On the "new style" devices with only 16MB Flash the "Files" section is a RAMdisk with the Flash memory in a "flash" sub directory.
On a "classic" device with 128MB Flash the "Files" section links directly to the Flash and I think there is no RAMdisk directory.
Is it possible to have a RAMdisk on those devices? Some of them have a lot of unused RAM that could store traces, logs etc before download.

indeed a RAMDisk would be very useful to keep sector writes as low as possible!!!

How about implementing this in the RC?
I want to run a script on a CCR that will require a temporary file and needs to run once a minute.
It would be nice when I could save the Flash by using RAMdisk for this.

It would be really useful. But instead damaging internal storage, you can use cheap external USB or SD storage. Unfortunately it is another source of failure...

I think I will use a USB stick. However, all the code for having a RAMdisk should already be available as the new 16GB Flash models all have it.
So it should be easy to add it for models like CCR as well. Our CCR has 2GB memory and it is almost all unused (no internet BGP tables).

I think I will use a USB stick. However, all the code for having a RAMdisk should already be available as the new 16GB Flash models all have it.
So it should be easy to add it for models like CCR as well. Our CCR has 2GB memory and it is almost all unused (no internet BGP tables).

With 16 GB of flash partitioning would be at least possible.

Yep. 16GB flash... What a sound of far future....

Well, 16MB of course(?).
At work I am replacing the 16GB M.2 Flash modules in thin clients with 120GB modules because of space shortage...
Unfortunately there is no M.2 slot in the CCR (only in the RB1100AHx4).

However, let's not distract from the wish to have a RAMdisk capability in all models. It should be easy and useful.

Well, 16MB of course(?).
At work I am replacing the 16GB M.2 Flash modules in thin clients with 120GB modules because of space shortage...
Unfortunately there is no M.2 slot in the CCR (only in the RB1100AHx4).

However, let's not distract from the wish to have a RAMdisk capability in all models. It should be easy and useful.

CCR1072 does have a M.2 slot.

Normis, the point is elsewhere... What about to allow a user to configure ramdisk within the ros?

+1
RAM disk is very good.
I have 2 scripts that use priodical call fetch function.

+1, will be userfull for fetch scripts

+1
.
would be a neat thing
have a ppp-up (-down) script which needs helper-files to store dialer-states
... that's scratchy ... not so healthy for a flash or even for an usb-disk
... so definitly plus one
( ... even in v6.44+ [letting v7 be a good man] ... ... wanna show this to my colleagues ... ... not only to my grandchilds : )

+100

Why this isn't implemented already? I have CRS328-24P-4S+RM, it has 512 MB RAM and only 16 MB FLASH and it does NOT have USB port!

+100

Why this isn't implemented already? I have CRS328-24P-4S+RM, it has 512 MB RAM and only 16 MB FLASH and it does NOT have USB port!

But that one should have a RAMdisk already. I am discussing RAMdisk on 128MB(and more) flash models, like the RB1100, RB2011, old RB750, CCR, etc.

But that one should have a RAMdisk already.

You are right. It was enough just to read the manual. Here is described:

Warning: If device has a directory named "flash" in its file list, then files which you want to be kept after system reboot/power cycle must be stored within it. As anything outside of it is kept within a RAM disk and will be lost upon reboot.

I though that "flash" is root directory and you cannot be (or move) outside, but yes you can.
Simply root "/" is above "/flash" and is invisible to non-trained eye. Weird UX, but shame on me.

+1 RAMdisk!

It would be great to see,
However I opened a ticket to request this as it would allow for a standard file structure, All devices have a flash folder rather than this mixture of some flash some not. Sadly support weren't interested and just said no.
Maybe if they see this on the forum they might reconsider.
MT Support please please bring in a ramdisk system standard for all devices

I can understand why they would not want to change the directory structure of existing devices to match what is now on 16MB flash devices, because that would surprise existing users that are running user manager, dude, custom scripts, etc.
But I cannot understand why it is not possible to add ramdisk to existing devices and make e.g. a ramdisk subdirectory for that.
Probably that should have been done in the first place for the new models with small flash (some users were surprised that e.g. an export file saved in the root dir would be lost after reboot, and had to learn about the flash folder the hard way), but it is too late for that as well.

+1 RAM-disk!
For example, scripts could write there.

when your RouterBoard have got a /flash then / is mounted as ramdisk.

when your RouterBoard have got a /flash then / is mounted as ramdisk.

Yes, we know that.
The request is to make a ramdisk and mount it as /ramdisk on those devices that do NOT have a /flash.
The older router models and the new powerful ones have a lot of RAM and a larger NAND flash so no /flash, the / is the flash, but there is no ramdisk.

We still don't have a RAMdisk on all routers... I now have a router with 1GB of RAM, 90% unused, still no RAMdisk...

The RAMdisk in Linux is quite clever in that it does not use a fixed area of memory but dynamically allocates memory depending on how many files are stored (with a configurable max).
The code is already there, the 16M flash devices have it. It should be simple to make a ramdisk of up to half the memory and mount it as /ramdisk.

Oy, MikroTik, Y U NO RAMdisk on all yer products? Eh?
I know this change can't be made over night and without cries from admins which don't read changelogs, there will be bug reports like: "but muh files in / were persistent until yesterday!!! merkertik pls fix11!! I lost all my data because I don't keep backups!!!111" and such.
But on those devices there could be made another mountpoint for the RAMdisk, or make the user somehow agree with the change (make it configurable?).
Now who wants to submit a nice feature request?

What is it that you want to add to the discussion, SiB? I seem to miss it.

At RouterOS who have got a /flash folder we have
/ <- root folder is temfs, it's ramdisk itself
/flash <- all files here are at physical nand

At RouterOS who have got a /flash folder we have
/ <- root folder is temfs, it's ramdisk itself
/flash <- all files here are at physical nand

Ok, so it was irrelevant. We all know that. This topic is not about that.

Adding to the real usefulness of ramdisk:

yesterday i was doing a TFTPPUT from a Uboot/device to a CCR1036

i tried everything and the transfer always failed. Wireshark/sniffer told me that a late-ack caused a packet# to be resend, breaking the flow;

the problem: when the CCR stopped responding the TFTP flow to actually write the buffer to flash, the transfer failed
the solution: perform the TFTP to a RB750Gr3.

so ++1 for having a dedicated RAMDISK area in all Mikrotik routers (which is basically exposing /tmp as a path, with some quota to prevent OOM)

Just name the directory "ramdisk", anyone knowledgeable enough to be able to use winbox will surely know any file put there is temporary.
And this thread is from 2017, it's clear there is demand for this feature... but NOPE.
I really just don't understand what's the problem here for Mikrotik still refusing to implement this.
Some devices are already using ramdisk (to even be usable with 16MBs of flash). It would clearly help with ftpgets and downloading of temporary files.
But NOPE.
No reasons given.
No feedback.
Only reply from anyone from Mikrotik (normis) in this thread is laughable at best, completely unrelated: "CCR1072 does have a M.2 slot."
So after 5 years, situation is still the same:
*lalalalala* "is that damn ramdisk thread still active? oh no!" *lalalalalalala* "I can't hear you" *lalalalalala*

@r00t I agree. It should be made a /ramdisk folder (of course that is how it should have been done on the 16MB units from the beginning, and there would be no confusion) and it should be a very simple task to change this as all the code and underlying OS support is already there, it only has to be enabled on the relevant devices. It does not have to be configurable, it can just be there all the time, just like on the 16M flash models.
But MikroTik do no seem to see the point.

Well, at the moment there are more important problems, like getting v7 in a feature-complete state. But in the years that this topic already exists, there could have been opportunities to just include this in a new v6 release.
(at the moment my use case from 2017 on the CCR1009 no longer exists, but there are enough use cases for it)

In old days we have no ramdisk at all.
The / was a NAND only.

Next MikroTik do at some devices the build-pack at NetInstall but we can still use additional package and do NetInstall with own system + .. package and have filesystem at old way.

Currently many devices out-of-box have got a ramdisk as / and /flash is mounted as nand.

I have no problem to TFTP on both direction with all my switches/routers and other devices. Maybe you should do a capture of TFTP traffic and just create a ticket and complain at TFTP itself and not a ramdisk.

I have no problem to TFTP on both direction with all my switches/routers and other devices. Maybe you should do a capture of TFTP traffic and just create a ticket and complain at TFTP itself and not a ramdisk.

i have the Pcaps (50+ with all sorts of tweaks), the problem is not TFTP itself, the problem is that for a split second, while the CCR1036 is busy flushing the cache into the NAND, there is a delay in sending the ACK for the last received data-packet
So the device sending the TFTP simply repeats the Not-yet-acked packet, and causes the transfer to fail. (possibly due to the specific version of that Uboot, which is not really fixable)

When transfering to a RAMDISK, as there is no flush-to-nand-delay, the underlying BUG (whatever side it's on) is not triggered

This is a claim about the actual usefulness of having a RAMDISK,(for all mikrotik platforms) with an actual, real-world "saved my ass" recounting of facts.

Plus, it's already implemented (for the 16mb devices), so it is more of a "turn the switch on and test-it" scenario, rather than "develop this feature from the ground up" sceario.

If there is any downside to having a RAMDISK available, i'm all ears.

+1 for adding ramdisk. Particularly I need it on CCR router.

Allocate RAM to folder
Starting from 7.7 it is possible to add folders linked to RAM. Folders will be emptied on reboot or power loss.
RAM will be filled up to tmpfs-max-size and if this variable in not provided - up to 1/2 from available RAM.

[admin@MikroTik] > /disk add type=tmpfs tmpfs-max-size=100M slot=RAM
[admin@MikroTik] > file print
Columns: NAME, TYPE, SIZE, CREATION-TIME
# NAME TYPE SIZE CREATION-TIME
0 RAM disk dec/12/2022 11:01:48

https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/Disks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZKTqRtXu4M