Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    High CPU usage after upgrading to 2.7.1 Community Edition in XenServer

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Virtualization
    23 Posts 5 Posters 3.0k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • D
      DrydenK 0
      last edited by stephenw10

      Hi,

      I have three pfSense VM's (running on XenServer). Yesterday I upgraded all of them to 2.7.1 Community Edition. Today I noticed that all of them are showing a high CPU usage. More specifically, ''top' indicates ~75% of CPU used by interrupts, and this started after the upgrade on all of them. A reboot does not solve the problem.

      Any ideas on what I should check?

      Packages I have installed:
      acme (for let's encrypt certificates)
      net-snmp
      xe-guest-utilities (installed from cli)

      Each VM has 1GB RAM and 5GB disk.

      CPU graph from the last week (upgrade was yesterday):
      Captura de tela 2023-11-30 133548.png

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • jimpJ jimp moved this topic from Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software on
      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        What does top -HaSP actually show?

        Steve

        D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • D
          DrydenK 0 @stephenw10
          last edited by stephenw10

          @stephenw10 said in High CPU usage after upgrading to 2.7.1 Community Edition:

          top -HaSP

          last pid: 10674;  load averages:  1.06,  0.74,  0.67                                                                      up 2+02:03:10  10:34:50
254 threads:   2 running, 231 sleeping, 21 waiting
CPU:  0.8% user,  0.0% nice,  0.0% system, 79.5% interrupt, 19.8% idle
Mem: 30M Active, 86M Inact, 549M Wired, 267M Free
ARC: 348M Total, 134M MFU, 140M MRU, 153K Anon, 2630K Header, 71M Other
     223M Compressed, 583M Uncompressed, 2.62:1 Ratio
Swap: 1024M Total, 62M Used, 962M Free, 6% Inuse

  PID USERNAME    PRI NICE   SIZE    RES STATE    TIME    WCPU COMMAND
   11 root        187 ki31     0B    16K RUN     49.2H  95.43% [idle]
95375 root         26    0    14M  3748K RUN      0:00   0.08% top -HaSP
34265 root         20    0    13M  1372K bpf      1:02   0.05% /usr/local/sbin/filterlog -i pflog0 -p /var/run/filterlog.pid
    7 root        -16    -     0B    16K pftm     0:31   0.04% [pf purge]
10674 root         68    0    12M  1832K nanslp   0:00   0.03% sleep 60
   12 root        -64    -     0B   320K WAIT     0:38   0.03% [intr{irq2109: xn0}]
13663 root         20    0    13M  2012K select   0:33   0.02% /usr/sbin/syslogd -O rfc3164 -s -c -c -l /var/dhcpd/var/run/log -P /var/run/syslog
    2 root        -60    -     0B    16K WAIT     1:21   0.02% [clock]
85614 root         20    0    22M    10M select   0:00   0.02% sshd: root@pts/0 (sshd)
   12 root        -64    -     0B   320K WAIT     0:12   0.02% [intr{irq2107: xn0}]
71807 root         20    0    13M  1176K nanslp   0:17   0.01% /usr/local/bin/dpinger -S -r 0 -i GW_WAN_2 -B 2801:88:fd::30 -p /var/run/dpinger_G
 8216 root         20    0    33M  5636K select   0:36   0.01% /usr/local/sbin/snmpd -LS 0-6 d -p /var/run/net_snmpd.pid -M /usr/share/snmp/mibs/
71378 root         20    0    13M  1172K nanslp   0:14   0.01% /usr/local/bin/dpinger -S -r 0 -i GW_WAN -B 200.145.62.30 -p /var/run/dpinger_GW_W
          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by stephenw10

            Hmm, I expect more output from that. Was that actually from the CLI?

            It should look like:

            [2.7.1][admin@t70.stevew.lan]/root: top -HaSP

last pid: 37169;  load averages:  0.25,  0.13,  0.09                                                                                                                                       up 0+18:04:15  15:23:24
317 threads:   5 running, 293 sleeping, 19 waiting
CPU 0:  0.0% user,  1.5% nice,  0.0% system,  0.0% interrupt, 98.5% idle
CPU 1:  0.4% user,  0.0% nice,  0.4% system,  0.0% interrupt, 99.2% idle
CPU 2:  0.8% user,  0.0% nice,  0.4% system,  0.0% interrupt, 98.8% idle
CPU 3: 26.3% user,  0.0% nice,  2.7% system,  0.0% interrupt, 71.0% idle
Mem: 52M Active, 577M Inact, 54M Laundry, 864M Wired, 294M Free
ARC: 573M Total, 249M MFU, 247M MRU, 3832K Header, 73M Other
     440M Compressed, 924M Uncompressed, 2.10:1 Ratio
Swap: 1024M Total, 80M Used, 943M Free, 7% Inuse

  PID USERNAME    PRI NICE   SIZE    RES STATE    C   TIME    WCPU COMMAND
   11 root        187 ki31     0B    64K CPU2     2  17.6H  99.20% [idle{idle: cpu2}]
   11 root        187 ki31     0B    64K CPU1     1  17.5H  99.15% [idle{idle: cpu1}]
   11 root        187 ki31     0B    64K CPU0     0  17.7H  98.54% [idle{idle: cpu0}]
   11 root        187 ki31     0B    64K RUN      3  17.6H  71.01% [idle{idle: cpu3}]
63065 root         52   20   603M   517M uwait    0  24:59   0.89% /usr/local/bin/suricata -i igb1 -D -c /usr/local/etc/suricata/suricata_60565_igb1/suricata.yaml --pidfile /var/run/suricata_igb160565.pid{FM#01
36459 root         24    0    14M  3864K CPU3     3   0:00   0.35% top -HaSP
63065 root         52   20   603M   517M nanslp   2   5:23   0.21% /usr/local/bin/suricata -i igb1 -D -c /usr/local/etc/suricata/suricata_60565_igb1/suricata.yaml --pidfile /var/run/suricata_igb160565.pid{suric
    0 root        -64    -     0B  1488K -        0   5:13   0.21% [kernel{dummynet}]
    0 root        -60    -     0B  1488K -        2   2:03   0.16% [kernel{if_config_tqg_0}]
25675 root         20    0    12M  1288K select   2   0:35   0.07% /usr/sbin/powerd -b hadp -a hadp -n hadp
29370 root         20    0    22M    10M select   3   0:00   0.03% sshd: admin@pts/0 (sshd)
    7 root        -16    -     0B    16K pftm     1   0:45   0.03% [pf purge]

            However your output shows 95% idle in total which doesn't match what you're seeing in the hypervisor.

            D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • D
              DrydenK 0 @stephenw10
              last edited by

              @stephenw10

              Yes, that's the full output from the cli for 'top -HaSP'. Maybe it's a little shorter because I only allocated a single CPU for the VM. Considering that with this setup I never saw an usage above 10-15%, I never considered adding more.

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

                Ah, OK. And it's still showing 80-90% use in the hypervisor?

                D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • D
                  DrydenK 0 @stephenw10
                  last edited by

                  @stephenw10

                  Yes. As an experiment, I rebooted the VM with 4 CPU's. This was the result:

                  last pid: 81307; load averages: 0.50, 0.27, 0.11 up 0+00:02:22 13:59:21
                  311 threads: 5 running, 279 sleeping, 27 waiting
                  CPU 0: 0.0% user, 0.0% nice, 0.0% system, 66.3% interrupt, 33.7% idle
                  CPU 1: 0.0% user, 0.0% nice, 0.0% system, 47.7% interrupt, 52.3% idle
                  CPU 2: 0.0% user, 0.0% nice, 0.0% system, 44.4% interrupt, 55.6% idle
                  CPU 3: 0.0% user, 0.0% nice, 0.0% system, 67.7% interrupt, 32.3% idle
                  Mem: 113M Active, 81M Inact, 259M Wired, 477M Free
                  ARC: 106M Total, 29M MFU, 73M MRU, 16K Anon, 601K Header, 3111K Other
                  80M Compressed, 179M Uncompressed, 2.24:1 Ratio
                  Swap: 1024M Total, 1024M Free

                  PID USERNAME PRI NICE SIZE RES STATE C TIME WCPU COMMAND
                  11 root 187 ki31 0B 64K CPU2 2 2:10 99.83% [idle{idle: cpu2}]
                  11 root 187 ki31 0B 64K RUN 1 2:20 99.82% [idle{idle: cpu1}]
                  11 root 187 ki31 0B 64K CPU3 3 2:19 99.77% [idle{idle: cpu3}]
                  11 root 187 ki31 0B 64K CPU0 0 2:20 99.72% [idle{idle: cpu0}]
                  12 root -64 - 0B 368K WAIT 2 0:00 0.10% [intr{irq15: ata1}]
                  43244 root 20 0 14M 4236K CPU1 1 0:00 0.07% top -HaSP
                  12 root -64 - 0B 368K WAIT 2 0:00 0.06% [intr{irq2129: xbd0}]
                  2 root -60 - 0B 64K WAIT 0 0:00 0.06% [clock{clock (0)}]
                  0 root -12 - 0B 1536K - 1 0:00 0.06% [kernel{z_wr_iss_2}]

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

                    Hmm, interesting. If you disable or uninstall the xe-guest-utilities does that usage stop?

                    D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • D
                      DrydenK 0 @stephenw10
                      last edited by

                      @stephenw10
                      Unfortunately, no, it didn't help:
                      top -HaSPb
                      last pid: 85886; load averages: 0.07, 0.14, 0.07 up 0+00:04:15 08:27:14
                      309 threads: 5 running, 277 sleeping, 27 waiting
                      CPU 0: 3.3% user, 0.0% nice, 0.0% system, 54.1% interrupt, 42.6% idle
                      CPU 1: 4.0% user, 0.0% nice, 0.0% system, 44.0% interrupt, 52.0% idle
                      CPU 2: 4.2% user, 0.0% nice, 0.0% system, 47.4% interrupt, 48.4% idle
                      CPU 3: 4.0% user, 0.0% nice, 0.0% system, 42.5% interrupt, 53.5% idle
                      Mem: 112M Active, 81M Inact, 261M Wired, 476M Free
                      ARC: 107M Total, 29M MFU, 74M MRU, 160K Anon, 602K Header, 3220K Other
                      80M Compressed, 180M Uncompressed, 2.24:1 Ratio
                      Swap: 1024M Total, 1024M Free

                      PID USERNAME PRI NICE SIZE RES STATE C TIME WCPU COMMAND
                      11 root 187 ki31 0B 64K RUN 1 4:14 100.00% [idle{idle: cpu1}]
                      11 root 187 ki31 0B 64K CPU0 0 4:13 100.00% [idle{idle: cpu0}]
                      11 root 187 ki31 0B 64K CPU3 3 4:12 100.00% [idle{idle: cpu3}]
                      11 root 187 ki31 0B 64K CPU2 2 4:01 100.00% [idle{idle: cpu2}]
                      0 root -16 - 0B 1536K swapin 3 0:46 0.00% [kernel{swapper}]
                      16 root -60 - 0B 80K - 1 0:02 0.00% [usb{usbus0}]
                      2 root -60 - 0B 64K WAIT 0 0:01 0.00% [clock{clock (0)}]

                      To make sure it wasn't anything related to xen-guest, I also undid all the configurations related to installing this package (as in: disabling hardware offloading both via cli and web interface) and rebooted the VM, but the load, as shown above, remains high. Any suggestions?

                      Thank you,

                      DrydenK

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • Cool_CoronaC
                        Cool_Corona
                        last edited by

                        Give it 4GB ram and 10GB disk... and reboot/reinstall.

                        D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • D
                          DrydenK 0 @Cool_Corona
                          last edited by

                          @Cool_Corona
                          About reinstall, I will consider it.

                          About 4GB and 10GB disk, that makes very little sense. As shown in the output of top, the VM is barely using half of the 1GB it has (476MB free and 0 usage of swap), and 'df' shows that it's using 37% of the 5GB of the disk.

                          Cool_CoronaC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • Cool_CoronaC
                            Cool_Corona @DrydenK 0
                            last edited by

                            @DrydenK-0 I cant give you good arguments. Odd things happen when memory and disk is low/small. Try it.

                            D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • D
                              DrydenK 0 @Cool_Corona
                              last edited by

                              @Cool_Corona

                              I tried reinstalling the VM from scratch and then reloading it with my setup. The result is still the same high load.

                              Since it was just a reload away, I tried increasing memory to 4GB (I had already used 10gb for disk). Still, no change as seen below.

                              Also, to isolate if it's something in my setup, I did a new install and checked top before setting anything. With pfSense still on the initial setup web page, I went to the command line and ran 'top -HaSP'. Even with nothing set, the result was still the same with a very high interrupt load.

                              Since no one else seems to be seeing this, my conclusion is that it may be something related to virtualization in Citrix-Xen.

                              top -HaSPb
                              last pid: 98295; load averages: 0.33, 0.17, 0.07 up 0+00:01:50 11:24:26
                              310 threads: 5 running, 278 sleeping, 27 waiting
                              CPU 0: 7.9% user, 0.1% nice, 0.0% system, 47.3% interrupt, 44.7% idle
                              CPU 1: 9.2% user, 0.0% nice, 0.0% system, 37.3% interrupt, 53.5% idle
                              CPU 2: 8.0% user, 0.0% nice, 0.0% system, 44.1% interrupt, 47.9% idle
                              CPU 3: 10.4% user, 0.0% nice, 0.0% system, 38.5% interrupt, 51.1% idle
                              Mem: 114M Active, 84M Inact, 236M Wired, 3478M Free
                              ARC: 109M Total, 20M MFU, 85M MRU, 158K Anon, 593K Header, 3260K Other
                              86M Compressed, 190M Uncompressed, 2.22:1 Ratio
                              Swap: 1024M Total, 1024M Free

                              PID USERNAME PRI NICE SIZE RES STATE C TIME WCPU COMMAND
                              11 root 187 ki31 0B 64K CPU1 1 1:48 100.00% [idle{idle: cpu1}]
                              11 root 187 ki31 0B 64K CPU0 0 1:49 98.97% [idle{idle: cpu0}]
                              11 root 187 ki31 0B 64K RUN 3 1:45 98.97% [idle{idle: cpu3}]
                              11 root 187 ki31 0B 64K CPU2 2 1:36 98.97% [idle{idle: cpu2}]
                              0 root -16 - 0B 1536K swapin 3 0:44 0.00% [kernel{swapper}]

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

                                @DrydenK-0 said in High CPU usage after upgrading to 2.7.1 Community Edition:

                                it may be something related to virtualization in Citrix-Xen.

                                Yes that seems likely. Do you see this on a clean install of a new VM with something close to the default config?

                                D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • D
                                  DrydenK 0 @stephenw10
                                  last edited by

                                  @stephenw10

                                  VERY default. As I said, i went to the console with pfSense still in the initial setup page, so no setting made at all.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • stephenw10S stephenw10 moved this topic from General pfSense Questions on
                                  • I
                                    ichor99
                                    last edited by ichor99

                                    We can also confirm that we are observing the same behavior after the upgrade to 2.7.1.

                                    Running XenServer as well (8.2.1)

                                    top -HaSPb
                                    last pid: 23570; load averages: 0.24, 0.25, 0.17 up 0+13:10:50 00:03:38
                                    239 threads: 5 running, 187 sleeping, 47 waiting
                                    CPU 0: 0.1% user, 0.1% nice, 0.0% system, 17.9% interrupt, 81.9% idle
                                    CPU 1: 0.1% user, 0.1% nice, 0.0% system, 12.6% interrupt, 87.3% idle
                                    CPU 2: 0.1% user, 0.1% nice, 0.0% system, 13.3% interrupt, 86.5% idle
                                    CPU 3: 0.1% user, 0.1% nice, 0.0% system, 13.4% interrupt, 86.4% idle
                                    Mem: 94M Active, 220M Inact, 315M Wired, 124M Buf, 5284M Free
                                    Swap: 1024M Total, 1024M Free

                                    We can confirm that the interrupts are not showing up on the host server. The high interrupt is only reflected in the VM.

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

                                      But you do see CPU usage like OP shows in the first post?

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

                                        What do you see causing the interrupt load in vmstat -i?

                                        D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • D
                                          DrydenK 0 @stephenw10
                                          last edited by stephenw10

                                          @stephenw10

                                          ]/root: vmstat -i
interrupt                          total       rate
irq1: atkbd0                           2          0
irq15: ata1                       111765          1
irq23: uhci0                          16          0
cpu0:xen                        10385530         61
cpu1:xen                         8100717         48
cpu2:xen                         7320906         43
cpu3:xen                         7430090         44
irq2096: cpu0:r                     1031          0
irq2097: cpu0:itlb                236290          1
irq2098: cpu0:b                  4252302         25
irq2102: cpu1:r                     1309          0
irq2103: cpu1:itlb                235826          1
irq2104: cpu1:b                  4563379         27
irq2108: cpu2:r                      373          0
irq2109: cpu2:itlb                234740          1
irq2110: cpu2:b                  4808132         28
irq2114: cpu3:r                      224          0
irq2115: cpu3:itlb                235961          1
irq2116: cpu3:b                  4736445         28
irq2120: xen_et0:c0              2678328         16
irq2121: xen_et0:c1              1831505         11
irq2122: xen_et0:c2              1881594         11
irq2123: xen_et0:c3              1869526         11
irq2124: xenstore0                   824          0
irq2129: xbd0                    2762175         16
irq2130: xn0                      507745          3
irq2131: xn0                      609115          4
irq2132: xn0                      418078          2
irq2133: xn0                     1492607          9
Total                           66706535        392
                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • stephenw10S
                                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                            last edited by

                                            Hmm, nothing that would normally worry me.... 🤔

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.