2.2.4 and how I enabled TRIM
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I think we're saying the same thing. Although I don't quite get the offset bit. This is something that pfsense does not do by default when installed on an SSD normally? I'm looking to do the exact same thing you are. Migrate form a single SSD to a mirrored RAID SSD, and have TRIM enabled. I have TRIM enabled on the one I use now, but I never did anything outside of that, or out of the usual pfsense install sequence. Am I missing something?
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I think so, we're after the same. According to Jimp on my reference post he said two months ago, "There is no special code in the installer to handle any sort of alignment/offset at this time". WinXp doesnt but Win8 does offset when an SSD is detected. Presume FreeBsd doesn't by default. SSD performance can be substantially reduced if its partition is not properly offset. So I figure I have to partition, format & offset the new SSD pair with partition magic or other self-booting drive utility cd then install PfSense.
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It would surprise me that so many users of things like FreeNAS would have a storage based OS designed around something that didn't handle drive partitioning for almost any drive properly by default. Very interested in the response from someone from pfsense on this. So I guess my questions have expanded now to : :D
1. Does pfsense not using this mentioned type of partition offset actually adversely affect SSD life? how much? As much as something like not enabling TRIM?
(I see a few people randomly asking about this in the forums, but never heard it was some type of precaution needed when using pfsense (BSD) with an SSD, then again, I'm not super familiar with BSD outside of pfsense)2. Is doing a softraid mirror with SSD's in pfsense and TRIM a viable option?
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–---- I was pretty frustrated getting TRIM enabled in 2.2.4
------ This is what worked for me to get the trim status set to enabled for my SSD.
1. booted pfSense from USB stick and installed pfSense to SSD
2. booted pfSense from SSD and watched my console -- made note of ...
"Trying to mount root from /dev/ufsid/55bdd213616a70a3"3. booted pfSense from USB stick into single-user mode
4. at the # prompt, the following was issued:
/sbin/tunefs -t enable /dev/ufsid/55bdd213616a70a3
/sbin/reboot5. booted pfSense from SSD. ran Shell from the console -- verified TRIM status with:
/sbin/tunefs -p /------ I hope this works for everyone!
I'm running a fresh install of 2.2.5 on a TRIM capable SSD. My system details are in my sig.
I just performed a clean install too and used the auto restore method to bring my config.xml file settings back. Didn't have to do this but since I have holiday time off I had some time to experiment, wanted to learn something new, and thought maybe after so many upgrades some 'dirt' might have been left behind. I can't get TRIM to work at all. Granted, I don't know anything when it comes to CLI in pfSense. I checked, and TRIM is not enabled.
I login in under single user mode, I tried just the basic commands
/sbin/tunefs -t enable / (this errors and I get "cannot execute, no such file/directory")
/sbin/reboot (this doesn't work at all but just typing EXIT does)I took note of TRYING TO MOUNT details using DMESG under command prompt in WEBGUI.
So I tried
/sbin/tunefs -t enable /dev/ufsid/56534606bb206e02
and again NO SUCH FILE/DIRECTORY error message.At this point I am stumped.
Anyone have any advice? This is really more about me learning and understanding this TRIM problem than it is turning it on…so please help me learn when providing the solution with some explanation. Thanks in advance!
PS - to the pfSense developers...2.3...Bootstrap....WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Those screenshots are just amazing! I can't wait!
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This worked for me in 2.2.5. Thank you kindly for sharing this ThePOO!
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I login in under single user mode, I tried just the basic commands
/sbin/tunefs -t enable / (this errors and I get "cannot execute, no such file/directory")
/sbin/reboot (this doesn't work at all but just typing EXIT does)I took note of TRYING TO MOUNT details using DMESG under command prompt in WEBGUI.
So I tried
/sbin/tunefs -t enable /dev/ufsid/56534606bb206e02
and again NO SUCH FILE/DIRECTORY error message.At this point I am stumped.
Your problem is, for some reason, running the commands. tunefs is not even trying to access /dev/ufsid/56534606bb206e02 since it failed to run.
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@pLu:
Your problem is, for some reason, running the commands. tunefs is not even trying to access /dev/ufsid/56534606bb206e02 since it failed to run.
OK, so it's not me or my syntax but something else?
Because I am clueless when it comes to BSD/pfSense CLI so I wouldn't doubt I am to blame. Something I plan on exploring after the holidays to learn more…but I also have that freakin' pesky problem of a job getting in the way and consuming all of my time too. lol
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–---- I was pretty frustrated getting TRIM enabled in 2.2.4
------ This is what worked for me to get the trim status set to enabled for my SSD.
1. booted pfSense from USB stick and installed pfSense to SSD
2. booted pfSense from SSD and watched my console -- made note of ...
"Trying to mount root from /dev/ufsid/55bdd213616a70a3"3. booted pfSense from USB stick into single-user mode
4. at the # prompt, the following was issued:
/sbin/tunefs -t enable /dev/ufsid/55bdd213616a70a3
/sbin/reboot5. booted pfSense from SSD. ran Shell from the console -- verified TRIM status with:
/sbin/tunefs -p /------ I hope this works for everyone!
This method worked great for me! I had an existing install that did not have TRIM working as it should. We jsut booted to the USB and set the TRIM using the method above. Removed the USB and it booted to the existing config and worked great.
Thanks,
Dan
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This method worked great for me! I had an existing install that did not have TRIM working as it should. We jsut booted to the USB and set the TRIM using the method above. Removed the USB and it booted to the existing config and worked great.
Thanks,
Dan
Hmmmm, I guess booting from a USB stick is necessary. I did a fresh install and figured USB booting wasn't necessary…just what the OP did.
I'll try that specifically tonight or tomorrow and see what happens.
UPDATE -
OK. That was the problem. I had to boot from the USB stick, then run the commands with my specific UFS ID (do I have that right? lol) included.I can't believe getting TRIM to run is that much of a fuss!? lol I am not complaining. I just have to imagine there could be a simpler method added via GUI or CLI without having to do the whole USB boot thing. Ughh. lol
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I just performed a new install last night. I backed up my config from the 2.2.1 install, pulled the spinning HDD and put in dual 256GB Samsung SSDs. I chose to install the full version of pfSense 2.2.5 for i386 as I only have 2GB of RAM in the system. During the install, I chose to do a GEOM mirror (soft RAID?). The installer partitioned everything and formatted and I accepted the defaults. The system is now reporting a single ~230GB "drive". I checked on TRIM, and it's not enabled:
[2.2.5-RELEASE][root@pfsense.yadda.localdomain]/root: /sbin/tunefs -p / tunefs: POSIX.1e ACLs: (-a) disabled tunefs: NFSv4 ACLs: (-N) disabled tunefs: MAC multilabel: (-l) disabled tunefs: soft updates: (-n) enabled tunefs: soft update journaling: (-j) enabled tunefs: gjournal: (-J) disabled [b]tunefs: trim: (-t) disabled[/b] tunefs: maximum blocks per file in a cylinder group: (-e) 4096 tunefs: average file size: (-f) 16384 tunefs: average number of files in a directory: (-s) 64 tunefs: minimum percentage of free space: (-m) 8% tunefs: space to hold for metadata blocks: (-k) 6408 tunefs: optimization preference: (-o) time tunefs: volume label: (-L) [2.2.5-RELEASE][root@pfsense.yadda.localdomain]/root:I'm not following the above conversation very well. I'd like to enable TRIM, but it sounds like I can't because I'm using the GEOM mirror? I don't want to lose SSD performance or cause them to die prematurely. Should I try enabling TRIM with the method mentioned earlier? Thanks!
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–---- I was pretty frustrated getting TRIM enabled in 2.2.4
------ This is what worked for me to get the trim status set to enabled for my SSD.
1. booted pfSense from USB stick and installed pfSense to SSD
2. booted pfSense from SSD and watched my console -- made note of ...
"Trying to mount root from /dev/ufsid/55bdd213616a70a3"3. booted pfSense from USB stick into single-user mode
4. at the # prompt, the following was issued:
/sbin/tunefs -t enable /dev/ufsid/55bdd213616a70a3
/sbin/reboot5. booted pfSense from SSD. ran Shell from the console -- verified TRIM status with:
/sbin/tunefs -p /------ I hope this works for everyone!
hooray! supernoob (me) with fresh build got trim enabled. :) now, if i could just get everybody off plex, i could plug this thing in and see how she works. maybe tomorrow. :(
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I plugged my new Samsung EVO 850 120GB SATA with 2.2.6 i386 installed in my PC-BSB machine and booted. As root I entered
sbin/tunefs -t enable /dev/ada1s1a
Now my box does not come back, the console is full of
CAM status: Command timeout
after "Mounting filesystem…"
The SSD supports trim, btw:
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/ssd850evo/specifications.html
How do I get out of this mess, the installation worked fine before... :-(
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Boot from an USB pen drive and then activate TRIM support in pfSense.
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Did fsck in PC-BSD and disabled TRIM. Booted to USB and enabeled TRIM again. Same problem. I do a fresh install on the SSD as apparently Samsung is to dull to handle TRIM in some OS, Linux has a known problem with the 8xx series, apparently, dunno if BSD is also involved…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_%28computing%29
see "Shortcommings"
So I will go without TRIM.
Wuuuuuaaaaaa what a mess!
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So I will go without TRIM.
But then it would be a perhaps fast dieing because the data will be not marked correctly for overwriting
and the SSD drive will be perhaps in short time lame and dieing.Wuuuuuaaaaaa what a mess!
Right, but if it works for so many other peoples, it must also working for you!
You might be do it again and boot from a USB pen drive into "single user mdoe"
to activate it right! -
@BlueKobold:
So I will go without TRIM.
But then it would be a perhaps fast dieing because the data will be not marked correctly for overwriting
and the SSD drive will be perhaps in short time lame and dieing.TRIM cleans up after files are deleted (to insure fast writing to those deleted sectors).
Edit: Incorrect (TRIM does indeed lower write amplification of the drive making it last longer):
The 'Wear Leveling' routine of the drive's firmware should work in the background to move sectors around to give the drive a nice, full life. Edit 2: TRIM does indeed help because of the lower write amplification.
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But this Samsung drives have data corruption with TRIM enabled, see Wikipedia above. It takes some time to make fresh SSD pfSense again and then copy the config.xml, I don't want to go through that over and over again.
I could not revive the first install by disabeling TRIM again, the installation was corrupt afterwards, fschk did not resolve that. Should I really try again to enable TRIM on this Samsung trash?
I think this TRIM is kind of voodooo and highly emotional when it comes to discussions. Any opinions on the importance of TRIM and how much it will influence the life-expectance of the SSD?
Merry Christmas everybody! :-)
chemlud
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TRIM cleans up after files are deleted (to insure fast writing to those deleted sectors).
if a file is wiped, it is not really away and gone, and TRIM is then marking this data can be overwritten
so that the wear level algorithm is knowing that new data can be written on this sectors/blocks.If the data will not be marked for overwriting the wear leveling algorithm gets even less and more less
sectors where the data can be written on and then the mSATA or SSD will be slowing down before dieing
then after a while.It does nothing that I have read about to make the drive last longer.
If the wear leveling algorithm is getting less and more less free sectors/blocks to write on
until there are no free ones this might be then the end of the drive, but if the TRIM command
is marking this sectors/blocks as free for new write cycles the wear leveling algorithm get even
again and again new free sectors/blocks where it can be writing on. And so the lifetime will be
enlarged or hold.The 'Wear Leveling' routine of the drive's firmware should work in the background to move sectors around to give the drive a nice, full life.
There are only one amount of sectors/blocks that can be used to write on and the wear level algorithm is
using them in a balanced way thats all.I think this TRIM is kind of voodooo and highly emotional when it comes to discussions.
If this will be right, why then all peoples care about this "voodoo"? Why not then let them out or inactive?
Any opinions on the importance of TRIM and how much it will influence the life-expectance of the SSD?
You could use your Samsung drive without TRIM support and report it here for us.
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Have no alternative, hu?
btw: Why should it matter if the BSD is started in single-user mode for switching to TRIM?
If there was kind of "mega"-nano image (16 or 32 GB) I would run the SSD with that, but there were experts in the past that denied this is helpful (more space, faster degradation of card/SSD, no joke).
Worst thing: I have another Samsung 850 here, I wanted to install some Linux to. Maybe better I bring it back before opening up… sigh...
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After reading (searching), I stand corrected on this. Sorry about that and thanks BlueKobold.
With that said, how is TRIM triggered in FreeBSD. In Windows, it's triggered when you empty the recycle bin. I'm curious as to how and how often TRIM is triggered when running a program like pfsense with FreeBSD?
