On 02/03/09 17:41, R Weaver wrote: > Hi, > > I'd like to build an OpenSolaris fileserver for home use, and would like to > use a 16GB or 32GB solid state IDE storage device for the operating system, > and some big SATA drives running ZFS. I want to keep the operating system > and data storage drives separate because I've never used ZFS before, and > don't want to trash my operating system while I play with ZFS. > > So my first question is: is it feasible to run OpenSolaris off of an SSD > storage device? Since I'll have the ZFS drives, I can put my log files there > as well as other files that will be written to often. Though if I can limit > writes to a reasonable level that won't prematurely wear out my SSD, then > maybe I can put the SATA drives to sleep when idle to save on power? > > Are there any guides to optimizing the OpenSolaris installation to run on the > SSD to minimize writes to the device? Should I run ZFS or UFS on it? > > Is 16GB enough space for a reasonable installation of OpenSolaris? > > Is it even a good idea to go with an SSD rather than a 2.5" laptop hard > drive? I'm thinking that the SSD is going to be more reliable than a > mechanical drive and since I don't want to RAID0 the root drive, it seems > like a good idea to go with SSD. It will be a bit more energy efficient too. > > Anyone know any websites that already describe how to do this? I found a > great website that details an OpenSolaris install on an MiniITX Atom based > board: > > http://blogs.sun.com/mebius/entry/diy_home_nas_box_with2 > > I've searched the forums here and haven't found what I'm looking for, but > perhaps I've missed something. > > Thanks for any help or pointers to other resources! > > While I'm new to OpenSolaris, I'm not new to Sun Solaris, and I'm not > necessarily looking for the easiest solution, this is just a fun project for > me to work on to replace my slow NSLU2 fileserver with something faster and > with better data integrity.
I'm using a Patriot 32GB Warp SSD SATA Drive drive I picked up at Frys as my primary drive and its working great: http://shop4.frys.com/%7BROvTus0nPiZVEIEroLQHhQ**.node3%7D/product/5736702 This SSD drive looks like any other SATA drive, so I didn't need to do anything special to load OpenSolaris on it :-) It's possible that other SSD drives might have compatibility issues (e.g., DMA), so I would recommend purchasing from a vendor with a good return policy. -John
