USB Flash Drive as boot drive

[Mr_Stig]

Appologies if this has been covered but can't find it yet (or maybe the answer is so obvious no one's needed to ask? 😅).

Would I be able to use a flash drive as the boot drive?  I'm assuming I'd need a second for the install media.  I understand this isn't a good idea for a number of reasons, but I plan to add a second (actual) SSD as mirror boot drive later

[Mobius]

Some users on main truenas have reported using a usb flash drive, might be worth checking out.

Alternatively you can probably do something similar to what i did. 
I went on craigslist and got cheap used nvme drives for $10 each

while it's not safest thing, i am confident that my 250 gb samsung 960 evo (that only have 700gb written) will last me a long time

I am currently on a test system but when i fully migrate i will be mirroring it with another drive.

[Mr_Stig]

Yeah the more I browsed on Amazon I noticed I could get a Patriot Memory 128GB ssd for 13 bucks...  So I'll probably just get a pair of those and mirror them.  If one fails I'll replace it with something fancier.  But I might try the USB drive anyways now just out of curiousity.  I'll report back with findings, for SCIENCE!

[Mobius]

Good luck, looking forward to hearing back from you.
I think some users reported performance issues with usb drives but maybe with a fast enough drive it wouldn't feel too bad.

If i didn't find solid used options near me i probably would have gone for ssd you found on amazon.

[PsychoWards]

Hexos will write your USB Flash Drive to death very fast, that's why they are not recommended because of the constant writes which Truenas is doing to the drive (Logs, Graphs and the system dataset for the both drive).

Also the performance might not be the best. It is definitely possible but you should definitely backup your system config regularly and don't wait multiple years before replacing the drive. 🙂 

[Sonic]

I tested it once. I installed TrueNas on 3 USB drives (2 drive mirror), just for fun. It was very slooooowwwww and the first USB drive died after 2 weeks. If you like an experiment, go ahead. If you want a stable system, listen to @PsychoWards and @Mr_Stig and but the $13 ssd.

[ubergeek]

I have done it in working environment and it lasted a week then we moved to a ssd. Mainly it was Really slow to respond, it was a good usb3 media in a usb3 port

[Theo]

In my 3rd test system (Qnap Ts-251+) i was forced to use usb drives as i was unable to use the embedded proprietary m.2 ssd for boot. 

So i got x2 Sandisk Ultra fit usb's, I then installed the OS in mirrored mode for redundancy.
Speed wise, no major sluggishness other than the device itself being fairly old now.

And as it's a 3rd test system i'm not concerned about failures ect. BUT like others have said, it's not ideal and if you are doing it, at least run 2 or more for redundancy.
or better yet a usb > sata cable then use a 2.5" ssd.

[Mawson]

17 hours ago, Mr_Stig said:

Yeah the more I browsed on Amazon I noticed I could get a Patriot Memory 128GB ssd for 13 bucks...  So I'll probably just get a pair of those and mirror them.  If one fails I'll replace it with something fancier.  But I might try the USB drive anyways now just out of curiousity.  I'll report back with findings, for SCIENCE!

I'm looking into doing this as well! amusingly the 240gig models are only like 5 dollars more

[PC LOAD LETTER]

On a test machine, I'm booting TrueNAS from a "high endurance" micro sd card in a usb adapter. The manufacturer's datasheet claims an endurance of 170TBW but I've only been using it for a month and a half, so we will just have to see.