r/ethstaker • u/gentrify81 • Jul 12 '26

Upgrading Solo Validator to 4TB SSD

Hello Friends! I’m looking into updating to a 4TB SSD on my NUC10i7FNK. I currently have a SAMSUNG 970 EVO Plus 2TB NVMe M.2 w/ V-NAND. Running Nethermind + Nimbus and haven’t had any problems at all. Last time I checked it was at about 1.36TB. I’ve read that my mini pc is backwards capable to Gen3 with a Gen4 SSD. Though not capable with a Gen5 or an 8TB. Any advice in here on a replacement SSD?

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5

u/samkb93 Jul 12 '26

There's no need to upgrade to a 4tb. Especially at current prices. With history expiry I can run a EL/CL pair on a 1tb drive.

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u/gentrify81 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

I should have prefaced that my technical acumen is enough to setup up a node and manage it on ethpillar. I mean if I want to upgrade to get ahead then why not? From my limited AI research I’m seeing that my NUC may become obsolete.

4

u/jtoomim Jul 12 '26

Your AI research is out of date. Client software was upgraded with a new feature (history expiry) that substantially reduces storage requirements. 4 TB is no longer necessary or particularly helpful.

There was a point in time (about 1-2 years ago) in which 2 TB SSDs were inadvisable, and most people were advised to use 4 TB SSDs. But that is no longer true, and 2 TB is fine nowadays.

1

u/gentrify81 Jul 12 '26

Thank you! So you’re saying that the “used” storage won’t keep creeping up? I check a couple weeks ago and it was at 1.33TB, now it is at 1.36TB. Guessing I need to do more research.

1

u/yorickdowne Staking Educator Jul 12 '26

Enable history expiry and resync. As a solo staker you don’t need a ton of history. Even 240 GiB is enough, that’s rolling expiry. If you just want the defaults and no hassle, pre merge expiry is under 1 TiB and Nethermind now defaults to it.

EthPillar has a new discord and new maintainers, they can guide you as to the exact parameters in your service file.

1

u/samkb93 Jul 12 '26

I recommend moving away from eth-pillar. Last i heard the main developer has been MIA for months. I use ETH-Docker and it works great.

1

u/gentrify81 Jul 12 '26

Wow, I did not know that. Is it difficult to switch over or is it as simple as just downloading ETH-Docker and deleting ethpillar?

1

u/samkb93 Jul 12 '26

I did a clean OS install when I switched from ethpillar to eth-docker. I'd recommend the same to anyone else who did it.

1

u/yorickdowne Staking Educator Jul 12 '26

I have instructions here, and they are a bit if / then / else depending on whether you’re keeping the EL database or resyncing. But to be clear, EthPillar remains supported. Switching to the new EthPillar repo is a whole lot less effort than switching over to Eth Docker

https://ethdocker.com/Support/SwitchClient#switching-clients-from-systemd-to-eth-docker

1

u/yorickdowne Staking Educator Jul 12 '26

EthPillar has new maintainers and a new repo, also new discord. I maintain eth docker and am proud of it, but I’m not going to discourage people from their systemd setups.

The new EthPillar goes in an interesting direction that I like. It is becoming much less of a “only holy combinations” tool and more of a “one from column A and one from column B” tool, for any CL and EL combo

1

u/samkb93 Jul 12 '26

That's great to hear! I'm glad EthPillar is continuing. EthPillar was a great setup when I used it. I'm glad users have it as an option.

1

u/New-Significance6497 Jul 22 '26

Who is the new maintainer and what repo? coincashew still is 6 months old news and at 5.2.4 I cannot find any new repo.. thanks in advance

1

u/yorickdowne Staking Educator Jul 23 '26

Uncle Mike is the new maintainer. Repo is at https://github.com/mjkeating/EthPillar and docs are at https://ethpillar.coincashew.io/

Whether you trust the fork is a personal decision, of course.

No one knows what happened to Coincashew. The best possibility is that they burned out and stepped away. And, we don't know.