Browser freezes when loading 2000+ rows of firewall rules

[ekanthan]

WebGUI freezes the web browser when trying to load the firewall rules and NAT rules page with 2000+ firewall/NAT rules. The pages will load after ~3 minutes if we chose to wait.

pfSense version: 2.4.5-RELEASE-p1

As a workaround, Disabling the dragging option in System -> General Setup resolves this freezing issue.

Is it a known issue already or need to be raised as an issue?

[provels]

[heper]

Just out of curiousity, what are you doing with 2000+ rules?

[DaddyGo]

@ekanthan said in Browser freezes when loading 2000+ rows of firewall rules:

NAT rules page with 2000+ firewall/NAT rules

I join----- @heper
what is the size of the network, that requires such a large number of rules?

yeah another question what kind of hardware handles this amount of rule?

[viktor_g]

@ekanthan it seems that you need to use aliases (IP/host/ports) to reduce it to some reasonable number

See https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/book/firewall/aliases.html
and https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/firewall/aliases.html

[ekanthan]

I was stress-testing pfSense in a VM.
Regardless of hardware spec, this is a client-side issue. So, I raised it for discussion.

[DaddyGo]

@ekanthan said in Browser freezes when loading 2000+ rows of firewall rules:

this is a client-side issue.

SOHO category hardware needs time to load and handle the lot of rules....

yes, this can cause temporary GUI unavailability (it depends on the resources)

as @viktor_g suggested, many rules can be simplified using aliases

[ekanthan]

@DaddyGo As I mentioned earlier this is a client-side issue, the server provides the response in seconds, But the client-side DOM rendering and processing makes the browser to freeze as the page tries to restructure 2000+ rows to sortable drag and drop elements. It takes ~3 mins only on browser(client) end.

Disabling that option resolves the issue and the page renders in seconds.

Code to check -> https://github.com/pfsense/pfsense/blob/master/src/usr/local/www/firewall_rules.php#L1006

[viktor_g]

Right, this is System / General Setup option:

[provels]

Well, as long as it's easily disabled, I don't think I'd consider it a bug. But that's just me.

[jimp]

@ekanthan said in Browser freezes when loading 2000+ rows of firewall rules:

As a workaround, Disabling the dragging option in System -> General Setup resolves this freezing issue

That is the reason that option exists. It's a client browser issue, not a firewall bug, and that option helps your browser cope with large rulesets.