Web UI crash every 5 minutes or so

Synack 0 · Jan 15, 2013, 4:52 PM

Hi there :)

First I'd like to thank people contributing to the pfSense project. I've been using it for a few years now, and it's very usefull.

Unfortunately, I had an issue with the web UI today. To be sure it wasn't me, i installed pfSense 3 times : amd64, amd64 again, i386.
All I did was installing it (quick mode) and configuring two interfaces. I then accessed the web UI and it was fine. But 5 minutes later, the page was not responding anymore.

A (quite) quick fix is to reboot the VM, but 5 minutes later, crap, it does it again.
When this bug happens, only the web UI crashes. VPN, routing, firewalling still work great.
I checked the logs but nothing seems wrong.
It this a well-known issue ?

Thanks very much for your help.

Kate.

stephenw10 · Jan 15, 2013, 6:16 PM

Which version are you using? 2.0.2?
The webgui can appear to freeze under some circumstances when it tries to resolve a URL but DNS isn't available. Is you VM fully connected up?

If it's just the webgui that stops working it could be a php error. The logs are in /tmp, you view it like so:

[2.0.2-RELEASE][root@pfsense.fire.box]/(5): clog /tmp/PHP_errors.log

Steve

scientific · Jan 15, 2013, 6:29 PM

Hi and welcome to the forum.. as you can see Im new also but also noticed my web gui crashing a few times.

1. after installing some packages (had to reset the pfsence box)
2.going through the options in diognostics 1 by 1 ( also had to reset)

The good thing is I thing the web Gui is separate from the router/firewall cause the first crash I had it running for 2 days no problem.
I did try to restart the Web Gui from the pfsence box with no luck.

what is your setup..?
Version 2.0.2-RELEASE ?
CPU
RAM
WAN
LAN
Motherboard..

The first thing everybody will ask is what nics are you using and specs so put that in your sig. :)

Crashing every 5 mins is very extreme. Could be hardware related. You said you had it running for a few years now and only now your having this problem?.same PC then maybe a nic going bad.. Again I'm new so just guessing. hopefully we can both get some answers about the web Gui crashing.

Synack 0 · Jan 15, 2013, 6:56 PM

Hi again !

I've forgotten to say I use the 2.0.2 version and I updated it with the console (option #13 & auto).
Everything is ok for the DNS (8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4), and I already checked if the router was able to resolve domain names.

I'll check the php logs when i'll be back in front of this pfSense VM.

Thanks very much for your help.

Synack 0 · Feb 15, 2013, 4:52 PM

Hi again !

This problem still gets on my nerves.
No information in the /tmp/PHP_errors.log file.

Any idea ?

tim.mcmanus · Feb 15, 2013, 6:09 PM

I had a few UI issues in 2.0.2. I've upgraded (manual firmware update) to the most recent 2.0.3 release (Feb. 9) and that resolved all of my UI issues. You might want to do that. Download the latest .tgz image and manually update your pfSense firmware. IMHO it's very stable and I have a feeling it'll resolve your issues.

stephenw10 · Feb 15, 2013, 8:00 PM

If you can still SSH into the box, what happens if you restart the web gui (menu option 11)?
If you run top does it show some process using all the cpu cycles?

Steve

cmb · Feb 15, 2013, 9:08 PM

Upgrade to 2.0.3. We would have released it already but we're awaiting the "any day now" FreeBSD security advisory for the recent openssl issue.

Synack 0 · Feb 18, 2013, 9:08 AM

Thanks for your answers. I had already tried restarting the webgui with console option #11, without any change.
I'm upgrading to 2.0.3 and I'll tell you if it works :)

Synack 0 · Feb 18, 2013, 2:37 PM

Tried v2.0.3, still crashes :(

I'm using a ESXi 5.1 based VM. Host is using a Xeon E5620 CPU (2.40GHz).

tim.mcmanus · Feb 18, 2013, 3:29 PM

Anything in the system logs? Also check the lighttpd logs too.

clog /var/log/lighttpd.error.log

and

clog /var/log/lighttpd.log

Synack 0 · Feb 25, 2013, 1:56 PM

Anything in the logs… This is quite bad.

When i'm connected to pfSense whith SSH, it seems like it takes a longer time to crash (I managed to keep control of the UI for 43 minutes yesterday).

wallabybob · Feb 25, 2013, 7:32 PM

Could you give a bit more detail on what you mean by "crash"? the page doesn't complete loading? you get an unexpected error report? (If so, what is the report?)

What happens when you close and restart the web browser?

Can you reliably get it to "crash" by going to a particular page? If so, what page?

Please post the output of pfSense shell command```
top -S -H -d 2

wallabybob · Feb 26, 2013, 2:06 AM

I don't know if this is specific to the version of pFsense I am running or is a general problem. I don't know if it related to the problem reported in this thread.

I went to Diagnostics -> Command Prompt, typed a command in the Command box and hit the Enter key. The web page is "stalled", the browser reporting (after some minutes) Waiting for … (the name of my pfSense box).

I clicked on the browser "Abort" button then attempted to go to the home page of my pfSense box and the browser again reported Waiting for …

I am using Chromium. I then used Firefox (without exiting from Chromium) and connected to the home page of my pfSense box. My pfSense box is running

2.0.1-RELEASE (i386)
built on Mon Dec 12 17:53:52 EST 2011
FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE-p4

as reported on the home page.

cmb · Feb 26, 2013, 3:12 AM

@wallabybob:

I went to Diagnostics -> Command Prompt, typed a command in the Command box and hit the Enter key. The web page is "stalled", the browser reporting (after some minutes) Waiting for … (the name of my pfSense box).

If you run a command there that never ends, like "ping google.com", that's the expected result.

wallabybob · Feb 26, 2013, 4:07 AM

The command was```
/etc/rc.banner

Synack 0 · Feb 26, 2013, 9:44 AM

@wallabybob:

Could you give a bit more detail on what you mean by "crash"? the page doesn't complete loading? you get an unexpected error report? (If so, what is the report?)

No HTTPS response is returned to my browser (not even a 4XX or 5XX code). Nothing. Chrome says "This webpage is not available". You don't say…
I'll try HTTP.

@wallabybob:

What happens when you close and restart the web browser?

Nothing. Tried rebooting, switching to other browsers, it didn't work… This is a server-side error.

@wallabybob:

Can you reliably get it to "crash" by going to a particular page? If so, what page?

Nope, it's a random crash. Sometime i'm just managing my firewall rules, then I take a brake and when I come back, bam ! Crash.

@wallabybob:

Please post the output of pfSense shell command```
top -S -H -d 2

Synack 0 · Feb 26, 2013, 9:59 AM

Edit : Holy **** ! It still crashes using HTTP : "No data received".

Just to let you know : i reverted to HTTP (Console –> Set interface(s) IP address --> x.x.x.x /x --> DHCP ? (n) --> Revert to HTTP ? (y)).

Web gui came back without needing a reboot ! This is great. Hope it won't crash anymore, but this already seems to be an improvement.
HTTPS isn't usefull at all in my case (separate network for gui), so i'll just keep HTTP and let you know if it stays up. :)

tim.mcmanus · Feb 26, 2013, 5:10 PM

@tim.mcmanus:

Anything in the system logs? Also check the lighttpd logs too.

clog /var/log/lighttpd.error.log

and

clog /var/log/lighttpd.log

I never saw these logs posted. These logs are the service logs and will most definitely determine why this particular service is crashing. Please post them.

Synack 0 · Feb 26, 2013, 6:01 PM

As I already said, those files contain absolutely nothing.
As a matter of fact, the lighttpd.error.log file doesn't even exists.