Pool / Storage Questions


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I've had Unraid running for 10+ years and have just added or updated disks as needed. Currently, I have a mix of WD Reds (12TB, 6TB, 4TB). All drives are xfs and sharing is configured to split top level only so everything associated with a show or movie is on a single disk. However, In this scenario I do have disks that get filled and I need to shuffle stuff around which can get annoying (though I know I can set a minimum free space).

 

I was looking at adding a couple WD Gold 20TB, and with drives this large I have an opportunity to rebuild a pool from scratch. I was thinking of buying 5 of the 20TB drives which would give me 60TB usable space. I'd then move my movies over to it, and once the 12TB Reds are empty I'd add them to the new pool. The thought is I can switch to btrfs and can (potentially) switch to split at any level which I assume will work to fill my drives fairly equally. However, I have some questions:

 

1) Is this even worth doing? It seems like it may be a good idea, and it is a rare chance to basically start over as I have around 100TB of data, so it's not easily to redo. I was only going to buy 3 of the Gold 20TB, but figured by adding more I make this an option, but want to get thoughts on whether it's worth the effort

2) Am I better moving from xfs to btrfs? I've seen that both offer benefits, but btrfs seems to be where things are going so again.. easier to do this way. Moving from reiserfs to xfs was a pain in the butt, so I don't really want to do this drive by drive

3) Are there reasons I wouldn't want to use 'automatically split any directory' (I think it used to be called split level 0)? I do like the organization of having everything on a specific drive, but get tired of shuffling data around at times. I've never explored this split level before and am curious if there are any thoughts / recommendations

4) If I do split any directory am I correct that with the initial 3 drives it will just balance the data, but once I add one of the 12TB drives it will fill that to the same level as the original 20TB drives before equally distributing again? (i.e. if I have 5TB used on each of the 20TB, when I add a 12TB will it fill it to 5TB as well before equally distributing, or does it use % of disk capacity (so 3TB on the 12TB vs 5TB on the 20TB drives)

5) Are there thoughts on how best to manage this? 99% of the data is tied to a Plex server, which is going to add a challenge. I am thinking of starting with just moving all my movies over as the content is  (fairly) static, and then move historical shows that won't update, and finally everything else. This will presumably mean Plex can't see some of the tv show data, but I am hoping it will minimize issues with data access. 

6) Does anyone know how plex will manage this? I have a ton of movies and tv shows and don't want to completely screw up Plex or have it thinking that old data is being deleted and then re-added back in again on the new location (basically want to avoid churn). But I don't know the best way to manage this process (again... if it's even worthwhile).

 

I'd be interested in any thoughts anyone has on the above. My Unraid server has been pretty static and stable for a long time and has run great. I like the idea of setting myself up better for the future, but don't want to screw things up (especially if it's not even worth doing at all).

 

Thanks.

 

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