pfSense 2.1.5 (i386) - lan interface stops responding after some time

acidrop

Renowned Member
Jul 17, 2012
204
6
83
hello,

Recently I tried to virtualize a pfSense 2.1.5 i386 on pve vm with the following config:

Code:
balloon: 512bootdisk: ide0
cores: 1
cpuunits: 5000
ide0: local:100/vm-100-disk-1.qcow2,format=qcow2,cache=directsync,size=10922M
ide2: none,media=cdrom
memory: 1250
name: pfsense
net0: rtl8139=46:79:94:31:4C:39,bridge=vmbr0
net1: rtl8139=36:89:9C:94:F3:00,bridge=vmbr1
net2: rtl8139=1E:56:32:2A:2E:9A,bridge=vmbr2
onboot: 1
ostype: other
smbios1: uuid=a76d6545-0fc2-4bc5-96b9-0b8d87a0d615
sockets: 1
startup: order=1
tablet: 0
vga: std

Physical machine consists of 3 nics. 1 for lan access, 1 direclty connected to adsl router1 and 1 directly connected to router2.
Note that the reason I have selected rtl8139 as vm nic is for compatibility reasons (I have also tried e1000 and virtio with same issue).

The problem:

VM works very well for some time. Then suddenly LAN interface of pfSense stops responding to any request (e.g ping). As a consequence, all LAN computers
do not have internet access anymore.

The workaround:
If I stop vm, change a number or letter on vm lan mac address (e.g from 46:79:94:31:4C:39 to 46:79:94:31:4C:38) and finally poweron again the vm everything works again (without reconfiguring interfaces on pfsense) for some time and again the same thing happens.

What I have tried:
1. e1000 as vm nic (same problem)
2. virtio as vm nic (it was recognized by pf by following their guide but for some reason no traffic passes through any of the interfaces)
3. rtl8139 (same problem).

Note: At this point I would like to inform that on this PVE box I have another vm (zimbra for testing) which works all the time correctly without loosing access with lan. It's vm nic is set to e1000. This leads me to think that something is wrong with pfsense.

More info:
Code:
 pveversion -vproxmox-ve-2.6.32: 3.3-138 (running kernel: 2.6.32-33-pve)
pve-manager: 3.3-2 (running version: 3.3-2/995e687e)
pve-kernel-2.6.32-32-pve: 2.6.32-136
pve-kernel-2.6.32-33-pve: 2.6.32-138
lvm2: 2.02.98-pve4
clvm: 2.02.98-pve4
corosync-pve: 1.4.7-1
openais-pve: 1.1.4-3
libqb0: 0.11.1-2
redhat-cluster-pve: 3.2.0-2
resource-agents-pve: 3.9.2-4
fence-agents-pve: 4.0.10-1
pve-cluster: 3.0-15
qemu-server: 3.1-35
pve-firmware: 1.1-3
libpve-common-perl: 3.0-19
libpve-access-control: 3.0-15
libpve-storage-perl: 3.0-23
pve-libspice-server1: 0.12.4-3
vncterm: 1.1-8
vzctl: 4.0-1pve6
vzprocps: 2.0.11-2
vzquota: 3.1-2
pve-qemu-kvm: 2.1-9
ksm-control-daemon: 1.1-1
glusterfs-client: 3.5.2-1

Code:
Linux proxmox1 2.6.32-33-pve #1 SMP Fri Sep 26 08:02:30 CEST 2014 x86_64 GNU/Linux

WAN1:

Code:
ethtool -i eth0
driver: 8139too
version: 0.9.28
firmware-version:
bus-info: 0000:03:00.0
supports-statistics: yes
supports-test: no
supports-eeprom-access: no
supports-register-dump: yes
supports-priv-flags: no

LAN:

Code:
ethtool -i eth1
driver: atl1c
version: 1.0.1.0-NAPI
firmware-version:
bus-info: 0000:04:00.0
supports-statistics: no
supports-test: no
supports-eeprom-access: yes
supports-register-dump: yes
supports-priv-flags: no

WAN2:

Code:
ethtool -i eth2
driver: 8139too
version: 0.9.28
firmware-version:
bus-info: 0000:03:01.0
supports-statistics: yes
supports-test: no
supports-eeprom-access: no
supports-register-dump: yes
supports-priv-flags: no

Anyone that has experiences this issue?

thank you
 
Hi
Just for your info
pfsense on proxmox have work for me several years.

Today I have an old Proxmox 2.3 (install date 2012 Apr 11) running 8vm and among them 2 virtual pfsense transfer 300-500 GB daily and no problem.



----------------- pfsense ---------------------------
Version 2.1.5-RELEASE (amd64)
built on Mon Aug 25 07:44:45 EDT 2014
FreeBSD 8.3-RELEASE-p16


You are on the latest version.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------- proxmox 2.3 -----------------------------------
Linux pm7 2.6.32-19-pve #1 SMP Mon Mar 18 06:41:32 CET 2013 x86_64 GNU/Linux

pve-manager: 2.3-13 (pve-manager/2.3/7946f1f1)
running kernel: 2.6.32-19-pve
proxmox-ve-2.6.32: 2.3-93


root@pm7:~# ethtool -i eth0
driver: r8169
version: 2.3LK-NAPI
firmware-version:
bus-info: 0000:02:00.0
root@pm7:~# ethtool -i eth1
driver: r8169
version: 2.3LK-NAPI
firmware-version: rtl8168f-1_0.0.5 06/18/12
bus-info: 0000:03:00.0
root@pm7:~# ethtool -i eth2
driver: r8169
version: 2.3LK-NAPI
firmware-version:
bus-info: 0000:01:00.0
root@pm7:~# ethtool -i eth3
driver: 8139too
version: 0.9.28
firmware-version:
bus-info: 0000:04:01.0

-------------- hwinfo ------------------

/usr/sbin/dmidecode --type baseboard

Manufacturer: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
Product Name: P8B75-M
Version: Rev X.0x

/usr/sbin/dmidecode -t 0
Vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
Version: 1401
Release Date: 02/18/2013

lspci
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 01)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 01)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 09)
04:01.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

-------------------------------------------------

Tips try change nic in host server I use cheap Reltek card in all my servers.
My opinion regarding hardware for Linux is Cheap=Common=Well tested=No Problemas

//Pellegbta
 
Thank you for your response.

Yes, me too I have installed pfsense many times on proxmox but this particular one seem to have this strange problem.

I am trying to reproduce it to my test proxmox box but still everything ok on that.

Now, on the problematic pfsense, I have installed from scratch pfsense 2.5.1 x64 this time. I enabled virtio permanently, so now all 3 vm nics are in virtio mode, vm disk is also in virtio mode, enabled balloon also and gave 2 cores (smp pfsense kernel).

I restored the config from the other (problematic) pfsense and everythi g looks good for now.I noticed also some speed improvement by enabling virtio.

Let's see how long will last... :)

I am suspecting driver:
atl1c
version: 1.0.1.0-NAPI

which is physical nic dedicated on Lan network.
But on the other hand zimbra vm does not experience such issue...
 
Last edited:

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