Which USB Drive??

[NineFingers]

Since the sticks I purchased (Mushkin USB 32GB) aren't working for the boot devices for my 9.3 upgrade (the "gpart: no space left on device" error on install), which sticks are y'all using with good success? Or should I move to internal SSD?

 

[Nick2253]

In the past, people seem to have luck with going to an older version of 9.3, and then using the GUI to upgrade.

As far as brands go, SanDisk seems to be popular here. I use a SanDisk drive.

Internal SSDs aren't that expensive anymore, so I would consider it. They will be faster and more reliable than any USB flash drive.

 

[NineFingers]

Are folks mirroring the internal SSD, or just a single?

 

[Nick2253]

It's really up to you.

If you have scheduled config backups (you do backup your config, right!? ;)), then mirroring is more about uptime than anything else. In my home case, I have a blank backup USB stick (I use the same USB drives for my XenServer, pfSense, and FreeNAS), and if my FreeNAS USB dies, it's pretty simple to reinstall FreeNAS and reimport the configuration. We're talking no more than an hour downtime.

If you can't afford any downtime, then I'd do a SSD mirror.

 

[NineFingers]

Cool! Thanks for your input. Much Appreciated.

 

[danb35]

you do backup your config, right!?

Everyone does, automatically, though they may not know it. It goes into the .system dataset, at /var/db/system, and stores the last 30 versions of the database. A copy is saved whenever a change is made.

 

[NineFingers]

Update --

I purchased a SanDisk SSD from BestBuy. Install went great, and it's running well.

Thanks!