Move data to external drive via UI (datactl feature request?)

Mahko_Mahko · February 15, 2021, 9:21pm

I’m keen to move (at least my data) off my microSD and onto an external SSD.

I’m ok to boot off microSD for the moment.

I understand this is now possible using the datactl command.

But this looks a bit complex and scary for simple punters like me on “Hass.io” (all-inclusive full installation on pi4 4gb).

It would be tops if there was an easy-peasy way to do this from the UI (maybe on the System page?)

I didn’t see a feature request for this yet, although I suspect it would probably be in the devs pipeline?

Does this seem like a sensible feature request to you? Have I missed something? Do you think I should open one?

github.com

home-assistant/operating-system/blob/c2c05312a0c145a6b0f474c96d1ffcf87449cb53/Documentation/partition.md

# Partition

The partition layout is a bit different than the typical setup. We prefer GPT, if possible. With SoCs which don't support GPT, we use a hybrid GPT. For more details about this topic, please refer to the [development](development.md) documentation.

The system is designed to have as few write operations to the storage media as possible. This means that we only write during the OTA updates and 5-6 times per week on the overlay partition. The data partition receives the main I/O operations and for this reason is ideal for placing on a different drive.

A visual representation looks like this:

```text
-------------------------
|       Bootloader      |
-------------------------
|       Kernel A        |
-------------------------
|       System A        |
|                       |
-------------------------
|       Kernel B        |
-------------------------
|       System B        |

This file has been truncated. show original

bschatzow · February 20, 2021, 3:21pm

I have read the documentation on using datactl but have not seen any documents on what do back up and what to restore. If the SD fails, what do I do? If the SSD fails, what is needed. It is clear how to restore on either the SD or SSD. I do not know how to restore the split?

mazarian · June 3, 2021, 3:27pm

Sorry to dig up an older post, but did you find answers to any of your questions? I’m debating whether I want to use this supported route or boot off SSD.

bschatzow · June 3, 2021, 4:48pm

There are several excellent tutorials for setting up the pi to boot from USB. I did not see a difference using the official install method of boot from SD and everything else on SSD. I found if your hardware is compatible you can boot directly from the SSD. I still have issues on my system with every HA OS after 5.4. The system freezes after many hours. Lots of open Github issues since November 2020. I have since moved to Debian with HA supervisor. No issues in over a month. Kong Who wrote a very good tutorial on this.

Mahko_Mahko · June 3, 2021, 8:22pm

I decided to hold and keep my all-in-one set-up on microSD.

Just sounded like potential hassle and not a clear enough benefit - I have a reliable backup process and microSD speed is ok. More storage space would be nice though.

Hopefully managing microSD/external SSD will get slicker in the future.

bschatzow · June 4, 2021, 12:50am

You will see major speed improvement if you go to SSD.

mazarian · June 8, 2021, 3:08pm

I went with the USB boot option and am using the Argon One M.2 case for my Pi 4 8Gb and am not experiencing any lockups or other issues! Happy everything is working normally.

Mahko_Mahko · June 12, 2021, 10:57am

This is looking promising for me:)

e-raser · January 4, 2024, 8:30pm

This is implemented for a long time now, isn’t it?