Recommend a fast thumb drive to act as hypervisor boot drive?

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VanFanel89

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I planning on rebuilding my workhorse box which currently has an aging LSI 8408e SAS controller with a RAID5 array that is used for XenServer hypervisor as well as a bunch of VMs.

I want to install Xen on a separate device from the array and was thinking about either doing two 32 GB SSDs in RAID1, or perhaps slapping in a thumb drive into my boards built in USB ports that's not external (Asus KGPE-D16).

Is there a reliable bullet proof thumb drive, maybe 8 GB or 16 GB in size that would be a good choice for this? Or am I better off with SSDs?

Thanks!
 
oraldlight said:
http://www.sandisk.com/products/usb/drives/cruzer-fit/

I use these on my ESXI and Freenas servers with no issue
Click to expand...

I got three of these in the 16GB size for my two Xenservers, one might be giving me some trouble (either it or the USB controller) in either case I've been pretty happy with them overall.

Edit:
You'll need the 16GB, 8 is just a little to small.

I used this tutorial:
http://beaukey.blogspot.com/2012/05/running-xenserver-from-usb-stick.html

based on this Citrix documentation:
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX130111

Also I had to run the
mkinitrd --with-usb initrd-
Click to expand...
command again after upgrading 6.2 to service pack 1. I guess the upgrade changed the build number, or kernel, maybe both?
 
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The Sandisk Cruzer Fit is not fast. Read speed tops out around 22 MB/sec, write speed is 12 MB/sec or less.

The Sandisk Extreme 3.0 is ten times faster, and I mean that literally, in both read and write. The 16GB version is $20 on Amazon at the moment.
 
The 3.0 gets it's speed from USB 3.0... Unfortunately ASUS decided USB 3.0 was not necessary on the Asus KGPE-D16 board :/

Edit: To follow up to the statement above... has anyone actually tested the Extreme 3.0 with USB 2.0?
 
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Sorry to hijack this thread. But I'm looking for a good mem stick to boot Linux from, and I think being fast might be interesting for that.

The only problem is that maybe they should be fast even in USB 2, not just on USB 3.

So I wonder which brands and models would accomplish that. 16Gb sounds like a good size too, as 32Gb tend to be a bit slow, I think, and 8Gb might be a bit short.
 
Something I just learned about the Sandisk Extreme flash drives is that they are now made with the removable media bit permanently turned off. This means that versions since early 2013 with the Win8 Certification logo show up as a fixed drive rather than a removable drive, so it's now just a data stick, not a boot stick.

amazon review about the change
Sandisk forum thread about the change
 
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evilsofa said:
Something I just learned about the Sandisk Extreme flash drives is that they are now made with the removable media bit permanently turned off. This means that versions since early 2013 with the Win8 Certification logo show up as a fixed drive rather than a removable drive, so it's now just a data stick, not a boot stick.

amazon review about the change
Sandisk forum thread about the change
Click to expand...

My three Sandisk Cruzer Glides are like this but I can still boot Windows 7/8/8.1 install, Linux Mint Live, etc. off of them.
 
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evilsofa said:
Something I just learned about the Sandisk Extreme flash drives is that they are now made with the removable media bit permanently turned off. This means that versions since early 2013 with the Win8 Certification logo show up as a fixed drive rather than a removable drive, so it's now just a data stick, not a boot stick.

amazon review about the change
Sandisk forum thread about the change
Click to expand...

This is a problem for Windows usb boot drive creators that perform a check to make sure you're installing to a removable drive. I had problems with trying to make an Open Indiana install stick in Windows. DD still worked fine, and they should boot fine.
 
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As an update to this thread, Sandisk apparently got so many complaints that they changed back:

"In mid-2013 SanDisk changed production of Cruzer USB Drives to show up as fixed disk to meet a requirement for Windows 8 certification. At the end of 2013, SanDisk reverted back to producing Cruzer USB Drives as removable disk. There is no tool available to change SanDisk Cruzer USB Drives between fixed and removable disk configuration."

I found this quoted in a Sandisk forum thread and it's quoted other places but I have yet to find the original source of the information.

In another bad move by Sandisk, there does not seem to be any way to know if a Sandisk USB drive will have the removable media bit turned on or off until you actually use it. If you're able to look at the packaging in person before you buy it, it's possible that they may have removed the Win8 Certification logo when they turned the bit back on, but I don't know if they did. If you're ordering from Amazon or somewhere else, I imagine it's luck of the draw now. If anyone has very recent experience buying some, I'd like to know what you got.

Edit: ultimately, the bad move that Sandisk is making is not issuing a tool to allow users to flip the removable media bit per their needs. Lexar makes such a tool for theirs. As much as I want the speed of the Sandisk Extreme, I'm going to have to go with some other sticks because I want to be able to boot whatever I want from them.

If you want to pay twice the price, the Lexar Jumpdrive P10 is actually beats the Sandisk Extreme (I'm not sure that peak random write value is correct). The next best thing on performance for about the same price as the Sandisk Extreme seems to be the Kingston Datatraveler Ultimate G3, but it's about half the speed.
 
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I use certified Windows To Go USB drives to boot my hypervisors, specifically the Kingston DataTraveler Workspace 64GB unit. Overkill but they're fast and extremely long lasting.
 
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