full or embedded install on USB

[tsteele]

Hi,
I'm finally upgrading from 0.7 which has been happily running for the past 2-3 year, well actually I'm just doing a new install to a new USB stick. I had a quick look at the other 'freenas', but I find the interface with nas4free is what I am used to, and it's just easier to use.

I've been reading that the recommended option is for an embedded install on a USB stick. My USB stick is 4GB. So I was thinking of doing a full install to this, but to be honest, am not sure what's the pro's vs con's of doing this, instead of the embedded option. The embedded install only creates a small partition, and the rest of the USB would be wasted.

Can anyone enlighten me as to recommended partition sizes if I do a full install (OS + Swap), and if it is better to just stick with the embedded install ?

To provide some more info, my NAS is mostly a headless box, but I can easily connect a keyboard and monitor to it if upgrades for 'full' installs is required. I think I read someone had mentioned that.
My box is a simple single core cpu, 6GB of RAM, and I have a 8GB ZFS array.

Thanks
Tim

[b0ssman]

you want the embedded install on a usb stick. because a normal install will kill the usb stick because of the write access quickly.

with the embedded install you can manually create a partition at the end of the usb stick and mount it.

[armandh]

embedded for sure
recovery or hardware move is so easy with embedded.

I tend to avoid USB sticks when I can
they often come with less than helpful drivers and software
not to mention longevity as many are built to a "giveaway" price point

I use industrial SATA or PATA flash in my active N4F.
http://www.logicsupply.com/categories/f ... sh_modules

my cold stand-by N4F uses a 2.1 Gb Hdd salvaged from a xerographic printer
it is installed but not mounted and set to spin down after 5 minutes.
it spins up for a config change and back down in 5.
a great way to do boot older hardware.