Re: FreeBSD on IDE Flash disk drive
Hi Paul, I am booting from a 512MB CF card, and run /var and /tmp from a RAM drive. Upon startup, the CF card /var and /tmp dir. are copied into the ram drives, the rest is Read Only. When it shuts down (not very often), the ram drive contents are copied back to the CF card. You could backup the ram drive to CF more frequently if required. I run off of 12V battery, so power failures don't affect me all that much. You could monitor the Battery/UPS for power failure conditions if needed etc. Running FreeBSD 6.0. Cool! Is there a proper way of copying from/to /var and /tmp at boot and at shutdown or did you make the scripts on your own? So far, my boxie has be running flawlessly, I have also hard-rebooted it during a file copy and everything was OK with the filesystem. However, I put in two flash drives and made a gmirror out of them for redundancy. Today I am putting it to a remote location and I hope everything will run there too. Thanks to all, Nejc ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: FreeBSD on IDE Flash disk drive
I noticed a project called NanoBSD in the freebsd handbook that is intended for exactly this purpose. I compiled installed it just fine on 6.1 release, but my hardware wouldn't boot a CF card, so I was unable to verify that it worked. Sounds like NanoBSD is to FreeBSD what m0n0wall is to Linux? Steve On 3/9/07, Nejc Škoberne [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello, I plan to install a FreeBSD 6.2 router/gateway/DHCP server on a EPIA box with 1GB Transcend IDE Flash drive. Since Transcend says that this device is capable of 10,000 insertion/removal cycles I assume that I must minimize the number of writes to the drive. It is okay with me if I have to configure syslog to log to another machine. Any suggestions/instructions how to achieve this? Any experienced users regarding this matter? Thanks for ideas and help. Nejc ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Steve Franks, KE7BTE Staff Engineer La Palma Devices, LLC http://www.lapalmadevices.com (520) 312-0089 ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: FreeBSD on IDE Flash disk drive
My bad. Says right on the m0n0wall homepage that it is based on FreeBSD, not Linuxyea for us! Steve On 3/9/07, Nejc Škoberne [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello, I plan to install a FreeBSD 6.2 router/gateway/DHCP server on a EPIA box with 1GB Transcend IDE Flash drive. Since Transcend says that this device is capable of 10,000 insertion/removal cycles I assume that I must minimize the number of writes to the drive. It is okay with me if I have to configure syslog to log to another machine. Any suggestions/instructions how to achieve this? Any experienced users regarding this matter? Thanks for ideas and help. Nejc ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Steve Franks, KE7BTE Staff Engineer La Palma Devices, LLC http://www.lapalmadevices.com (520) 312-0089 ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: FreeBSD on IDE Flash disk drive
Akk hate top posting but following the mode of this email http://www.ultradesic.com/index.php?section=125 This is the site for making a mini flash disk-able version of FreeBSD 6.x mjt -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Steve Franks Sent: Tuesday, 13 March 2007 3:24 AM To: Nejc Škoberne Cc: User Questions Subject: Re: FreeBSD on IDE Flash disk drive My bad. Says right on the m0n0wall homepage that it is based on FreeBSD, not Linuxyea for us! Steve On 3/9/07, Nejc Škoberne [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello, I plan to install a FreeBSD 6.2 router/gateway/DHCP server on a EPIA box with 1GB Transcend IDE Flash drive. Since Transcend says that this device is capable of 10,000 insertion/removal cycles I assume that I must minimize the number of writes to the drive. It is okay with me if I have to configure syslog to log to another machine. Any suggestions/instructions how to achieve this? Any experienced users regarding this matter? Thanks for ideas and help. Nejc ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Steve Franks, KE7BTE Staff Engineer La Palma Devices, LLC http://www.lapalmadevices.com (520) 312-0089 ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- The information transmitted in this e-mail is for the exclusive use of the intended addressee and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, re-transmission, dissemination or other use of it, or the taking of any action in reliance upon this information by persons and/or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, please inform the sender and/or addressee immediately and delete the material. E-mails may not be secure, may contain computer viruses and may be corrupted in transmission. Please carefully check this e-mail (and any attachment) accordingly. No warranties are given and no liability is accepted for any loss or damage caused by such matters. --- ### This e-mail message has been scanned for Viruses by Bytecraft ### ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: FreeBSD on IDE Flash disk drive
Hi, I have played around with using an EPIA 600-PD (Fanless Dual NICS), with 256MB RAM. Works well, however, a buildworld takes around 4 hours ;-) I am booting from a 512MB CF card, and run /var and /tmp from a RAM drive. Upon startup, the CF card /var and /tmp dir. are copied into the ram drives, the rest is Read Only. When it shuts down (not very often), the ram drive contents are copied back to the CF card. You could backup the ram drive to CF more frequently if required. I run off of 12V battery, so power failures don't affect me all that much. You could monitor the Battery/UPS for power failure conditions if needed etc. Running FreeBSD 6.0. Cheers, Paul -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Nejc Škoberne Sent: Saturday, 10 March 2007 5:10 AM To: User Questions Subject: FreeBSD on IDE Flash disk drive Hello, I plan to install a FreeBSD 6.2 router/gateway/DHCP server on a EPIA box with 1GB Transcend IDE Flash drive. Since Transcend says that this device is capable of 10,000 insertion/removal cycles I assume that I must minimize the number of writes to the drive. It is okay with me if I have to configure syslog to log to another machine. Any suggestions/instructions how to achieve this? Any experienced users regarding this matter? Thanks for ideas and help. Nejc ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: FreeBSD on IDE Flash disk drive
Hey, this device is capable of 10,000 insertion/removal cycles I assume Sorry for replying my own post, but now I fould out that this actually means how many times can I insert/remove the module into/from the motherboard. Actually the number I am interested in is much higher: 2,000,000 Program/Erase cycles. However I have no idea how to measure how many writes are performed during a normal operation of a FreeBSD server running DHCP and pf firewall. Thanks, Nejc ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: FreeBSD on IDE Flash disk drive
Nejc Škoberne wrote: However I have no idea how to measure how many writes are performed during a normal operation of a FreeBSD server running DHCP and pf firewall. You could get an upper bound by running a perpetual iostat... signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature
Re: FreeBSD on IDE Flash disk drive
You will want the swap to some other device such a a regular hard drive. A flash drive can get worn out cells and fail. -Derek At 02:09 PM 3/9/2007, =?ISO-8859-2?Q?Nejc_=A9koberne?= wrote: Hello, I plan to install a FreeBSD 6.2 router/gateway/DHCP server on a EPIA box with 1GB Transcend IDE Flash drive. Since Transcend says that this device is capable of 10,000 insertion/removal cycles I assume that I must minimize the number of writes to the drive. It is okay with me if I have to configure syslog to log to another machine. Any suggestions/instructions how to achieve this? Any experienced users regarding this matter? Thanks for ideas and help. Nejc ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. MailScanner thanks transtec Computers for their support. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. MailScanner thanks transtec Computers for their support. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: FreeBSD on IDE Flash disk drive
Hello Derek, You will want the swap to some other device such a a regular hard drive. A flash drive can get worn out cells and fail. Also when just reading the flash drive? I would like to write to it only when it is absolutely necessary (configuration change). I think 2 million configuration changes should be enough? If it lasts only year, no problem I can exchange it every now and then. I just hope it is more damage-proof than ordinary hard drives (for example at power outages). Bye, Nejc ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: FreeBSD on IDE Flash disk drive
Hello Derek, You will want the swap to some other device such a a regular hard drive. A flash drive can get worn out cells and fail. Also when just reading the flash drive? I would like to write to it only when it is absolutely necessary (configuration change). I think 2 million configuration changes should be enough? If it lasts only year, no problem I can exchange it every now and then. I just hope it is more damage-proof than ordinary hard drives (for example at power outages). Bye, Nejc The answer is NO... (IMNSHO) I have a few Soekris servers running FreeBSD 5.5 at a *REMOTE* location (When I say remote, I don't mean the next city, or next state, or even a few states away... I mean a few states away *AND* you need a 4WD to drive 9 miles to get to it. Its ~500 feet from the Atlantic Ocean in an area without any paved roads). I have CF cards in them for the primary, the more durable/rugged of the SanDisk line and USB for swap/ports/squid data. It is *STILL* only rated for about 10K R/W operations. I also find when the facility DOES lose power (We are still building it out) that the CF and USB seem MUCH MORE prone to having issues coming back. I had thought to use CF/USB because they wouldn't crash and be more tolerant of bad conditions (heat and salt air humidity). I'm pretty much giving up and switching to notebook IDE drives the next time I am there. Tuc ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: FreeBSD on IDE Flash disk drive
On Fri, 9 Mar 2007, Nejc Škoberne wrote: Sorry for replying my own post, but now I fould out that this actually means how many times can I insert/remove the module into/from the motherboard. Actually the number I am interested in is much higher: 2,000,000 Program/Erase cycles. However I have no idea how to measure how many writes are performed during a normal operation of a FreeBSD server running DHCP and pf firewall. m0n0wall gets around this by running out of RAM after booting from flash (or CD, or hard disk): http://m0n0.ch/wall/ pfSense is a variation of m0n0wall that uses pf for the firewall: http://www.pfsense.org Both of these provide DHCP and firewalls. m0n0wall uses IPFW, while pfSense uses pf. -Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota USA___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: FreeBSD on IDE Flash disk drive
Hi, m0n0wall gets around this by running out of RAM after booting from flash (or CD, or hard disk): Yes, I know both m0n0wall and pfSense, but I prefer a custom FreeBSD installation since I have developed some custom scripts which I would like to use. This is what I am trying to do now - booting the system from flash IDE drive, creating mfs filesystems for /tmp and /var (just enabling them in rc.conf) and mounting all the partitions read-only. And of course I configured syslog to log to some remote host. So when I need to make a configuration change (rc.conf, dhcpd.conf), I just remount / or /usr read-write temporariliy, make the change and then remount back to read-only. This way, I guess, there will be minimal writes to the drive. Now I plan to do some power outage testing. Will let you know. Thanks to all of you, Nejc ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
