some files unprotected


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Having some shares not protected by parity is fine and often done for good reasons.

 

Typically, appdata, domains, system shares will be set to stay on a fast pool (cache), usually SSD(s), instead of on the array, so docker/VM performance won't be impacted by slower parity writes, and so array disks can spin down since these files are always open.

 

Instead of protecting these by parity, you can have a pool configured with 2 disks as btrfs raid1 mirror, so they are protected that way. Or you can have something back them up to the array such as CA Backup plugin.

 

You can have multiple pools, and each pool can have multiple disks if formatted as btrfs. "Cache" is the traditional pool, but you can have more and name them however you want. All pools are part of user shares just as the array is, and each user share has settings to control whether, which, and how it uses a pool.

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According to your diagnostics the ‘appdata’ and ‘system’ shares have files on the cache.    The others look like they exist only on the array.
 

You have the Use Cache=“No” set for these shares that means that new files will not get sent to the cache, but any files already there will be ignored by mover.   If you want these files to be moved to the array.

  • disable the docker and vm services under settings. This is required as these services hold files open that means they cannot be moved.
  • change the Use Cache setting for the ‘appdata’ and ‘system’ shares to Yes. ( hint:  it is worth reading the help built into the GUI to understand why)
  • manually run mover to get the files transferred to the array.
  • when mover finishes change the Use Cache setting for these shares to No so new files only get written to the array.
  • reenable the docker and VM services under settings.

Note that most people DO want these shares on a pool (cache) for performance reasons as having them on the array significantly slows down writes to them, and also keeps array drives spinning.  They then either use plugins to periodically backup to the array or make the pool/cache multi-drive so it has built in redundancy.

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On 7/3/2022 at 9:34 PM, trurl said:

Thought I should also add, since you seem so focused on this.

 

Parity is NOT a substitute for backups. You must always have another copy of anything important and irreplaceable.

i dont know why everyone repeats this (everyone knows).
yes i have my photo's backed up but it takes a long time to replace my media so if i could just get it parity protected again it would be great.

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9 minutes ago, hairymongrel said:

i dont know why everyone repeats this (everyone knows).

We still see sob stories here about people losing files, so obviously not everyone already knows, or if they know they don't do backups, so we repeat it every time someone is in a position that could result in file loss if things don't go perfectly. Parity only helps when a single (or double if 2 parity) drive fails. There are many more common ways to lose data, accidental or malicious deletion, corruption, bad RAM, PSU failure or connection with incorrect modular wires that destroys whole bunches of drives at a time, etc.

 

It's something that needs to be kept at the forefront of data discussions, especially when people erroneously think the biggest risk to their data is something that parity can recover.

 

If you want drive redundancy in place for the faster SSD pool as well as the main parity array, you can add a second SSD of the same size to your pool and convert it to RAID1.

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On 7/5/2022 at 7:00 AM, wgstarks said:

Or add the photos to a parity protected share on the array.

thats why i started this thread i have no parity protected shares.....
i have attached a pic to show what i mean.
i have ran mover with docker stopped and cache settings changed as suggested above and tried multiple parity checks and still no change.
this did happen after i added 2 disks to the array maybe i missed a step ? im unsure.
the cache still has files on it that wont copy back to the array (when i run mover nothing happens).
is there a way to manually move them ?
open to suggestions.
cheers.

unraid.jpg

unraid2.jpg

Edited by hairymongrel
added
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so do i have it back to front ? 
i thought selecting cache to yes would fill my cache ssd up  ? it seems if i select cache to yes it empties my cache drive.
now running mover is emptying my cache drive even though use cache is set to yes...... (very confusing).
so that means that because im not running mirrored cache its coming up unprotected.
hope this fixes it, fingers crossed.

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4 hours ago, hairymongrel said:

so do i have it back to front ? 
i thought selecting cache to yes would fill my cache ssd up  ? it seems if i select cache to yes it empties my cache drive.
now running mover is emptying my cache drive even though use cache is set to yes...... (very confusing).
so that means that because im not running mirrored cache its coming up unprotected.
hope this fixes it, fingers crossed.


The Use Cache setting determines where NEW files are placed. 

 

You should read the help built into the GUI to understand the effect of this setting, and how the settings affect mover behavior.

 

If Unraid was starting from scratch then different words might have been used for the values.    However this not the case and originally only the Yes/No options existed.   Much later the Prefer and Only options were added and by this time it was too late to change the Yes/No options without confusing existing users.

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8 minutes ago, hairymongrel said:

i have removed the cache drive from the machine now.
if i add a new share it comes up green.
 

unraid3.jpg

Right. “Yes” means that new files will be added to the cache and mover will move them to the share the next time it runs. “No” means that new files are added directly to the share and mover isn’t needed. Transfer speeds are possibly slower though.

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12 hours ago, hairymongrel said:

thats why i started this thread i have no parity protected shares.....
i have attached a pic to show what i mean.
i have ran mover with docker stopped and cache settings changed as suggested above and tried multiple parity checks and still no change.
this did happen after i added 2 disks to the array maybe i missed a step ? im unsure.
the cache still has files on it that wont copy back to the array (when i run mover nothing happens).
is there a way to manually move them ?
open to suggestions.
cheers.

unraid.jpg

unraid2.jpg

Both the parity drives have red x i.e. no parity protection

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