Standby mode on DS106 with swap file on USB stick

[mr_hyde]

Hello,

i have moved the swapspace from the HDD to a USB Memory stick. I have installed SSODS r2b1 with SS6.5.0 on a DS106. Now the HDD sleep function is working fine. After at least 60 min the DS goes into standby mode without any disk or fan spinning.

The only thing you need is a card reader with memory card(>=512mb) or a USB memory stick (>=512MB) I bought one today for 15€ (1GB)

I will try to create a .pat file to patch the SSODS. Probably today i will post a short howto for the DS106.

mr_hyde

[flipflip]

Cool! Many thanks!

[tommypeters]

Very good idea! (and realization)

[radish]

Putting a swap partition on flash isn't usually considered a very good idea, due to the limited write-cycle nature of the medium. In a while (how long will depend on many factors) the cells in the flash module will start failing. If you're lucky, the system will notice and start marking them bad, until eventually there's not enough left and it all dies. If you're not lucky, nothing will notice until you start getting random crashes due to swapfile corruption.

See : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory#Limitations

Wear levelling can help, if the flash device in question supports it : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_levelling

[tommypeters]

OK, since we don't need non-volatile memory for a swap - is there any type of volatile memory that can be connected to USB (directly or through a card reader or similar), reasonably priced?

[flipflip]

But as USB memory sticks are rather cheap it can just be raplaced when its broken. The question is how long it would last.

Mr_hyde will tell us sooner or later :-)

What about a raid system made of two or more sticks? We could monitor for a defect stick and replace it before the system crashes. I'm sure I could get lots of small (64, 128 MB) USB sticks from friends and collegues for free.. hmm.. that's worth an email to all@.. tomorrow :-)

Mr_hyde: How much swap is needed?

flip

[mr_hyde]

Putting a swap partition on flash isn't usually considered a very good idea, due to the limited write-cycle nature of the medium.

You are right, but up to now i got no other idea and as flip already mentioned, USB sticks are cheap.

@ Flip: The Slimserver uses about 90-100Mb of swapspace. The origin HDD space is about 400MB.

I have another idea to reduce the write cycles to the usb medium. One could use a similar 'prevent standby' plugin. As far as i know, this plugin monitors, if clients are connected to the server. If a client is connected to the server, the DS is usually not in Standby --> use of HDD swap file. If no client is connected to the Server, the plugin could activate the USB swapspace. One should use the swapon/off from debian, because it is possible to set the priority of the swap space (this is not possible with the binary that is included in the Synology system) .

Actually i won't have got the time for that, but when i've found a solution, i will post it.

mr_hyde

[tommypeters]

OK, so even a 128MB USB stick would be useful? That's things they throw at you if you try a 2-number subscription to some technical magazines...