eMMC Disk about to fail?

Kurzag

Hi!

I had some problems recently regarding the ZFS Boot Environment filling my SG-2100 drive and while searching for solutions I learned about the eMMC disk and the possibility of swapping it by a SSD.

I considered it unnecessary (My device has perhaps 2, 3 years) but out of curiosity executed the command to check the eMMC disk status. Results look worrisome... or don't

eMMC Life Time Estimation A [EXT_CSD_DEVICE_LIFE_TIME_EST_TYP_A]: 0x04
eMMC Life Time Estimation B [EXT_CSD_DEVICE_LIFE_TIME_EST_TYP_B]: 0x0b
eMMC Pre EOL information [EXT_CSD_PRE_EOL_INFO]: 0x01

Can anyone confirm if the eMMC disk is SLC or MLC? If it is MLC looks like I shall be running for a SSD as soon as possible.

Weirdly enough, I don't use any write-heavy packages... I have constant broadcast from television and other appliances blocked, but I guess such logging is not as damaging...

stephenw10

It's MLC in the 2100.

Steve

Kurzag

Runs around in panic

Thanks mate! Time to change for an SSD then!

Thought this fw had already 3 years but I've just checked and it has only one year and 5 months. I have bad experiences with eMMCs. I guess I should add this one to the list!

Any recommendation to make disks more durable, aside of "deactivate logging for firewall rule hits"? Read the article in the docs, but I wasn't using pfblocker or nmap or anything like that.

stephenw10

Enabling RAM disks reduces drive writes significantly.

They are not compatible with some of the larger packages though.

Running with UFS and ram disks gives the minimal drive writes but losing the advantages of ZFS snapshots etc.

Kurzag

Thanks!

Yesterday I installed the SSD and re-installed PFSense+. Took about... 15 minutes? The doc is thorough and everything worked perfectly smooth! :)

I noticed that the process claimed that the eMMC was about to be erased so, if the eMMC is now erased and the SSD is damaged somehow, there is any way of recovering the device?

stephenw10

You can still reinstall to the eMMC if you needed to.
When you run 'usbrecovery' it erases the eMMC to prevent the filesystem conflicting with the new install. It is possible to install to the eMMC if, for example, you use UFS there to prevent a conflict. But you would need to override the boot device in uboot to boot it.

Sytebe