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| omv7:omv7_plugins:flashmemory [2025/08/22 00:54] – [Wear Leveling] crashtest | omv7:omv7_plugins:flashmemory [2025/08/22 02:55] (current) – [The Purpose of the Plugin] crashtest |
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| === The Purpose of the Plugin === | === The Purpose of the Plugin === |
| Most writes to OMV's boot drive are entries being appended to log files. While log file entries are very small writes, that may be as little at 80 bytes, they occur on a regular basis. A write operation to a flash device is done in writable "blocks" that are, typically, 2KB or 4KB minimum regardless of how small the write may be. This results in what is called "write amplification" where numerous large segments (2 to 4KB) of the drive are written to record very small amounts of data (+/- 80 bytes). The end result is writing all of the available blocks of the flash device rapidly, to exhaustion, where it will go read-only.\\ | Most writes to OMV's boot drive are entries added to log files. These writes are very small, sometimes as little as 80 bytes, but they happen often. A write to a flash device happens in “blocks", typically 4KB or larger, no matter how small the write may be. This causes “write amplification,” where large chunks of the drive are written to store tiny amounts of data (like 80 bytes). Over time, this can wear out a flash drive’s blocks quickly, making it go read-only.\\ |
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| The primary purpose of the Flash Memory Plugin is to reduce the frequency of writes to flash media by consolidating very small writes into one, larger, bulk write that is flushed to the boot drive on shutdown. This dramatically reduces the number of blocks physically written to the Flash Device. The plugin can reduce the number of blocks written to the Flash drive by, potentially, an order of magnitude or 1/10th the amount that would otherwise be written. By extension, a drive of a given size might last up to 10 times longer than it would without the Flash Media plugin.\\ | The FlashMemory Plugin reduces wear by collecting these small writes in memory and saving them as one larger write, flushed to the boot drive on shutdown. This can cut down the number of blocks written to the drive by up to 10 times. As a result, a drive might last up to 10 times longer, depending on how it’s used, compared to operating without the plugin. |
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| It's worth noting that SSD's would benefit from the FlashMemory plugin as well. | It’s worth noting that SSDs would benefit from the FlashMemory Plugin as well.\\ |
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