pfSense and SSD

M

Metraon

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 23, 2011
Messages
307
I have read on HardForums and pfSense forums about SSD degradation. Does people have any confirmations and real experiences or war stories to share.

I just received a mini-box appliance with an intel D2500CCE and I have spare OCZ Onyx Series OCZSSD2-1ONX32G that I want to use as a testing router/IDS. I want to test Untangle also and some other IDS/Firewall/Router/ etc etc.

Should I worry about pfSense installed on the SSD ? I read that there is a compact flash version but with "limited" packages.

Thanks
 
Metraon said:
I have read on HardForums and pfSense forums about SSD degradation. Does people have any confirmations and real experiences or war stories to share.

I just received a mini-box appliance with an intel D2500CCE and I have spare OCZ Onyx Series OCZSSD2-1ONX32G that I want to use as a testing router/IDS. I want to test Untangle also and some other IDS/Firewall/Router/ etc etc.

Should I worry about pfSense installed on the SSD ? I read that there is a compact flash version but with "limited" packages.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I had a very cheap SSD die in pfSense a long time ago after a few months. I've also run several decent SSDs (Intel 320's) in very high-load pfSense machines since without issue (couple years of use and still going strong). Garbage collection has eliminated the issues related to early SSD deaths in FreeBSD, as far as I know and have seen.

So, I would go for it. I like the quick bootup, lower power and acoustics. I don't like the nanobsd (CF) version both for lack of packages, and also because it can/does lose some logs when it reboots because it writes in batches.
 
So, I would go for it. I like the quick bootup, lower power and acoustics. I don't like the nanobsd (CF) version both for lack of packages, and also because it can/does lose some logs when it reboots because it writes in batches.
Click to expand...

You sir are a gentleman and a scholar.

I think there is paranoia in this matter as most of the threads are dead now.
 
I have been running the full version on a cheap ~$30 Samsung 32GB SSD I got on ebay around 2 years ago. I am not running snort, but it is still going strong on the full AMD x64 version.
 
I've had a 64gig Samsung 830 in my pfSense box since July 2012. I also have the D2500CCE. I haven't had any issues with it so far. It's just my home router though, so the disk doesn't see very much use. It's way more drive than I (or most people) need at home.

I wouldn't expect problems with SSD lifespan with pfSense unless you were running a fairly busy proxy on fairly cheap hardware.

-Sean
 
I've had a 40GB SSD in my pfsense 1.2.3 install at the office for 2 and a half years. Still going strong.
 
I've been using multiple SSD for may years without issue, including PFSense with Snort.

I'd advise most people to not pay much heed to that pfsense forum thread, there's a great deal of paranoia and knee-jerk reaction in that thread. They don't give any thought to the fact that SSD do have a failure rate regardless of application, and assume the failures they experienced had to be related to PFSense. I don't think there anything you could do on a PFSense box that would cause a non-defective SSD to die within 2.5 months as the OP claimed.
 
green91 said:
I've been using multiple SSD for may years without issue, including PFSense with Snort.

I'd advise most people to not pay much heed to that pfsense forum thread, there's a great deal of paranoia and knee-jerk reaction in that thread. They don't give any thought to the fact that SSD do have a failure rate regardless of application, and assume the failures they experienced had to be related to PFSense. I don't think there anything you could do on a PFSense box that would cause a non-defective SSD to die within 2.5 months as the OP claimed.
Click to expand...

THIS

If you are extremely worried you can also setup a logging server for pfsense to send its logs to rather than writing them locally.
 
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