Ssd disk on usb to ssd

TrueNAS General
1

USB - ssd
USB - ssd1920×1080 154 KB

As you can see on Picture the disk info of sdy say SSD, but the alert say USB boot …
Should i be worried? or is it a cosmetic bug?

2

Not recommended is not the same as having a problem. USB in general is not recommended as typically it is associated with USB Flash Drives. You should be fine.

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@dgrigo @joeschmuck

As someone who uses a USB SSD (it is a genuine SSD but has the same form factor as a Flash Drive - SSK 256GB SSD), I would disagree with this. Based on my own situation:

  1. The USB to SATA bridge inside my device does not handle Trims.

  2. It is definitely less reliable than a SATA drive - I get occasional USB disconnects. On Bluefin it ran reliably on an internal USB port for c. 6 months, but after an upgrade to Cobia then I started getting more frequent USB disconnects and then the system would hang. Moving it to an external port on the back has made it a lot more reliable, but definitely less reliable than a SATA drive.

But if you have no choice due to lack of SATA ports, then you can definitely boot from USB SSD, but you have to live with the risks.

4

I will fully admit that it depends on the drive you are using however there is some good hardware that works well. I only wish I had a list of that hardware.

I have hardware that I have used reliably however trying to locate this old stuff would be difficult and likely in used condition.

A few pieces of personal advice should a person need to use the USB interface:

  1. If you can use a quality USB to SATA adapter, to a SSD, then you should be okay. Do not use a “portable hard drive” as those are apt to be SMR drives. Stick to SSD.
  2. If you must use a USB Flash Drive (not recommended) then these are the things I do that seem to work, for me at least.
    a. Purchase a quality USB drive that has a metal structure to dissipate heat, and not a tiny USB drive, it must have some reasonable amount of metal so it can cool. And if it is too big and ugly, then mount it inside the case near a fan.
    b. USB 2.0 is your friend. Purchase a USB 2.0 Flash Drive or at least plug it into a USB 2.0 port (not USB 3.x). USB 3.x uses more power which means more heat and less life.
1 Like
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All my 24 SATA/sas slots on my box are full, inside my motherboard I have a usb 3.1 gen 2 slot that left for boot media so I Use this POWERTECH Converter M.2 Key M NVMe σε USB 3.1 Gen 2
With a Samsung 960 pro Nvme 256
So this combination don’t support trim? And is not reliable?
And this is mounted inside case cause it’s big and ugly.

Thanks
KONSTANTINOS

6

Try to avoid using any sATA device through USB.
It is not going to work.
I ran my media server in the beginning with USb WD 4TB HDDs.
It was a daily routine that I had to run forced resilvering on the array, because a random HDD has fallen out of it.
Buy an IBM 1015 HBA for 50EUR, reflash it to IT mode and it will solve your problem.
As a fallback, you can buy these <20EUR 2-4-6-8 channel PCIe 1x to sATA interfaces and mount the SSD inside the case in worst case with double sided tape. (or even better, if you buy those metal brackets from Aliexpress for a xouple of EUR.)

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By the way guys, I don’t use SATA, wrote I use m2 nvme

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I am not sure that it matters whether the underlying drive is SATA or NVMe. The issues are:

  1. USB connections are less reliable than SATA or NVMe and are subject to occasional disconnects.

  2. The USB bridge may not handle all the relevant SATA or NVMe commands correctly - in my USB SSD it doesn’t handle TRIM.