PC Engines APU4C4 Experience

stephenw10

Looks like some problem with the GPT header that it was able to recover. Of you don't see it again then it's likely been fixed at the first boot.
You don't have to set that. It would probably only be a marginal drive performance increase and disk performance is not hugely important for pfSense. If you do choose to set it put it in /boot/loader.conf.local to avoid it being overwritten.
Ram drives are still formatted UFS.
No idea.

Steve

Qinn

Thanks Steve, would it be wise to set ( then maybe I have data redundancy, but not disk redundancy)

zfs set copies=2 yourpoolname

BTW I hope that anyone can shed a light on TRIM?

stephenw10

That's not something I've ever tried. If you have the space I guess it makes sense. It would double the writes to the drive though.

bigsy

@Qinn said in PC Engines APU4C4 Experience:

BTW I hope that anyone can shed a light on TRIM?

What is the output of sysctl vfs.zfs.trim

You should see something like:

[2.4.4-RELEASE] [root@b..]/root: sysctl vfs.zfs.trim
vfs.zfs.trim.max_interval: 1
vfs.zfs.trim.timeout: 30
vfs.zfs.trim.txg_delay: 32
vfs.zfs.trim.enabled: 1
[2.4.4-RELEASE] [root@b..]/root:

vfs.zfs.trim.enabled: 1 means TRIM is enabled.

Qinn

Thanks @bigsy

[2.4.4-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: sysctl vfs.zfs.trim
vfs.zfs.trim.max_interval: 1
vfs.zfs.trim.timeout: 30
vfs.zfs.trim.txg_delay: 32
vfs.zfs.trim.enabled: 1

Did not change anything after install, seems @doktornotor was right https://forum.netgate.com/topic/84867/2-2-x-zfs-full-install-howto/9

Also here https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/all-about-zfs.html

Nice thread here https://forum.netgate.com/topic/112490/how-to-2-4-0-zfs-install-ram-disk-hot-spare-snapshot-resilver-root-drive from @pfBasic every command uses "yourpoolname" although I think it's in most cases "zroot" is there anyway to check, it seems he did not mentioned it.

For now I used :

[2.4.4-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: zpool status
  pool: zroot
 state: ONLINE
  scan: none requested
config:

        NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        zroot       ONLINE       0     0     0
          ada0p3    ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

btw whats ada0p3 and why is the ram drive on UFS?

gtrdriver

Hello

Today i got msata Drives and i tryed to do a ZFS install - Install runs fine - no errors at all - but after Reboot System dont boot from msata

Tryed 5-6 Times - allways same issue - then installed standard UFS Auto installer - and this Installation boot without any problems.

Can anyone confirm this ?

gtrdriver

Some Additional Information:

I have now successfully installed pfsense with ZFS on internal SATA Drive - System boot from MSATA - everything seem to be fine.

Do some Software Reboots everything is ok

The i do a Power Off (hardware) and then Reboot - and then System dont boot from ZFS Installation anymore.

Dont get me wrong - i choose ZFS because i read about that ZFS is more stable at Unplaned Power OFF Situations but thats does not seem to work here ?!?

Does anyone have other Information or better Results here ?

dotdash

I just grabbed an APU4C4 (BIOS 4.10.0.2) and did a zfs install to test. Boots fine. Power off, pull plug, replace plug- boots fine. Reboot from console-works. Yank power cord, then plug back in- boots normally.
What are you seeing on the console when it doesn't boot?

gtrdriver

Hi

just make Bios Update to 4.10.0.2

Then make new install using ZFS (AUTO)
I Dont make any changes only "Stripe" and sda0 for the single msata Disk
Nothing else changed - is this right ?

Then Installation runs trough until end is reached.

Then Reboot.

Looking good.

I will try again in report ...

dotdash

My test was a vanilla install using zfs. My msata (Samsung 64 GB) shows as ada0, not sda0.

gtrdriver

Hi

just did 25 Power Shutdowns and It boot well - dont know why other tests today wernt wrong ....
Perhaps its a Firmware Issue - i dont used 4.10.0.2 ....

bouke

@gtrdriver said in PC Engines APU4C4 Experience:

Some Additional Information:

I have now successfully installed pfsense with ZFS on internal SATA Drive - System boot from MSATA - everything seem to be fine.

Do some Software Reboots everything is ok

The i do a Power Off (hardware) and then Reboot - and then System dont boot from ZFS Installation anymore.

Dont get me wrong - i choose ZFS because i read about that ZFS is more stable at Unplaned Power OFF Situations but thats does not seem to work here ?!?

Does anyone have other Information or better Results here ?

What I normally do is this:

accept the fact that stuff can break (it will break sooner or later... it's a fact)
keep a spare USB thumb drive with a working pfSense install image
create a backup after changing the configuration - and store it safely
enable auto backup and document the details required for a restore
connect the APU2/3/4 to a UPS to overcome (short) power outages
never pull the power cord; except when there isn't another option

I did install quite some APU2/3/4 devices with pfSense(R) open source firewall/router software distribution. Some mSATA SSDs are UFS formatted and others are ZFS formatted. Some are connected to an UPS and some aren't. Over the years we have had some rare cases where we had to reinstall pfSense and restore the configuration from backup.

Also be aware of facts like these: [quote]msata16a on shipment hold. Some customer reported problems leading to data loss, e.g. with Sophos UTM. We suspect that it is related to the TRIM function included in modern file systems (e.g. Linux EXT4). We have finally received a firmware update from our supplier. Customers may return modules to us for firmware reprogramming (data is lost), or for full credit. Modules reprogrammed by us can be recognized by a + mark on the label.[/quote] Source: https://www.pcengines.ch/msata16a.htm

Qinn

ZFS seems the most vigorous FS available in pfS, that's why I moved over from UFS to ZFS. The (re)install is a breeze, with a current config file at hand.
My APU2C4 has ECC and to me this and the ZFS FS seems max what I can do against sudden power surges, that being said, I would always use the "halt" command before I pull the power cord ;)

@bouke Kudos for pointing out the flaky mSATA issue link, didn't knew that.