Install pfsense to an usb drive
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Been running full install on 4GB USB flash drives for about 18 months now. On the second $5 stick now. The first one die in about 6 months. But I was doing a lot of 2.1 beta upgrades and also running without the tmp and var ram disk during that time. Also the first stick was plugged directly into the notebook so would pick up quite a bit of heat. This second stick is connected with a USB extension cable so it stays much cooler and also not been doing may upgrades and running with the tmp and var ram disk enabled.
Not running any packages.
Performance of USB flash drive can vary significantly between models. USB 3.0 and/or ReadyBoost compatible will probably be the best chance for good performance. Even if USB port is only 2.0, performance may be better with a 3.0 device.
Where I notice performance differences with USB flash drive is 1) during install process, 2) upgrade process, 3) web GUI responsiveness.
Is there a simple way of doing this? I'm going to make a USB installable key for pfsense shortly on a test machine, do I simply plug it in, plug in my destination USB key, boot off the installer and then install to the destination key?
I'm content with it frying the USB key, this is purely for testing.
As a long term solution, I'll consider other means (although some kind of mirrord USB key, like FreeNAS offers would be quite nice)Note: I don't want the basic nano install.
Cheers
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do I simply plug it in, plug in my destination USB key, boot off the installer and then install to the destination key?
Yes.
You could gmirror across two USB drives. Or even ZFS across them in 2.4Beta if you wanted.
Running from USB is not recommended though. Fine for a test as you said though.
Nano is not particularly limited in 2.3.X. It will probably do all you need to test out pfSense.
Steve