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    unplugged 1 nic causes pfsense to not work

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • E
      ed-tech
      last edited by ed-tech

      hi, i am using latest pfsense 2.6 , i unplugged 1 nic and restarted pfsense after that i was unable to login to pfsense it was asking me to setup the interfaces but if i plug that interface again it works, so does it mean that if one of my interface card went bad my pfsense will not work? Check img for more detail. Thanksnic-unpluged.jpg

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      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by stephenw10

        If you remove an interface that is assigned the config will fail the interface mismatch check the ask you to re-assign them at the console like that. That's expected.
        If you need to remove an interface be sure to unassign it first.

        Steve

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        • E
          ed-tech @stephenw10
          last edited by

          @stephenw10 but if the interface fails how am i going to unassigned it, is there a way to not break pfsense because of the interface fail? Thank you

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          • H
            heper @ed-tech
            last edited by

            nothing is "broken".
            you just have to re-assign the interfaces

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            • johnpozJ
              johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @ed-tech
              last edited by

              @ed-tech said in unplugged 1 nic causes pfsense to not work:

              not break pfsense because of the interface fail?

              Huh - your saying the interface fails in a way that pfsense can not detect it - how would it still work anyway. The lan interface fails - nobody is going anywhere until you tell pfsense which other interface to use for its "lan" And move the cable to that interface anyway.

              An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
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              • E
                ed-tech @johnpoz
                last edited by

                @johnpoz no i am worried about if my backup wan interface fails

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                • johnpozJ
                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @ed-tech
                  last edited by johnpoz

                  @ed-tech but that is not the one that fails, its your lan interface that fails.

                  If an interfaces fails in such a way that it can not be detected, you need to tell pfsense which interfaces to use for what.

                  The problem is when an interface is pulled or fails in such a drastic fashion.. The interfaces numbers can change.

                  Say you had

                  igb0 = wan
                  igb1 = backup wan
                  igb2 = lan

                  Now your igb1 fails and no longer detected by pfsense.. You end up say with this

                  igb0 = wan
                  igb1 = lan

                  How is that going to work? You need to tell pfsense, hey igb1 is lan. Because it thinks igb1 is your backup link.

                  If you have a failure that remove an interface, the order of all the interfaces could be messed up. When a system boots and detects interface it doesn't just not detect igb1 and skip that number.. It will assign the number of the interface in the detection order..

                  You might now end up with say when the interfaces are detected.
                  igb0 = lan
                  igb1 = wan

                  An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                  If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                  Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                  SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                  • E
                    ed-tech @johnpoz
                    last edited by

                    @johnpoz if you see the picture the re1 is my backup interface and that interface i removed it to see what happens and because of that interface that i removed the pfsense doesn't boot. I am just doing test to see what happens in every scenario

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                    • johnpozJ
                      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @ed-tech
                      last edited by johnpoz

                      @ed-tech you physically removed the actual interface from the box.. That is a drastic failure - and yes more than likely would require telling pfsense, hey the interfaces are this.

                      More likely failure would be that connection is down, but the card is still detected.

                      When the OS order of interfaces change - pfsense has to be told which interfaces are which in this new order..

                      A more likely failure test would be to just remove the cable from the connection, so the connection goes down.

                      You have 3 interfaces, wan lan and (backup wan).. You have 2 chances out of 3 that your dead if that interface drastic fails and pfsense doesn't detected. Testing that your wan backup fails and is not detected by OS any longer is rare failure mode to test for if you ask me.

                      An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                      If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                      Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                      SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        Yeah, the chances of a NIC failing so that it's not seen on the PCI bus is extremely low. It's far more likely to fail on the other side.

                        If hardware failures like that are a concern you should be using an HA pair.

                        Steve

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