FreeBSD 8.0 retires into itself

[Derek Ragona]

At 04:28 AM 12/3/2009, Igor V. Ruzanov wrote:
>Hello!
>
>I have updated FreeBSD 8.0 sources via cvsup and compiled system. uname -a 
>shows:
>
>FreeBSD localhost 8.0-RELEASE FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE #2: Mon Nov 30 20:15:12 
>MSD 2009  root at localhost:/usr/src/sys/i386/compile/HOME-PAE  i386
>
>Machine has 3 physical interfaces:
>- em0 (PCI/Intel PWLA 8390 MT)
>- em1 (PCI/Intel PWLA 8390 MT)
>- fxp0 (PCI/Intel EtherExpress PRO/100)
>
>and 2 VLANs: vlan317 and vlan320.
>
>Also there is one interface built in motherboard:
>- ale0 (PCI-E/Atheros AR8121)
>
>One physical interface (em0) is in trunk mode (802.1Q) to configure these 
>two VLANs (vlan317 and vlan320) interfaces. Machine acts as BGP router. It 
>has 3 uplinks:
>- vlan317
>- vlan320
>- fxp0
>
>and one backbone interface:
>- em1.
>
>Next, i recompiled all userland and made all necessary configurations 
>after which the machine became as production BGP router installed in 
>server room. So issue looks like the following:
>
>After 20-30 minutes of stable work, the system starts to "retire into 
>itself": any user processes (bgpd, zebra, named) don't respond, For 
>example a can't telnet to bgpd control terminal, telnet just dies showing:
>Trying 127.0.0.1...
>Connected to localhost.
>Escape character is '^]'
>
>I even tried to login into system from local console. But when i pressed 
>Enter after username was typed, the console just hang. Power button also 
>doesn't respond (in usual case pressing on Power button gives the machine 
>is going to power off). One interesting thing: after system was booted, 
>top command shows:
>
>system eats about 28-30% of CPU time
>interrupts eat about only 6-7% of CPU time
>all user processes eat less than 0-1% of CPU time
>
>On another working machine (same BGP router, but system is FreeBSD 
>7.0-STABLE p4) the picture seems to be different:
>
>system etas 9-10% of CPU time
>interrupts eat 15-16% of CPU time
>
>So my question is the REASONS that cause such system behavior. I read 
>UPDATING, so kernel in FreeBSD 8.0 RELEASE was largely reworked, in 
>particular - SMPng in order to remove all non-MPSAFE driver's locks 
>(netperf project). Are there new specific kernel config options to get 
>better perfomance of network subsystem? Or should i set some sysctl variables?
>
>My hardware:
>- Motherboard: ASUS P5P43TD (with built in Gigabit LAN Atheros AR8121)
>- Core 2 Quad CPU
>- 4G RAM (2x2048)
>
>kernel compiled with PAE support, ULE-scheduler, with PREEMPTION option.
>If you need whole kernel config, please let me know, i will post it ASAP.
>
>
>Thanks in advance!
>
>+-------------------------------------------+
>! CANMOS ISP Network                        !
>+-------------------------------------------+
>! Best regards                              !
>! Igor V. Ruzanov, network operational staff!
>! e-Mail: igorr at canmos.ru                   !
>+-------------------------------------------+


You need to check your network setups:
ifconfig -a

You can really only have one NIC on a single network.  With multiple NICs 
if they are on the same network, you will have arp issues causing routing 
issues.  You can easily check the arp table before and after you see this 
behavior doing:
arp -a
after a reboot, then after the system becomes unresponsive after 30-40 minutes.

Multiple NICs are necessary if you are using this system as a firewall or 
packet filter.

To narrow down your problem you may want to disable any NICs that are not 
necessary and see if the problem persists.

Hope this helps.

         -Derek

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