Is it ok to use SATA 150MB/s HDD as OS Disk?

Hi, I am replanning my hardware now to prepare for OMV4 and also other needs (e.g. downsizing 2 NASes to one and redeploying the other NAS as a rendering machine instead). I happen to find a 320 GB SATA 150MB/s HDD that is still working. Should I use it so that I can free up the current 1 TB SATA 300MB/s HDDs? Or is it better to use USB thumbdrives and the flashmemory plugin?

Thanks!

Zitat von ryecoaaron

That drive should work just fine.

Thanks! So in other words, as long the drive can handle large amount of reads and writes, it can be used as an OS drive?

Zitat von tkaiser

The OS drive on an OMV installation experiences some read activity at every boot and if you activated monitoring (default) then some constant write activity all the times. As long as the drive works the performance is irrelevant.

You don't need to believe this:

Code

apt install sysstat
iostat 60

The second command will show you what's happening on your disks (1 minute interval)

Thanks for the confirmation! I'll proceed with this HDD then (either as a SATA or simply use it with an USB enclosure if I run out of SATA ports)

Zitat von tkaiser

Well, was meant more as an instruction how to check yourself than a 'general confirmation'. 'iostat' will tell what's happening at the storage layer and whether there are bottlenecks (watch the %iowait column)

Ah sorry. so if %iowait is too big, then I should be worried?

Zitat von ryecoaaron

It really shouldn't be on the OS disk. If it is too big, it would probably be higher on a usb stick since a lot of them are slower than spinning disks.

Hmm I see, how big should I be worried about? 5ms maybe?

Also based on the number of SATA ports I have, I will need the OS drive to be on the USB HDD enclosure (it will be a HDD instead of usual USB sticks). I hope it wont get too much of a performance hit.

Zitat von ryecoaaron

I would worry about it when you notice it is a problem.

I don't think you will notice.

Thanks, sounds like I should just try first and report back if I see anything strange?