Why doesn't networking work after a resume (pfsense VM based on freeBSD)?

[UlyssesOfEpirus]

When you resume a VM that has a pfsense guest o/s (a gateway and firewall based on freeBSD), networking does not work.

Even though the user interface shows properly set up network interfaces. And both network interfaces of the gateway are connected, the WAN one as a usb device (usb-to-ethernet physical network adapter), the LAN one as a vmnet3 virtual network adapter, and other VM's that use this gateway through vmnet3 look alright too.

What else might be wrong because of the resume, that was alright before the last suspend?

[UlyssesOfEpirus]

Tried manually changing (using pfsense's web configurator from another VM) the WAN interface's static IP from 192.168.2.33 to 192.168.2.44 and it works.

Any idea why must I change the WAN interface's IP after a resume for it to work?

[wila]

Hi,

Officially VMware recommends vmxnet3 just like you are using (see also: VMware KB: Enhanced VMXNET adapter cannot obtain a DHCP IP address with FreeBSD 8.x, 9.x, or 10.x )

Personally I use intel e1000e (so not e1000 as that one is slow) and that works both performant as well as reliable for me, I do not see problems with WAN not being able to get a DHCP lease after a suspend.

edit: note also works fine with WAN being static, no resume problems here.

--

Wil

[UlyssesOfEpirus]

DHCP is not used here, they're all static IP's. And yet something is different after a suspend and resume. Which breaks WAN-side networking (from the gateway VM to the ADSL router) and you have to set another static IP, but does not break LAN-side networking. What might be the cause?

[UlyssesOfEpirus]

Just found it happens with all of vmxnet3, e1000e and e1000. EDIT: actually this was the LAN-side interface but the problem is in the WAN-side interface which is a USB-to-ethernet adapter.

The guest operating system seems to reset the USB-to-ethernet adapter settings after coming out of sleep. Why would they do that?

EDIT: Just found it only happens with this USB-to-ethernet adapter, not with a regular virtual network adapter.

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Umm.. yes the USB to internet adapter is indeed likely your culprit, not sure how I missed that from your initial post.

Unfortunately there's a lot of people having difficulties with USB from version to version and the way it works is in motion.

Of course, the intention is to make USB support better, but VMware also regularly breaks things in this particular area.

Going back one version might help.

There's also a whole bunch of vmx settings for USB to change behavior.. and they are mostly undocumented.

http://faq.sanbarrow.com/index.php?action=artikel&cat=7&id=83&artlang=en

The skipsetConfig one sounds promising, but it is reported to only work for linux hosts.

Sorry that I can't be of more help.

--

Wil