Should I change my USB Mirrored boot drive?

[icsy7867]

Currently not really having any issues, but I do have a dilemma that’s I was hoping some more intelligent than I could offer some proper guidance on.

Originally I had a single 16GB USB Cruzer running freenas and I have since added an additional mirror after seeing some weird read errors. I thought that this should help me keep some uptime. However I have been reading that due to the increase read/writes to the system, USB dongles are no longer the ideal or preffered method. However i have some issues with changing this...

• All of my SATA drives are currently consumed (6x 3TB WD Red drives)
• I have a single PCI x16 available
• I woulda also like to add some storage for VMs over a 10GB Network Cat6 setup
• Currently I have a local NVMe slot with a 512GB drive, and a single M.2 SSD (non NVMe) in a mirrored fashion for this. These are the parts I had so I tried it.

I would like to add a x16 quad NVMe card (I need to verify that my motherboard supports the x4x4x4x4 bifurcation mode). Something like this:

Amazon.com

However I really dont want to consume two of these for a freenas boot drive. Seems a bit ridiculous. So it seems I have three options?

1. Keep the dual, mirrored USB sticks and just replace them as they go bad.
2. Purchase USB SSD Enclosure and plop in a small Intel SSD into these.
3. Eat up 2 NVMe slots for the OS boot drive (I would have 3 remaining).

I think I am leaning towards keeping the mirrored USB dongles, and upgrading these in the future to external USB drives, but wanted to see what yall thought!

FreeNAS-11.3-U2.1
X10SDV-6c+
24GB ECC Ram
6x 3TB WD Reed

 

[Yorick]

2a) USB to M.2 SATA adapter, M.2 SATA 2242 stick, have a "premium USB" boot drive that's smaller than option 2). Combine with 1) as desired.

- Any M.2 SATA 2242 for example https://www.amazon.com/Transcend-MTS400S-Solid-State-TS32GMTS400S/dp/B077H276GQ/
- Any M.2 SATA to USB for example https://www.amazon.com/Aluminium-Enclosure-NG-2242A-Extension-Converter/dp/B082CJ2V76/

 

[icsy7867]

2a) USB to M.2 SATA adapter, M.2 SATA 2242 stick, have a "premium USB" boot drive that's smaller than option 2). Combine with 1) as desired.

- Any M.2 SATA 2242 for example https://www.amazon.com/Transcend-MTS400S-Solid-State-TS32GMTS400S/dp/B077H276GQ/
- Any M.2 SATA to USB for example https://www.amazon.com/Aluminium-Enclosure-NG-2242A-Extension-Converter/dp/B082CJ2V76/

Ordered and installed. So far working great! Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[elove7300]

@ icsy7867
any update on how that's performing so far? I saw that enclosure gets hot and I was wondering about the longevity of the enclosure.

 

[icsy7867]

Working well! I'd say they are cooler than my USB Cruzers I use to use lol.

They are a bit warm when I touch them, but definitely would not call them hot.

 

[elove7300]

Excellent thank you I will purchase them today many thanks!

 

[elove7300]

I purchased the mention usb case an M.2 2242. Install doesn't see it. Does the device need to be prepared a specific way? I'm using a supermicro case that has an internal USB A on the motherboard. I've out in another regular usb and it does see it in the bios to be able to boot from but thats is. So I know the USB A works. Thank you

 

[shanemikel]

2a) USB to M.2 SATA adapter, M.2 SATA 2242 stick, have a "premium USB" boot drive that's smaller than option 2). Combine with 1) as desired.

- Any M.2 SATA 2242 for example https://www.amazon.com/Transcend-MTS400S-Solid-State-TS32GMTS400S/dp/B077H276GQ/
- Any M.2 SATA to USB for example https://www.amazon.com/Aluminium-Enclosure-NG-2242A-Extension-Converter/dp/B082CJ2V76/

Has anybody tried booting from "industrial grade" MLC thumb drives or SLC? I've been running OpenWRT on a PCEngines board booting from "pseudo" (read cheap/fake) SLC at the recommendation of PCEngines.

I came across a variety of them: https://us.transcend-info.com/Embedded/Product/flash

They also have a "SuperMLC" microSD card that's fairly cheap: https://us.transcend-info.com/embedded/product/embedded-memory-cards/microsdhc220i

 

[shanemikel]

I just ordered a couple Transcend JetFlash 180I 16GB "SLC mode" thumbs (TS16GJF180I). Transcend support told me they are rated for 100K P/E cycles. I'm too lazy to try and math it out, but that's a lot more than the 3K they have specced for some other drives. Even have built-in ECC. $25 ea. Any future travelers reading this, ping me and I'll tell you if they work.

 

[theblacksmith]

I see these on Transcend's website, but not anywhere for sale. Is the place you got them from still have them? Could you share a link?

 

[shanemikel]

I see these on Transcend's website, but not anywhere for sale. Is the place you got them from still have them? Could you share a link?

I emailed Transcend sales directly and they connected me with Braemac, one of their distributors in California. If you are in USA you can email sales@braemacca.com.