PVE install on USB thumb drive

[symrex]

Hello,
I would like to separate my storage from Proxmox OS and would like to install proxmox on a thumb drive in a USB slot inside the server.
But as far as i know a thumb drive (flash drive) is not perfect for many write cycles.
My questions are:
* How often proxmox/linux do usually access the thumb drive? All images/data from VMs are will be on a raid; just Proxmox Webinterface/Deamons will be on usb drive.
* Does linux load at boot-up everything in the RAM and access the usb only when something is written?
* Is there a mode to tell linux to use flash drive as little as possible?
* How is it done in practice? Is storage and OS all mixed up on one HDD?

Sorry for that silly question, but I couldn't find any information about it anywhere.

 

[Etienne Charlier]

I use this since months : https://www.befr.ebay.be/itm/Micron...-Mass-Storage-Drive-eUSB-1-Stuck/312145261254
a little but on small side ( proxmox iso does not want to install on this) but debian netinst does.

 

[aaron]

This is in general not recommended. Most flash drives are rather slow and will wear out quickly because PVE writes quite a bit to disk all the time like RRD data or logs.

With that said, apparently there are flash drives which are built like SSDs and not your regular flash drive which might work. But I don't have any experience with them and how long they last.

 

[t.lamprecht]

I experienced that some models need frequent fstrim -av applications, especially before upgrading the system. As else it failed really often here.

Aaron is right, there are some drives which are basically a SSD. Just ensure that they're attached over a USB 3.x or better port and that they can use the USB Attached SCSI (UAS) protocol (available since USB 3.0) and not the old slow USB Mass Storage Bulk-Only Transport (BOT). You can find out how the USB drive is accessed by checking the lsusb -t output for the "Driver" property. "usb-storage" means old BOT, "uas" means new fancy attached as SCSI protocol.

That said, I only use it for irrelevant machines, where I do not bother if they got up in smoke from one moment to the other.