External SSD for Boot

[NGC]

Hi All,

There's a lot of posts around the web about booting FreeNAS from USB flash drives vs. SSDs. The conversation goes that if you want to save a SATA port, you can use USB flash drives, but you sacrifice reliability. If you can spare the extra SATA port, using an SSD is probably a better option.

I haven't seen any posts about using an SSD in an external, USB enclosure. It seems to me that this would have the benefits of the flash drives (don't waste a SATA port) with the reliability of an SSD. The best of both worlds!

Is there something I'm missing that makes this not a good idea?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Chris Moore]

Hi All,

There's a lot of posts around the web about booting FreeNAS from USB flash drives vs. SSDs. The conversation goes that if you want to save a SATA port, you can use USB flash drives, but you sacrifice reliability. If you can spare the extra SATA port, using an SSD is probably a better option.

I haven't seen any posts about using an SSD in an external, USB enclosure. It seems to me that this would have the benefits of the flash drives (don't waste a SATA port) with the reliability of an SSD. The best of both worlds!

Is there something I'm missing that makes this not a good idea?

Thanks,
Mike

It would depend on the reliability of your system being able to boot from a USB interface. If it will reliably boot from a USB external drive, I suppose it could be a workable solution. It is not suggested because it increases complexity. Meaning that it adds another device (the USB drive enclosure) that could be a potential source of failures.

 

[NGC]

It would depend on the reliability of your system being able to boot from a USB interface.

Is there any difference between the drive enclosure and a USB flash drive as far as the BIOS/UEFI is concerned?

Meaning that it adds another device (the USB drive enclosure) that could be a potential source of failures.

I've never had a hard drive enclosure fail on me, but I've never had one running 24/7 either. Does anyone have any kind of data (MTBF or otherwise) about the enclosures themselves? I'm having trouble finding anything helpful.

I imagine if the MTBF of the enclosure is greater than the MTBF of mirrored USB drives, it would be a worthwhile solution.

 

[Chris Moore]

Is there any difference between the drive enclosure and a USB flash drive as far as the BIOS/UEFI is concerned?

I've never had a hard drive enclosure fail on me, but I've never had one running 24/7 either. Does anyone have any kind of data (MTBF or otherwise) about the enclosures themselves? I'm having trouble finding anything helpful.

I imagine if the MTBF of the enclosure is greater than the MTBF of mirrored USB drives, it would be a worthwhile solution.

You probably won't find stats on the drive enclosures. Over the years I have had enclosures that were flaky, but nothing definitive.
I imagine that it could be a decent solution for you.
I have had quite good luck with these:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...C-_-pla-_-External+Enclosure-_-9SIA24G28M3884

I bought two of them last year and put 120GB SSDs in them to use for carrying drivers and updates around to systems I support at work that are not allowed to touch the internet. They have been very reliable for me, even though I dropped one and dented it.

Where I work, the modifications that the forum makes to the link makes it unusable. It is blocked at the firewall. So, here is the text in code tags. Hopefully, this will survive the forum advertising machine.

Code:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G28M3884&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleMKP-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleMKP-PC-_-pla-_-External+Enclosure-_-9SIA24G28M3884

 

[NGC]

Cool! Thanks for the recommendation.