USB Flash drive selection recommendation

[jimwise00]

Any current recommendation for 2019?

 

[Ericloewe]

Yes: None, get an SSD instead.

The only good reason not to do so is if you're out of SATA ports. If that is the case, try getting a reputable brand like SanDisk.

 

[jimwise00]

That’s basically the use case — HP dl380g8 LFF with all 8 drive bays full. Don’t want to give any up for boot drive, but have plenty of USB ports. Thoughts?

 

[Ericloewe]

Well, you don't need a drive bay, just a port. Alternatively, a PCIe to M.2 adapter plus a cheap PCIe M.2 SSD would also work very well.

If those aren't viable, I guess you're stuck with USB. SanDisks generally work fine, at least for a decent while.

 

[jimwise00]

Any recommendations for particularly reliable pcie / m.2 adapter?

Any reason not to use the same for ZIL or L2ARC?

 

[Ericloewe]

Any recommendations for particularly reliable pcie / m.2 adapter?

No, it's just a fancy set of controlled impedance, length-matched wires. Unless the factory messed up, they all just work.

Any reason not to use the same for ZIL or L2ARC?

Yes: The fact that it's hacky and ZFS doesn't expect it, the fact that most SSDs make for horrible SLOG devices and the high likelihood of them being useless or detrimental to performance.
It's not impossible, but it's rarely, if ever, the logical solution.

 

[jimwise00]

Ack — thanks.

 

[scrappy]

Any recommendations for particularly reliable pcie / m.2 adapter?

I just installed these components shown below in my Supermicro server the other day to replace the USB boot drive I had. Installation and setup was a breeze and my system is running great so far.
PCIe M.2 Adapter card
M.2 128GB SSD drive

 

[dhenzler]

SanDisk CZ430 32GB USB 3.1 Flash Pen Drive ULTRA FIT SDCZ430-032 makes a great boot drive for FreeNAS

 

[jgreco]

684896-001 HP B320i Riser w/SAS Connectors Controller​

I recommend this controller as it replaces a riser card, and works great with the DL380 series servers. I have added these to all of my (5) DL380's including the two p models. Can't beat the price. Get em on ebay for $21​

​

Many of these weird HP RAID cards may support AHCI mode in legacy SATA once you disable the fakeRAID mode. Otherwise they are useless garbage.

What's all the noise about HBAs, and why can't I use a RAID controller?

1) An HBA is a Host Bus Adapter. This is a controller that allows SAS and SATA devices to be attached to, and communicate directly with, a server. RAID controllers typically aggregate several disks into a Virtual Disk abstraction of some sort...

www.truenas.com

It is unclear what this has to do with this thread. Can you perhaps explain?

 

[dhenzler]

Many of these weird HP RAID cards may support AHCI mode in legacy SATA once you disable the fakeRAID mode. Otherwise they are useless garbage.

What's all the noise about HBAs, and why can't I use a RAID controller?

1) An HBA is a Host Bus Adapter. This is a controller that allows SAS and SATA devices to be attached to, and communicate directly with, a server. RAID controllers typically aggregate several disks into a Virtual Disk abstraction of some sort...

www.truenas.com

It is unclear what this has to do with this thread. Can you perhaps explain?

Erase it... my mistake !