Programming and SSDs

[Korona]

So you're compromising system performance in order to reduce SSD wear? Just backup /home, use a modern distro and put everything else (including swap) on the SSD. If your setup depends on an SSD (or any other storage technology) not failing it is broken.

In my experience (enterprise grade) SSD are much more likely to fail randomly than because of wear.

[Solar]

So you're compromising system performance in order to reduce SSD wear? Just backup /home...

Well, actually, my /home resides on a RAID-1 fileserver, mounted via NFS. Safer with regards to data loss, and no matter which of my (multiple) machines I log on to, I get the same settings, files etc.

And as the fileserver is also a webserver, I get remote (password / SSL protected) access to all my documents even when none of my desktops / laptops / netbooks are "on".

Performance is not always the top priority.

[Korona]

Well, actually, my /home resides on a RAID-1 fileserver, mounted via NFS. Safer with regards to data loss, and no matter which of my (multiple) machines I log on to, I get the same settings, files etc.

That is also what I had in mind, my comment was targeted at that "move swap to HD in order to reduce SSD wear" argument.

[Schol-R-LEA]

Mind you, a lot of these issue are going to get complicated again - for a time, anyway - by the introduction of high-speed non-volatile RAM such as 3D XPoint, MRRAM, Phase-Change RAM (which may or may not be what 3DXP actually is - there seems to be some distrust toward Intel on this, given the IP concerns it would have), CBRAM, or SONOS (depending on whichever proves most practical, with 3DXP getting an early lead as it is already out the door).

Setting aside specialized uses such as Optane, the long-term impact will probably be, on the one hand, an increasing shift to OS persistence and a move away from explicit disk access and file systems, and on the other, a multi-tier memory structure where each layer - DRAM, NVRAM, high-density Flash SSD, mechanical disk, and then finally long-term storage such as tape, optical, and possibly some of the newer ultra-high-density/stability storage systems such as millipede memory, SMR, and HAMR.

I expect that the two tendencies will reinforce each other, as multi-tier memory management will be demanding enough that a much if not all of the management of it will need to be handed over to the OS, even if conventional file systems remain the order of the day.

[Sik]

If your setup depends on an SSD (or any other storage technology) not failing it is broken.

I think the biggest problem is that if the drive breaks you need to buy a new one (and nobody likes to have to spend yet more money). One of the reasons why hardware breaking is a huge issue regardless of how many data back-ups you have (if you want reliability then you're going to need spare hardware that can be swapped for in the moment too, otherwise you're forced to wait).