[GTALUG] Booting Fedora from M.2 Optane Nvme

[Russell]

On March 19, 2018 9:32:01 AM EDT, lsorense at csclub.uwaterloo.ca wrote:
>On Sun, Mar 18, 2018 at 12:32:07PM -0400, Russell via talk wrote:
>> With all the CPU cache fencing going on I thought it might be fun to
>fiddle with NVM express on Fedora 27.  My primary SSD on this z370-A,
>was/is in build limbo while I updated bios and waited for outcomes. 
>> 
>> I installed a 32gib module from Newegg ($90 delivered) and I booted
>from F27-workstation live on usb. I let the anaconda installer do the
>automatic partitioning. 5gib of the 32gib reported was left unallocated
>for over-provisioning.
>> 
>> First boot appeared to be twice as fast as on the SATA SSD. Three or
>four seconds to get to the gui login as opposed to 7 or 8 on the
>original drive.
>> 
>> Had to install hdparm from the repo.
>> 
>> # hdparm -tT --direct /dev/sda1 
>> 
>> /dev/sda1:
>>  Timing O_DIRECT cached reads:   930 MB in 2.00 seconds = 464.92
>MB/sec
>>  Timing O_DIRECT disk reads: 1370 MB in  3.00 seconds = 456.30 MB/sec
>> 
>> # hdparm -tT --direct /dev/nvme0n1 
>> 
>> /dev/nvme0n1:
>>  Timing O_DIRECT cached reads:   2302 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1151.84
>MB/sec
>>  Timing O_DIRECT disk reads: 3474 MB in  3.00 seconds = 1157.65
>MB/sec
>> 
>> More info on Nvme with a nice diagram of the Linux storage stack
>here.
>> 
>> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVM_Express
>> 
>> I switched back to the original SSD. An os-probe mapped the device to
>/dev/dm-1 and I was able to remake grub.conf and add this install to
>the bootloader on that drive.
>> 
>> A couple of switches back and forth between drives and it looks like
>the 10% performance hit I had experienced after the microcode updates,
>is now somewhat reduced, +-5%. 
>> 
>> Guilding the lilly a bit, as I didn't have any day to day problems
>with performance. Although it's hard to name Intel's product actions
>around this issue a field of Lilly's. 
>
>Not bad, but I think for my money I would get an EVO 960 instead.
>Twice the speed and 8 times the space for just under twice the money.
>Or 16 times the space for three times the money.  I just don't see any
>advantage to the Optane at this point.

Yea, this is just a tinker-toy. I had figured to put a small backup OS on this, remove its allocation from the chainloader and then leave it alone in the box in case I need it, instead of using a live usb for troubleshooting etc. 

It doesn't look like I can mask it's physical presence tho, except by populating a pcie slot and co-opting it's assigned pci lanes, so no security through obscurity.

Instead I went with full Fedora w/gnome. I have 7gib on the drive after a full workstation install so I may rethink stuff and use it as my primary. Optane was meant to be a cache accelerator for booting Windows 10 on a standard drive and thats about the sum of it. 

Although, with all the elbow room and thumbscrews in this box, you could use it as a key drive for sneakernet backup to a safety deposit box pretty handily. You'd just need the right finger screw for the 1_M.2 slot standoff post, which is exposed. The other slot is buried under a heat sink.

>
>-- 
>Len Sorensen

-- 
Russell