Netgate SG-5100 eMMC to SSD advise
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Hi,
By my understanding (which doesn't mean much), eMMC memory like the SG-5100 has as storage does not last that long. According to this link it was calculated that his eMMC would only last ~4-5years. I understand that pfSense could have a much different usage of the drive etc. and it may last a lot lot longer. However, my SG-5100 is approaching that number. It would be devastating to have a failure.
So some questions...
I know that I can add in an M.2 (non nvme) into the unit, and use that as primary storage etc. What I am worried about is a smooth backup and transition over to the new storage medium. I have multiple software modifications such as pfatt and udp-proxy-2020 that I really don't want to go through the trouble of setting up again.
Is it possible to clone the eMMC storage and duplicate it on the M.2 for a seamless upgrade?
Or is it possible to have a backup made that would "just work"?
The extra storage and speed that comes with an M.2 would be nice, even if I am overestimating the time to eMMC failure / problems.
Appreciate any feedback.
Thanks!
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Anything outside the pfSense gui is not backed up in the config file so you would need to reconfigure it after reinstalling to SSD. Of course that's also true in the event of a hardware failure. It's going to take you far longer to recover that in would for a regular install where everything is backed up.
You probably can close the eMMC to the SSD by booting something from USB and doing so from there. It will have to support serial console of course.
If you are concerned about eMMC write life you might consider enabling RAM disks in a UFS install. Doing so dramatically reduces writes but at the cost of preventing some larger packages like Snort/Suricata being used.
Steve
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Thanks a lot!
