2.4.5.a.20200110.1421 and earlier: High CPU usage from pfctl

andrew_241

Just a heads-up to a possible problem; I had version 2.4.5.a.20200110.1421 of pfSense installed as a (Generation 2) VM in Hyper-V. CPU usage would go to 100 percent and the system became very slow and unresponsive. On a couple of instances I was able to get into the shell from the console and ran top, where it would show pfctl using lots of CPU time. It would eventually clear up about 10 to 15 minutes after boot, but this is something that would happen after every restart. It doesn't matter if the system is an upgrade or a fresh install. I have since rolled back to 2.4.4_3 for now. I did notice a closed issue on this problem in the bug tracker. This has occurred with the 2.4.5 builds from at least the past four days or so, when I initially gave the new snapshots a try.

jimp

What packages do you have installed? Features enabled?

I don't see any issues, open or closed, against 2.4.5 that were for high CPU in pfctl on any platform, nor any bugs relating to Hyper-V.

When I boot a current snapshot after everything starts it immediately goes to sitting idle like it usually does. In the process list, pfctl is using 0.0%.

Granted mine is in ESX, not Hyper-V, but I don't have anything running with Hyper-V to test against currently.

andrew_241

For packages, I have installed:

iperf       3.0.2_2
nmap        1.4.4_1
ntopng      0.8.13_3
pfBlockerNG 2.1.4_20
snort       3.2.9.10

I just tried installing from scratch with the latest 2.4.5 build, and got the same problem with default settings applied after the first initial setup connection to the Web interface, no other configuration restored, and no other packages installed. The only non-default I selected during install was choosing ZFS as a file system.

When I try spinning up a test installation from scratch (but with the 2.4.4 pfSense firewall on the LAN at 192.168.1.1) and change the LAN IP address to 192.168.1.100 in the console, this problem does not reappear, and doesn't after a reboot either. When I try to restore my main firewall's configuration to this test install, but without the packages, everything succeeds, and the problem does not reappear. I have since restored everything, including packages, to this test install, and so far so good. Upgrading to the latest daily build also works without problems.

Do you suppose this could be a problem with the hypervisor? The hypervisor is Microsoft Windows Server 2019, Hyper-V configuration version 9.0. Dynamic memory is enabled with 4096 MB initial, and two virtual switches, one WAN and one LAN are being used. The only thing I can think of that I did on the old installation's VM was upgrading the Hyper-V configuration version from 8.0 to 9.0.

andrew_241

Looks like I spoke too soon. The new test pfSense VM running 2.4.5 is now getting high CPU usage as well, but only for a long period of time when I have Hyper-V give pfSense four virtual CPUs (physical server is a single physical CPU, quad core Xeon E-2124 without Hyperthreading). With only one virtual CPU, pfSense only uses a high amount of CPU when mounting the file system during startup.

andrew_241

I continue to encounter this problem with Hyper-V VM test installs running the latest RC version of 2.4.5, even with no other packages installed and nothing else configured, on both UFS and ZFS filesystems.

I caught a glimpse of Diagnostics->System Activity during one of these instances:

16355 root       101    0  8828K  4960K CPU1    1   0:27  96.00% /sbin/pfctl -o basic -f /tmp/rules.debug
    0 root       -92    -     0K  4928K -       0   2:08  92.97% [kernel{hvevent0}]
    0 root       -92    -     0K  4928K -       2   1:11  89.99% [kernel{hvevent2}]

The rest were around zero.

Should I limit my "production" pfSense VM (2.4.4p3 for just a home network, problem does not occur on this one) to only one virtual CPU before 2.4.5 is released? (If I give the VM four virtual CPUs, pfSense considers the four to be individual cores, not separate CPUs.)

mrancier

I do not have a lot of familiarity with Hyper-V, but I know that it can have NUMA or Virtual NUMA turned on by default and, I believe, FreeBSD in general, and gateways/Routers in particular, are not very happy with it. I would try disabling NUMA for that VM, and ensure a 1:1 cpu ratio, and see if that makes a difference. Assuming it is even on, of course, as you seem to have pretty good handle on your Hyper-V.

IsaacFL

@jimp I noticed that during boot heavy cpu usage with hyper-v

The packages I have installed are:
Acme certificate
Anahi
Opnvpn client

I do have fqcodel limiters set up

It seems to spend a lot of time 100% cpu just after:

load_dn_aqm dn_aqm PIE loaded

IsaacFL

@jimp

The update below seemed to fix the boot time delay:
Current Base System2.4.5.r.20200211.0854
Latest Base System2.4.5.r.20200212.1633

This seems to have fixed the speed on boot. Went from about 2 minutes to 1 minute boot time.

Gektor

Same troubles after upgrade from 2.4.4 to 2.4.5 under Windows Server 2019 Hyper-V, very long boot, sometimes pfct processl CPU usage almost 100% and system became very slow and unresponsive.

aydinj

Same issue.

Gektor

@aydinj
Do you have pfBlockerNG package installed? If yes, maybe it related:
https://forum.netgate.com/topic/151690/increased-memory-and-cpu-spikes-causing-latency-outage-with-2-4-5/19
https://forum.netgate.com/topic/151726/pfblockerng-2-1-4_21-totally-lag-system-after-pfsense-upgrade-from-2-4-4-to-2-4-5

aydinj

No. It has a serious problem, even at boot. With a clean install, it is extremely slow and stock for minutes on "Firewall configuration," even on a fresh installed OS. I think this new version has a problem with hyper-v

estepbrent

Same issue on Hyper-V. Only workaround is drop CPU to 1.

Magma82

I can also confirm Hyper-V server core 2019 (Dell T20 Xeon) after upgrading my 2.4.4 VM to 2.4.5, I now have extremely High CPU when assigning all of my 4 cores to the Pfsense VM at boot. This is also being caused by the pfctl process (it seems) and consumes the boot process (up to 10 minutes to actually boot past configuring interface WAN > LAN etc)
After reducing the cores to 2 to the VM, it still uses high CPU at boot (2 minutes to boot), but I can at least use the internet and webgui (CPU under 20% - still high for my setup usually 1 - 3%).

I can also observe the new OpenVPN version service when utilising my WAN (4mb/sec down only) the CPU is 23% for the openvpn process in top which is unusually high.

It seems the OS is not optimised for Hyper-V usage so I am reverting back to 2.4.4 and hoping this thread on the forum will be updated by Netgate Dev's.

Gektor

@Magma82
Now i am using almost 2 days with 2 CPU cores pfSense 2.4.5 under Hyper-V Server 2019, no issues with high CPU usage at all after disabling pfBlockerNG GEOip lists.

provels

@Gektor Check out this thread. Worked for me.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pfBlockerNG/comments/fqjdc5/pfblockerngdevel_downloading_lists_but_not_able/flqzkgp/

KasselA

I am seeing this too. Running Hyper-V on a Dell R720. VM had 4 CPU assigned. No packages installed. CPU on the VM would spike to 100% for a few minutes at a time, then drop to normal briefly (no more than 30 seconds or so), then back to 100%.

Following recommendations earlier in the thread, I dropped the VM down to 1 CPU and that made everything operate normally again, as far as I can tell. Because it's not really a busy firewall, this is no real issue for me to have 1 CPU. Therefore I don't have a really urgent need to roll back to 2.4.4. I'll stay where I am until a patch is issued.

Sounds like the problem is specific to multiple CPUs on Hyper-V only.

ThEWbA

I am seeing this too. We are running Qemu 4.1.1, Kernel 5.3 (KVM) and CPU emulation Skylake-Client.

Problem started with 2.4.4 and a upgrade to 2.4.5 did not solve the issue.
Workaround is to downgrade to one (1) core.

Magma82

Netgate DEVS, the CPU performance in HyperV is definitely broken in 2.4.5 - are there any Hyper-V integration tools or libraries that are perhaps missing in the OS build?

Boot up CPU with 4 cores assigned = 100% constant at an early stage of the boot process and is barely accessible once booted.

OpenVPN = CPU is also considerably higher under load (as if the CPU isn't optimised for the VM)

I have reverted to 2.4.4 and its rock solid and under 3% CPU in use and just feels a lot more optimised.

Hardware
stable 2.4.4-RELEASE-p3 (amd64)
Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1225 v3 @ 3.20GHz
4 CPUs: 1 package(s) x 4 core(s)
AES-NI CPU Crypto: Yes (active)
Hardware crypto AES-CBC,AES-XTS,AES-GCM,AES-ICM

Auror990

Same issue, Server 2019 and Hyper-V, no packages installed on custom HW (Ryzen 2700) after upgrade. Pegs CPU upon boot and is basically unusable.

Set VM to 1 virtual processor to get it working but it is sub-optimal for OpenVPN clients. Even experimented with just assigning 2 virtual processors - it runs sluggish.

~~Will look to revert to 2.4.4-p3 snapshot in the near future.~~

Edit: since I had nothing to lose and this is in a test lab, I bumped up to 2.5.0 development (2.5.0.a.20200403.1017). 2.5.0 does not seem to have the Hyper-V CPU issue.