Install TrueNAS on usb3 nvme drive

[smic717394]

Hi, I´m on Truenas core 13. The mainboard is a Supermicro A1SRi-2758F that has 4x sata 2 ports that I use for the 4 drive the hotswap case have, and it have 2x sata 3 ports, one of the port I currently use as a boot drive with a 250gb ssd. the board also have an onboard usb3.0 proper usb a port.

I bought a usb3 to nvme adapter and clone the ssd to a 250gb nvme. It woks fine so far, but I heard people had problem with nvme and usb adapter. Should I leave the ssd or you think the usb/nvme is fine. What I´m trying to achieve is free the 2 sata3 ports and maybe create a new sata pool with 2 drives.

Thank you.

 

[sretalla]

Boot pool is fine via adapters. Don't do it for data pool members.

 

[bilson]

If you have a fully functioning pci-e slot, you can put the nvme in a pcie- to nvme adapter. It will only work as a data drive at this point as the boards without a m2 slot do not support nvme boot. At this point you can add a usb stick with duet boot loader.
You install Truenas on the nvme and duet on the usb stick and configure the duet loader to boot truenas from the nvme. This is the scheme I use on a supermicro X10 socket 1150 board with i3 xeon to boot truenas from nvme. My board doesn't have native m2/nvme support but was able to see the drive and install Truenas there. I had to tweak the duet boot options to get it to display the nvme as a boot option.
This will achieve your goal and allow the nvme to work at the full speed your PCI-e slot allows, which is typically way faster than usb.

 

[smic717394]

If you have a fully functioning pci-e slot, you can put the nvme in a pcie- to nvme adapter. It will only work as a data drive at this point as the boards without a m2 slot do not support nvme boot. At this point you can add a usb stick with duet boot loader.
You install Truenas on the nvme and duet on the usb stick and configure the duet loader to boot truenas from the nvme. This is the scheme I use on a supermicro X10 socket 1150 board with i3 xeon to boot truenas from nvme. My board doesn't have native m2/nvme support but was able to see the drive and install Truenas there. I had to tweak the duet boot options to get it to display the nvme as a boot option.
This will achieve your goal and allow the nvme to work at the full speed your PCI-e slot allows, which is typically way faster than usb.

This is good idea, but why not use the adapter, Its boots fine from it without the need of bootloader, and the speed I get on it is about 400MB/s, but I suspect the OS doesn't need any more speed.

 

[bilson]

You are right about that, for the os likely doesn't matter as much. I already had the pci-e to nvme adapter on hand and I like a challenge :)

 

[Morris]

I used to use an ordinary USB stick. It worked fine. Looking back, I probably should have mirrored two of them

 

[smic717394]

I used to use an ordinary USB stick. It worked fine. Looking back, I probably should have mirrored two of them

did it fail? although the regular usb have a fail rate higher than an nvme. I´m not sure how the adapter is.

 

[Morris]

did it fail? although the regular usb have a fail rate higher than an nvme. I´m not sure how the adapter is.

No, I saw the trend to move to small SSD boots and used an NVME. I've used USB3 to NVME for a few applications and there stable if they work. Typical USB compatibility issues can get in the way. They either work or don't work. I've been considering migrating to a duel USB mirror to free up an NVME slot. It appears to be a common solution. Using different types of drives of the same size will avoid both hitting the write limit at the same time.