PFsense Router Slow Web Interface Response - "swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer" Error in Logs

dr21

Hello everyone,
I’m experiencing a significant issue with my PFsense router. The web interface is extremely slow to respond, and it sometimes takes a long time to load. Additionally, I frequently encounter the following error in the system logs:

kernel    swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: bufobj: 0, blkno: 46335, size: 4096

Has anyone experienced this before or have any suggestions on how to resolve it? I would appreciate any advice or guidance on what could be causing this and how to fix it.

Thanks in advance!

bmeeks

Your device appears to running out of memory, reverting to using swap space, and eventually running out of that as well.

Your post is lacking some needed information such as:

What version of pfSense are you running?
What is your hardware? Is it a Netgate appliance (and if so, which specific model) or is it a generic whitebox?
Related to #2 above, how much RAM is installed in the firewall?
Lastly, are you running any add-on packages such as pfBlockerNG, Snort, Suricata, or using the DNSBL features of the DNS Resolver?

johnpoz

@bmeeks said in PFsense Router Slow Web Interface Response - "swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer" Error in Logs:

What version of pfSense are you running?
What is your hardware? Is it a Netgate appliance (and if so, which specific model) or is it a generic whitebox?
Related to #2 above, how much RAM is installed in the firewall?
Lastly, are you running any add-on packages such as pfBlockerNG, Snort, Suricata, or using the DNSBL features of the DNS Resolver?

Hmmm - where would be the best place to put this as a sticky? Maybe everywhere ;) Could prob reword 2 a bit to or VM on what VM host (esxi, hyper-v, proxmox, etc) And 4 include are you using kea or isc

Gertjan

@dr21 said in PFsense Router Slow Web Interface Response - "swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer" Error in Logs:

kernel swap_pager

You saw the word "swap".
Swapping, if this is what happens on your pfSense, is something you never want to see on any device.
Get up, get out, buy RAM.
As soon as you have several Gbytes of memory and swapping is still happening : remove non essential tasks. Or, get up, get out, buy even more RAM.

dr21

@bmeeks said in PFsense Router Slow Web Interface Response - "swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer" Error in Logs:

Your device appears to running out of memory, reverting to using swap space, and eventually running out of that as well.

Your post is lacking some needed information such as:

What version of pfSense are you running?

What is your hardware? Is it a Netgate appliance (and if so, which specific model) or is it a generic whitebox?

Related to #2 above, how much RAM is installed in the firewall?

Lastly, are you running any add-on packages such as pfBlockerNG, Snort, Suricata, or using the DNSBL features of the DNS Resolver?

Sorry for not providing these details earlier. I'm running PFsense version 2.7.2 on a mini PC with an Intel Core i3-7020U and 8GB of RAM. The dashboard widgets show 16% RAM usage and 3% SWAP usage, and these values remain stable. I also don’t have any additional packages installed.

Interestingly, when I restart the router, the configuration pages load instantly. However, after some time, the slow response issue returns.

Any additional insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks again!

johnpoz

@dr21 said in PFsense Router Slow Web Interface Response - "swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer" Error in Logs:

The dashboard widgets show 16% RAM usage and 3% SWAP

why would it be using swap if you have only 16% of of your ram used?

That doesn't see right to me..

stephenw10

Hmm, disk issue perhaps? Is that the only thing logged?

Gertjan

@dr21

Do you have a swap partition ?

?

Google knows a lot about the message

http://freebsd-faq.atspace.com/troubleshoot.htm#INDEFINITE-WAIT-BUFFER

So, if I get this right : if your not swapping, the drive is bad ?

stephenw10

Right feels like a bad drive but I'd expect to see other errors logged if it is.

bmeeks

@dr21 said in PFsense Router Slow Web Interface Response - "swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer" Error in Logs:

I'm running PFsense version 2.7.2 on a mini PC with an Intel Core i3-7020U and 8GB of RAM. The dashboard widgets show 16% RAM usage and 3% SWAP usage, and these values remain stable. I also don’t have any additional packages installed.

With no extra packages installed, then I agree with others here who suspect a faulty disk. Odd that you are using any swap space, though. Typically that should show 0% swap usage.