Question

Checkpoint NG - high cpu usage on fwssd.exe

Asked by: vinnyd79

I have recently replaced my old firewall that was running CP 4.1 with a new system running Checkpoint NG. During the day when I have VPN users connected I notice there are many fwssd.exe process' running. One of the process' is eating up 95-98 % of the CPU.
When I check the system late at night or early in the morning all seems to be ok and the system idle process is about 97%. The Server is NT4.0 SP6a. I appreciate any help I can get with this problem.

Thanks.

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2004-09-23 at 11:17:16ID21142758
Tags

cpu

,

checkpoint

Topics

Network Software Firewalls

,

Checkpoint Firewall

,

Enterprise Firewalls

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
6

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. Checkpoint FW1 Installation issues ..  NG to NG-AI R55
    We run Fw-1/VPN-1 SmallOffice. The Appliance is an Intrusion PDS2105 which is on NG FP2. The Management Station was on Windows 2000 Server NG FP3. The Management Station crashed. We reinstalled and upgraded to Windows 2003 Svr. NG FP3 does not support Win2k3 so we wa...
  2. checkpoint NG with AI VPN
    I have checkpoint NG with AI installed on a Nokia box running IPSO 3.7. I have a VPN setup with a local hospital that has a Cisco VPN concentrator 3000. My problem is this, actually there is 2 questions to this. 1st Question: currently I have a meshed VPN setup between my co...
  3. Nortel VPN in parallel with Checkpoint NG
    The CP NG has 3 interfaces - ext, dmz, int. A nortel vpn concentrator is being inserted in parallel to the CP NG firewall - ie The vpn external interface is on the same switch a the CP NG which in turn, connects to an internet router. The private interface of the vpn concentr...
  4. Checkpoint NG FP3 Remote Subnet Issue
    We currently use Checkpoint NG FP3 for our firewall. I am having a problem with some remotes sites that cannot log into our domain or access the internet. Our remote site VPNs are not managed by us so check point is not controlling the VPN tunnels. From what my provider is te...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: tim_holmanPosted on 2004-09-24 at 06:56:00ID: 12143125

It's the CheckPoint Security Server Daemon.  One of these will be kicked off every time a user logs on.
Check Point running on NT is pretty easy to swamp - I would recommend moving to a faster platform.
The problem is probably caused by an excessive amount of VPN tunnel traffic, generated by a single user.  It's quite possible one of your remote users is infected with a virus/worm or maybe just abusing their connections and downloading lots of MP3s, or something...

 

by: dschwartzerPosted on 2004-09-26 at 05:37:27ID: 12154413

Security server (SS) is used whenever you have  a 'resource' usage in the rulebase. For example - you are doing a UFP of CVP on the http/ftp traffic. If so, all the traffic is forwarded to the SS, and then to the appropriate 3rd party AV/server.
Anyway, look through the rulebase and try to remove the unneeded 'resource' usage. Otherwise, SS's are known for their CPU utilization. There're number of alternatives to some stuff SS's are used for. E.g. there's a URL logging mechanism, which is now also implemented in kernel - and is much faster - so you should check out kernel alternatives...

Tim, it can't be VPN, because all VPN solutions (besides SSL) are kernel based - so no user process is involved.
And, just FYI, it has been tested and proven that Intel processors are much better performers on VPN related stuff, then say Sparcs. So Intel is better then Sparc, but SPlat is better then Windows, especially NT...

Daniel

 

by: vinnyd79Posted on 2004-11-17 at 12:55:11ID: 12608565

Sorry guys,I was away from EE for a while and had forgotten about this question.
If it is not VPN,do you think it could be caused by a rule allowing UserAuth telnet access to one of my servers?The problem occurs during the day when users are logged on,and goes away in the evenings when they log off.

 

by: tim_holmanPosted on 2004-11-17 at 13:13:18ID: 12608765

Yes - it could well be caused by one of Check Point's user authentication mechanisms.  Can you disable and retest to check this ?

 

by: vinnyd79Posted on 2004-11-18 at 10:51:30ID: 12617589

Disabling it would stop a bunch of people from being able to do their work but I guess it would be a good test. I'll give it a try tomorrow morning and see what happens.

 

by: tim_holmanPosted on 2004-11-18 at 13:07:32ID: 12618882

I mean turn off the telnet authentication mechanism (I assume you mean the Check Point User Auth whereby users have to authenticate with the firewall in order to use telnet ??), so users can access the telnet server direct...

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...