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ted_barker
ted_barker
New Member
April 1, 2019
Question

FortiOS 6.2: memory issues, best approach

  • April 1, 2019
  • 4 replies
  • 39580 views

Hi, 

 

I've been running 6.2 Beta and have switched to 6.2 public release, but the memory goes quickly up and system enters conserve mode and the system becomes unusable.

 

The 61E was running always around 75 to 80% for a couple of months, now with 6.2 the memory increased after an hour to that level and became useless.

 

What are your experiences and any best approaches with 6.2 troubleshooting (most probably the same as before) and feedback to Fortinet?

    4 replies

    seadave
    seadave
    New Member
    April 1, 2019

    .0 releases of FortiOS are notorious for having bugs.  If this is a testing/lab firewall then go for it, but if you are using this in a production environment you are better off using a later 5.6.X or 6.0.X release for stability. 

     

    For example at work we are still on a later variant of 5.6.X for a 500D supporting hundreds of users, while at home I have a FWF60E and I'm running 6.0.3.  I had some issues with DNS and 6.0.4 so I haven't gone past .3 yet.

     

    We just grabbed a pair of 501s, and we will test 6.0.4 on those before we put into production with the assumption that the newer hardware on the 501Es will handle 6.0.X better.

     

    I know it is tempting to get access to the latest gizmos, but on a FG of your size you are going to be constrained as to what you can do.  It may help to review the features enabled and turn off anything you are not using such as WLAN or Switch Control, Adv Routing, etc.

     

    If you do open a ticket, you can SSH into the gate and capture some of the following:

     

    diag debug crashlog read

    (If that is insanely long, use "diag debug crashlog clear", wait 24 hours and send the new output)

    If the UI is crashing and you can login, you may need to keep an open terminal session up via serial to capture the output, or enable Syslog.

     

    Here is an article with more info:

     

    https://help.fortinet.com/fos50hlp/54/Content/FortiOS/fortigate-toubleshooting-54/troubleshooting_tools.htm

     

    for 5.4 but still useful.

     

     

    seadave
    seadave
    New Member
    April 1, 2019

    You should follow/read this thread also: https://forum.fortinet.com/tm.aspx?m=172872

     

    sullimd
    sullimd
    New Member
    July 10, 2019

    Experienced the same thing with 2 customers - today.  It's the wad service using all the memory, device goes into conserve mode, then I get a call that the internet is down.

     

    #diag sys top - find the wad service

    #diag sys kill 11 wad-service-id

    hutchnate
    hutchnate
    New Member
    August 20, 2019

    Having issues with internet going out after upgrading from 6.0.5 to 6.2 as well. Logged in to find it was in conserve mode due to memory usage. 

    zaphod
    zaphod
    New Member
    August 21, 2019

    Update to 6.2.1 will fix the memory issues....

     

    greets

     

    zaphod

     

    billsey
    billsey
    New Member
    August 22, 2019

    Still seeing them in 6.2.1 on my 30E. Had to reboot this morning when no one could access the internet. Memory usage seems stable at 65% now, but was at 98% before the reboot. 6.2.1 has been installed for a couple of weeks or more.

    hutchnate
    hutchnate
    New Member
    August 22, 2019

    wow what a difference after upgrade to 6.2.1. 82% memory use with 6.2.0 to 35% post upgrade. thanks. 

    zaphod
    zaphod
    New Member
    August 23, 2019

    @billsey

    after upgrade to 6.2.1 the memory problems i got are gone (is a 80E) maybe a reset helps in your environment..

     

    greets

     

    zaphod

     

    billsey
    billsey
    New Member
    September 3, 2019

    A reset gets me back to normal memory usage, for a while. Right n ow I'm back up to 87% and in Conserve mode. :(

    A quick "diagnose test application wad 99" took me to 66%, I wonder if my 6.2.1 is an early release (v6.2.1 build0932 (GA)) that didn't have it fixed... Though it says I'm at the latest version.

     
    NickBurns
    NickBurns
    Visitor III
    October 28, 2019

    I'm running a FortiWiFi 30E with OS 6.2.1.  We upgraded all of our FortiGates from 6.0.4 to 6.2.1 a couple months ago (this is the only 30E we have).  I just had an incident today where users connected to the 30E couldn't reach the Internet, and when I logged in, I got the "running on Conserve Mode due to high memory" message.  Memory was above 80%.  I rebooted the device...now memory is around 72%.  When I run 'diag sys top', I do see a "wad" and a couple "ipsengine" processes, but don't know if the numbers beside them are significant or not.

     

    From what I'm reading, perhaps 6.2.1 resolves the issue, but it is still a problem with 30Es?

    BrianB
    BrianB
    New Member
    October 28, 2019

    Nick, keep an eye on memory utilization. If you notice it creep up again, just try restarting the wad process and see if that lowers memory utilization (diagnose test application wad 99) will restart the was processes.

     

    Yes, this was supposed to be resolved in 6.2.1 and it did resolve the issue for me for me although I have noticed memory creeping up but at a very slow rate (weeks compared to hours as it was in 6.2.0)

     

    I have encountered some bugs with 6.2.1 that are supposedly fixed in 6.2.2 but upon reading the release notes for 6.2.2 they mention a known issue is high memory utilization. I do not know if the issue is re-introduced in 6.2.2 or what, but that fact that it is mentioned in the release notes has me waiting until 6.2.3. When I was running 6.2.0 the high mem issue was causing my entire network to drop and the only fix was to reboot the fortigates. 

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