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requirements docs improved with missing information fixed
* Addressed and closed #131, requirements talk about installation, not updates (not manageable updates), so the wording is correct because later on there are points about that, but i handled the issue in this commit in better way for. * Improve the very vague requirements documentation, that is also ambiguous in some way. * Not all software requirements are handled by the OS, for example we need a valid network for communications, if the network is unreachable clients are unable to reach any shared resources. * OMV is the most flexible NAS system. Pointed that out and tried to clarify all the needs about hardware and software. * Separate software requirements and hardware requirements. Previous document was very mixed about it, maybe this commit featured a too long one. I'm open to suggestions and leave this PR open to the editors and maintainers for. * Pointed out that Debian OS is the main software requirement. So then hardware requirements will rely based on OS hardware support! * Pointed out that NIC is a missing hardware requirement and why. It's a NAS system and wrote about that terminology as well. * Software requirements are handled by the OS and depend on it, but some packages were pointed out that are important to it, so there will be no confusion about it * The page should be titled "requirements" because hardware is a prerequisite, but it depends on the core software - the Debian OS, if such hardware is not supported, OMV would not be able to be installed or would not be able to work properly... so prerequisites as a list are very confusing about it * Set the minimum requirements to be adequate and manageable: * A 1.5G root filesystem partition was sufficient using the netinstall iso and turning off recommendations, then sdisable auto-updates and create a cron job to clean up the apt package cache storage daily. This does not allow upgrades, but does allow updates. It means a 4G disk system drive is possible and valild. of course, these are for expert users... so I wrote sections of recommendations for novice users. * a 100M swap was sufficient. I configured Linux to not use swap at all... but novice users won't have the necessary skills, so... of course, these are for expert users... so I wrote sections of recommendations for novice users. * setting up a NAS system is easy with OMV, but a minimum of knowledge is required for inexperienced users, so I wrote such needs in each section. **Warning** I indicated that 1 disk is enough for both: system drive storage plus mixed with Data storage, that is basically true and officially supported, if you, as an expert administrator, simply install OMV on top of a fresh Debian setup customized with a free partition available for OMV data drive storage. This could be done by leaving a free partition already formatted also!
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‎prerequisites.rst

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Prerequisites
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Requisites
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=============
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Before installing |omv| make sure your hardware is supported.
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The |omv| system is the most flexible Network Attached Storage (NAS) on the market,
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this is because it relies on the operating system Debian GNU/Linux [9]_
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* **CPU**: Any x86-64 or ARM compatible processor
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* **RAM**: 1 GiB capacity
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* **HDD**:
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Any system has software requirements and hardware requirements, also minimal
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ones and recommended ones..
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* **System Drive**: min. 4 GiB capacity (plus the capacity of the RAM)
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* **Data Drive**: capacity according to your needs
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Hardware requirements
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---------------------
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.. note::
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The whole disc will be occupied by the system and swap space [1]_, so size
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doesn't matter so much. Data storage on the system disc is not supported.
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====== ================ ========= ========== ==================================
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Item supported Minimal Best Recommendation
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====== ================ ========= ========== ==================================
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DRIV SSD/HDD/USB... 1 disk 2 disk 2 disks: 128Gib HDD + 500Gib SSD
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RAM 1Gib+ any 1Gib 4Gig 8Gib+ dual channel DDR4/DDR3
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NIC WiFi/Ether/USB any 10Mb NIC 1GiB NIC or 10Gb NICs: SFP fiber
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CPU arm,x86,x64 32bit 64bit Intel Dual Core, AMD Ryzen
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====== ================ ========= ========== ==================================
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.. note::
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Take into account in your considerations about the size of the system disk
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that various plugins such as `openmediavault-podman` or `openmediavault-k8s`
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store their data (e.g. container images) on the system disk.
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The storage drives (DRIV)
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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Spinning Harddisk, SSD [2]_, Disk-on-Module [3]_, CompactFlash [4]_ or USB thumb
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drive [5]_ type drives can be used as system drive.
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This is the key of the system. |omv| supports any drive hardware and any drive
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interface (SATA, ISE, SCSI, USB, SERIAL) but information and management will
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depend on the disk drives supported by the Debian operating system.
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Modern hard disks drives have firmware inside that reports several attributes,
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Any hard disks drives is supported but |omv| only supports SMART for those
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disks that are connected to an HBA in pass-through mode.
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The system manages two types of storage unit classification:
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System drive storage
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The Storage Disk Drive(s) used to put the system program files (by partitions),
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**this system drive (that is in fact a couple or more partitions)
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cannot officially be used for shared resources or as data drive**.
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What supported brands and sizes are covered in the software requirements section below.
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The recommendation for the System drive(s) hardware could be older spinning
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Hard Disk Drives (HDD), Disk-on-Module [3]_, CompactFlash [4]_ or thumb drives (USB),
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the Solid State Disks (SDD [2]_) must be managed.
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Data drive storage
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The storage disk drive(s) where the data for the defined or used shares resources
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wil be stored. **Cannot be the same of the system drive(s) and sizes will
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depends of the usage of the resources**. Shared resources are managed over
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partitions, which is discussed in the software requirements topic below.
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The recommendation for the Data drives must be Solid State Disks (SSD [2]_ disks)
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for best performance or spinning Hard Disk Drives (HDD).
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The memory (RAM)
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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Enough RAM is vital to maintaining peak performance. There are several combinations
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of installation sizes but the **recommendation is at least 4Gib for novice administrators**.
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For best practice you should have 8GiB of RAM for basic operations in default installation.
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and no matter the size, RAM must be configured in Dual Channel mode [8]_
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inclusivelly if there are little amount of, it will improve performance.
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Unless other NAS systems the |omv| system can run in at least 1Gib of RAM, but
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of course will need expertise.
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The communication card (NIC)
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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A NAS system as means is a network oriented system, of course |omv| is the
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most flexible NAS system in the world and allows multiple ways of communication,
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this is becouse |omv| offers several modes of shared resources like RSYNC that
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do not depends on networking. But there are few key points:
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- The NAS write speed to storage is limited to the speed of your NAS computer NIC card
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- The NAS write speed to storage is limited to the speed of your network
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- Speed of writing to the storage depends on ratio of the number of users accessing it.
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Full-duplex NICs are recommended, half-duplex NICs typically offer 10/100 Mbit/s
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and storage drives far exceed those speeds but are of course supported by |omv|.
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Any supported NIC vendor is determined by the support of the operating system
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where |omv| system resides and runs, which is Debian GNU/Linux.
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The architecture (CPU)
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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We have already denoted in the requirements table the supported architectures or
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processors (which reduces and determines which computers can be used) but this is
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really a reference since it is determined by the support of the operating system
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where |omv| system resides and runs, which is Debian GNU/Linux.
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Any computer system supported by the common requirements of Debian operating
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system could be an |omv| system installation target. **Currently we supports
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amd64 (x66 64bits), i386 (x86 32bits), ARMv7+ARMv8 (arm64/armel/armhf)**.
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Software requirements
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---------------------
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====== ================= ============== ============== =======================================
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Item Software Minimal Best Recommendation
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====== ================= ============== ============== =======================================
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OS Debian Linux oldoldstable stable Current stable (plus 1 month released)
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BOOT BIOS,UBOOT,UEFI BIOS,mbr BIOS,gpt Disable Secure boot, gpt table
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SDS HDD,SSD,USB... 2 partitions 3 partitions Root with 120G size, 8G swap size
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DDS HDD,SSD,USB... 1 partition 1 per share One disk or part per shared resource
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NET LAN,WAN,SAN,VPN LAN SAN,PAN,LAN Fiber ipv4, or at least cable LAN
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====== ================= ============== ============== =======================================
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The operating system (OS)
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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The |omv| is a piece of software, it resides and runs under a key software OS
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named Debian GNU/Linux as "the universal operating system" [9]_
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Supported Debian OS versions can be checked in the :doc:`releases section </releases>`
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While possible to deploy in a virtual environment, depending of the nature of
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virtualization it will degrade the performance access in various ways. Installation
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in LXC or any other container based solution is not supported.
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Whatever the situation, the |omv| assumes that target operating system does not
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have any previous installation of any of the programs used by |omv| dependencies:
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============= ============== ================= ==========================================
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software package related to Observations
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============= ============== ================= ==========================================
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http server nginx |webui| port 80 must be free at installation
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http system php |webui| only OS php packages wil be used!
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display GUI lighdm,xdm.. Desktop install **Conflicts, any will be deinstalled**
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network man netplan.io Networking network is managed by |omv| with netplan
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ssh server ssh Remote access any configuration will be managed
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mbs server samba Shared drives any configuration will be managed
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quota man quota Quota manage any configuration will be managed
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============= ============== ================= ==========================================
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The device boot (BOOT)
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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|omv| will install on any kind of boot device and this will relies on the
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operating system that is Debian. The downloable ISO image ready to use from
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the oficial web page only supports at the moment amd64 with BIOS mode boot.
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The System drive storage (SDS)
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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The system storage disk will be fully managed and taken over by the |omv| after
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installed. Any brand is supported as is also supported by the Debian system.
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For Flash Drive type storage devices as well as solid state drives being used as
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system storage drives please refer to the last section for technical details.
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In case of the official ISO instalation, will automatically partition the system
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storage disk drive into 3 partitons. Consult the next table for.
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In case of a manual installation on a previous Debian operating system, this
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**drive must have at least two partitions**. Consult the next table for.
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============ ========== =========== =======================================
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Partition Min size Best size Mandatory
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============ ========== =========== =======================================
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``/boot`` 256Mib 500Mib Optional, partition used to boot
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``/`` 4Gi 120Gib Yes, the partition were system install
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``swap`` 100Mib 16Gib Yes, the partition for virtual ram
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============ ========== =========== =======================================
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The Data drive storage (DDS)
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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The data storage disk will be partially managed by the |omv| after installed,
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and only in customized installation can be a partiton of the same system drive
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storage.
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Each data storage drive will be managed, but regardless of the partitioning
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scheme, all data drive partitions will be mounted at the ``/srv/`` path.
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The **data storage drive must be a different disk drive than the system disk drive**
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where the operating system is installed. **One partition of each data
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drive can handle one or many shared resources.**
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============== ========== =========== ========================================
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Partition Min size Best size Mandatory
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============== ========== =========== ========================================
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``/srv/<*>`` 100Mib bigger Yes, size as need! example 128Gib
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============== ========== =========== ========================================
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Technical notes
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---------------
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Take into **consideration that as more exquisite the customization as less supported
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could be.**.
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|omv| allows for minimal deployment and use of the system with very minimal
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hardware/software requirements, at the cost of the key knowledge, but other NAS
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systems allow ease of use at the cost of high requirements. |omv| allows both as
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well in a well balanced use cases! [7]_
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About minimal or custom setups
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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It can be noted that |omv| system can be installed on just 4Gib of system partition,
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with no more than 1Gib of RAM and using a WiFi or USB connection to access it
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remotely (cos is a NAS system of course), on any small device such as Raspberry
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ones which are ARM, or old i386s machines no matter is those are 32 or 64 bits,
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but of course as more exquisite the configuration more knowledge will be need
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as per `issue comment #131 <https://github.com/openmediavault/openmediavault-docs/issues/131#issuecomment-2546765841>`_.
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Technically OMV can be installed on a single storage disk, this is possible if
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it is done on a previously configured Debian system, with a free partition apart
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from the 3 necessary system partitions, previously formatted and configured.
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Of course this is only possible for skilled linux users.
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Drive Storage technical details
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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System Drives are not managed as same of Data Drives. System drives are not so
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intensively used, but Data Drives will need triks to extend the useful life.
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If you use a Flash Drive, select one with static wear leveling 6, without this
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the drive will have a very short lifetime. It is also recommended to install and
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activate the Flash Memory plugin.
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In the same Solid State Disk, or rather Drive (SSD) for x86 architectures, is
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usually only recognized properly by the BIOS or UEFI, when in the BIOS/UEFI the
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feature AHCI has been activated for SATA (instead of IDE). Modern computers has
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as default, so that's fine. But on old machines the default might/could be IDE.
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About ARM based computers this are not a problem, when used SATA interfaces, but
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EMMC ones could need tune up cos are threated as Flash drives.
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On SSDs, the cleaning action TRIM is recommended for the good performance in
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the long run. Otherwise it might become slow after some time. Very old SSD's from
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before 2010 usually don't support TRIM.
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On SSDs Hibernation (suspend-to-disk) causes a huge amount of write actions,
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|omv| is a server system so xpected to stay always on or off.
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Partition table technical details
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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Of course, the supported partition tables will depend on the installation mode,
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and |omv| can handle any type of partition table supported by the Debian operating
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system. This is because to manage shares on new or uninitialized storage drives
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it will need to create partitions or at least read structure of thems.
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If you use a Flash Drive, select one with static wear leveling [6]_, without
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this the drive will have a very short lifetime. It is also recommended to
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install and activate the :ref:`Flash Memory plugin <plugin_3rd_party>`. The
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entire disk is used as system disk and can not be used to store user data.
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.. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paging
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.. [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive
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.. [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive#DOM
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.. [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompactFlash
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.. [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive
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.. [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_leveling
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.. [7] https://forum.openmediavault.org/index.php?board/29-guides/
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.. [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-channel_memory_architecture
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.. [9] https://www.debian.org/intro/about.en.html#what

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