Date: Sat, 25 Jun 2005 01:15:50 +0300 From: Vlad GALU <vladgalu@gmail.com> To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Looking For Ideas or Suggestions Message-ID: <79722fad050624151524700a27@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <200506241812.07076.greg@qwest.net> References: <200506241812.07076.greg@qwest.net>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On 6/25/05, Greg Rowe <greg@qwest.net> wrote: > Greetings, > I've been chasing a network interface "freeze" problem on and off for so= me > time now and it's driving me nuts ! >=20 > The problem occurs on two identical mail servers that sit behind a firewa= ll. > Both systems have two ethernet interfaces and when I'm having this proble= m > the external interface will "freeze" once or twice an hour for between 10= -15 > seconds. The systems continue to run during these freezes and it doesn't > effect the traffic on the 2nd interface. The problem is also intermittent= in > that it will effect one system for several weeks and then just go away. T= oday > it's effecting both systems. >=20 > The systems are Sun Fire V60X dual 3.06GHZ Xeon processor systems with > integrated Intel PRO/1000 (em0) ethernet ports, 2GB of memory. We have a > number of these systems and these are the only two experiencing the probl= em. > They are running 4.11 STABLE although they were originally installed with > 4.10 STABLE and upgraded to see if this fixed the problem. The one system > currently has an Intel EtherExpress Pro/100B card installed as the primar= y > interface to see if the em0 was my problem, but I still have freezes usin= g > fxp0. Both systems are very lightly loaded and running Sendmail and anti-= spam > packages. >=20 > The systems hang off Catalyst switches that have been checked and rechec= ked. > No errors or config issues. Duplex, speed and mediaopt are all set in rc.= conf > and aren't autodetected. Cables and ports have all been swapped. No error= s in > netstat or any logs. Sysctl " log_in_vain's" aren't showing me any clues.= The > interface just freezes and then starts again with no messages. Tests usin= g > pings from system to the other out each interface prove that the emo/fxp0 > freezes with packet loss while pings to the em1 interface have no problem= s. >=20 > Now, here's where it gets stranger. By accident I found one way to guara= ntee > that a freeze won't occur. If I log into the system via the fxp0/em0 > interface and start a ping against the IP of that interface. As long as t= he > ping is running (I've tried days) and outputing the ping stats every seco= nd, > the interface is freeze free ! I liken it to keeping the interface "warm"= !! > Doing the same ping with a -q for some reason doesn't stop the freezes. I= t > needs the ping output to keep "warm". Pinging the em0 address from anothe= r > system or while logged in through the other interface also won't stop the > freeze. The freeze isn't login window related, although it may sound that > way. The interface just stops working for no apparent reason and then sta= rts > again after 10 or 15 seconds. >=20 > I've gone the network sniffer route and really can't see anything out of= the > ordinary happening when the freeze occurs. Most ports are blocked by the > firewall and the systems also have ipfw enabled (taken out of the kernel = on > one to see if maybe that was causing the problem). I'm running out of ide= as > short of replacing bigger hardware than an ethernet card. The problem is = I > don't know what to replace. I've been building and running FreeBSD system= s > for many years and this one has me and everyone else stumped. >=20 > I'm looking for any suggestions as to what I could enable or tweak that = may > give me some info as to why the interfaces are intermittently freezing. I= 'm > willing to try just about anything right now. Thanks. >=20 Are you sure that's not your catalyst forgetting about the MAC of the machine ? Or the MAC expiring from the ARP table of your router ? Are you experiencing unicast floods while this phenomena is happening ? >=20 >=20 > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-net@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-net > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-net-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >=20 --=20 If it's there, and you can see it, it's real. If it's not there, and you can see it, it's virtual. If it's there, and you can't see it, it's transparent. If it's not there, and you can't see it, you erased it.
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?79722fad050624151524700a27>