Asked it on the mailing list but no replies followed.
TLDR: should I and how do I install OpenBSD with FDE
leaving unallocated space for wear leveling
I know SSDs have an area not shown to the user
that is there for wear leveling.
I read the higher the SSD class and the higher its intended workload,
the higher capacity percentage of the area.
There are also recommendations to use less of an SSD
leaving some space unallocated
to help wear leveling keep cells healthy for longer time.
In the case of OpenBSD FDE:
- Does leaving some space unallocated help SSD health?
- If yes, what is the right way to not grab the whole space?
Grab the whole is the only thing the installer does automatically.
Actually, I have the OS already installed,
but it feels like I did a mistake:
it is a FDE the way installer did it
but with disklabel partitions I left
some space unused for wear leveling.
I'm torn between 3 variants:
- my setup makes no sense as FDE already takes full space
so no help to wear leveling so I need to reinstall
specifying smaller fdisk partition for FDE.
- it might already help wear leveling with FDE spreading data
from smaller disklabel partitions over larger FDE partition.
- wear leveling will not benefit from unallocated space
so I just should grow my last disklabel partition.
Your kind explanations and suggestions are welcome
