New OMV Installation - Best OS Drive Configuration (USB, SSD, etc)

    Setting up a new Supermicro 4U soon with OMV6 and just wondering what the recommendation is for drive structure for the operating system / boot drive and the application drive that everyone is using? I figure I'd try and save all the external bays for storage, and as a result can use maybe a USB stick for OMV6 and then a 1TB internal SSD drive for the "application data" drive, maybe to hold my plex database/thumbs (which gets quite large), download data, other application data for SAB and Transmission, etc. Curious what others have done and the recommendations are?


    Option 1) OMV on USB stick, Data drive on internal SSD

    Option 2) OMV and data drive both on same internal SSD

    Option 3) OMV on internal SSD, data drive on a standard 3.5 HDD in a bay

    Option 4) OMV on an internal USB, data drive on a standard 35 HDD in a bay


    Maybe other permutations, just wondering if there are success or fail stories anyone would like to share. Appreciate it. Excited to finally get off OMV4, just wanted to get a new box before I did it.

    In the past I have used a 16GB 2.5in SSD disk in an external USB case for the OS. More recently I am using a 16GB PNY USB flash drive for the OMV v6 OS. I also have an identical 16GB USB flash drive plugged in which has my old OMV v5 installation on it. I can choose which one to boot to at startup if needed.


    Even though my server motherboard has 14 SATA ports I'm not going to waste one for the OS drive. I also have a 220GB 2.5 in SSD that I had no other use for installed for my docker containers, Plex database, and miscellaneous other files. This leaves 13 SATA ports available for hard drives, but the server only has 12 3.5in drive bays, 11 of which are occupied.

    --
    Google is your friend and Bob's your uncle!


    OMV AMD64 7.x on headless Chenbro NR12000 1U 1x 8m Quad Core E3-1220 3.1GHz 32GB ECC RAM.

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    I'm with you man. Ports are precious! My new 4U has 24 bays on the backplane and I still would rather use the internal SATA ports on the mobo for as many drives as I can. Amazing how many you can fill as a hoarder. I think I'll take a cue from you and find a suitable USB flash drive for OMV6 and then use an SSD for my dockers and plex DB. That way the 3.5 dirves in the external bays are all about the media.


    Appreciate the reply.

    SInce moving to OMV a couple of months ago I tried several options from your list:


    I started with Option 2 (both System and Data on the same rather small SSD), but underestimated how much space various docker images occupy...


    Then I transferred to Option 3 by moving Data to one of HDDs, but did not like it (speed and spindown aspects).


    Now I converged to Option 1 (system on internal USB, data on larger SSD).

    The main reason I like this setup is the ease of replicating the whole USB stick, e.g. before system updates, and also the speed of Data SSD.

    Zitat von gderf

    Which Supermicro 4U are you getting?

    It's the 36 bay E5-2609V2. Bays won't be a problem for a while but I still want to run it the right way. I assume a separate USB drive for the main OS and an SSD for the dockers and their data is still the most efficient way to go, reserving the bays for the main media files.

    When you replicate the USB stick are you doing it to another stick or just a backup file somewhere that's easy to restore in case of emergency? The other concern I guess I have is the stick itself taking a dump though from what I understand OMV is not very hard on drives when running as a standalone boot OS and the stick should last as long as I need it to.

    Zitat von bbddpp

    It's the 36 bay E5-2609V2. Bays won't be a problem for a while but I still want to run it the right way. I assume a separate USB drive for the main OS and an SSD for the dockers and their data is still the most efficient way to go, reserving the bays for the main media files.

    That's the way I have been doing it for years. 16GB USB stick for OMV, 220GB SSD for dockers, and the 12 drive bays for 3.5in SATA HDDs for my media collection, 58TB and growing.


    I create a dd backup image file of the OS USB drive daily on cron, and keep the seven most recent copies. If the USB stick gets damaged I can recover very easily using the backup dd image file. Install the openmediavault-flashmemory plugin to minimize writes to the OS drive and it should last a long time. Mine is at least three years old.

    --
    Google is your friend and Bob's your uncle!


    OMV AMD64 7.x on headless Chenbro NR12000 1U 1x 8m Quad Core E3-1220 3.1GHz 32GB ECC RAM.

    Zitat von bbddpp

    When you replicate the USB stick are you doing it to another stick or just a backup file somewhere that's easy to restore in case of emergency? The other concern I guess I have is the stick itself taking a dump though from what I understand OMV is not very hard on drives when running as a standalone boot OS and the stick should last as long as I need it to.

    I do both :)

    Before going for an update I usually backup System USB image onto HDD with OMV backup plugin. Then I reboot with SystemRescueCD and a "new" USB stick in place of the System USB, and restore the image to that new USB stick.

    Basically I alternate between 2 identical USB sticks, and have a couple of recent System images on HDD, just in case.


    To prolong the lifespan of USB stick use OMV flash plugin - it moves few most frequently updated directories to RAM disk:

    Thema
    [How-to] Use the openmediavault-flashmemory plugin
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    THIS GUIDE IS NO LONGER UPDATED.

    There is a different and more updated version of this guide here -> https://wiki.omv-extras.org/do…:omv6_plugins:flashmemory

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    Plugin functionality:
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    chente

    My setup on a Intel NUC6: 1 internal SSD for OMV and systemfiles like Docker. This disk is partioned: 8 GB for OMV (sda2), rest for other systemfiles (sda4). Because I am using Clonezilla (inside OMV) it is easy for me to backup and restore OMV if something is wrong or just for fun. Tried other backup methods but this one works fine for me. In the meantime I have learned not to mess about the OMV-system, took me a long time to correct errors or even restore a complete new system. Don't fix if it ain't broken ;)

    Besides the systemdisk I have 1 SSD for online data and 1 SSD for online backup (rsnapshot). Another SSD is a offline backup (USB backup). And another one for offsite backup.

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