Partitioning or not

RouterOS General
1

Hi,

I have 3 Mikrotik devices : CCR2116, CRS328 Poe and CRS305. I have read some threads about partitioning to be able to upgrade / rollback easier.

CCR2116 current single partition usage is about 30MB, there is 95MB free (128MB total).
CRS 305 and 328 there is only less than 2MB free ! (total 16MB). I think I am unable to partition this devices. Right ?

What is your opinion about this ? Do I partition all my three devices or only someone ? Is there any drawback to partitioning ? Disk usage / free space issue ?

Thanks !

2

Yes, you can partition the CCR2116, but not the CRS devices.
In a 128MB device with typical usage you can make 2 partitions.
Of course when you have usage of the space that could potentially expand, like user manager or dude, you should be careful.
But in normal use for only firmware and configuration the usage remains practically the same and there is no drawback.

Also, should you encounter issues in the future you can always switch back.
(when partition 0 is not the one in use, copy part 1 to part 0, make 0 active, then reboot, set number of partitions to 1 and reboot again)

3

Many thanks for your complete answer !
Just a last question/confirmation, when partitioning from 1 to 2 partitions, I will NOT loose any configuration ?
Just create partition, copy config to the new, activate to test, reboot, reactivate the old, reboot.
Thanks

4

when you partitioning you lost EVERYTHING except the first partition (that is shrinked) active or not.

5

Thanks, I will lost nothing (config and system) when going from 1 to 2 partions ?
My current part 1 (or 0) will not be lost when creating (system and copy config) to the second new.

Thanks.

6

you lost something only when you change partition number, except the first, or if you overwrite config from two wrong partition…

7

Thanks !

8

When you set 2 partitions and reboot you will have partition 0 with your old config and partition 1 is empty.
Then you can “copy 0 to 1” and you have two equal partitions.
Do that copy before every upgrade and you can downgrade all the time by making partition 1 active and reboot.

9

Is it a recommended best practice or downgrade a unique part is sufficient ?
Do you partition your CCRs ?

10

more info here:

https://youtu.be/oojdUL21y4U

11

Thanks for the video.
I will partition my CCR 2116 for sure.

Is there lot of people whose are using partitions here ?

It is regrettable that we can not partition CRS devices (305 and 328 in my case)… is there any workaround ?

12

It’s not only CRS devices, realistically it’s any device which has less than 64MB flash (hAP ac2 is one prime example). And the list of “non-partitionable” devices includes also drvices with 64MB flash if they are running wifiwave2 driver (e.g. Audience) … OK, it is possible to “make pig fly” (if you throw it in the air real hard) by doing upgrades manually with lots of tweaking, but for normal uses 64MB of flash is too little for those devices.