Upgrade to 21.02-RELEASE borked on SG-3100

geeklex

Netgate just updated their twitter account with this.

Netgate
@NetgateUSA

A problem has been reported by some users of the Netgate SG-3100 appliance who have upgraded to pfSense Plus version 21.02. Our engineering team is working to correct the issue as quickly as possible. In the meantime, we have suspend the upgrade for the SG-3100.

jimp

As a temporary workaround until we can put out a fix, you can reduce the number of CPUs used by the OS to 1 by adding hw.ncpu=1 to /boot/loader.conf.local and then rebooting. You'll lose some performance but it appears (so far) to not trigger the issue when set that way. Otherwise, you can step back to 2.4.5-p1 and wait for a fix.

EvaKnievel

@jimp How do we rollback to the previous version?

jsnaza

@evaknievel Information on how to downgrade is here:
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/solutions/sg-3100/reinstall-pfsense.html

EvaKnievel

@jsnaza we are talking minimum 2 days for a fix right?

jsnaza

@evaknievel I am not sure I am just another person that ran into this issue and downgraded. I am not one of the developers. I am just sharing the knowledge I have.

lohphat

@jimp Thank you.

What may also be helpful is to inform the user base on what the release QA process is and how this may have slipped through testing.

Infrastructure component updates are highly sensitive (as you're well aware) and thus confidence in quality is key to keeping "customers" confident in the product.

Shit happens but there should be a post-mortem to figure out how this slipped by.

EvaKnievel

@jimp we are talking minimum 2 days for this fix right?

lohphat

@jimp If we make the single CPU change in 2.4.5-p1 before we install the update, will that setting persist after the initial reboot into 21.02?

yaminb

@yaminb
Should update myself. Looks like my sg 3100 just crashed as well after about 1 day. reboot seems to have it back in order.

I'll try the 1 cpu temporary fix

ahking19

@lohphat if you have a SG-3100 don't upgrade until a fix is available. Stay on 2.4.5-p1.

yaminb

@jimp said in Upgrade to 21.02-RELEASE borked on SG-3100:

hw.ncpu=1

Really silly question just for completeness.

I don't have a loader.conf.local.

I made the change in loader.conf. I'm assuming this is good.

/boot: cat loader.conf 
kern.shutdown.secure_halt=1
kern.cam.boot_delay=10000
kern.ipc.nmbclusters="1000000"
hw.ncpu=1
boot_serial="YES"
console="comconsole"
comconsole_speed="115200"
hw.e6000sw.default_disabled=1
autoboot_delay="3"
hw.hn.vf_transparent="0"
hw.hn.use_if_start="1"

jimp

Create /boot/loader.conf.local if it doesn't exist, as loader.conf can be overwritten by pfSense.

@lohphat said in Upgrade to 21.02-RELEASE borked on SG-3100:

what the release QA process is and how this may have slipped through testing.

Several of us have 3100s and use them in various ways, including a couple of us using them on the edge, running snapshots, but this problem takes a specific load and setup to trigger that apparently none of us hit somehow. Usually dogfooding the snapshots catches most things, but there are many more real-world configurations than we can possibly test.

rsherwood_va

@jimp said in Upgrade to 21.02-RELEASE borked on SG-3100:

Usually dogfooding the snapshots catches most things, but there are many more real-world configurations than we can possibly test.

I don't think my config is all that exotic, but should I share it with you all? Do you know what the issue is?

jimp

We found a way to reliably trigger it here in lab conditions so we can work on it, no need to provide more info at the moment.

lohphat

@ahking19 Clearly. I'm usually don't mind being a testing guinea pig but not this week, too much going on.

Meizel

Hi All,

Yesterday dune the update and you can tell, also for me not good.
My SG-3100 is stuck and keeps hanging in to A boot loop....

With the serial connected, I can see that the Marvell U-Boot is OK.
When it start to boot pfsense i got this error.

So need to create A ticket for reinstalling pfsense.
So my network needs to rely on mu ubnt ER-8 pro.

Greetings Dennis

EvaKnievel

Ran into an interesting problem.

I can't add back my packages after moving back to an earlier version and I think it's because the place where it's checking for packages is the old place?

Here is the error

[2.4.5-RELEASE][admin@pfSense.i.lacy.ie]/root: pkg search FreeRadius
pkg: Warning: Major OS version upgrade detected.  Running "pkg bootstrap -f" recommended
pkg: Repository pfSense-core missing. 'pkg update' required
pkg: https://files01.netgate.com/pkg/pfSense_plus-v21_02_armv7-core/meta.txz: Not Found
pkg: https://files01.netgate.com/pkg/pfSense_plus-v21_02_armv7-core/packagesite.txz: Not Found
pkg: https://files01.netgate.com/pkg/pfSense_plus-v21_02_armv7-pfSense_plus-v21_02/meta.txz: Not Found
pkg: https://files01.netgate.com/pkg/pfSense_plus-v21_02_armv7-pfSense_plus-v21_02/packagesite.txz: Not Found

bmeeks

The update to 21.02 for SG-3100 appliances has been temporarily pulled to fix a bug. So that has probably confused the package system as well on those appliances.

If you can, just be patient for a day or two and Netgate should get a new update for the SG-3100 posted. If you can't wait, there are instructions for rolling back to the previous release. You will need to open a ticket with Netgate for that. There is no charge for providing you a rollback image, and they will send you the link via email shortly after you open a ticket. Start the process here: https://go.netgate.com/support/login.

lnguyen

@evaknievel

Under System | Update, set to Previous 2.4.5 to get the correct package repos for 2.4.5-p1.