Moving system dataset to mirrored USB drives

[nick779]

Ive noticed over the past week or so that I continually have writes to my main pool around 300KB/s Im assuming that this is the system dataset.

I dont know how destructive it is to have these small writes constantly going to the main pool 24/7, but I was considering using 2, 16-32GB USB 2.0 Kingston Datatraveler flash drives mirrored to house the system dataset. I have 10 of these drives in sizes from 8-32 GB and theyve all been rock solid for me. Not one has failed a full test from Chkflsh.

This also made me wonder about the longevity of using a flash drive since they have only so many P/E cycles until they die.

Has anyone done anything line this before? Or should I just let them go on the main pool?

 

[ian351c]

I'd just leave it the way it is. Spinning rust doesn't wear out the way flash does, and since ZFS is a copy on write file system, it's not like it's writing the same sectors over and over.

 

[nick779]

I'd just leave it the way it is. Spinning rust doesn't wear out the way flash does, and since ZFS is a copy on write file system, it's not like it's writing the same sectors over and over.

Thats what I was leaning towards.