Why you should avoid USB attached drives for data pool disks

[mooglestiltzkin]

ty Arwen for covering this.

Also by now most experienced users would know, not to use usb flash sticks for their truenas boot drive.

I’m using a usb external enclosure with M.2 NVME ssd. because my TS-877 which has m.2 sata in them via a pcie addon card doesn’t allow boot apparently for truenas. I think installing a 2.5’’ m.2 sata ssd might work, but i don’t have any on me to confirm that.

This is the link to my project as a case study for this thread

QNAP TS-877 Truenas Journal

[image] I had previously experimented with truenas using 2 different qnap models. a TS-253D (scale) and a TS-653A (core). I tested how truenas worked (since it was my first time), and i was checking how that would work on a QNAP. Familiarizing myself with truenas, and also how would setting up truenas on a QNAP to make that possible and test how stable this would be. this was the original project to make that work (credits to elvis and trex) https://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?t=161170 H…

I just wanted to share my experience when using a usb m.2 nvme enclosure as the truenas scale dragonfish latest as the boot drive.

it works stable. however, i noticed that smart test does not work.

As for caution because it’s connected via usb and can risk getting disconnected, one solution for this is to add a double sided stick adhesive tape or sorts, to then stick the ssd enclosure to the side of your nas, problem solved (yes it can still be easily pulled out of usb, but that normally would have to be intentional).

But as others pointed out, just be sure to save your latest working truenas config, so if anything does happen, you can at least bring things back online by importing that config.

If i had a choice, yes i too would preferably want to install on a drive installed into the nas directly (preferably a m.2 nvme ssd) x2 in mirror for a boot drive. But for some NAS e.g. qnap converting to truenas, they may not support these (some models are even limited to m.2 sata or some not even that). So for those models their only option is through a usb enclosure like mine (m.2 nvme)

This is the specific enclosure i am using, and tested as a working for booting truenas from

QNAP TS-877 Truenas Journal

This is the M.2 nvme usb enclosure i am using [Orico M.2 SSD Enclosure for NVME and SATA | A great value option] [image] and the m.2 nvme sata i used with it [NVMe Speeds at SATA Pricing? - Kingston A2000 NVMe SSD Review]

The other issue i had was the alerts

#### 'boot-pool' is consuming USB devices 'sdg' which is not recommended.

I appreciate the reminder and know why it’s there, so i dismissed. In RC1 it kept spaming me about it. The devs know about this issue and are gonna do something about it in future, so don’t want to keep harping on this. thought it deserved at least a mention in this thread. The warning i’m told was supposed to be mean for the usb flash stick users. But i am a usb nvme ssd user. So i’m basically collateral damage because truenas doesn’t know this, it only see it’s booting off usb only so it can’t make the distinction apparently.