What storage requirements does FreeNAS have?

[superwad]

So documentation says 2GB min, 4GB+ preferred, but I'm curious how much long-term bloat will be. Is there logging that FreeNAS does? Config files? Cache? If I went to a 8GB or 16GB flash drive, would I expect it to fill up appreciably beyond the original install?

 

[Ericloewe]

So documentation says 2GB min, 4GB+ preferred, but I'm curious how much long-term bloat will be. Is there logging that FreeNAS does? Config files? Cache? If I went to a 8GB or 16GB flash drive, would I expect it to fill up appreciably beyond the original install?

The FreeNAS boot drive will not change regularly and does not grow. Stuff like logs is written to a pool of your choice.

However, getting a larger boot drive might be a good idea, since 9.3 will introduce some features that can actually make use of larger drives. No need to overdo it, just buy what seems like a good deal.

 

[superwad]

Alright, sounds good. I have a 16GB Kingston that'll do just fine then :)

 

[anodos]

Alright, sounds good. I have a 16GB Kingston that'll do just fine then :)

I believe logs are stored on your zpool. Be sure to get two of those sticks.

 

[Knowltey]

I believe logs are stored on your zpool. Be sure to get two of those sticks.

Why does he need to get two? you can't mirror them or anything like that.

 

[gpsguy]

A ready to go spare in case the first one dies. Or, for use during an upgrade. If the upgrade fails or you don't like it, just pop the "old" flash drive in and be back in business.

You probably have a few spares that you could use in a pinch. Many of our users don't.

Why does he need to get two?

 

[jgreco]

I actually suggest three, 'cuz they're cheap and it gives more flexibility in the event of a failure ... you can be booted up on one of them, while trying to rescue a config file off a broken one and writing it onto a fresh image on the third one, for example.

 

[dlavigne]

Just to add to this conversation, this will be changing in 9.3 as the boot device will be formatted with ZFS, use grub, and support boot environments. The installer will now support mirrored boot devices (finally!) and it doesn't hurt to have a 8GB or 16GB boot drive if one will be making their own boot environments. A 4GB device will easily hold the OS plus 2 boot environments which could represent 2 upgrades or security updates. However, if one plans to make their own boot environments, say for different testing scenarios, they should think higher than 4GB.

 

[jgreco]

Wow, holy crap.

 

[Knowltey]

A ready to go spare in case the first one dies. Or, for use during an upgrade. If the upgrade fails or you don't like it, just pop the "old" flash drive in and be back in business.

You probably have a few spares that you could use in a pinch. Many of our users don't.

Oh yeah, forgot about that one.

Just to add to this conversation, this will be changing in 9.3 as the boot device will be formatted with ZFS, use grub, and support boot environments. The installer will now support mirrored boot devices (finally!) and it doesn't hurt to have a 8GB or 16GB boot drive if one will be making their own boot environments. A 4GB device will easily hold the OS plus 2 boot environments which could represent 2 upgrades or security updates. However, if one plans to make their own boot environments, say for different testing scenarios, they should think higher than 4GB.

Just mirror, or could I be super absurd and make a RAIDZ3 of USB drives?

 

[jgreco]

Just mirror, or could I be super absurd and make a RAIDZ3 of USB drives?

You could do that anyway. I know a guy who had a box of USB thumb drive from tradeshows who made a crazy ZFS setup out of USB flash and a bunch of hubs...

 

[Knowltey]

You could do that anyway. I know a guy who had a box of USB thumb drive from tradeshows who made a crazy ZFS setup out of USB flash and a bunch of hubs...

Well, I mean I know I can do it right now for storage pools if I wanted to be absurd, but I didn't think you could do it with the boot USB?

 

[jgreco]

Correct, but it looks like now we can go stupid in that direction too. ;-)

 

[cyberjock]

From what I have been told only mirrors are supported. Not sure if that is planned to change or not or if there is a technical limitation (for example, only single disk zpools and mirrors are bootable).

 

[jgreco]

I haven't looked recently but my recollection was that the bootloader had rather limited support, so I am guessing technical.