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    2.5.2 Upgrade - surprise

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software
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    • S
      slimypizza
      last edited by

      I was putting off upgrading from 2.4X to 2.5.2 because of postings of problems some folks were having. After all, my system wasn’t “broke”. Imagine my surprise when I logged into my router and discovered that pfSense had upgraded itself automatically. No manual process. No backups taken, no precautionary steps like doing this over a weekend, no planning at all for such a big change. It just happened and now I’m staring at my screen wondering how. All seems to be well which is fortunate for a number of reasons including my wife works from home and is a heavy user of the internet during the day (zoom calls, VPN, and emails). I haven’t tested thoroughly yet but everything seems to be working; reverse proxy, custom DNS servers, cron jobs, OpenVPN, all seem fine. WTH happened?

      noplanN GertjanG S 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • noplanN
        noplan @slimypizza
        last edited by

        @slimypizza

        I can confirm that!
        With default installation and no fancy stuff
        The update except for the automatic update I have to do it per hand (klick the update button)
        Runs as smooth as it gets...

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • GertjanG
          Gertjan @slimypizza
          last edited by

          @slimypizza said in 2.5.2 Upgrade - surprise:

          and discovered that pfSense had upgraded itself automatically

          The upgrade process is triggered by a user command on the console or SSH : option 13.
          or the GUI : System > Update System > Update page.
          Both 'screens' need 'admin' access.
          pfSense that upgrades itself overnight : I would call that a major issue ...

          @slimypizza said in 2.5.2 Upgrade - surprise:

          No backups taken

          That's a personal choice ;)
          I'm using https://github.com/KoenZomers/pfSenseBackup which extracts a backup every day at 08h00 AM.

          No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
          Edit : and where are the logs ??

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • S
            SteveITS Galactic Empire @slimypizza
            last edited by

            Over all the units we have running for ourselves and clients over the last decade plus I've never seen one spontaneously self-upgrade.

            That said there was a thread here a while back...not sure how long but probably at least a couple months...where someone claimed they had devices self-upgrade. As I vaguely recall there was a theory about cron jobs running at boot. If you go back through the logs can you see if there was a reboot/power loss before the upgrade?

            Pre-2.7.2/23.09: Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
            When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to restart, or more depending on packages and device speed.
            Upvote 👍 helpful posts!

            noplanN 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • noplanN
              noplan @SteveITS
              last edited by

              After reading / replying this post this morning I was a little bit scared
              Of auto update enabled...

              Looked through a couple of 2.4 boxes not able finding some option

              Np

              GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • GertjanG
                Gertjan @noplan
                last edited by

                @noplan said in 2.5.2 Upgrade - surprise:

                Of auto update enabled...

                Doesn't exist.

                This :

                e4731683-b80b-402c-8f0f-6e244ab69e42-image.png

                is something completely different - and does what it says it does : it syncs the list with available packages, shown here :

                3d22f93d-c522-44db-a18b-2e1cf9829be3-image.png

                so its visible right away if there is an update available for one of the packages.

                Which is the case for me right now : arpwatch can be updated.
                To keep this info current, the "dashboard" has to go out often, and check if one or more of the installed packages have a new version available.
                If someone breaks the DNS subsystem (this happens often - check the forum) then the admin has the possibility to disable the frequent checking, as it can make the dashboard access very slow.

                A firewall/router doesn't update itself. Its far to simple to imagine what could go wrong even if the update goes fine.

                No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                Edit : and where are the logs ??

                S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • S
                  slimypizza @Gertjan
                  last edited by

                  @gertjan said in 2.5.2 Upgrade - surprise:

                  A firewall/router doesn't update itself. Its far to simple to imagine what could go wrong even if the update goes fine.

                  Mine apparently did. Or I should say, it did. Since my logs now begin at 14:05 August 4 I assume that is when the spontaneous upgrade occurred. I was not at home or logged in at the time. A few days later when I logged in is when I noticed what had happened. Lucky indeed that nothing went wrong. The only thing I had done at some point prior was to toggle the Branch in the System/Update page. I wanted to see the effect of selecting the previous stable version. I noted the effect and toggled back to current Branch thinking that I would decide to update at some point in the future after I was notified of the next available update. Instead my router updated on a Wednesday afternoon while I was away. No harm done thankfully but I don't want that to happen again.

                  GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • GertjanG
                    Gertjan @slimypizza
                    last edited by

                    @slimypizza said in 2.5.2 Upgrade - surprise:

                    I assume that is when the spontaneous upgrade occurred.

                    This file shows when it happened : /cf/conf/upgrade_log.latest.txt

                    No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                    Edit : and where are the logs ??

                    noplanN S 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • noplanN
                      noplan @Gertjan
                      last edited by

                      @gertjan do u think it's even possible that a box performs auto update from 2.4 to 2.5?

                      Me just wondering
                      Btw thx for the location of the logFile

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • S
                        slimypizza @Gertjan
                        last edited by

                        @gertjan -- This file shows when it happened : /cf/conf/upgrade_log.latest.txt

                        Thanks gertjan. This confirms the upgrade occurred Aug 4 14:05 as well.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • stephenw10S
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by

                          To be clear this should never happen. And as far as I know there is no way for it to happen.

                          Do you still have the upgrade log? Can we review it?

                          You said your main system logs were reset at that point? Are you using ram disks?

                          Steve

                          S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • S
                            slimypizza @stephenw10
                            last edited by

                            @stephenw10

                            Attached is my current upgrade log.

                            pf upgrade log.txt

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • stephenw10S
                              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                              last edited by

                              Hmm, nothing unexpected logged there. You don't have any system logs from the time?

                              Steve

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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