Is it possible to use one SSD for system and shares?

vinser · Mar 22nd 2020

Hi Dear All

I have SBC with one SSD attached. How can I setup OMV5 to use this SSD for system and data shares? Can I install OMV and shares in separate partitions?

Thanks

macom · Mar 22nd 2020

Which SBC are you using?

What do you want to achieve? Why not keep the OS on the SD and use the SSD for data. You will not get performance increase if you move the OS to the SSD. Only slightly during update and installations.

votdev · Mar 22nd 2020

Quote

Is it possible to use one SSD for system and shares?

Yes, install the openmediavault-sharerootfs plugin.

raulfg3 · Mar 22nd 2020

Quote from vinser

Hi Dear All

I have SBC with one SSD attached. How can I setup OMV5 to use this SSD for system and data shares? Can I install OMV and shares in separate partitions?

Thanks

Yes, votdev say how, but it's not recomended because in case of fail and if you need to reinstall OMV you lose all data on boot disk, so it's recommended only for advanced users that know what happen.

PD: I use to store DDBB and temp files that are really not important

Adoby · Mar 22nd 2020

Typically you can only place the boot files on some specific device like a SD card.

But you can place the rest of the root filesystem on another device, like an SSD. And if the SSD is big enough you can also use a partition on it to store docker images and data used by the docker images. This might greatly improve the performance of the SBC.

You may have to manually jump through some hoops to get it working correctly. By default OMV doesn't support this.

The exact procedure is different for different SBCs. Typically it involves editing a boot config file on the SD card and copying a partition from the SD card to the SSD. Either using a script or manually. You will still have to have the SD card inserted to boot, but it will only be used for the very first stages of the boot process. After that the SBC will access the rootfs from the SSD.

I used google to find directions for my SBCs. It was not difficult. You may not find directions for OMV specifically, except on this forum, but more likely for Debian, Raspbian or Armbian. Since OMV is based on Debian, those directions are very likely to work for OMV as well. Perhaps with some minor changes.

macom · Mar 22nd 2020

Quote from Adoby

if the SSD is big enough you can also use a partition on it to store docker images and data used by the docker images

Yes this will increase performance. But this can be done without moving the root filesystem to the SSD.

Adoby · Mar 22nd 2020

Yes, using the SD card for boot AND rootfs, and the SSD only for docker images and docker data may very well be the best way to go.

It will make it easy to keep the rootfs small. Also, having the rootfs on a SD card makes it very easy to clone.

vinser · Mar 22nd 2020

Wow, the topic turned out to be very popular - many thanks to All !

I'll try to clarify it a bit.

I've done my Armbian Buster 4.14.173 installation on Odroid HC1 with 500GB SSD and moved rootfs to SSD like this:

Code

#   Make 16GB rootfs partition and set remained volume for second data partition
        fdisk /dev/sda
...
#   Make filesystems    
        mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
        mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
#   Mount it to specific directory to use your SSD.
#   Make new directories for SSD.
        mkdir -p /mnt/system
        mkdir -p /mnt/data
#   Use /mnt/system as a root partition, and /mnt/data as a data partition.
        mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/system
        mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/data
#   Check if it is mounted properly.
        df -h
#   Change rootfs partition
       nano /boot/armbianEnv.txt
#---
board_name=hc1
rootdev=UUID=3724cf83-8475-44d3-9ec2-b223c7c7e74f
rootfstype=ext4
verbosity=1
#---
   nano /etc/fstab 
#---
#UUID=289c15a6-61a0-405f-b66e-6b7b13c350ef / ext4 defaults,noatime,nodiratime,commit=600,errors=remount-ro 0 1
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults,nosuid 0 0
/dev/sda1 / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1
/dev/sda2 /mnt/data ext4 defaults 0 2
#---
#   Copy a root partition    
        rsync -axv / /mnt/system
#   Check rootfs mount piont 
        reboot
        lsblk -f

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Then I installed OMV5 with https://github.com/OpenMediaVault-Plugin-Developers/installScript/raw/master/install with -f option (no flashmemory)

Eventually in OMV I have trouble with selecting a device to Add shared folder. May be I made a mistake elsewhere.

Is above installation order right or there is another best practice to do the job?

Kind regards

vinser · Mar 22nd 2020

Quote from Adoby

Yes, using the SD card for boot AND rootfs, and the SSD only for docker images and docker data may very well be the best way to go.
It will make it easy to keep the rootfs small. Also, having the rootfs on a SD card makes it very easy to clone.

And what about SD wearing in such case? Does it long enough?

macom · Mar 22nd 2020

Quote from vinser

And what about SD wearing in such case? Does it long enough?

Yes. That is why there is the flashmemory plugin. Unless you decide to not install it

vinser · Mar 22nd 2020

Quote from votdev

Yes, install the openmediavault-sharerootfs plugin.

Thanks, but I need not setup shared folders in rootfs, but want to put rootfs in separate SSD partition alongside data partition on the same device.

Adoby · Mar 22nd 2020

Yes, using the flash memory plugin drastically reduces the number of writes to the SD card. By also moving everything docker to some other device, like a SSD, you keep the rootfs very small and most of the SD card unused. That helps the SD card wear leveling. I suspect that the SD under such conditions may last for many years. You may wear out the SSD before you wear out the SD card.

Without the flash memory plugin, and with frequently updated data like media metadata databases stored on the SD card, I would expect the SD card to fail in a few weeks as best.

Still, make sure to get good SD cards. I like the SanDisk Extreme A1. 32GB or 64GB despite only around 8GB is used for the rootfs partition.

I did this on a HC1 with a 2TB Hybrid SSD/HDD with OMV 4. Since OMV 4 for HC1 is based on Armbian there was a script that I could use, nand-sata-install. The script handled the reconfig and copying of the rootfs for me.

But now I regret doing this. It works great, but it is difficult to clone the rootfs. At least compared to just cloning a SD card. But the HC1 is running fine. When I update it to OMV5 I will put the rootfs back to the SD card.

vinser · Mar 28th 2020

I decided to follow your recommendations and refused to move rootfs on SSD in favor of flashmemory plugin which will be installed with mentioned above OMV5 script by default and simplicity of backing it up by simple SD cloning.

Many thanks to ALL!

sabamimi · Mar 28th 2020

Now I can do a backup image (Clonezilla) of 1 disk with OS, Containers and Container's data in one step!!!

thank you!

vinser · Mar 28th 2020

Quote from sabamimi

Now I can do a backup image (Clonezilla) of 1 disk with OS, Containers and Container's data in one step!!!
thank you!

Did You set up the same SSD partition for rootfs and data?

sabamimi · Mar 29th 2020

Quote from vinser

Did You set up the same SSD partition for rootfs and data?

Yes ....but for now I have just created (successfully) a share folder on the OS SSD using openmediavault-sharerootfs.
My next step is to move all containers persistent volumes to this sharedfolder.

This should allow me to backup / restore image a fully OMV5 system :OS + Docker applications. (this is my goal)

BUT

I have read elsewhere "backing-up-omv-system-disk"

Backing up OMV system disk

that this restore will have a Docker (disk serial) issue if you replace the disk.

Still OK if you restore to the same disk

Other sharedfolders (data like music, films, etc ) are on other disks in my case

Participate now!