Trying to edit a rule make the webConfigurator hangs

[gsoucy]

Hello,

On a fresh install from a CD ( 2.2.1 ), after restoring the config, the webConfigurator hangs about 4-5 minutes before opening. All other pages seem to work fine.

This is a 2 x WANs setup. In this test setup, we have only the secondary WAN available (the first/default WAN is live in production). Also, we dont any other of the other computers that we usually have in production. To summarize, this simple setup is made of

a) the pfSense firewall
  b) a Windows PC (to use the web interface)
  c) a WAN access (not the main one).

Before restoring the production config, I can edit a rule without any problem. After restoring the config, it hangs 4-5 minutes when I try to edit a rule. Other than that everything seems fine (the windows computer has internet access). I do not see any strange process if I do a top.

Any idea of what could cause that ?

Thanks

Gilbert

[gsoucy]

What is the best way to debug this kind of problems? Is there a log I can check, can I turn the webConfigurator in debug mode? Why would it hang? I saw a few related postings but nothing helped me so far. I am afraid to deploy it as it might not be healthy….

Any pointer, comment is welcome! I dont know much pfSense, so dont underestimate your knowledge and advices, there are worth gold to me :)

Thanks in advance!

[phil.davis]

On a fresh install from a CD ( 2.2.1 ), after restoring the config, the webConfigurator hangs about 4-5 minutes before opening. All other pages seem to work fine.

Do you mean waiting for the first login page, or waiting for the dashboard to first be displayed?
The title of the thread suggests the wait is when you edit a rule?

In your test setup the primary WAN is not up (since that is in real use by the production system, I guess). If the primary WAN is the default gateway, and you have AutoConfigBackup package, then it will be trying to backup the config when you make a change and that will wait to time out on each change. When that happens to me it is about 30 to 60 seconds.

Anyway, maybe something related to not having a default gateway up? Try changing the default gateway for testing.

[gsoucy]

Thanks for the reply!

No, we dont have AutoConfigBackup active.

As you suggest, I have tried to set the current gateway as the Default one. It does not make any difference.

When I try to edit a rule, it takes about 3 minutes for open the page. The initial login and accessing any other pages seem to work fine.

Do I need to start playing in the PHP code to get more info or is there a way to get more logging ? What could it be doing to hang for 3 minutes on opening the Rule? Any hypothesis is welcome !!

Thanks!

[doktornotor]

Sounds like broken DNS to me…

[gsoucy]

Figured it out : we had smtp notification enabled and the SMTP server configured was not accessible in this test setup. pfSense was always trying to warn about the main gateway being down. When I disabled notifiaction, I was able to open the rule edit page without any delay.

The most useful thing that I learned is that the php errors are logged in /var/log/system.log (on my system at least). Once you see the error, it is easier to fix.

Thanks for the help !