Torrents kill the box

weh

I'm using pfsense inside a VM (Virtualbox) on a Windows Server 2008 host. Did most of the config, it runs great and I have all my devices on it. Only problem I've had so far is torrenting. The whole server locks up after a while and I have to reboot it. Both host and guest are inaccessible.
I've tried limiting the connections and up/down speeds in uTorrent, no dice. I've also tried bumping up the number of states in pfsense, but also no dice. Nothing in the RRD graphs points me to the culprit…I see spikes, but they're not that bad and they come after the gap in the graph, the one from the server being down.

Any help would be appreciated.

chpalmer

How much RAM does pfSense have?

weh

Thanks for the reply!
The VM originally had 512MB of RAM allocated. during my troubleshooting, I increased the memory to 1024MB, but the problem persists.

bsmither

That was happening to me (though I am more a client than server for torrents).

Research suggested that I get into the torrent client's advanced config/options and find the "Maximum Number of Half-Open Connections". I set it to 8.

Before (I forget what it was), my system would be herky-jerky and basically unusable until a reboot.

You did not mention where the torrent client is located. My response is assuming the client is on the box that is having the trouble.

Nor did you mention what the experience is that you have without pfSense in the mix.

weh

The torrent client is located on the windows Server 2008 host, sorry if that was unclear. Everything is fine if I skip pfsense and go straight through our wireless router.

EDIT:
Tried changing the half-connections parameter to 8, nothing happening differently as far as i can tell.

EDIT 2: BUMP

Cyberloard

I think this may be a problem with virtalbox since the host locks up as well.It's my understanding that the server doing the virtualization is also the client doing the torrenting,which may be a factor. Try using a different system for the torrenting and see if the system still locks up. If not you may want to try a different technology for your virtualization or perhaps use dedicated hardware for pfsense.

I hope these suggestions help in some way or attract someone who may be of more help then I am.

weh

Thanks for the feedback. Torrenting from any machine tanks the server, I think I already mentioned that. I'll try using a different virtualization solution to see if anything changes.
Thank you.