Recommendation usb stick

1st Official Post

    I have only two sata slots and 2 disks. So i would need install omv on usb stick. Is there some recommendation what kind of usb stick to use, so it can last for years? Thank you. Or is there other way?

    • Official Post

    Use a good quality USB 3 stick, at least 16 GB. But 32 GB or 64 GB is OK as well. OMV will only create a partition that is 8 GB and most of that will be unused... (Edit: On x86 a swap partition is also created on the USB stick. Make sure to disable swap on the USB stick by installing the flash memory plugin!)


    I like SanDisk Ultra.


    Using the flash memory plugin it is possible to make OMV write very little to the USB stick. It is writes that wear out the stick. So using the flash memory plugin it is likely that the USB stick will last many years.


    It is still a good idea to buy some extra identical USB sticks. Then you can easily clone one stick to another. This is great for backup, but also when you attempt to install or configure something you don't quite understand or know for sure that you won't mess up. If anything goes wrong, you can very quickly restore things back to perfect working order again. No need to reinstall from scratch.


    This also makes it possible to ensure that your OMV install is prestine. You can try and test things until it is perfect and only then commit to keeping the new config.


    SBCs often boot from SD cards, and you can do the same with SD cards. Clone them.


    One problem is that when you install extra software or dockers, by default they may use some folder on the USB stick. For instance under /var/lib. Sometimes that can be OK, as long as it is just a program. But sometimes it is also metadata databases and other frequently variable data. Then that will cause a lot of writes to the USB stick, and that will quickly wear it out. Also the data may be bulky and won't fit on the small 8 GB partition. It is always possible to avoid abusing the USB stick like this. Typically by using some other partition or shared folder on one of the storage disks. Check carefully before installing anything. Especially before you install your first docker app!


    Don't be tempted to make the 8 GB partition bigger, to use the unused storage on the 16GB, 32GB or 64GB USB stick. That unused storage, over-provisioning, will be used for wear leveling and is likely to make the USB stick last much longer. Same with SD cards.

    Be smart - be lazy. Clone your rootfs.
    OMV 5: 9 x Odroid HC2 + 1 x Odroid HC1 + 1 x Raspberry Pi 4

    Edited 2 times, last by Adoby: Corrected missing mention of swap on x86. ().

    Thank you.


    Default installation of omv creates on usb stick 16MB 3 partitions, one of them swap. It did not offer me to change it.
    Is it ok to have swap on usb disk? And how can I know there is 8gb ext4 partititon if there is no tools to check/change it?


    Thank you.

    • Official Post

    Swap on a USB stick is Bad™. At least if it is being used...


    How do you know that there are three partitions on the USB stick, one being swap, if you don't have any tools to check it? ;D


    The nice thing about using a USB stick for boot and root filesystem is that it is easy to move the stick to some other Linux computer and examine / change / modify the partitions on that computer. If you do not have another Linux computer you can create one temporarily by using a live Linux distribution on a USB stick. Another USB stick...


    For instance Ubuntu. I like to use gparted to mess with filesystems and partitions using a GUI.


    If you use a USB stick for boot and root filesystem, also make sure to install the flash memory plugin. I belive one step during the installation process of the flash memory plugin is to disable the swap on the flash memory. But I am not sure. I only run OMV on ARM, not on x86.

    Well there is one screen during install, where you can see parititon that are made automatically, and you can not change it. You see just something (can not remember), ext4 and swap. No sizes at all, no tool to change it. I might put this issue in another thread.

    • Official Post

    What issue? If you REALLY want other sizes you can resize the partitions after install using some other Linux computer and GParted.


    However, I think the defaults are OK. No need for more. if you decide to use a USB stick as root filesystem you shouldn't really use it for anything that would make you want to resize or change anything on the USB stick.


    And if you install the flash memory plugin, the swap-partition will become unused.


    I would even argue that if you need a bigger root filesystem than the one created by default, you are doing something very wrong. And you definitely shouldn't put OMV on a USB stick then.

    • Official Post

    How about fatrace

    http://manpages.ubuntu.com/man…ionic/man1/fatrace.1.html


    or find

    find / -xdev -cmin -3 -ls this will find all files on / which have been accessed the last 3 minutes

    ssh into root into ServerOne:~# find / -xdev -cmin -3 -ls


    1165 0 drwxr-xr-x 34 root root 1160 apr 14 19:01 /run

    655614 4 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 apr 14 19:00 /var/cache/salt/minion/proc

    661768 12 -rw-r--r-- 1 pcp pcp 8292 apr 14 19:00 /var/lib/pcp/tmp/pmie/5176

    658250 4 drwx-wx-wt 2 root root 4096 apr 14 19:01 /var/lib/php/sessions

    Thanks that explains... looking at the below it seems nothing was written to /dev/sdc[1-3] not even if I lengthen the time


    root@ServerOne:/dev# find /dev/sdc -xdev -cmin -30 -ls

    root@ServerOne:/dev# find /dev/sdc -xdev -cmin -300 -ls

    root@ServerOne:/dev# find /dev/sdc1 -xdev -cmin -300 -ls

    root@ServerOne:/dev# find /dev/sdc2 -xdev -cmin -300 -ls

    root@ServerOne:/dev# find /dev/sdc3 -xdev -cmin -300 -ls


    sdc is the usbstick

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