Single SSD drive array-supportable?

[GeneM]

Hello, all.

 

Question: Would I have a supportable configuration if I had a single SSD as an array?

 

I've done a lot of reading here on using SSDs in arrays, but don’t seem to be finding anything for just a single drive array.  I have a minimal requirement and selected unRAID on a small form factor (SFF) fanless i5, to replace my Media server PC and Home Assistant Pi.

 

The backstory: I currently have a 250G M.2 SSD (Cache) for a 1T laptop HDD. In this SFF configuration, the M.2 is tucked in under the HDD. Even after attaching a heatsinked, the M.2 runs at 60C, and that warms the HDD from 41C to 65C when the room goes over 72F.  It’s getting kind of close.

 

I was hoping to rip them both out in exchange for a single 1T SSD.  No more cache, No Parity (like now), No redundancy (like now).  In case of failure, I’d just re-install, leveraging the appdata backups I mirror off to another network drive after the nightly backup.

 

I’m fully installed and running, and am still under 100G of storage usage on my unRAID server. Any media server content I want to keep, is copied off to a separate NAS, so I'm not seeing my storage requirements changing. Maybe someday I can more the NAS into the unRAID, but for now, that’s not a priority.

 

 

So, amy I missing anything in regards to the 1T SSD? 

I've read no TRIM on an array, so I’d probably want to periodically shut the array and do that manualy?

Any other gotchas?

 

Tnx!

[JorgeB]

11 hours ago, GeneM said:

Question: Would I have a supportable configuration if I had a single SSD as an array?

Yes, but without trim, you could also assign any device like a small flash drive as a data drive and then assign the SSD as cache, this way it will still be part of the user shares and it will have trim support.

[GeneM]

Oh, never considered that. Thank you....

[testdasi]

Also, if you leave a lot of empty space on the SSD then theoretically you can live without TRIM with little to no performance hit.

[GeneM]

Folks: I appreciate the guidance on this. I think I'm mission accomplished at this point.

Array: 95.1 MB used of 61.5 GB (0.2 %)    
DEVICE    STATUS    TEMP    SMART    UTILIZATION    
 Disk 1    active    *    healthy    0%

Cache  113 GB used of 1 TB (11.3 %)    
DEVICE    STATUS    TEMP    SMART    UTILIZATION    
 Cache    active    23 C    healthy    11%

 

Funny:

My boot thumb drive is a SanDisk 16GB Ultra Fit USB 3.1 Flash Drive - SDCZ430-016G-G46

which unRAID shows as a simple identification: Flash    Ultra_Fit - 15.4 GB (sda)

 

For the Array thumb drive, I went with a SanDisk 64GB Ultra Fit USB 3.1 Flash Drive - SDCZ430-064G-G46

unRAID is using an identification string of:

Ultra_Fit_04014b853bd7df80063efbb2fb89413c10b9246f0603543e8c9763be945ae394f941000000000000000000002c181ad0ff836e18835581078ea75baf (SanDisk_Ultra_64G)

 

Just found that strange.

 

Thanks again.