Robbie Ferguson

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LOL, that I'm getting notifications that my thread from 2009 is getting bumped makes me smile. Glad some of you are still finding it useful. Yes, it could use an update. It's 11 years+ old :) But seems it's still working for folks, so that's cool. Just thought I'd say hi and thanks for continuing to use the tool :)

While you apologize for rebirthing an old thread, I absolutely adore that folks are still using the capacity calculator, and it inspires me to enhance it. It was built so long ago that the interface is pretty ... ugly. LOL. I will put it on my to-do list.

No no; dude--thanks! I appreciate the link for sure, and I hope people will really find use out of it. I know it's one of the questions I had when I first started using unRAID a month or so ago, and I had to learn by building my array--so hopefully this tool will become a benefit to the community. And, I welcome people to make suggestions for added features I'll be beautifying the script as well, making it look nicer -- once it's considered "complete" so to speak. Thanks, Robbie

Fixed; thanks. Sorry about that! It seems my cookie was preventing me from seeing the bug (as my browser was remembering my previously entered settings. Try now, and enjoy the new Cache drive feature Robbie

Thanks for letting me know; gonna take a look right now. Robbie

I'm using Firefox and it works fine for me. Can you try something absurd; just add a 2000 GB drive to the list and calculate, and tell me if your total changes? Thanks! Robbie

Done; I added a cache drive drop-down now. If you have not selected a cache drive yourself, the system will automatically set your cache drive to the smallest drive in your array (to reduce the impact to the overall capacity). If, however, you change the drive using the drop-down and re-calculate the numbers, the system will report how this will impact your capacity appropriately. Upon changing your Cache Drive to a data drive, simply uncheck "Use cache drive" to calculate how this will affect your array. If you've failed a drive, make sure you remove it's value from the list of drive capacities. Robbie

My thought is, keep the checkbox where it is, and have it default to the smallest drive, but instead of showing "Cache Drive: 100 GB" the 100 GB would be a drop down which lists all drives available to use as cache. Changing it will re-allocate your array accordingly. Sound good? I'll implement this fairly soon!! Thanks, Robbie

Very good points Joe, and I *love* the warm spare idea. I'm now planning to do that in my array - haha! Thanks, Robbie

Yes, that's right. The Parity drive is the largest (obvious) and the cache is the smallest. I figured, nobody's going to have an itty-bitty drive in their array, so that'll usually be acceptable. But if people want it, I could make it so they can actually SELECT which drive to use for cache. Might be a good way to do it... Thanks Robbie

Has this tool been useful to anyone? I wasn't sure if I'd get any replies, but I kinda hoped to Regards, Robbie

Oh yes; I forgot to mention, it also calculates the approximate power consumption of your array; so it can also be used as a tool to help you select what power supply you buy for your array. Just remember, your other components use power too... so take it all into account. Robbie

I've created the first beta of a web-based array capacity calculator. I have no idea if such a thing already exists, but as a coder, I don't mind just making one myself. unraid.category5.tv <-- Click that link to launch the calculator. The system allows you to enter up to 21 drive capacities (based on the "fake" capacity shown by your drive manufacturer on the label - eg. 500 GB) and will tell you how much data storage space you'll have on your unRAID array. Currently, Parity is forced. However, as Parity is in fact optional for unRAID, I will inevitably add an ability to remove Parity. The calculator supports addition of a cache drive, and does all the math to give you real numbers with regards to your potential capacity (not the fake manufacturer numbers). While seasoned unRAID users understand the capacity, I thought this would be a great tool for people who are curious about unRAID, as it shows how much capacity you'll get (in reality) if you build an array with whatever hard drive specifications you provide. Hope you all enjoy. If you have feature requests, just let me know. I'm also perfectly happy to share the code if someone wants to play with it, although I'll keep hosting the "official" program at the url listed above, indefinitely. Regards, Robbie