OPNSense momentarily hangs/spikes CPU

[meyergru]

I would advise to get an N100-based device with 4x I226-V, HUNSN has those, too (e.g. HUNSN RJ36) and they are also available from Kingnovy and Topton via Aliexpress and cost around the same as older CPU generations like N5000 or J4000.

Also, do not get one with the case of the devices you mentioned, as it has bad thermals. Maybe you must also tweak the TDP of the N100 a little down in the BIOS, because most of these devices use more than the Intel preset of 6 Watts.

[Sam of Ham]

Well, against all possible reason, it seems the upgrade has helped! It's early days, but so far the usual evening routine (discord chats, and played some Rocket League both as felt like it but also as a good test) and had no issues at all.

I'll continue to test for the next few days, and, all going well, update once more and call this one (thankfully, gratefully, welcomingly) done.

Thanks all for your help throughout.

[Sam of Ham]

Last update for this thread!

So far, all's going smoothly. I've actually been seeing very poor mobile performance for a long time on this OPNsense box--WiFiman tests frequently do 1-3mbps down and <1mbps up and then fail before finishing, on what should be a 50/20 link--until this update. Now I can actually do a test at ~30mbps down, ~12mbps up and complete the test. There MUST have just been something wrong with my initial setup or something screwed up over the months since implementing the device, which the new OS has overwritten.

I have one last, quick question if someone doesn't mind a brief answer! (I've taken up enough, haha!)
.4 has just released, but I'm a bit afraid to update again in case something regressed in this update somehow affects me. Would you recommend upgrading?

A big, final, thank you to everyone for your help in this thread, sincerely.

[Sam of Ham]

Well, the problem's back. I'm not going to drag this thread on any further, aside from updating it with key information for those googling around in the future who might stumble across it. No one needs to rush to responding to this.

At this point I'm just guessing it's the Realtek NICs. There's almost nothing else I can think of that could be it. The new Interrupts monitor in the 24.7 dashboard can now show me one of my last suspects--system interrupts--and unless it's ALSO hanging when interrupting (and so not drawing the graph) it's not that. My interrupts jump to 1/2 after a boot, then remain at 0 solidly forever after. My CPU usage and other monitoring shows only roughly 30%-60%utilisation in short spikes, so I don't think the J3160 is overloaded.

It was worth a try. I went into this knowing the public discourse around Realtek NICs, but I was encouraged by other users who'd had flawless functionality on them, and got a steal of a deal on this old dual-NIC box. Ultimately it wasn't to work out but at least I gave it a shot.

I'm going to aim for something like the HUNSN JR03 - I really, really want USB-C DP so I can use my little portable C-powered display, rather than lumping a whacking great monitor, power and display up to the half-depth shelf everything's tucked away neatly onto. It's tough to find the cash for it but here's hoping I can clear out some old crap - might even have to switch back to the ISP TP-Link for a few months until Black Friday sales hit.

Again, and finally, thank you to everyone for your help in this thread. Signing off. Safe networking to you all!