boot drive FreeNAS boot drive and UPS

Overlandr · June 21, 2018

I was looking at making a FreeNAS server and looking at a boot drive, they say you can use a USB stick. If the USB stick dies, will it lose or corrupt data on the main drive? If that is the case, is it a good idea to use redundant drives? If not redundant USB drive running in RAID 1?

Thank.

Windows7ge · June 21, 2018

If the thumb drive dies it shouldn't hurt the drives. You can setup two thumb drives in RAID1 when initially setting up FreeNAS. If this is a serious concern for you you can do it.

Though it's always possible for something to go wrong with ZFS itself be it from sudden power failure, mis-configuration, or misuse of hardware.

Redundant PSU's are costly and aren't really worth it unless you have two independent power sources (two independent lines in or two UPS's) for cost efficiency buy a good quality desktop PSU and just one UPS in the event of mains power failure. (provided this isn't for a professional operation)