23.05@2100 on eMMC or SSD?
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The update to 23.05 requires a new installation on the SG-2100. I have an SSD on board and had the choice to install on eMMC or SSD. I was not sure how the setup was earlier when I got the device readily installed with the SSD. I selected eMMC because I thought the FW should be on SSD while additional data like logs, blocklists etc. should go to the SSD. Now I am not sure if the FW must be installed on the SSD to to use it. How are the two storage options actually used? Should I install the FW on the SSD?
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@Stefanix pfSense is a “single” drive system by design, so everything is created, configured and logged on the drive where pfSense is installed. While you technically can make it use other drives for parts of the data, it requires manual customization, and you cannot be sure that will survice upgrades or updates.
So in your case you definitively should install it on the SSD - both for disk capacity and especially for disk write endurance.
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@keyser Thanks a lot for this quick and clear answer! I will re-install.
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@Stefanix To piggyback on the reasoning, the max models include the SSD which is what I think you meant. An SSD will be faster writing, have much longer write life, and is therefore recommended or required for certain packages:
https://www.netgate.com/supported-pfsense-plus-packages -
@SteveITS Perfect, thanks for this addition! My thought was, that permanent data (FW) should be on the eMMC and variable data on the SSD. But I understand now that it a single drive system and I don't want any special configuration.
One more question arises: I read that having the FW on both drives (which I probably will run into after re-installation) could cause some issues and the unused storage system should be erased. There are some instructions for this but I am not 100% confident to follow those. Can this still be an issue or will the installation routine take care of this? Thanks! -
J jimp moved this topic from Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software on
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@Stefanix said in 23.05@2100 on eMMC or SSD?:
Can this still be an issue or will the installation routine take care of this?
It can cause an issue if you end up with multiple zfs pools with the same name.
However you don't need to worry about that when installing to the SSD in the 2100 because the installer erases the eMMC drive during the install.
The only time you might is if you later decided to install the eMMC when the SSD was still present. But that's a far more unusual situation.
Steve
