I have an 11th gen Framework mainboard which I would like to repurpose as a server. Unfortunately, (unless I do some super janky stuff) I can only connect 1 drive to it over M.2 and any additional ones must be over USB.

I am thinking of just using some portable hard drives and plugging them in over USB. I plan to RAID1 them and use them as boot drives and data storage, and use the M.2 slot for something unrelated.

In your experiences, is USB reliable enough nowadays to run a RAID array for a server like this? If it is, does it depend on the specific drive used?

  • @ParagoneEnglish
    0•7 months ago

    USB-storage isn’t reliable.

    Period.

    ANY fscking thing that bumps any connection, can break the dam link.

    Then your kernel can re-label the device when it re-connects,

    and you’ve got to reassemble your RAID.

    just my experience.

    use ANY other method you can, other than USB.

    stick a SATA adaptor on there somewhere, if you can.

    Get a different motherboard.

    ANYthing, but not USB.

    • exscape
      6•7 months ago

      Always use /dev/disk/* (I use by-id) for RAID, as those links will stay constant even if a disk is renamed (for example, from sdb to sdd).