is it possible to have GRUB multiboot for freenas when install on SSD ?

[Suwarna]

Hi All,

as i have lot of time (WFH :) ), my curiosity expand to try out freeNAS installation on every computer i have at home, just to see how is the performance related to the machines that i have. so, i would like to install on my desktop pc (i7-4770k) and would like to install it on the SSD but i also would like to retain Windows OS so i can switch (dual boot) when needed. is it possible to have multiboot on one device for freenas installation ? thank you.

Brgds,
Suwarna

 

[Yorick]

Not supported by the installer. It's probably easiest to install to a USB2 stick (or a USB3 stick in an USB2 port, if that's all you have), then choose the boot drive in BIOS/UEFI when the machine starts.

 

[Suwarna]

Not supported by the installer. It's probably easiest to install to a USB2 stick (or a USB3 stick in an USB2 port, if that's all you have), then choose the boot drive in BIOS/UEFI when the machine starts.

yeah, thats will do but just thinking to see the performance freeNAS running on the SSD without sacrifice ability to windows 10 :) so, meaning if needed, need to have fresh ssd then

 

[Yorick]

There is no performance difference in a running FreeNAS system between a USB and SSD boot pool. Maybe SSD will boot a hair faster. The main reason to choose SSD is that USB sticks die, faster if they are being used at USB3 speeds. For testing, booting from USB2 is fine.

Performance in FreeNAS is about the performance of the pool, and of the network interface, and amount of available RAM for read performance. Whatever you do, you'll need at least one additional drive to create your pool on. For performance test, you'd need multiple drives, as many as will be in the final pool, using the layout of the final pool.

 

[Suwarna]

There is no performance difference in a running FreeNAS system between a USB and SSD boot pool. Maybe SSD will boot a hair faster. The main reason to choose SSD is that USB sticks die, faster if they are being used at USB3 speeds. For testing, booting from USB2 is fine.

Performance in FreeNAS is about the performance of the pool, and of the network interface, and amount of available RAM for read performance. Whatever you do, you'll need at least one additional drive to create your pool on. For performance test, you'd need multiple drives, as many as will be in the final pool, using the layout of the final pool.

Hi Yorick, thanks for your quick reply, appreciate !!

so, if lets say i decide to use USB sticks for boot, then i just need to have back up USB and that will do ? so if somehow the usb "died", i just plug in the backup USB and its on again ?

 

[Yorick]

Yes. Keep a spare USB stick around, and backup your FreeNAS configuration, including crypto keys if you are playing with disk encryption. If the USB stick dies, reinstall to a fresh one and restore configuration file.

 

[Suwarna]

Yes. Keep a spare USB stick around, and backup your FreeNAS configuration, including crypto keys if you are playing with disk encryption. If the USB stick dies, reinstall to a fresh one and restore configuration file.

thanks !!

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Install to a small USB drive.
Mirror that USB drive to a matching partition on the SSD.
Remove USB drive from mirror.
Put FreeBSD EFI bootloader on your EFI partition.
Install an EFI boot manager like rEFInd to pick your OS at boot time.

All takes some experience and command line wizardry, but it is next to impossible to prepare a foolproof write up without access to your particular hardware and environment.

HTH,
Patrick