Freepbx keeps crashing several times daily until I issue "amportal kill"

[stuck]

Hi everyone,
I've got a puzzling one. Over the past 1 week. One of my boxes:
P4 2.8ghz 1g ram behind a pfsense router
piaf1.2
freepbx 2.4.0.1
Asterisk 1.4.2.1
wildcard TDM
This box has 12 Extensions, 2 out trunks 4 in trunks.
During the day under call conditions freepbx would lock up... Could get into the initial PIAF screen but not freepbx. Can't get back into it unless I issue "amportal kill" then "amportal restart" or "reboot". Never locks up after hours.
Weird thing is calls still come in. But an IAX2 connection to a remote PIAF gets disconnected.
The system is running an IVR with 4 options, multiple ring groups and 2 queues.
I can't seem to figure out what exact condition causes it to freeze. But during a working day it freezes several times.

I've reinstalled this system 4 times, once on a different machine, the last time, did not import any settings. Rebuilt all trunks and extensions manually. Still the same.

Any suggestions on how to approach this?

Also, until I figure out what's causing this lockup, I wonder if there is a way to run a cronjob to "ping" amportal and issue the "amportal kill" then "restart" if the ping fails?

 

[stuck]

Update,
This seems to be an IAX2 issue. While I was on a call with an extension on another IAX2 connected box. The server locked up again. I just lost the call. I didn't realize that it was the server until ~1hr later.
Then any remote or local IAX extension won't register. But sip extension register fine local and remote.
Will try to use SIP trunks instead to connect the two PiaF's and see if it happens again...

 

[stuck]

Another update,
changed the boxes to connect via SIP and went a whole day without crashing. Today, though I put IAX back as a back up trunk for the SIP and it crashed again. But at least the calls routing the the remote piaf still works because it is using the SIP connection.

Any idea why IAX2 would be causing this?

 

[GregKeys]

I just set up a PIAF for my brother in LA. After a full install with no extensions or trunks, I let it run for a couple days. No problems.
Added a IAX trunk between it and a TB at my house (soon to be replaced this weekend ).
Once the trunk went in I called him. System dropped the call after a bit.
Reboot.
Called again.
Lockup.
reboot..... same symptoms as described above.
Switched the trunk to SIP this morning...
Talked for a couple hours, no problems at all. Multiple calls, transfers, etc..
Whats going on with IAX2?

Greg Keys

 

[stuck]

Greg,
I'm sorry, I don't have any answers for you, but I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only person with this problem. I had 2 piaf's do the samething. The iso used to install them passed MD5 checksum. I'm guessing it must be a digium issue. But without more people experiencing the same thing, it is difficult to establish that this is a true problem or the pattern.
BTW when it locks up, it only affects the Freepbx pages and IAX connections afaik. ie. iax extensions or trunks won't register.
FWIW, you don't have to do the long reboot if you just issue amportal kill and amportal start...

 

[wardmundy]

Starting to look like Digium has "improved" something. Tom and I had a chat with IAX yesterday and saw some of the same behavior on his end. I rarely update my system... so it's stable.

 

[stuck]

I rarely update my system... so it's stable.

That would make sense, the remote box on the other end of the IAX2 connection is still running 1.4.20 (the same one I'm having trouble updating source with in another thread), this one hasn't locked up. But the ones that have locked up are on 1.4.21

 

[darmock]

yes perusing thru the source they have been diddling with iax2 it seems. Although for the record my IAX2 problems with ward were related to upgrading from a 1.2 asterisk to 1.4 asterisk 8^) Just does not work well. Was faster to reload PIAF and enter everything in by hand and do a partial restore of mysql. Thank goodness for backups.

I have several IAX2 trunks on my system the piaf dev team use what I call blind iax2 dialing between our piaf boxes. This has low overhead and does not require a trunk setup. I also have a few full blown IAX2 trunks (piaf to piaf and even piaf to TB 1.2.3! [still have to update it]) Using IAX2 with AES128 Encryption. I have not experienced any problems since I reloaded the my local pbx (intel atom based)

btw the current release of Asterisk is 1.4.21.1 which is what I am running at the moment. Perhaps the 1.4.21 version has an IAX2 disease?

Tom

 

[wardmundy]

That would explain the quiet ...1 release perhaps.

 

[bgriff]

I rarely update my system... so it's stable.

Can I get that on a T-shirt to remind myself what to do? I have 2 boxes that were very stable on 1.4.18 or 1.4.19. Now with 1.4.21 and 1.4.21.1, things are not so good. Should I dig up that update-source script and go back, or is 1.4.21.1 to 1.4.21.1 stable on IAX2 trunks?

Ward, Thanks for the often repeated advice.....
I rarely update my system... so it's stable.

 

[GregKeys]

I would go with that advice, but it was a new install
I was going to replace my TB system over the weekend, but as I have multiple IAX trunks going to other systems at locations I support, I stopped short. Do not need them getting dropped in a deep dark hole when they try to call for support.

Tom, can you explain what kind of config you use for blind iax2 dialing? Sounds interesting.

Greg Keys

 

[darmock]

you will have to be patient for a while as I am trying to get out PIAF 1.3 beta today (for 32bit at the moment only)

I will try to put something together this week.


Tom

 

[bgriff]

Both on 1.4.21.1 - IAX problems are gone

I upgraded the other box to 1.4.21.1 and now calls do not drop and no boxes lockup, in my case anyway. Hope this helps!

bg

 

[wardmundy]

Any time you see a ...1 release, there's a really good chance that something ugly was found in the prior version (that the developers may or may not tell you about). We provide the latest releases of Asterisk, but they may not always be the greatest. If you knew the hoops that Tom King jumps through to get some of this $#^t to work, you'd be doing one of these...

 

[stuck]

Same here, both boxes now at 1.4.21.1 and went all day without locking up... I'm happy to be back using IAX2. Sip trunks had a few annoying things that bothered me.