Allocation method, new unraid user

[Maverick52]

So I've just got my build completed and I'm starting to setup unraid. The build is...

 

Unraid OS: 6.8.3

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570
Motherboard: ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16 GB (4 x 4 GB) DDR3-1600 CL9 Memory
HDD's: 2x Western Digital Red 10 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Case: Antec P101 Silent ATX Mid Tower Case
PSU: SeaSonic FOCUS 550 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
HBA: LSI 9207-8
Boot drive: SanDisk Cruzer Fit 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive

 

As you can probably tell, it's mostly parts from an old gaming rig. The purpose of this unraid server is to store photos from my photography. I'm currently using a Synology DS218j two bay NAS with two 6 TB HDD's but I could see that this wasn't a solution that would last me very long. With the Antec case I have 8x 3.5" HDD drive bays that I can add HDD's to as my storage needs increase. I started with the two 10TB drives to have one as a parity drive and one as a data drive. Obviously for right now all of my data is going to go onto the single data disk, but what about down the line when I add another disk? Should I just leave it as "high water" even though I'm likely to just add disks as I fill the ones in the array, or should I choose a different method?

[Gragorg]

It is really a personal preference.  I personally set it at Most-free.

[Hoopster]

6 hours ago, Maverick52 said:

Should I just leave it as "high water" even though I'm likely to just add disks as I fill the ones in the array, or should I choose a different method?

In your case, it may not matter too much.  I personally use High Water as that results in fewer disk spin ups and will use one disk until it gets to a certain point then moves on to another.  With most free, it could be spinning up a lot more as it moves from disk to disk as thing fill up.

 

This really only matters when you want unRAID to choose between several disks with available space.  If you are just filling one and then adding another, most free may be the best for you because most free will always be whatever new disk you just added.  If you add more than one new disk you want to fill just one and then move on to the next, use Fill Up.

 

    This setting determines how Unraid OS will choose which disk to use when creating a new file or directory:

    High-water Choose the lowest numbered disk with free space still above the current high water mark. 
The high water mark is initialized with the size of the largest data disk divided by 2. If no disk has 
free space above the current high water mark, divide the high water mark by 2 and choose again.

    The goal of High-water is to write as much data as possible to each disk (in order to minimize how often 
disks need to be spun up), while at the same time, try to keep the same amount of free space on each disk 
(in order to distribute data evenly across the array).

   Fill-up Choose the lowest numbered disk that still has free space above the current Minimum free space setting.

   Most-free Choose the disk that currently has the most free space.

 

[Maverick52]

Thanks guys.

 

I think I'll just use "fill up" for now. I organize my photos by year>month>shoot and I think it makes most sense to try and keep them stored chronologically as I add them to the disks, and add disks to the system. If I've understood and setup the split levels and allocations correctly, then I shouldn't have any single shoot spanning across two or more disks.