch office that was upgraded to 2.4.5 about a week ago. I jumped on the gui, did a filter reload, lost all connection for about 20 seconds, that's all i need to see to know this is the botched upgrade condition. So I exported the config, re-installed clean 2.4.5, imported the config, now things are perfect. I can't cause the issue on this VM anymore. Same VM, same PFsense version, same config, but upgrade to 2.4.5=bad. Clean install of 2.4.5=good.
So I've done lots of tests, now the first "production" issue I had to help with, and the fix was exactly the same as the labs i've been testing in. Upgrades to 2.4.5 can cause full CPU/outages. Clean installs of 2.4.5 seem to work great with any imported config.
Its important for anyone else troubleshooting this issue to know that "clean install" really means full format and re-install from ISO. A factory reset after the issue is present is NOT enough to clear out this bug. Even default config will have this problem after the upgrade and factory reset. It seems something is different between upgraded instances and clean installs of 2.4.5 at the file system or bootloader level.
In attempting to accurately re-create the scenario that leads to this problem, i find out i can't actually download old versions of PFsense. It really is too bad Netgate stopped allowing downloads of previous version ISO's, it makes troubleshooting this type of upgrade issue in a lab very difficult. The community has been effectively disallowed to help effectively troubleshoot the underlying issue here.
https://forum.netgate.com/topic/135395/where-to-download-old-versions
