Crash Report blank, firewall randomly restarting
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I have a firewall that has been running issue free for some time now. All of a sudden I am getting the "pfSense has detected a crash report or programming bug. Click here for more information." message. When I click on the link there is no crash report, it just loads a blank page. I have confirmed today that several times during the day the firewall restarts.
I know that the cause is normally Kernal Panic, or Hardware. What is the best way to investigate the restarting?
I did update to 2.2 today, but I am still getting the blank crash log.
Any ideas?
Thank you in advance.
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I would backup your config and run a memtest.
You can run a memtest by downloading memtest86, burn to CD and boot to the CD. It sounds like a faulty piece of hardware.
Definitely backup your config though or all your work could one day go POOF!
Also check to see what SMART says about your drive. I doubt it's your drive but could be.
If memtest comes back clean after about 8 hours then try swapping out your power supply. You could be getting dirty power.Please, when you have a chance describe to us your hardware setup.
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Boy am I lucky you prompted me to create a backup. I went in to start the SMART test and created a backup first. I went to login this morning and the firewall appears to be down, or at least has been for the last couple of hours.
I did notice some things in the RD Graphs. I was going to screen shot them once I get in. I can see in the processor graph all the times the firewall restarts, there is a gap in the total processes line then it resumes low and steps up, then up again. I also had an event on Monday that lasted an hour at 100% "Nice", I dont know what that means, although it is the only time in the history of this firewall there is that spike.
Once I get in and get it started I will post those graphs. I am all ready with my memtest so I will run that tomorrow morning. I also have to check on the power side as well, I have it connected to a battery backup that has been burning through batteries. That might be related.
I have pfsense running on an old Dell Optiplex GX260 (the littlest one) with two Intel Pro 1000's. I think it only has a 2Ghz processor and 512MB of RAM.
Thank you for helping me out.
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Here is the processor and memory RRD graphs. The one time spike in "Nice" is unusual.
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Not a problem, glad to help and glad you had a backup before anything went poof!
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I checked for any crash reports from the IP you're accessing the forum from, but came up empty there. If you can PM me the IP where that should have come from, that'd help.
The contents of the crash reports come from the contents of the /var/crash/ directory. Checking its contents (before you submit the crash report) should help find what's there.
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Hello CMB,
The problem must have been hardware related, I picked up a base computer, threw in my NIC cards and installed fresh, then restored from the backup. Been running like a champ.
The processor graph had me worried (one spike), the memory one just looks like a system that is restarting.
I appreciate you looking into it. Thank you all for your help.