Is flashmemory plugin working?

  • I have installed flashmemory plugin and I see in Plugins section that it's marked with green check mark.
    But how do I know that it's working OK i.e. preserving USB drive from extensive read/writes?
    Do I need to configure anything or just installing is OK?

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    It shows you how much has been written to the OS drive. It doesn't perform miracles. It just moves a few of the heaviest written directories to tmpfs. If you intentionally write data to other directories, it can't help. That said, it has done a great job on all of my systems.


    As for configure, there isn't anything you have to do.

    omv 7.0-32 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0 | kvm 7.0.9 | compose 7.0.9 | cputemp 7.0 | mergerfs 7.0.3


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github


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  • It shows you how much has been written to the OS drive.

    Where can I see that?


    If you intentionally write data to other directories, it can't help.

    I don't know how to do it, so I presume I haven't. :D


    As for configure, there isn't anything you have to do.

    I see that in the Storage section in the main menu, new item Flash Memory appeared.
    It has something with this plugin, because when I uninstall this plugin that item disappears and vice versa.
    When I look into that item it has some instructions about manual fstab changes.
    Do I need to do that if you say that there's nothing I have to do.
    What happens if I do that changes i.e. why should I do them?
    General settings are not enabled by default, should I enable them?
    Is there any guide/manual for this plugin, I couldn't find it in Guide section on the forum?

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    Where can I see that?

    In the flash memory plugin itself - click on the flashmemory icon in the web interface.



    Do I need to do that if you say that there's nothing I have to do.

    I wrote the plugin and the instructions. While they might help a little bit, they are hard to do for some people new to linux and can be left out.


    General settings are not enabled by default, should I enable them?

    Yes. It won't do anything unless you enable it.


    Is there any guide/manual for this plugin, I couldn't find it in Guide section on the forum?

    No because it doesn't really need one. You install it and enable it. Everything else (which is optional) is in the instructions on the plugin itself. That is all you need to do.

    omv 7.0-32 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0 | kvm 7.0.9 | compose 7.0.9 | cputemp 7.0 | mergerfs 7.0.3


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github


    Please try ctrl-shift-R and read this before posting a question.

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  • In the flash memory plugin itself - click on the flashmemory icon in the web interface.

    I enabled it in General settings, and Write Kbytes is still greyed out but it seems that it's changing.
    It shows 5464560 and the number is increasing.
    It's 8GB USB 3.0 stick and there are no data disks attached in OMV machine yet and monitoring is off at the moment.
    It has increased to 5478984 now and still increasing.
    When will it stop (if at all)? What does this count? Total writes to flash memory, but not deletes so it will never stop?
    Counter is now on 5480496 Kbytes.
    Is that 5,480,496 kB, e.g. 5,480 MB e.g. 5.5 GB so if evenly distributed over USB stick it has been written on average only once so far?
    Is my calculation right and by your experience, what do you consider as a safe level before I should start thinking of replacing USB stick?

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    Write Kbytes is still greyed out

    That just means it is read only. It is the correct amount of data that has been written since the last boot.



    When will it stop (if at all)?

    It doesn't stop. The flashmemory plugin doesn't eliminate all writing to the usb stick. It just reduces it by 80-90% (from my experience).


    Why so many questions? There is no exact answer for most of them. It depends on the usb stick, the age, etc. Even the amount written doesn't mean anything since the writes could sometimes be to the same sector and other times spread evenly across the stick. All I can say is have a backup and replace the stick if it starts doing anything weird. If you are that worried about it, use an SSD.

    omv 7.0-32 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0 | kvm 7.0.9 | compose 7.0.9 | cputemp 7.0 | mergerfs 7.0.3


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github


    Please try ctrl-shift-R and read this before posting a question.

    Please put your OMV system details in your signature.
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  • Thank's ryecoaaron,


    Why so many questions?

    Sorry, it must be my engineer's gene :) . I like to understand what I'm doing, and as you said, sometimes there are no definite answers, which frustrates a bit.
    I think the last bit I don't understand are instructions about changes in fstabs in the plug-in itself.
    I am new to linux, so for me they are hard to follow and understand.
    You said that they can be left out and plug-in will still do it's job, which is a relief.
    However, I would like to understand what are the benefits in doing them to see if it's worth putting an effort in performing them.
    Can you please explain "for dummies" way ?
    I downloaded Putty and managed to connect to OMV machine via SSH, but I'm a bit stuck there.

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    Can you please explain "for dummies" way

    The two entries to fstab - noatime, nodiratime - tell the filesystem not to update the last access time for files and directories because each of these "updates" are writes to the flash drive. I say they are optional because it isn't a lot of writes but it is a little bit more reduction in writes. Very hard to quantify how much it helps.


    The other line comments out the swap partition. If your system doesn't swap, this won't do anything at all. If you system is swapping a lot, it could be very hard on the flash drive due to a lot of writes. But, if you system is swapping, you probably don't have enough ram and that is a different problem.


    If you really want to learn about Linux, install Gentoo a bunch of times in a VM. Their installation manual is very good and you will learn a lot about Linux.

    omv 7.0-32 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0 | kvm 7.0.9 | compose 7.0.9 | cputemp 7.0 | mergerfs 7.0.3


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github


    Please try ctrl-shift-R and read this before posting a question.

    Please put your OMV system details in your signature.
    Please don't PM for support... Too many PMs!

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