System hangs when trying to send emails

[Dawnbringer]

Hello all,

I am having a weird issue with my FreeNAS setup. The system hangs every day at exactly 5:00AM when it is trying to send out the daily security report email. It does not reboot, just freezes. It works just fine after a reset.

Any similar experiences or workarounds?

Thank you in advance.

 

[dlavigne]

Hardware specs? FreeNAS build (from System -> Information)?

 

[Dawnbringer]

It's an Athlon 5150 on an Asus AM1L-A, 8GB RAM, one Seagate ST4000VN000 4TB NAS drive. FreeNAS is installed into an 8GB Corsair flash drive.

The build is FreeNAS-9.10-STABLE-201606270534 (dd17351).

There is nothing else wrong with the system and performance is excellent. It just hangs every time at the exact same moment - 5.00AM in the morning, when it is supposed to be sending out the security report emails. The system just freezes without any messages or warnings. Not just the interface/network link, the entire system (I have a monitor and keyboard attached to it and it ceases to respond).

 

[dlavigne]

Please paste or attach the contents of /var/log/messages.

 

[Dawnbringer]

Please paste or attach the contents of /var/log/messages.

I am attaching it. You'll notice that there are no messages around 5.00AM where the system hangs, starting logging again only in the morning when I reboot/reset it.

 

[dlavigne]

It would be worthwhile to replace the Realtek with an Intel to see if that fixes it.

 

[Dawnbringer]

It would be worthwhile to replace the Realtek with an Intel to see if that fixes it.

It's an onboard LAN chip, so replacing it is not really an option. I have an Atheros card that I can try, I will disable the onboard chip and give it a go.

Disabling the reports completely would probably be a much better workaround than using an extra card though, at least for me. It's just a home system, so I do not worry too much about the emails.

 

[cyberjock]

Atheros isn't likely to be any better. And if you're having issues with sending emails because of your NIC, you definitely won't be using the server for shares as they'll experience the same problems. :/

I reviewed the messages file and I don't see anything that looks out of the ordinary. The reality is that you're using hardware we don't recommend, so naturally you're much more likely to have random unexplainable problems. Sorry I'm not more useful.

 

[Dawnbringer]

No need for apologizing, I do appreciate you all trying to help.

Actually, I did forget to say something. If I try sending out any other email like, for example, a test email, it works just fine. The PC only hangs when it tries to send the daily security report. So I do not think that the NIC is causing the issue here. It is probably some kind of glitch somewhere.

I did install the Atheros card and using that now. Nothing bad about a free test. If that does not work, I will try disabling all emails entirely. A little crude, but it should solve the issue.

 

[cyberjock]

Actually, I did forget to say something. If I try sending out any other email like, for example, a test email, it works just fine. The PC only hangs when it tries to send the daily security report. So I do not think that the NIC is causing the issue here. It is probably some kind of glitch somewhere.

We've had people that found that some stuff worked because the packet sizes were small enough to not have driver problems, but real workloads taxed the driver a certain way and that caused the crash. So while I understand why you are coming to that conclusion (and I have have done the same thing myself if I didn't have the experience I have) I think it's still very probable to be your NIC. :/

 

[Dawnbringer]

We've had people that found that some stuff worked because the packet sizes were small enough to not have driver problems, but real workloads taxed the driver a certain way and that caused the crash. So while I understand why you are coming to that conclusion (and I have have done the same thing myself if I didn't have the experience I have) I think it's still very probable to be your NIC. :/

I do not entirely doubt that the NIC could be causing the issue, but it certainly shouldn't be because of the workload. It is just a report, a text file of some KBs at best. I've been transferring TBs worth of files at 110MB/s for hours and there are 3-4 computers connected to it throughout the day, pulling and pushing all sorts of media and files from it. It has been working just fine for many days, it just hangs at the particular moment that it is trying to send the daily security report. A single email cannot be a higher workload than all that, or at least there should be other issues as well, not a single pinpointed and repeatable one. Or at least it doesn't make sense to me, I'm no expert.

I am not entirely sure if it is the sending of the email or the generation of the report itself that makes the system hang. This just crossed my mind but if it is the email that causes the system to freeze, wouldn't the generation of the report be logged into the messages file before the system hangs? I am trying to figure that out now by looking at the logs but perhaps it is the service generating/sending the report that makes the system hang, not the emailing of it.

 

[Dawnbringer]

I just wanted to follow up on this.

I tried the Atheros card, it did not work. Borrowed an Intel chipset PCIe card, same problem. I tried disabling emails altogether, the problem persisted. The system hanged every day at the same exact time. So I re-enabled everything, went back to the original onboard Realtek NIC and began trying disabling/tweaking other settings. I got it with the second try, I disabled Powerd and the system has been going on for nearly four days now without issues. Why and how Powerd would have the system hang every day at the exact same time is beyond me, but I thought that I should share this info, just in case others with AM1 systems are facing similar problems.