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    CF embedded 4GB image only gives 1.8GB space

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software
    16 Posts 6 Posters 2.3k Views
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    • stephenw10S
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
      last edited by

      Probably worth noting that PATA SSDs are neither plentiful nor cheap. In systems that don't support SATA, CF cards are good option though that's not many these days.  ;)

      Steve

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      • K
        kejianshi
        last edited by

        I'd look into PATA DOMs in that case.  What is cheap?  What is expensive?

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        • ?
          Guest
          last edited by

          I think we should face the fact that nano and its users are not really in the focus of future pfSense. I could prepare a fully documented version of this statement, starting from the reactions (or not) to the silly kindergarden questions we nano users ask in the forum to the problems with packages, apparently not addressed.

          No offense intended, but after about one year of pfSense I guess: for home and small business users its time to look for alternatives on the long run.

          I have put some hundred hours over the last year into this and don't have to time to install SSDs (which? how? problems with TRIM and so on?) on my boxes.

          I could afford the Gold service and have been thinking about it every week for the last year, but to be honest: I think I'm not in the intended user group of pfSense for the future.

          (sorry for my grammar and spelling, I'm not an English native speaker…)

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          • K
            kejianshi
            last edited by

            Yeah - TRIM is nice.  But because of the lack of out-of-the-box TRIM function, I have installed SLC SSDs with built in wear leveling and no TRIM.  Those are quite durable.  I use new left-over samsung drives, but long term, TRIM that isn't a pain would be a better answer.

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            • R
              robi
              last edited by

              NanoBSD has many other advantages over full install, for example the whole system partition is kept read only during operation. Also you have a main and a backup image in parrallel, which gives extra safety. Most appliances have the CF card slot accessible from the front panel, you can simply swap the card with an updated system during a power cycling. You can have a system back up and running after a failure literally within a couple of minutes - something what you can't really do with full installs.

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              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                +1 on that, the backup system partition can be invaluable. I had to use it yesterday when my 2.1.5 upgrade went badly. Now you could argue that it only went badly because I was using Nano.  ;)
                The PATA SSD market is so small it seems none of the big players are making one and I'm not sure I'd have much faith in the those who do. I'd always assumed those DOMs were more like a repackaged CF card than an SSD but I could be completely wrong about that.
                There are many smaller or embedded boxes where running from flash just makes more sense in terms of space and ease of install.

                Steve

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                • R
                  robi
                  last edited by

                  Yep. I'm running a couple of installs as virtual machines in VmWare enterprise environment, and guess what? They are NanoBSD images converted to VMDKs.

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                  • K
                    kejianshi
                    last edited by

                    haha - I will file this under "Whatever floats your boat".

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                    • R
                      robi
                      last edited by

                      Do you mean that all the other corporate stuff manufacturers like Cisco and Juniper are all stupid when many of their top lines of products use exactly the same approach?

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                      • K
                        kejianshi
                        last edited by

                        Nope.  I don't mean anything.  Stick with it.  To each his own.

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