June 17, 20224 yr Community Expert Here's where my VM experience may run out for your purposes. I'll teIl what I have and maybe others will chime in. Dockers do most of what I need. I only have a couple VMs, that I don't consider critical (yet), just playing around for now. Neither of the VMs need multiple vdisks, or even large ones (32G and 15G). Both use VNC for remote desktop with no dedicated graphics. I have 2 pools. One, named "fast", is 1x256G nvme formatted XFS, and another, named "cache", is 2x500G SSD formatted BTRFS raid1. So fast has no redundancy, but cache does. I have appdata and system shares on fast (only), with appdata backups to the array weekly. I have domains on cache (only) and I also use that pool to cache (yes) user share writes. I also have some other scenarios with download and postprocessing shares that both of these pools get involved in for efficiency, and copies of a subset of my music and photos on fast so other devices can get them without spinning up the array. So lots of possibilities, multiple pools is a great addition to Unraid since v6.9
June 17, 20224 yr 22 minutes ago, sysop-gwg said: I thought you need to run a VM on the array? No, you can use pools just as easily. 22 minutes ago, sysop-gwg said: We need at least 265gb to store the apps and and O/S for this VM. That's excluding all user generated data? That's rather large for just OS and program data, what does this VM hold? 24 minutes ago, sysop-gwg said: Should we increase the size of our Cache? As we started this thread, we purchased a 1gb drive to do so. In my opinion, if you truly need VM primary drives larger than 265GB, then I would add the 1TB (1gb typo?) as an additional pool, dedicated to just the VM(s) primary vdisk(s). (domains share) Then you can use your current cache drive as storage for appdata and system shares, and as a temporary home for work in progress. Use the storage array for finished work, archives, and reference materials. You could set up a share for WIP, and set it to cache only, then when the project is done move it to a cache yes share to transfer to the array when mover runs overnight.
June 17, 20224 yr 1 hour ago, trurl said: Here's where my VM experience may run out for your purposes. I'll teIl what I have and maybe others will chime in. I only have a couple VMs that I don't consider critical (yet), just playing around for now. Neither of the VMs need multiple vdisks, or even large ones (32G and 15G). Both use VNC for remote desktop with no dedicated graphics. I have 2 pools. Please define "pools" One, named "fast", is 1x256G nvme formatted XFS, and another, named "cache", is 2x500G SSD formatted BTRFS raid1. So fast has no redundancy, but cache does. I have appdata and system shares on fast (only), with appdata backups to the array weekly. I have domains on cache (only) How would you put domains on cache (only)? and I also use that pool to cache (yes) user share writes. Could your provide a screen shot of your Shares? I also have some other scenarios with download and postprocessing shares that both of these pools get involved in for efficiency, and copies of a subset of my music and photos on fast so other devices can get them without spinning up the array. So lots of possibilities, multiple pools is a great addition to Unraid since v6.9
June 17, 20224 yr 58 minutes ago, JonathanM said: @JonathanM, Thanks for the response. you can use pools just as easily. - Need a definition of a 'pool' (sry, Newbee) That's excluding all user generated data? That's rather large for just OS and program data, what does this VM hold? - Cad applications and video rendering software - these are pretty large - multiple versions of them. In my opinion, if you truly need VM primary drives larger than 265GB, then I would add the 1TB (1gb typo? yes) as an additional pool, dedicated to just the VM(s) primary vdisk(s). (domains share) Then you can use your current cache drive as storage for appdata - What goes in appdata? Could you give a Windows 10 example? Example: Windows O/S installed on a smaller vdisk, along with user profiles, which creates standard folders, including Program Files. Are you saying we mount a share for Programs to install apps? Or should that be on the vdisk? -> Typically, Programs stay with the O/S disk. And, mount of a share, called "Data" for files (mp4, dwg) that we generate? (see below) Which of the above should be on cache? and system shares, and as a temporary home for work in progress. Use the storage array for finished work, archives, and reference materials. - Are we mounting these as drive letters to my Windows 10 VM? You could set up a share for WIP, and set it to cache only, then when the project is done move it to a cache yes share to transfer to the array when mover runs overnight.
June 17, 20224 yr Community Expert Pools are storage outside the parity array but still part of user shares and managed by Unraid, unlike Unassigned Devices. Cache was the original "pool", now you can have multiple pools. https://wiki.unraid.net/Manual/Storage_Management#Pool_.28cache.29_Operations appdata is the default share for docker applications to keep their working data on such as any configuration the application has or database it maintains. The data the application processes would typically be on other shares. domains is the default share for VM vdisks. system is the default share for docker.img (the docker application executables) and libvirt.img (the VM configurations).
June 17, 20224 yr Community Expert Each user share has settings that control whether, how and which pool they use. Here are mine:
June 17, 20224 yr Community Expert https://wiki.unraid.net/Manual/Shares#Use_Cache_.28and_Mover_Behavior_with_User_Shares.29
June 22, 20224 yr @trurl Well, after all that great info you provided, I think I'm now past "newbee". I have the system set up pretty well right now. Here is my set up: I shrunk my vdisks down to the minimum - just enough for the O/S and main programs. I have that on domains w/cache. I have another vdisk that I can't shrink right now, so I moved it to another Share w/o cache until I can resize it properly and them move it back to domains. I have a appdata share that I'm using to application programs with cache I have a data share for cad and video without cache So, it all seems to be working well with either mounting shares as drives or using symbolic links when "C:" drive is required installing a app.
June 22, 20224 yr @trurl So, now after all that...I still have the 1gb SSD sitting on my desk. Back to your original question, what do I plan to do it? I'd like to increase the size of the Cache so I can add more vdisks associated with vms on the domains share. What is the best way to do that? Edited June 22, 20224 yr by sysop-gwg
June 22, 20224 yr Community Expert 6 minutes ago, sysop-gwg said: I'd like to increase the size of the Cache Better if instead of adding it to the existing pool named cache, add a new pool, named as you wish, and assign the 1TB to the new pool. Then you will be setup similar to what I have and you can decide which pool you need for each share.
June 22, 20224 yr On 6/17/2022 at 4:24 PM, JonathanM said: On 6/17/2022 at 3:52 PM, sysop-gwg said: Should we increase the size of our Cache? As we started this thread, we purchased a 1gb drive to do so. In my opinion, if you truly need VM primary drives larger than 265GB, then I would add the 1TB (1gb typo?) as an additional pool, dedicated to just the VM(s) primary vdisk(s). (domains share) Then you can use your current cache drive as storage for appdata and system shares, and as a temporary home for work in progress. Use the storage array for finished work, archives, and reference materials.
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