Using NVME on pfSense Server that Does Not Support Booting from NVME
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Hey, I have an old dl360p that does not support booting from NVME. However, pfSense is able to recognize the drive since it has the appropriate drivers. In the past, I have been able to get Ubuntu to load using MAAS by putting the /boot folder on the regular HDD array.
My question is: How can I put as much stuff on the NVME drive while still being able to boot pfSense off the regular old HDDs? Which folders can I keep on the NVME? I was thinking of installing pfSense on the regular HDD and then copying over whichever folders you guys recommend moving to the NVME and then symlinking the folders on the regular drive to the NVME.
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pfSense storage requirements are so minimal that no need to use a secondary drive (NVME)
if you can't boot from the NVME, you lose speed benefits, NVME is not relevant from a storage point of view (in this case)
Under FreeBSD / pfSense, SATA devices appear as "ada0, ada1, etc.
NVME mass storage devices are "nvme0", nvme0ns1 "etc.+++edit:
BTW, moving the partitions just makes things too complicatedby choosing a custom installation, you determine which system partition to place where...
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@DaddyGo Thanks for the tip. Do you mean to say that pfSense loads nearly the entire OS into memory so disk IO does not matter? I have noticed significant speed improvements by replacing HDDs with NVME drives. Maybe I can at least /tmp on the NVME? Does anyone else know what other directories I can offload onto the NVME?
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@ProfessorManhattan said in Using NVME on pfSense Server that Does Not Support Booting from NVME:
Maybe I can at least /tmp on the NVME?
it makes no sense to speed up "temp" in particular
Even with hundreds of users, the storage needs of pfSense / FreeBSD OP system are very little (only logs)
it is one of the "unicums" of FresBSD, it has little storage space and works
many colleague run from SD card
speed at boot is significant if NVME, but if you can't "boot from NVME" it is not an advantage
+++edit (like):