Hi all, long time no post, so here's a long post if you have time to know.
I have been running OMV for a few years now, and I've been really happy with the software, the configuration potential and definitely the very helpful information and support provided by everyone in the community
However, one of the things that I have had trouble with over the last year or so, has been the reliability of running it via a USB drive. I started with a Sandisk Ultra 32GB, and it started to get quite full with Plex running as a plugin. I was able to upgrade to OMV 3.0, and that was a good learning experience. Then I started to have issues with things not working properly, and then also OMV not starting up properly. Switching USB slots would sometimes do the trick. But eventually, it just wouldn't boot at all, I'm not sure if it was due to excessive heat or excessive writes on the USB or a combination of things, but it just stopped working; I could never get my disaster recovery plan working, probably because the USB drive had already started failing, as it wouldn't let me read properly to back it up
Eventually, decided to buy a 64 GB drive, and start afresh with OMV 4.0. I eventually got to rebuilding it in June last year from scratch, on the new drive. I kept the old drive as a backup, just in case, although it was not booting at all. Once I rebuilt it, I would take the drive out, image it on a Windows machine, then plug it back in and keep going. The problem is, that at 64 GB, it was quite large to back up and also I would need another 64GB drive as a spare if something happened in future
So then comes last week, I noticed the server was not working. We had a really bad heat wave last week...so not sure if that expedited this problem I was really upset, it had only been 6 months after rebuilding the thing...
I have it hooked up to a monitor, but I can't really tell what the issue is, I'm hoping it's isolated to the USB drive ???
But I put the 32 GB drive back in, and started loading OMV back onto it...no problems, and boots in fine. But the process of configuring it all again awaits me...
If anyone has any similar experience or feedback on my little story, please let me know?
Also, I'm thinking, I can't keep doing this every 6 months again. So I'm wondering, is it worth getting spare 32 GB drives, and trying to just put the images on a few, so if one goes cactus again, I plug the backup in, and then reimage the failed one as the new backup? Also, can I put a 32 GB image onto the 64 GB drive, I'm thinking I can, but haven't tried it yet...as I couldn't go the other way 64 => 32
Is this a good strategy, or is it time to look at an internal SSD for reliability? I just want it to work, I thought the USB was going to be an easy and stable way to do it, but without a good backup strategy, it's really not been easy at all, especially teh last 12 months or so
I am wondering if the heat has been a problem, and so also thinking I need to find a cooler spot for it. I've probably been a very mean host to this server, it's right next to a hot running switch and router and I think my exhaust fan just can't keep up with the heat from the 3 machines...ok, I've crapped on enough, thanks everyone for listening