Frequent Crashes and Errors after upgrading to 24.11 pfSense Plus Version
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Hello Community,
Since upgrading to pfSense Plus version 24.11, I’ve been encountering severe issues that are significantly affecting the stability of my system. The main problems include:
- System Crashes and Reboots: The system frequently crashes, reboots unexpectedly, and often restores a previous boot environment. This creates an unstable operating state, making it difficult to trust the current configuration.
- WireGuard Errors: Despite not using WireGuard, I frequently see errors related to it during boot. It seems to be a preinstalled package, and these errors contribute to the overall instability.
- KEA-DHCP Issues: The KEA-DHCP package intermittently fails to start, disrupting my network setup.
- Frequent HTTP 500 Errors: The web interface becomes unresponsive and returns HTTP 500 errors, especially after making configuration changes.
These issues have made the system highly unreliable. Even small adjustments can result in crashes and reboots, significantly impacting my network's functionality.
I kindly ask for ideas or support in addressing these problems. Has anyone experienced similar behavior with version 24.11? Are there any steps I can take to resolve or mitigate these issues?
My hardware: Super Micro 1537
Thank you in advance for your help!
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Do you have any logged errors or crash reports?
Do you have MIM enabled?
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S stephenw10 moved this topic from Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software
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It sounds like you are having the same experience I had with my super micro C 2558 a couple of years ago. Turns out in I remember, right there was a LCP Clock design flaw on some C series Atom processors. I never made sure that was the problem. I just replaced the motherboard with another C series 2550 that I had. Everything went back to normal.
You may want to try switching back to ISC from KEA to see if that clears up your problems. I am still using ISC and might switch over after the next stable update to KEA -
The 1537 is a Xeon CPU so not susceptible to that Atom issue.
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@stephenw10 said in Frequent Crashes and Errors after upgrading to 24.11 pfSense Plus Version:
Do you have any logged errors or crash reports?
Do you have MIM enabled?
Hello,
Thank you for your message.
I do not have MIM enabled. Regarding the logs, I am having difficulties extracting relevant information because as soon as I boot into the environment with version 24.11, the system crashes when navigating the menus and restarts in the environment with version 24.03.
Please let me know if there's an alternative way to retrieve the logs or any other information that might help.
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Hmm, if it panicked the crash report would be seen in an BE. Assuming there is SWAP available.
Otherwise can you see it crash at the console?
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Hello @stephenw10,
Unfortunately, the system had become completely unstable, even with previous boot environments. I also reached out to TAC support, and their proposed solution was to format the machine. I proceeded with the formatting and restored the configuration file. For now, everything seems to be working correctly.
Unfortunately, accessing files, even through the shell, was not possible due to the frequent reboots.
From what I’ve read on forums and web in general, upgrade processes with pfSense often seem to cause issues, especially when existing packages are already installed. If you have any suggestions to prevent similar problems in the future, I would greatly appreciate them.
Thank you again for your support.
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Well in general it's safer to remove packages before upgrading, especially larger packages like Squid or Snort etc. But it should upgrade from one release back without removing packages no problem. I upgraded many systems fro 24.03 to 24.11 with packages installed without issue.
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@Aadrem said in Frequent Crashes and Errors after upgrading to 24.11 pfSense Plus Version:
Unfortunately, accessing files, even through the shell, was not possible due to the frequent reboots.
Don't fact check me with your own PC type devices, so, if you're willing, imagine this situation :
Boot your PC.
Open all kind of files ....
Stand up, and walk to the power socket and rip it out.Wait 10 seconds, put it back, and start over.
If your PC is modern enough, so its starts fast, you can do this 10 times test in less then 10 minutes.
If your PC is a portable : it will go even faster but please, these devices can have their disks soldered in so you will break your portable beyond repair by just removing the battery while it is running, for 10 times max.But again, don't actually do it. Just imagine. (Go youtube to see them doing it - and, way better, ripping out the power while doing a BIOS upgrade - this one gives you a the full jackpot the very first time you play)
Your PC uses probably NTFS as a file system, and pfSense uses the somewhat even better 'ZFS', but still, chances are greate that 'nothing' happened. Just some current data loss.
But do this several times, and you will 'break' the filesystem.
Like in the good old days : do your CHKDSK /f and while doing so, you pray.
And then, again, you re installed Windows from those 46 floppies.*Check this : How to Run a pfSense Software File System Check (5/2020) - some will say : not needed anymore.
Ok, maybe I lose some time while doing so, but at least, for me "data loss" or "OS broken", something that happened in century before this one.
(And if it happens, I've a daily dual copy)Btw : a bad file system can be a symptom, not the original reason why your system went down.
Just install pfSense on some other hardware and suddenly all issue are gone ..... Doesn't that make you think ? ;)
(Yeap, motherboards, disks and our coffee machines still die on us)@Aadrem said in Frequent Crashes and Errors after upgrading to 24.11 pfSense Plus Version:
From what I’ve read on forums and web in general, upgrade processes with pfSense often seem to cause issues
Yeah, I've seen them. Somewhat the 'same' story pops up on every OS update.
For myself, and since 2008 ( or more ? ) I'm still trying to make it fail on me.
It was always UPS protected, so it never (well : rarely) went down without the system shutting it itself.
I always reboot before upgrading it, and I go to single user mode (console !!) and do a file system check, and then let it run for several hours or a day before execute order number 13 (never GUI, I'm old school). This console session, I have it logged so I can review the upgrade process.
Some how I'm pretty sure that the upgrader process "knows" that it is watched. That would explain why it never failed on me.Ones in a while the disk layout, or partitions, change, or new file systems comes out, like ZFS two years ago, so the phoenix method is needed.
I've always said here on the forum : go basic first : remove all installed packages before upgrading but, I admit, I don't do this myself anymore.
Before, I always asked for a (new) firmware first - I have a 4100, that I burned on a USB key. And I kept the previous version also. I still have a key with pfSense 1.2 (collector !). Now, the ZFS handles all this, but if the SSD dies, it will we "Hello, TAC ?" again. Or I'll go for the 'interactive' installer.
