High CPU usage after installing new DSL modem

jrittenh

I'm on AT&T U-verse DSL. I previously had a 2210-02-1ATT Motorola modem. According to AT&T, it was dying, so they sent me a new modem…but instead of a plain modem, they sent me an Arris NVG510 "modem/router/firewall" that apparently has issues with passthrough mode. I finally managed to get that working by manually configuring the pfSense WAN port's IP and netmask, but as soon as pfSense gets the public IP, the CPU redlines. I thought I had it mostly working finally last night, but this morning now the 256MB memory is 88% full, the CPU is pegged again, and I can barely get to the web interface to do anything. I did manage to update it to 2.1.4, but that hasn't helped any. Remotely, the web interface is basically useless, and I can't even connect via SSH. The last time I was able to pull up the system activity diagnostics page, php was the process pegging the CPU, but I can't get to a console or web page to kill it. If I take the modem out of passthrough mode, the router settles down, but then of course I can't do anything outside of browse the web since i'm double-NATed.

So...any ideas? As I'm writing this, I did finally manage to SSH to the pfSense box, dropped to a shell, and killall-ed php. That temporarily cleaned things up somewhat, but it's already back to 100% CPU and 100MB memory usage since all that did was clear the existing processes just to spawn new ones. My wife is now firmware-resetting the modem/router/firewall so that she can have functional internet today, so I'll have to wait until tonight to test.

Harvy66

Could you post your "System Activity" from under "Diagnostics"?

jrittenh

This is now, with it leasing a private IP from the modem:

last pid: 45252;  load averages:  0.35,  0.34,  0.22  up 0+12:19:06    21:17:30
93 processes:  2 running, 78 sleeping, 13 waiting

Mem: 28M Active, 9588K Inact, 53M Wired, 304K Cache, 26M Buf, 171M Free
Swap: 1024M Total, 20M Used, 1004M Free, 1% Inuse

  PID USERNAME PRI NICE   SIZE    RES STATE    TIME   WCPU COMMAND
   11 root     171 ki31     0K     8K RUN    641:49 63.09% [idle]
17517 root      76    0 33236K 13056K piperd   1:28 26.86% /usr/local/bin/php{php}
   12 root     -68    -     0K   104K WAIT    30:18  6.69% [intr{irq11: xl0 xl1 x}]
   12 root     -24    -     0K   104K WAIT     1:56  0.20% [intr{swi6: task queue}]
    0 root     -16    0     0K    64K sched  104:25  0.00% [kernel{swapper}]
   12 root     -32    -     0K   104K WAIT     7:17  0.00% [intr{swi4: clock}]
  257 root      76   20  3352K   756K kqread   5:46  0.00% /usr/local/sbin/check_reload_status
46216 root      44    0  3300K  1284K select   3:40  0.00% /usr/local/sbin/miniupnpd -f /var/etc/miniupnp
   14 root     -16    -     0K     8K -        1:21  0.00% [yarrow]
   17 root     -16    -     0K     8K psleep   1:04  0.00% [pagedaemon]
48807 root      44    0  3412K  1008K select   0:52  0.00% /usr/sbin/syslogd -s -c -c -l /var/dhcpd/var/r
17238 root      76    0 27860K  8356K accept   0:31  0.00% /usr/local/bin/php
16824 root      44    0  3264K  1016K select   0:30  0.00% /usr/local/sbin/apinger -c /var/etc/apinger.co
63687 root      76   20  3644K  1488K wait     0:29  0.00% /bin/sh /var/db/rrd/updaterrd.sh
    3 root      -8    -     0K     8K -        0:26  0.00% [g_up]
   18 root     -16    -     0K     8K psleep   0:14  0.00% [vmdaemon]
    4 root      -8    -     0K     8K -        0:14  0.00% [g_down]
53084 nobody    64   20  5512K  2800K select   0:12  0.00% /usr/local/sbin/dnsmasq --all-servers --rebind

I'll post under load when it's pulling the public IP from the modem later tonight after my wife goes to bed. Pretty sure I'll be shot if I leave it like that while she's trying to do anything.

jrittenh

Well, I just flipped it back to having pfSense hold the public IP, and so far so good. The issue last time, though, was after a night of holding it. I'll keep an eye on it throughout the day today. Maybe it was just a fluke.

Harvy66

I just wanted to point out that "[kernel{swapper}]" has a HUGE amount of total CPU time consumed. Your interrupt usage is a bit high also, but I assume that swapper has something to do with the page file. I could be wrong.

If this is the case, then you may have ran out of physical memory for a bit, causing your system to start paging to your storage device.

stephenw10

Yep, you shouldn't be swapping, ever. Not if you want any sort of decent performance anyway. ;) Quite why running a public IP would require more memory though is odd if that is the issue.
What hardware are you running? I see you have 256MB RAM, are you running any packages?

Steve