RAM disk?

A Former User

https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/config/advanced-misc.html?highlight=ram%20disk#ram-disk-settings

stephenw10

Do you have a UPS or relatively stable power? Are you running ZFS?

If either of those are true RAM disks are probably not worth it. The only real reason to run them is to reduce the risk of filesystem issues due to improper shutdown.

If you are running Snort/Suricata or pfBlocker then you shouldn't / can't use them anyway.

Steve

JKnott

@stephenw10

My understanding was the idea was to reduce writes, but according to the article mentioned above, that's no longer a concern. I have a UPS, but am using the default file system.

stephenw10

Yeah if it's a recent SSD and a clean install (root mounted as noatime) then drive writes are really not a concern. The expected write life is likely to be >10 years.

Steve

JKnott

@stephenw10

Only 10 years?

Hopefully, this new firewall will last longer than that. The HP computer it replaced lasted close to that for me and it was a refurb, so it was in use for a while before that. Anyway, with 4 GB of RAM, I certainly have the memory for it. However, I'll let it go for now.

Also, I was able to get the config.xml file from the old system and use it with the new. Other than a few tweaks, for the new hardware, it went well, though I also had to install the packages I had before.

stephenw10

Well >10 years at a guess.
Quite a few variables in there though.

If you are not running packages that require a lot of space on /var or /tmp then enable away!

It's likely pfSense will have moved to default ZFS before that drive expires anyway. Possibly with a completely different filesystem structure. Who knows that far out....

Steve

slu

@stephenw10 said in RAM disk?:

If you are running Snort/Suricata or pfBlocker then you shouldn't / can't use them anyway.

What's the problem with Snort/Suricata or pfBlocker with RAM disk?

stephenw10

It requires a very large RAM disk. It's not specifically setup for that so you might see some odd things at boot. It is possible to run either with RAM disks but you need to set it up carefully. You can't just enable RAM disks and all the signatures etc.

SteveITS

@slu It’s presumably dependent on disk usage. FWIW we run Suricata and RAM disks at most clients without issue. We use 4GB RAM hardware though so have space. Most have tmp and var 50-100 MB in usage I’d say.

OTOH the UT1 list in pfBlocker takes over 1 GB just to extract so YMMV on these things.

slu

@SteveITS said in RAM disk?:

FWIW we run Suricata and RAM disks at most clients without issue.

Good to know, thanks.

@SteveITS said in RAM disk?:

OTOH the UT1 list in pfBlocker takes over 1 GB just to extract so YMMV on these things.

I don't had this 1 GB on my radar, thanks for the hint.