Installation = portable USB hard drive
-
However the same cannot be said about the connection to the board. I would not expect a usb connection to spontaneously fail but the potential is always there for the cable to get pulled out.
This will not be an issue to me, as I have a USB riser connected to the
motherboard's USB ports (normally you find 2 of the USB 2.0 ports on
any motherboard)So, in other words, the USB powered portable hard drive will be placed
and mounted securely inside the PC case…..not a chance of being pulled out accidentally. :) -
You will be using a set of drivers that most users aren't so any bugs that may exist will be found by you. ;) pfSense doesn't support USB 3 so thd drive speed will be limited.
Yes, I do understand that pfSense OS does not support USB 3.0 yet at the beginning.
It will be definitely fall back on using USB 2.0 connection.Drivers? Can you elaborate more on this? Do I know to install new drivers
for the USB powered portable hard drive to work?? :-\ -
Internal drives are generally cheaper, can you not use one?
Yes, correct! When I do the comparison the difference is only 10 bucks
using the same capacity = 500 GBWD CAVIAR BLUE 500GB 16M SATA-6 = $157
vs
WD ELEMENTS 500GB USB3.0 2.5in = $ 167
I think the only advantage of using WD CAVIAR BLUE 500GB 16M SATA-6
is the SATA transfer speed will be faster than WD ELEMENTS 500GB USB3.0 2.5in
since it is falling back on USB 2.0 speed and not USB 3.0, which is about 60MB/s
theoretically.The advantage of using WD ELEMENTS 500GB USB3.0 2.5in is it comsumes
less power = 5V @ 1A and of course, generate less heat. -
You would not need to load any new drivers, they are all in the kernel already. I just meant that say, for example, there is some bug in the driver for your USB chipset that causes it to go to standby power after 24 hours. It's unlikely anyone else running pfSense will have found that. The code that runs the disk subsystem is very well tested, every FreeBSD box uses it, the USB is less so.
The drive in an external HD is a laptop drive like any other. If you get a 2.5" drive it should consume approximately the same power.
If you're mounting it internally anyway I can see almost no reason to use a USB drive.
$167 seems very expensive for a 500GB drive if that's US dollars.
Basically, you can run from a USB drive but I wouldn't recommend it. If you already have the drive and are doing this for test purposes then fine but otherwise I can't see any good reason to do so.
Steve
-
Before you spend too much of your hard earned cash on a sata 6 drive, compare performance:
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-701277.pdf
Plus 500GB is usually wasted on pfsense. Small SSD for same price would be smarter.
Plus you might actually see some benefit on that SATA 6 interface with SSD.
-
You would not need to load any new drivers, they are all in the kernel already. I just meant that say, for example, there is some bug in the driver for your USB chipset that causes it to go to standby power after 24 hours.
Hmmm…...then I better stick with a normal SATA hard disk. ::)
Just to avoid the fuss of fixing the PC- troubleshooting what is wrong,
as I am not an Unix geek.$167 seems very expensive for a 500GB drive is that's US dollars.
Actually the $ dollar sign is in my own country currency, I just showing the price difference. :)
Basically, you can run from a USB drive but I wouldn't recommend it. If you already have the drive and are doing this for test purposes then fine but otherwise I can't see any good reason to do so.
Ok, Steve, thank for your advice, I am going source out a small 2nd hand SATA hard disk,
and do away the USB powered hard disk, just to save me the hassle later on if I do
experience of disconnection issue coming from the USB stand-by power bug ;) -
Plus 500GB is usually wasted on pfsense. Small SSD for same price would be smarter.
Yes, 500GB is a waste of space and money as well.
I did think of that, but for me….. SSD is not a good choice,
because if I am going install squid, I need to do some configuration
in pfSense, to write less often or do away the cache in order
to prolong the longevity of the SSD. I also need to get "Trim"
working as well as which I don't know how at the moment. -
True - All true.
Do limit the size of your squid cache to something not huge.
Even if you have a 500GB drive, don't make a 400GB cache or anything.
It takes alot of ram to index a huge cache.
Device Model: SAMSUNG MCCOE64G5MPP-0VA
Serial Number: SE816A2746
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0000f0 050533030
Firmware Version: PS105006
User Capacity: 64,023,257,088 bytes [64.0 GB]
Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate: Solid State Device
Device is: Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is: ATA/ATAPI-7 T13/1532D revision 1
Local Time is: Fri Nov 7 03:34:44 2014 EST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSEDMine is running without any trim… Depends on what kind of SSD you get as to if you need trim and how durable it is.
This one only has 2.5 years on it though. I'll let you know in 5 years if its really really durable. -
Device Model: SAMSUNG MCCOE64G5MPP-0VA
Serial Number: SE816A2746
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0000f0 050533030
Firmware Version: PS105006
User Capacity: 64,023,257,088 bytes [64.0 GB]
Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate: Solid State Device
Device is: Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is: ATA/ATAPI-7 T13/1532D revision 1
Local Time is: Fri Nov 7 03:34:44 2014 EST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: EnabledCheck out the URL: http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=MCCOE64G5MPP-0VA
I can see that your SSD is not a the NORMAL/Cheaper type of SSD in the market.
Yours is the SLC type = Single Level Cell.
The common ones in the market is the MLC = Multi Level Cell.You can read up the difference btw the 2 type of memory here:
http://www.supertalent.com/datasheets/SLC_vs_MLC%20whitepaper.pdfThe bottom line is SLC is more durable in the terms of writing data many many times over.
compare to MLC. You do not have to worry much when you have SLC type SSD installed
for your pfSense firewall. Having said that, you probably don't have to get "trim" working.However, SLC type SSD cost more than MLC type.
So in conclusion, I will be better sticking with normal desktop SATA hard disk
which will be suffice to complete my small project. ;DThank you for advice. :D
-
That will work…
-
I'll just point out that there are no bugs in the USB subsystem that I know of. I just used that as an example of what could happen.
Steve
