Drive Selection

[Fastline]

Hello,

I'm looking for recommendations on the Boot Drive. I want to know what is ideally recommended i.e. a consumer grade SSD or a Data Center grade SSD. (SATA/NVMe (M.2/U.2))

Also, is it recommended to mirror the boot pools?

Thanks

 

[probain]

The boot drives don't really have such requirements. Although it's not longer supported/recommended to install on USB-sticks. You could easily get by having the boot on 2x16GB SSD's (such as Intel Optanes). But 2x32GB would obviously be better. But you'll get by with 16GB, if you manually prune boot environments (snapshots of the boot drive). Either way, those are dirt-cheap and have magnificent endurance. The throughput doesn't really matter for the boot drives either.

Yes. Mirror the boot drives.

 

[Fastline]

The boot drives don't really have such requirements. Although it's not longer supported/recommended to install on USB-sticks.

Oh i see. Never used USB. It really sucks and brings too much corruption.

You could easily get by having the boot on 2x16GB SSD's (such as Intel Optanes). But 2x32GB would obviously be better. But you'll get by with 16GB, if you manually prune boot environments (snapshots of the boot drive). Either way, those are dirt-cheap and have magnificent endurance. The throughput doesn't really matter for the boot drives either.

Any M.2 NVMe models you recommend?

I've a couple of SK Hynix PC801s lying around. Would that be the perfect fit or shall I look for some Optane drives for latency or other DC grade SSDs?

Yes. Mirror the boot drives.

Cool. Thanks. I tried to do it on my test NAS via GUI and it always returned to error. I even tried to select two identical drive (same model, same capacity, same firmware) while doing a clean install. But despite i selected two of them, it only installed on one. This was on TrueNAS Core.

 

[probain]

Those drives would be overkill, in my very humble opinion for boot. The boot pool is basically just used for booting the system. So you don't need anything special. Especially for a homelab environment. Build in some resiliency, such as having the boot being a mirror. Then use basically whatever reasonably cheap thing you have laying around. You almost immediately run into diminishing returns. I'm myself rockin 2x16GB gen1 Optanes I've had laying around for years. And they work magically. They're pretty much useless for anything else. But they're magnificently well suited for booting the server up.

Don't waste money having enterprise or expensive gear on the boot pool. Put that money towards better stuff, such as better PSU. More storage disks. A good UPS etc etc.

Do note that I'm referring to having the boot-pool being separate from your main storage pool(s).

 

[Fastline]

Those drives would be overkill, in my very humble opinion for boot. The boot pool is basically just used for booting the system. So you don't need anything special. Especially for a homelab environment. Build in some resiliency, such as having the boot being a mirror. Then use basically whatever reasonably cheap thing you have laying around. You almost immediately run into diminishing returns. I'm myself rockin 2x16GB gen1 Optanes I've had laying around for years. And they work magically. They're pretty much useless for anything else. But they're magnificently well suited for booting the server up.

Makes sense. I'll use the PC801 i have lying around.

Don't waste money having enterprise or expensive gear on the boot pool. Put that money towards better stuff, such as better PSU. More storage disks. A good UPS etc etc.

Yesss!

Do note that I'm referring to having the boot-pool being separate from your main storage pool(s).

I get ya.

Thank you for your help!