Installing on flash media is preferred?

[rcd]

In the old Freenas days, installation on a pair of mirrored USB flash drives was encouraged. Now I have been trying to find out if that is still encouraged on TN scale. Practically every post I can find says it's discouraged but when I look at the installation documentation it quite clearly says

So what is the truth for TrueNAS SCALE 22.02.0 ?

 

[elvisimprsntr]

Flash thumb drives do not have the same wear leveling and write life cycle as a SSD.

If you have no options to install a SSD in a SATA or M.2 slot, then your last option is a SSD in a USB enclosure.

 

[awil95]

From my understanding when they are saying "flash media" they are talking about SSDs. Instead of a hard drive. Not flash or thumb drives.

 

[danb35]

Now I have been trying to find out if that is still encouraged on TN scale.

USB sticks haven't been a recommended installation medium for around seven years, since the release of FreeNAS 9.3 with a live ZFS pool on the boot device.

 

[rcd]

Is this documented somewhere? I've only been able to find the refence above encouraging flash media.

 

[danb35]

Is this documented somewhere?

Well, probably hundreds of threads here. As far as the docs are concerned, the FN 11.1 docs (five years ago) pretty clearly favor SSDs:

1. Introduction — FreeNAS®11.1-U7 User Guide Table of Contents

www.ixsystems.com

Later versions note that the regular i/o that's been there since 9.3 tends to wear on USB sticks. I'm pretty sure I remember seeing at some point a clear statement that USB sticks aren't recommended, but a quick browse through some of the historical docs doesn't see it.

I've only been able to find the refence above encouraging flash media.

...and many people, apparently including you, incorrectly equate "flash media" with USB sticks. "Flash media" includes any non-volatile, solid-state storage, including USB sticks and SSDs--and the latter are strongly preferred.

 

[artlessknave]

Is this documented somewhere? I've only been able to find the refence above encouraging flash media.

umm. pretty sure it's in the minimun specs, or at the the recomended hardware guides/lists? there are a few of those.
not all USB sticks lack wear leveling, but there is no standard for them having it, so you pretty much guess and hope you got one that lasts.
I have sandisk Cruzer fits in my brother's nas and they have given me no problems...but I have like 5 of the same ones at my place that constatnly die. its a crapshoot. you can make them more reliable by having more of them, but since truenas forces you to only use 2 boot disks wihtout going through other hoops, that ends up...annoying.

 

[agarg]

USB sticks haven't been a recommended installation medium for around seven years, since the release of FreeNAS 9.3 with a live ZFS pool on the boot device.

Hi danb35,

My ZFS pool is on 4 SAS drives. And I have now only several USB ports left. And, since it is NAS, I just want to used the Pool on the SAS drives and the flash drive (consumer grade 32 GB USB drive) be used to store only config file. Is that possible?

 

[danb35]

Is that possible?

No. The boot device is the boot device, and the OS (as well as the config database) lives on it.

 

[artlessknave]

I just want to used the Pool on the SAS drives and the flash drive (consumer grade 32 GB USB drive) be used to store only config file. Is that possible?

people have done things like this but doing so is far outside the design parameters that when, not if, problems arise, nobody can really help with them because we aren't also masochists....

the last ones I remember seeing they could no longer add any disks, because the hack they used to share the OS drive left the OS drive with no serial#, and it was doing something like showing up as a dupicate serial for every drive so they *couldnt* replace any drives.

you're options are sub optimal USB drives, [edit] a proper SSD connected via USB [/edit], a new chassis that supports more drives, or find another way to add more drives.
since I don't see your chassis/hardware listed, i can only speculate, but Icy Dock has a number of lines of different drive bay contraptions that add drives to things like PCIe slots

 

[danb35]

you're options are sub optimal USB drives, a new chassis that supports more drives, or find another way to add more drives.

...or a proper SSD connected via USB. Not ideal, I guess, but considerably better than a typical USB stick. But I'm kind of wondering what system has four SAS ports, and 0 SATA ports.

 

[artlessknave]

another option is to use a less specialized NAS, like OMV or unRAID, which are not designed to be appliances with standard (one might say "sane") configurations running on enterprise hardware for an enterprise product sold by an.....enterprise.

you might sacrifice some performance but since you are trying to run TrueNAS in a barely supported config anyway, that might not even matter.

not only can unraid run from USB....USB is the only way to run unRAID.