<![CDATA[CPU Usage Pegging out]]>I have been experiencing this issue for the last few test builds. After the firewall has been running for about 2-3 days with no reboot I will see the CPU usage peg to 100%. Now, my cpu is 1.2ghz, I am running on cable, and I know there is no way I could be using 100% of my processing power. I am not running any BT or servers behind this firewall. As you can see by my state table there is not a whole lot of traffic occuring when its pegged out. I do not notice a slow down in the amount of time to render a page nor do I notice any lag in games, etc. The cpu usage seems to be reporting 100% when it is actually not 100%. The really odd thing about this is that once the CPU shows 100%, it stays that way. Never goes back down. I have to restart the firewall for it to be at 1%, which is normal for me :). Anyone else having this issue or is it a known issue? I searched the forums and cvs trac and could not find anything related.
screen.GIF
screen2.GIF
screen.GIF_thumb
screen2.GIF_thumb
screen.GIF_thumb
screen2.GIF_thumb

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/topic/672/cpu-usage-pegging-outRSS for NodeWed, 07 Oct 2026 21:32:19 GMTTue, 28 Feb 2006 00:29:06 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to CPU Usage Pegging out on Sun, 05 Mar 2006 22:20:14 GMT]]>A number of people have been complaining about these problems on the FreeBSD lists.  It's somewhat a known by not known problem.

The dhclient maintainer seems to think there are some edge cases left in the client.  Please describe in more detail your isp setup and what options the isp are pushing to you.

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/134855https://forum.netgate.com/post/134855Sun, 05 Mar 2006 22:20:14 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to CPU Usage Pegging out on Sun, 05 Mar 2006 22:09:57 GMT]]>Well I loaded beta 2 from a fresh install and I have not had the cpu usage peg to 100%, however it is constantly staying at 4-6% usage now. The cpu used to never stay at 4-6% before beta 2 (at least before it pegged out). I am running 1.2ghz Athlon and I don't see how anything should be using 4-6%. So I logged into shell and looked and low and behold its the Dhclient again. Its not pegging it out, but it is eating up some resources. Is this to be expected?

![cpu load.GIF](/public/imported_attachments/1/cpu load.GIF)
putty.GIF
![cpu load.GIF_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/cpu load.GIF_thumb)
putty.GIF_thumb
![cpu load.GIF_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/cpu load.GIF_thumb)
putty.GIF_thumb

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/134854https://forum.netgate.com/post/134854Sun, 05 Mar 2006 22:09:57 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to CPU Usage Pegging out on Fri, 03 Mar 2006 22:04:22 GMT]]>yep, I'll try that and see how things go

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/134799https://forum.netgate.com/post/134799Fri, 03 Mar 2006 22:04:22 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to CPU Usage Pegging out on Fri, 03 Mar 2006 22:02:58 GMT]]>FYI: And that means reinstalling, not trying to do an upgrade.

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/134797https://forum.netgate.com/post/134797Fri, 03 Mar 2006 22:02:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to CPU Usage Pegging out on Fri, 03 Mar 2006 21:34:08 GMT]]>Do a fresh reinstall with beta2.

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/134793https://forum.netgate.com/post/134793Fri, 03 Mar 2006 21:34:08 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to CPU Usage Pegging out on Fri, 03 Mar 2006 21:42:58 GMT]]>It happened again  :-\ Although this time it is two different processes chewing up the cpu usage. One thing to note is the syslog is taking up a good bit of usage, yet I do not have syslog enabled. Does that process run even when you are not using syslog to a remote server?

![cpu peg 3.GIF](/public/imported_attachments/1/cpu peg 3.GIF)
processes.GIF
![cpu peg 3.GIF_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/cpu peg 3.GIF_thumb)
processes.GIF_thumb
![cpu peg 3.GIF_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/cpu peg 3.GIF_thumb)
processes.GIF_thumb

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/134792https://forum.netgate.com/post/134792Fri, 03 Mar 2006 21:42:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to CPU Usage Pegging out on Tue, 28 Feb 2006 22:14:09 GMT]]>I get this happening almost everytime I use the upgrade option instead of fresh installing.  As soon as I upgrade the cpu sits on max.  Doesn't happen everytime I've upgraded.  Latest time being one of those times it is working correctly.

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/134725https://forum.netgate.com/post/134725Tue, 28 Feb 2006 22:14:09 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to CPU Usage Pegging out on Tue, 28 Feb 2006 04:05:14 GMT]]>Use the Status -> Interfaces, Release/Renew button.

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/134712https://forum.netgate.com/post/134712Tue, 28 Feb 2006 04:05:14 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to CPU Usage Pegging out on Tue, 28 Feb 2006 02:40:51 GMT]]>I just thought that you can try to init the system without rebooting.

killall dhclient && /bin/sh /etc/rc

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/134711https://forum.netgate.com/post/134711Tue, 28 Feb 2006 02:40:51 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to CPU Usage Pegging out on Tue, 28 Feb 2006 02:39:32 GMT]]>Thats the dhcp client, it assigning you (pfSense interfaces configured with dhcp) a dynamic address. dhcpd is what assigns your client's ip addresses.
I don't know how to restart the dhcpclient yet. I guess Scott or someone else could tell how, if you don't want to lose your uptime.

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/134710https://forum.netgate.com/post/134710Tue, 28 Feb 2006 02:39:32 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to CPU Usage Pegging out on Tue, 28 Feb 2006 01:43:30 GMT]]>Well looky there. Sure enough, the dhcp process is what is pegging it out. Which you know, makes since. Sometimes I find after the firewall has been up for several days, my clients have trouble renewing their dhcp leases. I guess this could be the issue.

![cpu pegging.GIF](/public/imported_attachments/1/cpu pegging.GIF)
![cpu pegging.GIF_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/cpu pegging.GIF_thumb)
![cpu pegging.GIF_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/cpu pegging.GIF_thumb)

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/134709https://forum.netgate.com/post/134709Tue, 28 Feb 2006 01:43:30 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to CPU Usage Pegging out on Tue, 28 Feb 2006 00:46:31 GMT]]>I get this a few times too.

login to ssh and use the shell (option "8"). type

top -s1

This will give you an idea as to what is eating your cpu idel cycles.

mine is usually caused by a run away shell process that keeps spawing another php process.
Killall sh, will fix that if its the same problem.

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/134707https://forum.netgate.com/post/134707Tue, 28 Feb 2006 00:46:31 GMT