[tor-relays] 100% CPU at random rate

[petrarca at protonmail.ch]

I do run a dedicated relay (middle only, non-exit, no guard) and can at least confirm that the CPU load is very "spiky" indeed. I was wondering myself in the past but never really cared about it (since it's a dedicated device anyhow).

Attached chart shows just a recent example for information.


‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Friday, 17. April 2020 16:11, scullcactus <scullcactus at riseup.net> wrote:

> Hello list.
>
> This is my 1st message here, and I'm not a pro, so please excuse me if I
> do something wrong.
>
> I run a relay for several years now. This is my personal notebook so I
> only start Tor when I power it up. I set it up for 2 things: to be a
> node (non-exit) and to serve me as a SOCKS proxy for accessing some
> sites I have here blocked.
> My problem is, and long time has been, the following. Every 30-40-60-120
> minutes (it varies) I suddenly see CPU consumption jumps to 100% because
> of tor process, so I need to stop/start it to settle things down. Also,
> when I start Tor after a period of inactivity, say, a few hours or
> night, I cannot start it reliably for the first time, ever. It goes up
> to "Bootstrapped 95% (circuit_create): Establishing a Tor circuit" log
> message and... 100% CPU. After the second start, I get 100% CPU with
> 50/50 probability, and after the 3rd, it finally is OK, most of the
> time. Then, this 30-40-60-120 minutes cycle begins... It happens with
> this "Bootstrapped 95% ..." message or a bit before that.
> I experienced it with many 0.3.x, 0.4.1.x versions, now with 0.4.2.x
> versions also. I tried not to restart tor process when it eats my CPU
> for several minutes but it doesn't stop, so I have to stop/start it
> manually.
> I see nothing bad in the log at its NOTICE level.
>
> My setup now is:
> Windows 8
> Tor is 0.4.2.6
> Fingerprint BF4591C167FF01B8AAE2749CD9D04913BD6743C4
> I run Tor as a Service (--service install cli option; start manually)
> My notebook is decently powerful and so is my network connection
>
> My torrc is basically like this:
>
> SOCKSPort [port]
> SOCKSPolicy accept private:*,reject :
> Log notice file C:\tor-0.4.2.6\var\notice.log
> DataDirectory C:\tor-0.4.2.6\var
> ControlPort [port]
> HashedControlPassword [cencored]
> MaxMemInQueues 1 Gb
> Address [my real ip]
> Nickname skullcactus
> ORPort 59001 NoListen
> ORPort 192.168.0.84:9001 NoAdvertise
> DirPort 59030 NoListen
> DirPort 192.168.0.84:9030 NoAdvertise
> RelayBandwidthRate 3 MBytes
> RelayBandwidthBurst 6 MBytes
> ExitRelay 0
> GeoIPFile C:\tor-0.4.2.6\Data\Tor\geoip
> GeoIPv6File C:\tor-0.4.2.6\Data\Tor\geoip6
> ExcludeExitNodes [some exclusions]
> StrictNodes 1
> TrackHostExits [some hosts]
> TrackHostExitsExpire 600
> HeartbeatPeriod 1 hours
>
> Really, I want to keep my node working but it gets on my nerves :-) .
> Can you please help me track the problem down?
>
> tor-relays mailing list
> tor-relays at lists.torproject.org
> https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays


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