Can Users use an external HDD for use with Boot Environments

JonathanLee

Hello fellow Netgate community members can you please help?

I was wondering about using an external HDD for backing up configurations and it dawned on me why not just use it for the Boot Environments.

I also found users can move the Squid Web Cache to an external drive if they so choose. Again the SG-2100MAX has a NVMe drive so it's faster over a standard SATA HDD, however .... that got me thinking I have a USB to M.2 NGFF&NVMe SSD so... can I do this with a very large SSD>>

https://forum.netgate.com/topic/20197/tutorial-how-to-configure-squid-to-use-a-separate-hard-drive-as-its-cache
@belikeyeshua
Did this work with SSD or HDD? I am wondering, as I finally got Squid cache to work and work well, GBs of stuff with good hit counts. It only took 4 years to do it.

@stephenw10
Is there anyway to backup boot environments onto an external HDD or have it replicate to one? If we can use one for Squid we should be able to use one for BE right?
https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/disks/#usb-disks

SteveITS

@JonathanLee BEs are inherent to the ZFS file system. That can use multiple disks/RAID but that’s probably not what you’re looking for.

Re storing the config file there are a couple of locations that may cause you problems: https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/backup/restore-during-install.html#restore-using-the-external-configuration-locator-ecl

JonathanLee

@SteveITS I didn’t know you could do that. My goal is to store the BE(s) and access them from an external storage device. There is got to be a way to do it.

JonathanLee

https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/recipes/usb-drive-copy.html

I have a drive mounted that is FAT32

Side Note: I feel so old I still remember FDISK with just FAT and maybe exFAT this is pre FAT32 back in DOS 3.11 heydays.

Fist you need to make a mount point or simply a new folder to mount to so you can access the data, it acts like a linker folder

mkdir /root/usb

next you need the name of the drive you want to mount

Screenshot 2024-04-02 at 21.38.22.png

gpart list

after check your drives you have plugged in I am lucky I have a FAT32 I want my APPLE_HFS to mount I am still looking for the command to allow that.

Screenshot 2024-04-02 at 21.39.56.png

You can even see the drive in sys logs I have a GS-Magicstor old school compact HDD drive pre flash drives.

gpart list | egrep 'Name: | type:'

Screenshot 2024-04-02 at 21.43.02.png

mount -t msdos /dev/da0s1 /root/usb

mount -t msdos /dev/da0s1 /root/usb

Now just navigate in files to your /root/usb

and you got access to your drive to copy files to

Screenshot 2024-04-02 at 21.46.25.png

Lets copy a pkg to it for safe keeping..

cp /var/cache/pkg/snort-2.9.29_3.pkg /root/usb
cp /var/cache/pkg/pfSense-pkg-snort-4.1.6_11.pkg /root/usb

Now I have a offline backup of a package I love.

Screenshot 2024-04-02 at 22.02.45.png

Pretty cool right?

Again,
I just wish the drive once mounted that it showed up as something I could use as an offline backup inside of boot environments. I half expected it would show a new icon but it did not. Is that something in the works? They work like snapshots right so you could essentially transfer them to a offline backup

Screenshot 2024-04-02 at 21.36.25.png

Does anyone know how to mount apple_hfs ?

stephenw10

ZFS BE snapshots are not a single file that can be moved to a different drive like that. It's every mount point that varies across snapshots:

[24.03-BETA][admin@4200.stevew.lan]/root: zfs list
NAME                                                               USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
pfSense                                                           22.5G  84.1G    96K  none
pfSense/ROOT                                                      11.8G  84.1G    96K  none
pfSense/ROOT/default                                               610M  84.1G  1.13G  /
pfSense/ROOT/default/cf                                              1M  84.1G  2.98M  /cf
pfSense/ROOT/default/var_cache_pkg                                 158M  84.1G   345M  /var/cache/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default/var_db_pkg                                   2.67M  84.1G  5.77M  /var/db/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240312185156                                816K  84.1G  1006M  /
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240312185156/cf                             240K  84.1G   612K  /cf
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240312185156/var_cache_pkg                    0B  84.1G   336M  /var/cache/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240312185156/var_db_pkg                     236K  84.1G  5.48M  /var/db/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240314125844                                404K  84.1G  1.09G  /
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240314125844/cf                             140K  84.1G   652K  /cf
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240314125844/var_cache_pkg                    8K  84.1G   326M  /var/cache/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240314125844/var_db_pkg                       8K  84.1G  5.61M  /var/db/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240320124022                               2.50M  84.1G  1.13G  /
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240320124022/cf                            2.09M  84.1G  3.92M  /cf
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240320124022/var_cache_pkg                    8K  84.1G   351M  /var/cache/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240320124022/var_db_pkg                       8K  84.1G  5.80M  /var/db/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240320162729                               1.37M  84.1G  1.13G  /
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240320162729/cf                            1.07M  84.1G  2.98M  /cf
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240320162729/var_cache_pkg                    8K  84.1G   345M  /var/cache/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240320162729/var_db_pkg                       8K  84.1G  5.80M  /var/db/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321005105                               1.54M  84.1G  1.13G  /
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321005105/cf                            1.21M  84.1G  3.20M  /cf
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321005105/var_cache_pkg                    0B  84.1G   344M  /var/cache/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321005105/var_db_pkg                       8K  84.1G  5.80M  /var/db/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740                               11.2G  84.1G  1.13G  /
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740/cf                            15.4M  84.1G  5.10M  /cf
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740/var_cache_pkg                 2.85G  84.1G   164M  /var/cache/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740/var_db_pkg                    53.0M  84.1G  5.81M  /var/db/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240321134843                1.57M  84.1G  1.13G  /
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240321134843/cf             1.31M  84.1G  3.45M  /cf
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240321134843/var_cache_pkg     0B  84.1G   351M  /var/cache/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240321134843/var_db_pkg        8K  84.1G  5.78M  /var/db/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240322112248                2.14M  84.1G  1.13G  /
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240322112248/cf             1.84M  84.1G  4.10M  /cf
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240322112248/var_cache_pkg     8K  84.1G   351M  /var/cache/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240322112248/var_db_pkg        8K  84.1G  5.80M  /var/db/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240324183950                2.07M  84.1G  1.13G  /
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240324183950/cf             1.79M  84.1G  4.13M  /cf
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240324183950/var_cache_pkg     0B  84.1G   350M  /var/cache/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240324183950/var_db_pkg        8K  84.1G  5.80M  /var/db/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240326193340                2.32M  84.1G  1.13G  /
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240326193340/cf             2.02M  84.1G  4.43M  /cf
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240326193340/var_cache_pkg     8K  84.1G   164M  /var/cache/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240326193340/var_db_pkg        8K  84.1G  5.80M  /var/db/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240327173457                2.03M  84.1G  1.13G  /
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240327173457/cf             1.80M  84.1G  4.43M  /cf
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240327173457/var_cache_pkg     0B  84.1G   165M  /var/cache/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240327173457/var_db_pkg        8K  84.1G  5.81M  /var/db/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240328133819                1.89M  84.1G  1.13G  /
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240328133819/cf             1.60M  84.1G  4.60M  /cf
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240328133819/var_cache_pkg     0B  84.1G   164M  /var/cache/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240328133819/var_db_pkg        8K  84.1G  5.80M  /var/db/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240329164243                1.74M  84.1G  1.13G  /
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240329164243/cf             1.46M  84.1G  4.66M  /cf
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240329164243/var_cache_pkg     0B  84.1G   164M  /var/cache/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240329164243/var_db_pkg        8K  84.1G  5.81M  /var/db/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240401140534                2.19M  84.1G  1.13G  /
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240401140534/cf             1.87M  84.1G  5.18M  /cf
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240401140534/var_cache_pkg     8K  84.1G   164M  /var/cache/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240401140534/var_db_pkg        8K  84.1G  5.82M  /var/db/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240402144839                1.99M  84.1G  1.13G  /
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240402144839/cf             1.76M  84.1G  5.26M  /cf
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240402144839/var_cache_pkg     0B  84.1G   165M  /var/cache/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240402144839/var_db_pkg        8K  84.1G  5.82M  /var/db/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240403152155                2.07M  84.1G  1.13G  /
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240403152155/cf             1.77M  84.1G  5.39M  /cf
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240403152155/var_cache_pkg     0B  84.1G   165M  /var/cache/pkg
pfSense/ROOT/default_20240321123740_20240403152155/var_db_pkg        8K  84.1G  5.80M  /var/db/pkg
pfSense/home                                                       108K  84.1G   108K  /home
pfSense/reservation                                                 96K  94.8G    96K  none
pfSense/tmp                                                        120K  84.1G   120K  /tmp
pfSense/var                                                       2.65M  84.1G   292K  /var
pfSense/var/cache                                                   96K  84.1G    96K  /var/cache
pfSense/var/db                                                    1.31M  84.1G  1.31M  /var/db
pfSense/var/log                                                    876K  84.1G   876K  /var/log
pfSense/var/tmp                                                    104K  84.1G   104K  /var/tmp

JonathanLee

@stephenw10

I am missing my photos here too :( Can you help with a couple of these posts the photos are vanishing ..

stephenw10

Not easily when they were posted at that time. If you re-add them now they should remain.

JonathanLee

@stephenw10 I replaced the missing photos on Jun 28 22:43