Overkill hardware - How much is really needed for omv ?

Hi.

I'm thinking more and more about how overkill the hardware on my omv NAS (which backs up the data from another NAS and acts as a backup NAS/Plex server in case my main NAS (a Syology DS218) goes down) is. I built my main desktop PC and my backup NAS at the same time back in 2018. My NAS has an i3 8100, a 128 GB SSD for OMV (even in 2018 I gave up on finding a smaller drive) and... 32 GB of RAM. I installed Windows on a separate SSD in case I need it for some reason but even for that OS I think 32 GB is way too much for the purpose of a NAS. I even thought of giving up that hardware to sell it and use an old PC that I was gifted by the company I spent time in as an intern during my IT studies, that I currently have no use for, but I would have just enough SATA ports to plug my data drives. I know OMV can run off a USB flash drive but I'd rather use an internal SSD. Basically I never see omv using more than 3 or 4 GB (or less) of RAM even at peak usage. I originally intended to put 16 GB of RAM in that build but my 2 8 GB sticks got lost in the mail, Amazon sent me another package after considering ir lost (after 15 days), and I received the original package several months after that. But if I'm removing unused RAM, what do I do with it? I certainly don't want it inside a drawer and I don't have any free slots in my desktop PC.

What do you think ?

Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the reply. If I'm selling it, I might replace it with that old PC I'm talking about in the OP. But how do I install OMV if I have just enough SATA ports for my data drives? I don't have a M.2 slot (it's a socket 775) and I don't think installing to a USB flash drive would be a good idea. Plus, writing the OP made me realize it's the amount of RAM that bugs me more than anything else.

Problem is I rarely earned much from selling PCs I put together myself. Is there a website to estimate the value of a PC?

Thanks again.

Zitat von macom

Many do. Me included.

I also have the feeling that selling 5 year old consumer hardware is not worth the effort. You could see if you get some hints on ebay.

I know many probably do, even I did at some point but after two dead drives I figured I'd buy a SSD instead. I didn't realize 2018 was 5 years ago already so yeah it might be another problem to sell it.

backslash  @Louie1961 I knew about M.2 PCI expansion cards but not about the SATA ones. I might buy one of the latter and try my luck. I don't see an entry for booting from PCI in the BIOS though.

While thinking about it, it might just replace my 2 GB Pi 4 as an emulation rig instead. My other Pi, a Pi 3 was hosting my first OMV install by the way.

Zitat von macom

Did you use the flashmemory plugin? It significantly reduces writes to the OS drive.

Well I just learnt about it while reading your reply so nope.

Zitat von macom

In case you want to know more about it:

https://wiki.omv-extras.org/do…:omv6_plugins:flashmemory

Thanks. I installed it because your link states it's also good for SSDs.

OK guys, I had an idea in the back of my head for a while of switching the spare room in my flat from a storage space to an office room, using my current omv system as a traditional PC running either Windows or Linux, maybe both. I would also switch the hardware of my current omv system to a spare case I have laying around. It was the case my main system was in until about 2 years ago, I retired it since while moving the movers broke the plexiglas window from that case and plexiglas replacements were sold out on the manufaturer website. But the case is still usable, there's just a hole in the bottom of the window.

So, this weekend I was going to switch the hard drives from my current omv system to the old system I'm not usng, installing omv on a flash drive for now, before deciding on whether buying either a SATA expansion card, a NVMe expansion card or nothing. The problem being this old PC is so old it only has pre-USB 3 USB ports (I don't even know if they're even USB 2 but they don't seem slower) so the main bottleneck would be the boot drive. I already tried installing on an old USB 2 flash drive during lunch but the install process and the system itself was painfully slow. I'm currently trying to install omv on another flash drive I think is faster.(but still USB 2). It already feels faster, I'll tell you once it finishes.

One last question: If I make the switch and mess up the drives order, will I need to rebuild my RAID array (and so retransfer my data all over again)?

EDIT: So the old flash drive was indeed the bottleneck, omv is MUCH faster on the 2nd drive I tried.

Thanks again for the help, guys.

Zitat von crashtest

I've never used anything else (other than a flash drive) to boot OMV. With the flashmemory plugin installed, they last a long time. While I've had a few SD-cards fail (most of them were cheap generics), I've only had one good quality USB thumbdrive fail. It was at least 5 years old. It might have been 6 or 7. It was old enough to where I'm not sure of the exact age. I'll qualify that and say that I use my server as a NAS. (I'm not running Dockers or a media server from my flash boot drive.)

The real benefit with a flashdrive is, they're easy to clone. If a thumbdrive fails, replace it with a cloned backup and the server is up again in a matter of minutes.

Yeah I was talking about my experience with 2 dead drives using them as an omv boot drive but I didn't know about the plugin I was directed to a few posts ago. Fingers crossed it won't happen again soon!

Also I swapped my hard drives from my omv system to my old computer. Problem is the disks are floating inside the case. I only have a media case that's fused with the case (it's a prebuilt from Lenovo, a Thinkcentre M58e). Can anyone recommend a hard drive cage I could put inside my old PC that can hold 4, 3.5" hard drives ? Would something like this be good?

Sorry the page is in French (which is my native language).

Zitat von crashtest

I saw the page in English. (Most browsers have plugin's that can translate.)

Check the measurements to see if it will fit inside your case. Generally speaking, drives goes in one side of the cage and the cabling goes in the other side, so that means you'll need some space on both of the open ends of the cage. That means you'll have to watch were you mount it.

Notice that on the side with the grill; the grill screws in on the top and (maybe) the bottom, meaning the grill is not a door. You might not be able to use the grill.

Never mind, I found something more surely compatible with my old PC, a 3.5" to 5.25" adapter, since 3/4 of the cage that's inside is that size. Thanks anyways.