[pfSense] apu.4c silently dies
hi all, i have a new apu.4c with a Kingston SSD unit will run sometimes for days, or sometimes for several hours, before becoming unresponsive: - no mac response from ethernet cards - serial console dies -- no errors displayed - no errors in system log - no crash report on reboot what is the best approach to finding out what is happening? thanks m ___ List mailing list List@lists.pfsense.org https://lists.pfsense.org/mailman/listinfo/list
Re: [pfSense] apu.4c silently dies
Many roads lead to ... gut says SSD - I'd try running off CD first. On Mon, May 19, 2014 at 10:15 PM, mayak wrote: > hi all, > > i have a new apu.4c with a Kingston SSD > > unit will run sometimes for days, or sometimes for several hours, before > becoming unresponsive: > > - no mac response from ethernet cards > - serial console dies -- no errors displayed > - no errors in system log > - no crash report on reboot > > what is the best approach to finding out what is happening? > > thanks > > m > ___ > List mailing list > List@lists.pfsense.org > https://lists.pfsense.org/mailman/listinfo/list > ___ List mailing list List@lists.pfsense.org https://lists.pfsense.org/mailman/listinfo/list
Re: [pfSense] apu.4c silently dies
Hi mayak > Many roads lead to ... gut says SSD - I'd try running off CD first. Seems apu1.4c (guess that's what you meant) has a SATA port, now you only need to get find way for powering a desktop CD/DVD drive (i.e. spare ATX power supply) > On Mon, May 19, 2014 at 10:15 PM, mayak wrote: > >> hi all, >> >> i have a new apu.4c with a Kingston SSD >> >> unit will run sometimes for days, or sometimes for several hours, before >> becoming unresponsive: >> >> - no mac response from ethernet cards >> - serial console dies -- no errors displayed Have you actually left serial console attached and kept logging the output? I did that once with a whacky but important network switch since syslog didn't give enough info. (i.e. tools like PuTTY can log output to a text file) >> - no errors in system log >> - no crash report on reboot Another idea would be to set up remote syslog logging so you can possibly store more data off the device than is staying within the circular logging on the box. >> >> what is the best approach to finding out what is happening? Ideally if someone knows how to set up serial crash console, but I'm not enough knowledgable in this area :-\ -- Mathieu P.S. I don't know if that makes any difference but it seems PC Engines is still labeling APU's BIOS as beta so you might want to check out (http://pcengines.ch/apu1c4.htm) ___ List mailing list List@lists.pfsense.org https://lists.pfsense.org/mailman/listinfo/list
Re: [pfSense] apu.4c silently dies
On 05/20/2014 07:42 AM, Mathieu Simon (Lists) wrote: > Hi mayak > >> Many roads lead to ... gut says SSD - I'd try running off CD first. > Seems apu1.4c (guess that's what you meant) has a SATA port, now you > only need to get find way for powering a desktop CD/DVD drive (i.e. > spare ATX power supply) > >> On Mon, May 19, 2014 at 10:15 PM, mayak wrote: >> >>> hi all, >>> >>> i have a new apu.4c with a Kingston SSD >>> >>> unit will run sometimes for days, or sometimes for several hours, before >>> becoming unresponsive: >>> >>> - no mac response from ethernet cards >>> - serial console dies -- no errors displayed > Have you actually left serial console attached and kept logging > the output? I did that once with a whacky but important network switch > since syslog didn't give enough info. (i.e. tools like PuTTY can log > output to a text file) > >>> - no errors in system log >>> - no crash report on reboot > Another idea would be to set up remote syslog logging so you can > possibly store more data off the device than is staying within the > circular logging on the box. >>> what is the best approach to finding out what is happening? > Ideally if someone knows how to set up serial crash console, but I'm not > enough knowledgable in this area :-\ > > -- Mathieu > > P.S. I don't know if that makes any difference but it seems PC Engines > is still labeling APU's BIOS as beta so you might want to check out > (http://pcengines.ch/apu1c4.htm) > ___ hi, yea -- i had upgraded the bios to 5-apr-2014 version before deploying. i also failed to mention that i ran it of an USB stick and has the same issue -- i that this might indicate a larger more generalized issue concerning storage, but i am not an expert in pc architecture. one would imagine that the USB stick's controller is on the stick, and the SSD controller on the board. not sure where the commonality is. anyway, i will try just leaving an ssh session open whilst `tail -f` the system log thanks m ___ List mailing list List@lists.pfsense.org https://lists.pfsense.org/mailman/listinfo/list
Re: [pfSense] apu.4c silently dies
On Tue, May 20, 2014 at 1:15 AM, mayak wrote: > unit will run sometimes for days, or sometimes for several hours, before > becoming unresponsive: My gut says overheating. ___ List mailing list List@lists.pfsense.org https://lists.pfsense.org/mailman/listinfo/list
Re: [pfSense] apu.4c silently dies
On 05/21/2014 10:14 PM, Vick Khera wrote: > On Tue, May 20, 2014 at 1:15 AM, mayak wrote: >> unit will run sometimes for days, or sometimes for several hours, before >> becoming unresponsive: > My gut says overheating. hi vick, man -- you're good -- i was waiting a bit more to post back, but yes, this appears to be thermal. clearly, this means that the heat sync/case has been incorrectly engineered. unit is flat on a shelf with nothing above it for 1.4 meters and the room is not that hot. i'd hate to see this unit in a warm space or with suppressed air flow. i have placed it vertically on the shelf -- allowing air to circulate on both sides (bottom and top). placing the heat sync on the bottom of the board/case doesn't seem to sufficient heat dissipation -- indeed, the rest of the case, and the motherboard itself, become heat collectors. i'll be curious to see pc engines proposes a new mounting/heat sync method. if the case had air flow slits on top and on the sides, i'd bet that it would be much cooler. cheers m ___ List mailing list List@lists.pfsense.org https://lists.pfsense.org/mailman/listinfo/list
Re: [pfSense] apu.4c silently dies
Am 21.05.2014 22:53, schrieb mayak: > i'll be curious to see pc engines proposes a new mounting/heat sync > method. if the case had air flow slits on top and on the sides, i'd bet > that it would be much cooler. Out of curiosity, did you buy a new case for you APU or or recycle an old one from an ALIX board you used earlier? IIRC from other threads on here, older cases are not compatible, even though at first sight they seem to be. The problem with the old cases is indeed insufficient heat dissipation. -Stefan ___ List mailing list List@lists.pfsense.org https://lists.pfsense.org/mailman/listinfo/list
Re: [pfSense] apu.4c silently dies
On 05/21/2014 10:59 PM, Stefan Baur wrote: > Am 21.05.2014 22:53, schrieb mayak: > >> i'll be curious to see pc engines proposes a new mounting/heat sync >> method. if the case had air flow slits on top and on the sides, i'd bet >> that it would be much cooler. > Out of curiosity, did you buy a new case for you APU or or recycle an > old one from an ALIX board you used earlier? > > IIRC from other threads on here, older cases are not compatible, even > though at first sight they seem to be. The problem with the old cases is > indeed insufficient heat dissipation. hi stefan, case was purchased and was factory installed -- it's the new one (apparently) as the stand-offs are correctly sized to accommodate the heat sync . cheers m ___ List mailing list List@lists.pfsense.org https://lists.pfsense.org/mailman/listinfo/list
Re: [pfSense] apu.4c silently dies
FYI. My main (master) pfsense 2.1.x, running under VMware ESXi 5.5 started dying suddenly. Sometimes it would take a few days, sometimes less than a day. It does seem that this would happen under load, many sessions, heavy downloading, etc. I know for a fact that it is not the ssd, configuration or overheating as the same exact configuration runs the CARP Backup (with the obvious IP and CARP changes) in the same ESXi host (same ssd, etc.). It has not crashed in the last few days after I changed the NTP config and increased the memory from 1GB to 1.2 GB. What really got me was the way it died: Completely frozen, no response or crash messages on Console, nothing in the logs, just completely dead. The CARP backup would of course take over and I would not even notice until I checked each pfsense, but it did annoy me to know that a Unix distro would just die like that. Again, this is in the same hardware and software that I have been using for pfsense for the last 2 years, with no issues until now. If I remember correctly, it was after 2.1. that I started seeing this. Even if adding more memory corrects the issue, I still don't like to know that pfsense can suddenly die and leave no clues behind :-|. On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 5:02 PM, mayak wrote: > > On 05/21/2014 10:59 PM, Stefan Baur wrote: > > Am 21.05.2014 22:53, schrieb mayak: > > > >> i'll be curious to see pc engines proposes a new mounting/heat sync > >> method. if the case had air flow slits on top and on the sides, i'd bet > >> that it would be much cooler. > > Out of curiosity, did you buy a new case for you APU or or recycle an > > old one from an ALIX board you used earlier? > > > > IIRC from other threads on here, older cases are not compatible, even > > though at first sight they seem to be. The problem with the old cases is > > indeed insufficient heat dissipation. > hi stefan, > > case was purchased and was factory installed -- it's the new one > (apparently) as the stand-offs are correctly sized to accommodate the > heat sync . > > cheers > > m > ___ > List mailing list > List@lists.pfsense.org > https://lists.pfsense.org/mailman/listinfo/list > ___ List mailing list List@lists.pfsense.org https://lists.pfsense.org/mailman/listinfo/list
Re: [pfSense] apu.4c silently dies
> Even if adding more memory corrects the issue, I still don't like to know > that pfsense can suddenly die and leave no clues behind :-|. pfSense is pretty stable. I've tested it in many VMs and 'bare metal' systems and it doesn’t freeze on me. Of course, I might not be using the same combinations of packages as you, but I would suspect the hardware, or troubleshooting as you’ve done: increasing the ram. Overheating can be a problem. I use KVM on centos and ubuntu server, and freebsd does not like some settings. It can fail to boot with the default CPU emulation, for example. ___ List mailing list List@lists.pfsense.org https://lists.pfsense.org/mailman/listinfo/list
Re: [pfSense] apu.4c silently dies
On 06/04/2014 09:23 PM, compdoc wrote: > Even if adding more memory corrects the issue, I still don't like to know that pfsense can suddenly die and leave no clues behind :-|. pfSense is pretty stable. I've tested it in many VMs and 'bare metal' systems and it doesn’t freeze on me. Of course, I might not be using the same combinations of packages as you, but I would suspect the hardware, or troubleshooting as you’ve done: increasing the ram. Overheating can be a problem. I use KVM on centos and ubuntu server, and freebsd does not like some settings. It can fail to boot with the default CPU emulation, for example. i really want to love this board, but, it it is simply a heater -- my problems are thermal. i have now completely removed the the board from the case and put a huge copper heat sync on it -- i'll take a picture -- i placed it next to a switch where the fans blow on the sync. if my office gets above 23 or 24 degrees (C), it starts dropping packets, then goes toes up. so sad as this is the ideal platform that i was after. cheers m ___ List mailing list List@lists.pfsense.org https://lists.pfsense.org/mailman/listinfo/list
Re: [pfSense] apu.4c silently dies
On Jun 4, 2014, at 2:29 PM, mayak wrote: > i really want to love this board, but, it it is simply a heater -- my > problems are thermal. > > i have now completely removed the the board from the case and put a huge > copper heat sync on it -- i'll take a picture -- i placed it next to a switch > where the fans blow on the sync. > > if my office gets above 23 or 24 degrees (C), it starts dropping packets, > then goes toes up. > > so sad as this is the ideal platform that i was after. It’s nice, (and I have zero problems in a 24C ambient), but I wouldn’t call it “Ideal”. (watch this space) ___ List mailing list List@lists.pfsense.org https://lists.pfsense.org/mailman/listinfo/list
Re: [pfSense] apu.4c silently dies
On Wed, Jun 04, 2014 at 02:53:15PM -0500, Jim Thompson wrote: > > so sad as this is the ideal platform that i was after. > > It’s nice, (and I have zero problems in a 24C ambient), but I wouldn’t call > it “Ideal”. > > (watch this space) Heavy breathing intensifies. ___ List mailing list List@lists.pfsense.org https://lists.pfsense.org/mailman/listinfo/list
