eMMC Write endurance

SteveITS

@Cabledude Concur memory use is list/situation specific. We rarely get to 1GB usage for pfSense.

Pros: bit faster temp files, logging

Cons: Lose up to an hour (per settings) of data at power loss

Cabledude

Thanks for your recommendations. The basis question was rather: would the 128GB SSD benefit (have extended life) if RAM disk is used?

stephenw10

Yes. But the write cycle life on any recent SSD is likely to outlive the usefulness of the device anyway. So I'd question the value in doing so.

patient0

After reading through this thread I checked the eMMC health of the used SG-1100 I bought two weeks ago ... and it is not looking great (but Pre EOL is still ok):

mmc extcsd read /dev/mmcsd0rpmb | egrep -i ^emmc
eMMC Firmware Version: 73103517
eMMC Life Time Estimation A [EXT_CSD_DEVICE_LIFE_TIME_EST_TYP_A]: 0x08
eMMC Life Time Estimation B [EXT_CSD_DEVICE_LIFE_TIME_EST_TYP_B]: 0x0b
eMMC Pre EOL information [EXT_CSD_PRE_EOL_INFO]: 0x01

I'm running the SG-1100 in my lab with 24.03 on ZFS with RAM disk enabled, standard log of firewall disabled and nothing disk heavy running. Is it recommended to re-install but with UFS to extend the life of the device?

Cabledude

@patient0 I’m not qualified to advise but based on the discussions above UFS appears to be milder on the eMMC. You will obviously lose ZFS functionality which may not be an issue for your setup.

May I ask which RAM disk sizes you chose and did you monitor RAM disk usage stats?

Thanks,

patient0

@Cabledude I have just enabled the RAM disk so I can't say much for now.
And for the RAM disk size I choose /tmp 120MB and /var 160MB (I pulled this numbers out of the thin air). And will adjust them if I run into issue, it's only the lab.

stephenw10

Enabling RAM disks in ZFS does reduce drive writes significantly. But it's still higher than UFS with RAM disks.

The new Net Installer can install to a second USB drive in the 1100 allowing pfSense to run from that should the eMMC fail.

patient0

@stephenw10 I reinstalled the SG-1100 now on UFS with RAM disk and if eMMC fails I'll use an USB stick or disk, that'll do, thanks.

kenw

I have:

SG-1100, about 4 years old using ZFS
24.03-RELEASE (arm64)
built on Mon May 13 8:17:00 EDT 2024
FreeBSD 15.0-CURRENT
Only eMMC write intensive package is nmap which is run on demand infrequently.

Just checked my pfsense and found:

eMMC Firmware Version: 73103517
eMMC Life Time Estimation A [EXT_CSD_DEVICE_LIFE_TIME_EST_TYP_A]: 0x06
eMMC Life Time Estimation B [EXT_CSD_DEVICE_LIFE_TIME_EST_TYP_B]: 0x0b
eMMC Pre EOL information [EXT_CSD_PRE_EOL_INFO]: 0x01

Not sure how long Estimation B has been at 0x0b, but guess I'm living on borrowed time. I've bought a mini pc and will be running pfsense on that as soon as it comes in.

Any other suggestions are welcome

stephenw10

Enable RAM disks to minimise drive writes.

You can now install to a USB drive and run from that if it fails.

Cabledude

@stephenw10 said in eMMC Write endurance:

The new Net Installer can install to a second USB drive in the 1100 allowing pfSense to run from that should the eMMC fail.

Would it also be possible to attach a USB-powered SSD?

stephenw10

Theoretically yes. Though it's not something I've tried.

Cabledude

@stephenw10 said in eMMC Write endurance:

Theoretically yes. Though it's not something I've tried.

I will try it for you as soon as I have some time

beckp

Running pkg install mmc-utils on a SG-1100 gives me an error.
ld-elf.so.1: Shared object "libssl.so.30" not found, required by "pkg"
What did I do wrong?
Also tried pkg install -y mmc-utils; rehash per the Troubleshooting Disk Lifetime webpage. Same error.

stephenw10

Library errors like that usually imply it's using a pkg built for a different version.

So check your pfSense update branch matches the current version.

Cabledude

@Cabledude said in eMMC Write endurance:

@stephenw10 said in eMMC Write endurance:

Theoretically yes. Though it's not something I've tried.

I will try it for you as soon as I have some time

Hi @stephenw10,
I'm running into an issue using the net installer to install to USB-powered external SSD. Steps I've taken:

connect USB thumb drive with net installer to SG-1100 USB2 port (next to WAN port)
connect USB-powered external SSD to SG-1100 USB3 port (next to OPT port)
Note: the USB SSD drive is formatted in macOS using MS-DOS (FAT32)
power up device
run usbrecovery
The net installer halts. This is the output I get:

Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0 
Marvell>> run usbrecovery
switch to partitions #0, OK
mmc1(part 0) is current device

MMC erase: dev # 1, block # 0, count 4194304 ... 4194304 blocks erased: OK
resetting USB...
USB0:   Register 2000104 NbrPorts 2
Starting the controller
USB XHCI 1.00
USB1:   USB EHCI 1.00
scanning bus 0 for devices... 2 USB Device(s) found
scanning bus 1 for devices... 2 USB Device(s) found
       scanning usb for storage devices... 2 Storage Device(s) found
** Invalid partition 2 **
Marvell>>

FTR when I try without the ext USB drive the net installer does proceed as normal.

Please advise.

Edit: hang on, when I swap the USB drives the net installer does continue...

So now I get an option to select the ext USB SSD:

But when I hit Enter I instantly get this error message:

Any thoughts on why this happens? USB bus power issue? This SSD is known to only consume 1-2Watts.

...

So I tried an ordinary 8GB USB thumb drive, same kind I used for preparing the net installer. I get the same error message, i.e. "Failed to select the installation disk"

Okay I get it now. I should have put an X in front of the drive I wish to select. Duhhh. My bad.

stephenw10

Yup hit space to select it.

And, yes, it boots the USB3 drive as priority so if you have both connected at boot the installer must be there. But you can swap it back after install to get better drive speeds.

To boot from USB every time you need to change the bootcmd uboot env to run usbboot;

So at the Marvell>> prompt:

setenv bootcmd='run usbboot;'
saveenv
reset

Cabledude

@stephenw10 said in eMMC Write endurance:

Yup hit space to select it.

And, yes, it boots the USB3 drive as priority so if you have both connected at boot the installer must be there. But you can swap it back after install to get better drive speeds.

Cool

I seem to be out of luck again. I tried two different USB drives but I get new error messages which halt the installation process:
#1 installation 24.03 on a different thumb drive:

#2 installation 24.03 on the 120GB SSD:

Not sure if the screen shot is readable. It says "Child process terminated abnormally" and "Failed to reclaim memory"

What could be happening here now?

stephenw10

Hmm, I hit that once but just ran it again and it worked. The 1GB ram on the 1100 is near the limit.

Cabledude

@stephenw10
Yes I was starting to think it could be RAM full. Is it the net installer that occupies extra space in RAM? Is the SG-1100 even a viable option moving forward into 2025 and beyond? Especially if every new release may need more RAM to install?

Might it be an idea to install 23.09 through the net installer (maybe less/smaller files?) and then perform upgrade to 24.03 via GUI?