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    Browser freezes when loading 2000+ rows of firewall rules

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved webGUI
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    • provelsP
      provels
      last edited by

      🍿

      Peder

      MAIN - pfSense+ 24.11-RELEASE - Adlink MXE-5401, i7, 16 GB RAM, 64 GB SSD. 500 GB HDD for SyslogNG
      BACKUP - pfSense+ 23.01-RELEASE - Hyper-V Virtual Machine, Gen 1, 2 v-CPUs, 3 GB RAM, 8GB VHDX (Dynamic)

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      • H
        heper
        last edited by

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

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • DaddyGoD
          DaddyGo @ekanthan
          last edited by

          @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?

          Cats bury it so they can't see it!
          (You know what I mean if you have a cat)

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          • viktor_gV
            viktor_g Netgate @ekanthan
            last edited by

            @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

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            • E
              ekanthan
              last edited by

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

              DaddyGoD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • DaddyGoD
                DaddyGo @ekanthan
                last edited by

                @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

                Cats bury it so they can't see it!
                (You know what I mean if you have a cat)

                E 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • E
                  ekanthan @DaddyGo
                  last edited by

                  @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

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                  • viktor_gV
                    viktor_g Netgate
                    last edited by

                    Right, this is System / General Setup option:
                    Screenshot from 2020-07-05 19-16-58.png

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                    • provelsP
                      provels
                      last edited by

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

                      Peder

                      MAIN - pfSense+ 24.11-RELEASE - Adlink MXE-5401, i7, 16 GB RAM, 64 GB SSD. 500 GB HDD for SyslogNG
                      BACKUP - pfSense+ 23.01-RELEASE - Hyper-V Virtual Machine, Gen 1, 2 v-CPUs, 3 GB RAM, 8GB VHDX (Dynamic)

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                      • jimpJ
                        jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate @ekanthan
                        last edited by

                        @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.

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