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

    Auto Configuration Backup fails after WAN IP change

    General pfSense Questions
    4
    30
    1.2k
    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.
    • C
      codersaur
      last edited by

      ACB has been running fine for the last year or two, but I have noticed that since my WAN IP changed on the 20th January, backups have been failing and I am stumped as to how to fix it. If I go to the Restore tab I can see previous backups up to 19th January.

      The error message received is An error occurred while uploading the encrypted pfSense configuration to https://acb.netgate.com/save (Operation timed out after 30018 milliseconds with 0 bytes received)

      It doesn't appear to be a DNS error or routing issue. I can curl -L http://acb.netgate.com from the console and get back some HTML: ... <body> Automatic Configuration Backup system for Netgate/pfSense firewalls </body>...

      So, I am wondering if the backups are somehow being refused because the public IP of my router has changed? Does anyone have any ideas as to what the problem may be or how to diagnose further?

      I'm running pfSense CE 2.7.2-RELEASE.

      Thanks,

      C GertjanG 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • C
        codersaur @codersaur
        last edited by

        Thought I should add, I tried the following changes but all have failed to fix the issue:

        • Full reboot.
        • Changing the auto-backup frequency from "every configuration change" to "on a regular schedule".
        • Removing old backups from the Restore tab.
        • Performing a manual backup.
        • Regenerating the SSH Host keys to generate a new Device ID for backup.
        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • stephenw10S
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          Can you resolve acb.netgate.com? Can you ping it?

          I'm not aware of any blocking in front of that server but there may be some. Send me the new WAN IP in chat and I'll check it.

          C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • C
            codersaur @stephenw10
            last edited by

            @stephenw10 Yes, Ping works. A GET of http://acb.netgate.com also works. And I can also get a list of previous successful backups from the Restore tab in the web UI....

            [2.7.2-RELEASE][admin@redacted.lan]/root: ping acb.netgate.com
            PING acb.netgate.com (208.123.73.69): 56 data bytes
            64 bytes from 208.123.73.69: icmp_seq=0 ttl=251 time=120.254 ms
            64 bytes from 208.123.73.69: icmp_seq=1 ttl=251 time=120.423 ms
            64 bytes from 208.123.73.69: icmp_seq=2 ttl=251 time=120.271 ms
            64 bytes from 208.123.73.69: icmp_seq=3 ttl=251 time=120.336 ms
            --- acb.netgate.com ping statistics ---
            4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
            round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 120.254/120.321/120.423/0.066 ms
            [2.7.2-RELEASE][admin@redacted.lan]/root:  curl -L http://acb.netgate.com
            <!DOCTYPE html>
            <html>
                <head>
                    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
                    <title>Auto Config Backup</title>
                </head>
                <body>
                            Automatic Configuration Backup system for Netgate/pfSense firewalls
                </body>
            </html>
            
            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • GertjanG
              Gertjan @codersaur
              last edited by

              @codersaur said in Auto Configuration Backup fails after WAN IP change:

              So, I am wondering if the backups are somehow being refused because the public IP of my router has changed?

              Why ?
              When you

              @codersaur said in Auto Configuration Backup fails after WAN IP change:

              I can curl -L http://acb.netgate.com from

              weren't you using the same WAN IP ?
              Go here : Services > Dynamic DNS > Check IP Services and copy the URL.
              'curl' to it. It will show your WAN IP, right ?

              This could be very well a probably temporary glitch as "http://acb.netgate.com" can get a bit overworked as more and more and more pfSense devices dump their daily config file.

              @codersaur said in Auto Configuration Backup fails after WAN IP change:

              "every configuration change"

              Yeah, what about not abusing a free service ( 😊 ) - I mean : ones a day or so is just fine for most needs.

              No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
              Edit : and where are the logs ??

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

                We are digging into this internally. We spent a while looking at it yesterday and so far it looks like back end problem.

                C 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • C
                  codersaur @stephenw10
                  last edited by

                  @stephenw10 said in Auto Configuration Backup fails after WAN IP change:

                  We are digging into this internally. We spent a while looking at it yesterday and so far it looks like back end problem.

                  Thanks Stephen, I look forward to your conclusions so we can get this resolved asap - I've been having to make manual backups for the last three weeks.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • C
                    codersaur @stephenw10
                    last edited by

                    @stephenw10 did your investigation yield any useful conclusions? My backup is still failing each morning.

                    Is there some way I can purge the local backup files in case there is some lingering corruption which is causing the issue when they are uploaded?

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

                      The file that gets uploaded is generated from the config each time. However you can check if it's still present in /tmp. The file name is {file_hash}.tmp. It should be removed from there after uploading.

                      C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • GertjanG
                        Gertjan @codersaur
                        last edited by

                        @codersaur

                        And check the file size ?
                        Be ware : backup files are here : /cf/conf/backup/

                        No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                        Edit : and where are the logs ??

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • C
                          codersaur @stephenw10
                          last edited by

                          @stephenw10 so there's no .tmp file.

                          Backup dir looks normal (I guess) with each xml file being 9.1MB and being created at 04:48 as per schedule (the ACME service also seems to trigger a backup at 03:16 every third day).

                          I've run the latest xml file through a validator and it seems fine. So I am still at a loss as to why my backup uploads to acb.netgate.com are failing...

                          /root: ls -lah /cf/conf/backup/
                          total 279376
                          drwxr-xr-x  2 root wheel  1.5K Feb 21 04:48 .
                          drwxr-xr-x  5 root wheel  1.0K Feb 21 04:48 ..
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  4.6K Feb 21 04:48 backup.cache
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 13 15:38 config-1739461091.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 13 15:38 config-1739461092.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 13 15:38 config-1739461093.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 13 15:38 config-1739461096.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 13 15:38 config-1739461097.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 13 15:38 config-1739461098.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 13 15:38 config-1739461100.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 13 15:38 config-1739461101.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 13 15:38 config-1739461102.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 13 15:38 config-1739461105.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 13 15:38 config-1739461106.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 13 15:38 config-1739461107.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 13 15:38 config-1739461109.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 13 15:38 config-1739461110.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 13 15:38 config-1739461111.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 13 15:38 config-1739461112.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 13 15:38 config-1739461115.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 13 15:38 config-1739461116.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 13 15:38 config-1739461117.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 14 04:48 config-1739461118.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 15 03:16 config-1739508480.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 15 04:48 config-1739589365.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 16 04:48 config-1739594880.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 17 04:48 config-1739681280.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 18 03:16 config-1739767680.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 18 04:48 config-1739848565.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 19 04:48 config-1739854080.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 20 04:48 config-1739940480.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 21 03:16 config-1740026880.xml
                          -rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  9.1M Feb 21 04:48 config-1740107765.xml
                          
                          GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • stephenw10S
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by

                            Yes, it pretty much has to be the backend rejecting it. I'll poke our guys again.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • GertjanG
                              Gertjan @codersaur
                              last edited by

                              @codersaur

                              My typical config-xxx.xml files are 650 Kbytes or so for a 24.11 on a 4100.
                              9+ Mbytes seems a lot to me.

                              No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                              Edit : and where are the logs ??

                              C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • C
                                codersaur @Gertjan
                                last edited by codersaur

                                @Gertjan The xml files seem to include the rrddata. If I make a manual backup without rrddata the size is ~380 Kb.

                                There doesn't seem to be an option in the ACB config page to include/exclude rrd data like there is on the manual Diagnostics > Backup/Restore...

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • W
                                  williamrolison
                                  last edited by williamrolison

                                  Since I can't thumb up ATM. Anyways.

                                  I'm having this same issue as codersaur.

                                  Look forward to the fix. For now disabled.

                                  Netgate 4200 24.11

                                  C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                  • C
                                    codersaur @williamrolison
                                    last edited by

                                    @williamrolison When did it start failing and can you correlate with any changes on your side? If yours also started failing around 20th Jan that might indicate a server-side change and rule out the WAN IP change a factor. Conversely, if you also had a WAN IP change that might also help track down the root cause.

                                    W 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • W
                                      williamrolison @codersaur
                                      last edited by

                                      Started for me on Feb 13. Feb 11 was when IP changed.

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

                                        The encrypted files uploaded to acb always exclude RRD data so that file size should be no issue. But clearly something is....

                                        C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                        • C
                                          codersaur @stephenw10
                                          last edited by

                                          @stephenw10 is there any progress update on this issue? Thanks.

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

                                            Nothing yet. I'll see if our IT guys found anything.....

                                            C 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.