[pfSense] GUI performance on an ALIX 2d3

[Erik Anderson]

Hello all -

I've been running pfSense on my ALIX 2d3 happily for many years now.
For the most part, it still does its job well. However, with most
recent release, any changes made in the GUI take a *long* time to
commit. By long I mean ~2 minutes. That's how long it takes from
clicking "Save" to the screen refresh and the "Apply changes" button
showing up.

Is this slow GUI performance to be expected? Was there some change in
v2.2.4 that would have caused this?

I realize that the 2d3 board is getting quite long in the tooth, so
perhaps this is just something I need to deal with until I finally
cave in and purchase an SG-2220.

Thank you!
-Erik

[PiBa]

Probably this caused it workaround also there, as written in
"https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/2.2.4_New_Features_and_Changes"

* The forcesync patch for#2401
<https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/2401>is still considered harmful
to the filesystem and has been kept out. As such, there may be some
noticeable slowness with NanoBSD on certain slower disks, especially
CF cards and to a lesser extent, SD cards. If this is a problem, the
filesystem may be kept read-write on a permanent basis using the
option on*Diagnostics > NanoBSD*. With the other above changes, risk
is minimal. We advise replacing the affected CF/SD media by a new,
faster card as soon as possible.#4822
<https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/4822>

Post by Erik Anderson
Hello all -
I've been running pfSense on my ALIX 2d3 happily for many years now.
For the most part, it still does its job well. However, with most
recent release, any changes made in the GUI take a *long* time to
commit. By long I mean ~2 minutes. That's how long it takes from
clicking "Save" to the screen refresh and the "Apply changes" button
showing up.
Is this slow GUI performance to be expected? Was there some change in
v2.2.4 that would have caused this?
I realize that the 2d3 board is getting quite long in the tooth, so
perhaps this is just something I need to deal with until I finally
cave in and purchase an SG-2220.
Thank you!
-Erik
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[Rainer Duffner]

Post by Erik Anderson
Hello all -
I've been running pfSense on my ALIX 2d3 happily for many years now.
For the most part, it still does its job well. However, with most
recent release, any changes made in the GUI take a *long* time to
commit. By long I mean ~2 minutes. That's how long it takes from
clicking "Save" to the screen refresh and the "Apply changes" button
showing up.
Is this slow GUI performance to be expected? Was there some change in
v2.2.4 that would have caused this?

How much RAM does it have?

Post by Erik Anderson
I realize that the 2d3 board is getting quite long in the tooth, so
perhaps this is just something I need to deal with until I finally
cave in and purchase an SG-2220.

Mine is a 2D1 (apparently) and has only 128 MB RAM - which apparently is too little these days.
Since 2.2.4, I get a warning in the GUI - but because I do nothing fancy with it, I don’t see any slowdowns.
Memory-usage and all other parameters seem to be OK, according to the dashboard.


I just checked - I ordered it at the end of September 2008.
It’s going to be seven years old in a couple of weeks.
That’s quite impressive - do you still get firmware-updates for seven year old commercial DSL-routers?

[Erik Anderson]

Post by Rainer Duffner
How much RAM does it have?

The 2d3 has 256MB.

[Chris Buechler]

Post by Rainer Duffner
Mine is a 2D1 (apparently) and has only 128 MB RAM - which apparently is too little these days.
Since 2.2.4, I get a warning in the GUI - but because I do nothing fancy with it, I don’t see any slowdowns.
Memory-usage and all other parameters seem to be OK, according to the dashboard.

It's technically been too little for a number of years, but will work
in limited circumstances. 2.2x is actually a bit better there than
2.1.x and previous because php-fpm is slightly less RAM hungry.

Post by Rainer Duffner
I just checked - I ordered it at the end of September 2008.
It’s going to be seven years old in a couple of weeks.
That’s quite impressive - do you still get firmware-updates for seven year old commercial DSL-routers?

Nope. Often not even when backdoors or other serious security issues
are disclosed and they're not nearly that old.

[Ryan Coleman]

Post by Chris Buechler

Post by Rainer Duffner
I just checked - I ordered it at the end of September 2008.
It’s going to be seven years old in a couple of weeks.
That’s quite impressive - do you still get firmware-updates for seven year old commercial DSL-routers?

Nope. Often not even when backdoors or other serious security issues
are disclosed and they're not nearly that old.

I’d like to point out here for argument’s sake we’re comparing oranges to Chevrolets… a commercial firewall and a commercial DSL router are different items. Most establishments, in my experience, have their router and their firewall completely separate; 7-year old commercial firewalls do get updates, provided the company doesn’t abandon them.

And, yes, abandonment does happen. AdTran is famous for that. And also making finding upgrades difficult at times.

—
Ryan