Performance of OMV when running on USB drive?

1st Official Post

    In the past I used OMV with normal drive installing the OS, now from the documentation, and also searched around this sub I found many are using USB drive (or even SD card). My server has only USB 2.0 port, will it be too slow for OMV? (e.g. GUI loading, and/or plugins like Plex) And for docker, the storage will be within USB root drive or can be put into the storage pool?

    Also, question about life expectancy, for those who are running USB boot, any comment about this?

    Quote from IseyGarfield

    My server has only USB 2.0 port, will it be too slow for OMV?

    Personally I have no experience with USB drive as a system disk, but many users do so. I don´t think that USB 2.0 is too slow but you could simply test it;)

    Quote from IseyGarfield

    Also, question about life expectancy, for those who are running USB boot, any comment about this?

    To increase the life span of a flash drive it is recommended to use the flash memory plugin with reduces the write attempts to the USB stick.

    And also a good brand for the stick should be used. Nevertheless the stick should be completely tested with a test program like h2testw or a similar program for Linux F3 before usage.

    Quote from IseyGarfield

    And for docker, the storage will be within USB root drive or can be put into the storage pool?

    For docker I would use a dedicated disk not the USB system drive.

    OMV 3.0.100 (Gray style)

    ASRock Rack C2550D4I C0-stepping - 16GB ECC - 6x WD RED 3TB (ZFS 2x3 Striped RaidZ1) - Fractal Design Node 304 -

    3x WD80EMAZ Snapraid / MergerFS-pool via eSATA - 4-Bay ICYCube MB561U3S-4S with fan-mod

    Edited once, last by cabrio_leo ().

    • Official Post

    The issue of life expectancy of a USB flash drive (or micro SD card) is made moot by the utilization of a cloned backup. A 32G Sandisk Ultra Flair is only $7.50 U.S. dollars. Get a high quality new flash drive and back it up regularly with another flash drive just like it and it will last for years.

    System Backup Typo alert: Under the Linux section the command should be sudo umount /dev/sda1 NOT sudo unmount /dev/sda1

    Backup Data Disk to Backup Disk on Same Machine: In a Scheduled Job:rsync -av --delete /srv/dev-disk-by-uuid-f8814ed9-9a5c-4e1c-8830-426968c20ea3/ /srv/dev-disk-by-uuid-e67439d5-00a3-4942-bd5f-b84ab86aa850/ Don't forget trailing slashes, and BE CAREFUL. (HT: Getting Started with OMV5)

    Equipment - Thinkserver TS140, NanoPi M4 (v.1), Odroid XU4 (Using DietPi): PiHole

    • Official Post
    Quote from lee.tom

    May I know whether USB flash drive can be boot by USB3.0 PCI-E card as the native USB ports of my OMV PC is 2.0 only?

    What's controller chip of USB3.0 PCI-E card recommended ?

    No idea. Maybe others have. But why not run the OS from USB 2.0?

    I actually agree with this. Just doing this for the first time tonight and OMV is noticeably slower on my 32GB USB stick vs. the SSD it used to run on. Everything is considerably slower in the interface as far as making changes to settings and moving around vs. when I ran it on the SSD. I will qualify I didn't install the flashmemory plugin yet.

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