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    Sustained Unbound write I/O

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved pfBlockerNG
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    • keyserK
      keyser Rebel Alliance @fireodo
      last edited by

      @fireodo Yep, which I’m sure is why Netgate does not deliver the desktop series SG boxes installed with ZFS :-)

      Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • keyserK
        keyser Rebel Alliance @fireodo
        last edited by

        @keyser Just as a follow up I think I have now tried EVERY possible setting in my pfBlockerNG setup in terms of making it “quiet” on disk writes.
        Nothing sticks - No lists, no logging enabled anywhere, nothing - and still I have a UNBOUND process that writes on average about 380 Kb/s to disk if python mode is enabled.
        If I disable Python mode or disable pfBlockerNG in general, UNBOUND no longer does it’s sustained disk writing.

        So what could cause that behavior?

        Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

        keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • keyserK
          keyser Rebel Alliance @keyser
          last edited by

          @keyser I'm sorry that I'm ressurecting my old thread on this topic again, but I just installed 22.01 (ZFS reinstall) on my 6100 and that in turn updated pfBlockerNG to the latest version 3.1.0_1 version.

          I'm sorry to report that has brought back the Unbound disk write issue (with the same config).
          My box went from doing about 130KB/s writes to about 550KB/s now. About 30% of that comes curtesy of the ZFS filesystem, but still it's at least a tripeling of Unbound diskwrites...

          I'm beginning to wonder if Netgate considered the wear ZFS would cause on the small eMMC. appliances. If the write endurance rating is "industry standard" on the built-in eMMc, this level of write IO will kill my box within 2 years (And that's only because it's a 16Gb SG-6100).
          The same config in my SG-2100 will kill the eMMC within a year.

          I think we have a huge problem here....

          Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

          S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
          • S
            slu @keyser
            last edited by

            @keyser
            did you find any solution?

            Same here, disable all I can find, unbound still writing.

            pfSense Gold subscription

            keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • keyserK
              keyser Rebel Alliance @slu
              last edited by

              @slu No, not specifically. It is related to doing python mode integration to unbound as you discovered.
              In my case, I eventually removed pfBlockerNG without saving the config.
              After reinstalling the latest 3.2.0.x and configuring it from scratch, the deadly writing levels never reappeared. So I sort of concluded it might have been crud from previous installs/upgrades that caused pfBlocker to behave like that.

              Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

              S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • S
                slu @keyser
                last edited by

                @keyser said in Sustained Unbound write I/O:

                After reinstalling the latest 3.2.0.x and configuring it from scratch, the deadly writing levels never reappeared.

                With python unbound mode or without the deadly writing never reappeared?

                pfSense Gold subscription

                keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • keyserK
                  keyser Rebel Alliance @slu
                  last edited by

                  @slu said in Sustained Unbound write I/O:

                  With python unbound mode or without the deadly writing never reappeared?

                  The issue did not reappear with Python mode enabled - which is what you want as Python mode has some nice advantages.

                  Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

                  S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • S
                    slu @keyser
                    last edited by

                    @keyser said in Sustained Unbound write I/O:

                    The issue did not reappear with Python mode enabled [...]

                    That's very interesting, no idea who to find out what trigger this issue.

                    pfSense Gold subscription

                    keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • keyserK
                      keyser Rebel Alliance @slu
                      last edited by

                      @slu Not that I could find… I sort of concluded that somehow the python script had ended up doing all of its temporary data handling on actual disk rather than in a memory based datastructure. I have nothing to base that conclusion on as I painstaikingly tried to determine what file(s) all the writing was done into. But there was never any files that changed or grew during this - neither did pfSense Swap… so….

                      Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

                      S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • S
                        slu @keyser
                        last edited by

                        @keyser
                        not easy to debug.

                        @NOCling you use python mode as well, right?
                        Do you see this as well?

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                        • N
                          NOCling
                          last edited by

                          Yes, i use it.
                          But i run a RAM Disk to prevent Unbound killing my SSD.
                          I use a UPS and NUT on the pfsense, so no unexpected Power loss and the RAM Disk is safely written to the SSD.

                          Netgate 6100 & Netgate 2100

                          S w0wW 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • S
                            slu @NOCling
                            last edited by

                            @NOCling said in Sustained Unbound write I/O:

                            Yes, i use it.
                            But i run a RAM Disk to prevent Unbound killing my SSD.

                            ah ok, I can't use RAM Disk in my setup.
                            So you know about the Unbound write problem?

                            pfSense Gold subscription

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                            • w0wW
                              w0w @NOCling
                              last edited by

                              @NOCling
                              Сould you please suggest the correct configuration for a RAM disk? Every time I've tried to set it up, it ended with messages about running out of space or other issues. I have 16GB of memory; is that generally enough?

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                              • N
                                NOCling
                                last edited by

                                I use this settings on my 6100, but it depends on the list if its ok or not:
                                edcaf417-6d4e-434a-af0b-0a81eeb3ff0b-image.png

                                Netgate 6100 & Netgate 2100

                                Bob.DigB 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • Bob.DigB
                                  Bob.Dig LAYER 8 @NOCling
                                  last edited by

                                  @NOCling I lose my pfBlocker aliases if I try the RAM-disk. Any hints?

                                  M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • Bob.DigB
                                    Bob.Dig LAYER 8 @NOCling
                                    last edited by

                                    @NOCling Do I have to wait til Friday to get an answer? 😁

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                                    • M
                                      mcury @Bob.Dig
                                      last edited by

                                      @Bob-Dig said in Sustained Unbound write I/O:

                                      @NOCling I lose my pfBlocker aliases if I try the RAM-disk. Any hints?

                                      force update in pfblockerNG and you will get your aliases back.

                                      dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

                                      Bob.DigB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                      • Bob.DigB
                                        Bob.Dig LAYER 8 @mcury
                                        last edited by Bob.Dig

                                        @mcury Yes, but after the next reboot is was gone again. So maybe I have to tick a box to save something? But saving will not be good for the health...
                                        I do reboot daily. "Reboot does good" they say around my place.

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                                        • M
                                          mcury @Bob.Dig
                                          last edited by

                                          @Bob-Dig said in Sustained Unbound write I/O:

                                          @mcury Yes but after the next reboot is was gone. So maybe I have to tick a box to save something? But saving will not be good for the health...
                                          I do reboot daily. "Reboot does good" they say around my place.

                                          you can install cron and shellcmd packages.
                                          check cron and get the command used to update pfblockerNG, them add it to shellcmd package to run after boot.

                                          dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

                                          Bob.DigB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                          • Bob.DigB
                                            Bob.Dig LAYER 8 @mcury
                                            last edited by Bob.Dig

                                            @mcury said in Sustained Unbound write I/O:

                                            check cron and get the command used to update pfblockerNG, them add it to shellcmd package to run after boot.

                                            Thanks. Have you edited the command? It doesn't seem to work for me. No files are shown when looking in logs in pfB. Only running "reload" manually will bring them back.

                                            Screenshot 2024-08-20 191758.png

                                            M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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