The Write Amplification factor is just as important as Lifetime_Writes_GB (i.e. lots of small writes are worse than fewer large writes). Not sure if there's a way to deduce that from the SMART data.
Something I've seen recommended is to under-provision (during partitioning) the SSD; any way to force the UTM installer to do that?
It appears it is possible, at least on the software installation image.
During the install (Alt-F2 at the Introduction screen), edit /etc/bootstrap/l/default.xml to alter the partitioning parameters: size(s) and factor (appears to be percentage guidance). Alt-F1 to return to the installer Introduction screen and proceed.
After the filesystems are formatted and the rpm package installation begins the partitioning can be checked with parted. For /dev/sda, "parted /dev/sda print".
you can use "HDAT2" for that reason. It "reserves" a configurable amount of sectors of an SSD. We use this tool mainly for our cache devices in various fileservers, but it should do it's job also to "shrink" SSD's for general usage to enhance durability. This hidden area is not recongnized by the operating system at all.
You can shrink a 250GB SSD down to 8GB for example. Then you have a lot "spare" memory cells which can be used by the controller to randomize the write & read accesses.
