Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    RAM-drive or not

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
    5 Posts 3 Posters 405 Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • F
      frodet
      last edited by

      Hi,

      Right now I run RAM-drive on my SG-2100, but I am wondering if I should turn that off. Are there any performance improvements when running RAM-drive compared to not using it?

      Best Regards
      Frode

      S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • S
        SteveITS Galactic Empire @frodet
        last edited by

        @frodet Not for routing. Fewer disk writes especially with heavy logging.

        https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/troubleshooting/disk-lifetime.html

        Pre-2.7.2/23.09: Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
        When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to restart, or more depending on packages and device speed.
        Upvote 👍 helpful posts!

        F 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • F
          frodet @SteveITS
          last edited by

          @SteveITS I have SG-2100 max with the 32 GB SSD disk. I have installed pfblockerNG package and it logs a lot I think, but it might not be too much writing...

          I have tested a little bit and feel that booting without RAM-drives improves booting performance. I thought that having things in a RAM-drive would be beneficial for the performance, but if I understand you right it only helps with disk longevity.

          S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • S
            SteveITS Galactic Empire @frodet
            last edited by

            @frodet At boot it has to copy files to RAM so I suppose it might be slightly slower. After that writing to RAM is faster.

            With an SSD don’t worry about disk life:

            https://www.netgate.com/supported-pfsense-plus-packages

            Pre-2.7.2/23.09: Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
            When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to restart, or more depending on packages and device speed.
            Upvote 👍 helpful posts!

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • stephenw10S
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              Performance gain will only be marginal there but saving drive writes can be significant. You must have quite large drives to run with pfBlocker?

              If it's running OK, not exhausting the RAM drive, then why disable it?

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • First post
                Last post
              Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.