MikroTik

I need someone to confirm that my problem is just a incompatible MicroSD card please. Im looking for a cheap one. YES I know there is a list of compatible ones but the list is really only 2, a 16GB and a odd one with some kind of useless adaptor. Both solutions end up expensive.

So I am on a quest to find a cheap one that everyone can buy easily that works...

What im seeing..

I can create the store, format and all looks fine. As a test I FTP a 300MB file to it and pull it off. I do this a number of times.

Storing the data obviously takes longer. During this phase a cycle occurs..
100% CPU usage. It sucks up so much of the file then obviosuly goes about putting it on the card, then sucks up more, and puts it on the card..

This 100% Usage quickly causes the watchdog timer to reset the 450G.

Turning off the watchdog timer results in complete transfers with no issues. Over and over again.

SO.... Is 100% CPU usage incorrect under these circumstances ? Is this caused by the card not working correctly ? Or fast enough ?

Can someone explain what exactly causes a incompatible card ? I see high quality, fast, cards in the KNOWN-BAD list for the 450G. This is confuzing for me.

I would hate to keep buying these $10 2GB cards only to discover its some firmware issue. Im using 4.5

Another WEIRD issue. If I set my logging disk file name to /micro-sd/log it does not appear in the listing for the Micro-SD card even when I look via FTP. YET the router does store the log. Its not in the root directory of the 450G either.

These symptoms are all exactly the same across 5 micro-sd cards I have tried so far...

Thanks in advance for any help...

update

After a number of reboots and doing all sorts of various stuff like changing my scripts to use the /micro-sd/ path to store data rather then 450G "disk",, the log file suddenly cleared and appeared on the /micro-sd/ drive.

Before then the log file was aimed at the /micro-sd/ path and seemed to be storing the log, however no log file appeared in the listing for the micro-sd drive. FTPing in and looking at the contents did not show the file. The log file was also not in the root directory of the 450G "disk" either. Yet somehow it was preserving the log when rebooted.

At the time it suddenly appeared in the listings and cleared itself was when i was testing the Dynamic DNS script I use and having it write files to the micro-sd path. Which by the way works perfectly. I rebooted to make sure my Dynamic DNS update script was working and suddenly my log was cleared and the logging file appeared in the micro-sd listings.

So the logging file just suddenly cleared itself then appeared properly while I was writing unrelated files to the same disc and rebooting

Overall, its worked now overnight and done plenty of logging and I set some scripts to write stuff to the mico-sd every 10 minutes and this has run without error. In fact other then the CPU usage going to 100% during large file writes and causing the watchdog to trip I have not seen any errors at all. All 5 no-name brand, cheap, micro-sd cards seem to work fine except for this 100% cpu/watchdog issue.

My general goal is to reduce writes to the 450G NAND as to not wear it out. I can always replace a micro-sd card I also want a "disk" I can write to and not worry about wearing it out and causing a 450G failure.

So any thoughts on this ?

Is 100% cpu usage normal for a Micro-sd card when writing a large amount of data to it ?

Would a better/different card help any ?

What is a good test to make sure a micro-sd card is compatible with a 450G ? Is there a script for doing this test ?

Is it possible to lessen the max cpu usage for writing to a micro-sd card ? Make it a lower priority ? Maybe have a write cache in memory feature ?

Xymox, do you have any results to share? I am also looking for a compatible microSDHC card (8 or 16GB). I could not find any of the (two) recommended cards. The SanDisk mostly seem to be working.
There are no model numbers mentioned on the hardware compatibility list. The numbers are probably just the numbers printed on the card, but not the model numbers. From the listed cards it seems that MicroSDHC cards are also supported. And what about the speedclass? Is 2 sufficient or should I better go for 4?
Well, and for using the card for a web proxy ... isn't 8GB enough or even 4GB?

Can anyone tell me if any of these cards would work fine with the RB450G?
- SanDiSK 8GB - SDSDQ8192A11M (~$26)
- Transcend 8GB - TS8GUSDHC2 (~$20)
- Transcend 8GB - TS8GUSDHC6 (~$22) (class 6)
- SanDisk 16GB - SDSDQ-016G-E11M (~$40)
...
Problem is that every card has to be shipped to my place and returning them is more expensive than the card.
Therefore I would like to get a recommendation for a working card.
Thanks!

memory card is deemed good if it shows up in router and you can format it and place files on it and read them afterwards.

high CPU usage is normal, since disk IO is handled by CPU. Faster/slower card would not make much of a difference, just how long it will work.

Thanks!
But I was hoping for a actual MicroSDHC card recommendation. A card which will work. I cannot order a bunch of cards and test them. I listed some model numbers which are currently available. I could not find any of those listed on the hardware compatibility page http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Supported ... mory_cards as there are not model numbers listed.

Unfortunatly, it seems (to me) you just have to try the card to see if it works. I am using a 2GB PNY card in my 450G that cost me $2.50 USD (got in a pack of 2 for $5 USD) and it works fine. Xymox posted their 2GB PNY didn't work although.

I also have the problem with microSD too.
I try with many brand/speed most of them can detected/formated in 450g.
Sometime when I power on 450g, it does not show micro-sd in /system/stores/disk.
and 450g will create another store for web-proxy in system disk.
I have to remove the power and power on again to make it show in the lists and activate the store to micro-sd.

This happen to many card I tested. So it should not the card problem.
I test with another 450g and found the same problem.

But if the card detected at boot time. There is no problem after that.
I think there may be some problem with MMC driver.

I too had problems with the micro-sd card only being found some of the time, reboot worked sometimes, try this:
I actually changed the boot delay to make the router sync up with my cable-modem after complete hard reboot of both devices, but it seemed to help with the micro-sd card too.

Unfortunatly, it seems (to me) you just have to try the card to see if it works. I am using a 2GB PNY card in my 450G that cost me $2.50 USD (got in a pack of 2 for $5 USD) and it works fine. Xymox posted their 2GB PNY didn't work although.

Yes, I guess I have to do that. But each try starts with $15-20 for the cheapest maybe non-functioning card here.
Thanks for the delay hint. Will try that when I start testing.

(off-topic)

I would recommend that if you want a proxy-cache to use a squid server. I found I get better performance from my cache, more storage, and some nice logs.

I've tried 3 different SanDisk 8GB microSDHC (part #: SDSDQ-8192) in 2 different RB450G(v4.5) routers with poor results. Half the time they don't show up on boot. I've tried reseating, reformatting, and even the boot delay setting mentioned earlier in this thread.

Anyone have a specific Brand/Part # that works 100% of the time with these boards? The supported hardware matrix in the Wiki is useless IMO...

I made a trip to my local electronics store and got 2 more cards to "try".

This $12.99(USD) 2GB PNY card delivered inconsistent results, sometimes the board would see it sometimes not. Part # on package is P-SDU2GB-EF/BG Printed on chip is SD-C02G





This $26.99(USD) 4GB card worked well in testing. File read/writes seemed quicker, I assume because it's a Class 4. And it always showed up after a reboot/shutdown/power failure! Part # on package is P-SDU4GB4-EF/BB Printed on chip is C04G



I'm planning on installing this 4GB card in a production RB450G and see if it's stable. I'll keep you informed! $26 is a lot for a 4GB card IMO...

Hello
I need information from a Routerboard that works well for a network of 40 clients by proxy cache on a microSD, which Routerboard other than the RB1000, I thought seriously about RB450G + microSD to cache on my network, who has had success with this for RB450G Proxy Cache with 4GB, how it behaves on the network for this purpose.
Vcs or PC with Squid recommend it?

Hello
I need information from a Routerboard that works well for a network of 40 clients by proxy cache on a microSD, which Routerboard other than the RB1000, I thought seriously about RB450G + microSD to cache on my network, who has had success with this for RB450G Proxy Cache with 4GB, how it behaves on the network for this purpose.
Vcs or PC with Squid recommend it?

I recommend using Squid it has more features and better performance. Just sharing, I'm using 2G Sandisk micro-sd price arround 8 USD, with no problem at all.

Good day, The RouterBoard RB450G supports MicroSDXC UHS-I 64GB memory to use as cache
> WebProxy?
> thanks.

I want To know About Max. Read/Write Hardware RB450G?

Use on MicroSD Extreme Pro 16GB Class10 95MB/s

I Want To Chache HTML Files, JPG GIF, Not Chache File Extensions

Thanks.

A very good article about flash/nand/ssd see this link
https://wiki.linaro.org/WorkingGroups/K ... CardSurvey

And don't miss this:

The Exploration and Exploitation of an SD Memory Card
http://media.ccc.de/browse/congress/201 ... _xobs.html

Good day, The RouterBoard RB450G supports MicroSDXC UHS-I 64GB memory to use as cache
> WebProxy?
> thanks.

Hi probably too late on the reply.. who knows, but yes i can confirm on RB450G with Firmware 6.38 it detects and supports 64gb Sandisk SD card.