Boot Devices

[fastrack1966]

As a newbie with Truenas I have seen different options as to what to use as a boot device.

1) SSD, which I am using now. It's a 80 Gb size, ten times as big as I need and a waste of space. Hence:

2) Tried an 8 Gb USB stick, boots OK but I see a consensus that it is a risky method?

3) Can I use an SD Card, plenty available as small volumes? If that is acceptable can anyone suggest the best make/model?

 

[sretalla]

1) SSD, which I am using now. It's a 80 Gb size, ten times as big as I need and a waste of space.

You're able to move the system dataset to the boot pool, so I wouldn't view it as a waste at all. (you're lucky to have had only 80GB available... most folks can't find anything that small to buy)

It's also good to have loads of free blocks on the disk (may need a bit of partitioning) so that the wear leveling can do its work to extend the working life of the drive.

2) Tried an 8 Gb USB stick, boots OK but I see a consensus that it is a risky method?

Correct, it's not recommended.

3) Can I use an SD Card, plenty available as small volumes? If that is acceptable can anyone suggest the best make/model?

Depends on how your hardware allows for booting from one (maybe it doesn't). Even if it does it's not far from the previous option unless you use an SD card with the A2 designation. Due to the scarcity of supporting hardware (and hence others who have gone down this path before you), you're likely to find out all the pitfalls on your own if you go this way.

 

[joeschmuck]

1) SSD, which I am using now. It's a 80 Gb size, ten times as big as I need and a waste of space.

Wasted space is the wrong way to look at this. You should be seeing that you are using a reliable SSD as a boot device to prolong the life and mitigate future problems with your system. As also mentioned, you could offload your system dataset if you wanted to, but myself I wouldn't do that and it's purely a personal taste, nothing bad to do that.

 

[Kam]

I'm using Micro SD card mirrored to USB stick as boot device for years, they are attached directly on motherboard of my HP Microserver GEN8 home server. Regullary scrubbed, till now no errors reported.

What's wrong with this setup?

I know, not so much reliable. But if one of these fails, I can replace it and mirror them again. If both fails, I can reinstall base system and import config from backup, which Truenas does automatically daily to system dataset, present on my raidz-2 pool.
I have a problem to boot from other disk, all 4 disk slots are occupied with disks in raidz-2 pool and fifth sata port for odd is not bootable in ahci mode.
Would reinstall and restore config from system dataset (from raidz-2 pool) as a worse case scenario not be usefull? Will I lose anything?

Thanks,
Kam

 

[sretalla]

What's wrong with this setup?

If it's working for you and you understand the risks (and have a plan for mitigating them to your satisfaction), then it's fine.

Would reinstall and restore config from system dataset (from raidz-2 pool) as a worse case scenario not be usefull? Will I lose anything?

I can't recall the thread where it was discussed, but ssh keys and certificates may be something you could miss with that process (if you use either of those). Maybe encryption keys if you're not storing them appropriately (if you encrypt) and a couple of other minor things that I don't recall exactly.

 

[fastrack1966]

You're able to move the system dataset to the boot pool, so I wouldn't view it as a waste at all. (you're lucky to have had only 80GB available... most folks can't find anything that small to buy)

It's also good to have loads of free blocks on the disk (may need a bit of partitioning) so that the wear leveling can do its work to extend the working life of the drive.


Correct, it's not recommended.


Depends on how your hardware allows for booting from one (maybe it doesn't). Even if it does it's not far from the previous option unless you use an SD card with the A2 designation. Due to the scarcity of supporting hardware (and hence others who have gone down this path before you), you're likely to find out all the pitfalls on your own if you go this way.

Thanks Sretalla, maybe I should stick with the 80 Gb SSD, esp since I have a twin drive to this one in case I try and install a backup boot drive.

 

[itskando]

If both fails, I can reinstall base system and import config from backup, which Truenas does automatically daily to system dataset, present on my raidz-2 pool.

Both my SD card mirrors failed. All my slots are used so using SSD/HD isn't an option. Do you have a link to any guides for getting going again with reinstall OS base and then import config? Do I need to remember my base system version?

Also, are there any hardier than average SD cards which are good for server use?