!!unBALANCE Deleting My Empty Folder Templates with "Gather"!!

[miicar]

Hey guys.  I RAN INTO A HUGE PROBLEM! 

(and yes, I know this plugin hasn't really been updated in a while; and yes, i realize that since its been left to die, it doesn't handle multiple cache pools that unRAID now (thankfully) has, BUT i loved this plugin for what it did before....but i digress)

For the most part, i use MC or other methods to move files between disks, but the other day, i decided to move some files around my production server with unBALLANCE again (carefully avoiding the cache drive, as i know its not really supported anymore)...boy did that seem to turn into a nightmare! 

My goal was to move the active production files to a faster HDD installed on the array (and archive completed files on the older/slower drives).  The next day, after moving ("Gather") the files to the new array drive using unBALANCE overnight, my design team reported missing a bunch of their empty production and folder-structure template folders!!!  It seems like every folder that was touched by the unBALANCE move was stripped of its empty folders!  (at first we thought we lost actual files, but after HOURS of reviewing my regular backups, i've concluded its only the empty folders that were deleted). 

 

There wasn't anything suspect in the logs of unBALANCE, other then the permissions warning at the start.  But that's never been an issue in the past, as it had only left some files/folders behind that i could manually clean up later.

These deleted folders did not go into the Recycle Bin (unraid plug-in) folder, as any other deleted files do...just gonzo!  And again, ONLY the empty folders are missing...if there was even a hidden file in the folder, it survived!

I guess i should never use this plugin again, unless its brought back from the dead with proper support for current unRAID versions (currently running 6.10.3)...but i would still like to figure out what happened, why it happened, and how to make sure it never happens again...and THANK GOD FOR REGULAR BACKUPS!

Has anyone else had this experience with this plugin?  is there a setting I flipped by accident?  Can my team trust me again?  Should i hang up my SATA cables and work at Wall-Mart?

[weirdcrap]

On 10/27/2022 at 1:40 PM, miicar said:

Hey guys.  I RAN INTO A HUGE PROBLEM! 

(and yes, I know this plugin hasn't really been updated in a while; and yes, i realize that since its been left to die, it doesn't handle multiple cache pools that unRAID now (thankfully) has, BUT i loved this plugin for what it did before....but i digress)

For the most part, i use MC or other methods to move files between disks, but the other day, i decided to move some files around my production server with unBALLANCE again (carefully avoiding the cache drive, as i know its not really supported anymore)...boy did that seem to turn into a nightmare! 

My goal was to move the active production files to a faster HDD installed on the array (and archive completed files on the older/slower drives).  The next day, after moving ("Gather") the files to the new array drive using unBALANCE overnight, my design team reported missing a bunch of their empty production and folder-structure template folders!!!  It seems like every folder that was touched by the unBALANCE move was stripped of its empty folders!  (at first we thought we lost actual files, but after HOURS of reviewing my regular backups, i've concluded its only the empty folders that were deleted). 

 

There wasn't anything suspect in the logs of unBALANCE, other then the permissions warning at the start.  But that's never been an issue in the past, as it had only left some files/folders behind that i could manually clean up later.

These deleted folders did not go into the Recycle Bin (unraid plug-in) folder, as any other deleted files do...just gonzo!  And again, ONLY the empty folders are missing...if there was even a hidden file in the folder, it survived!

I guess i should never use this plugin again, unless its brought back from the dead with proper support for current unRAID versions (currently running 6.10.3)...but i would still like to figure out what happened, why it happened, and how to make sure it never happens again...and THANK GOD FOR REGULAR BACKUPS!

Has anyone else had this experience with this plugin?  is there a setting I flipped by accident?  Can my team trust me again?  Should i hang up my SATA cables and work at Wall-Mart?

Have you modified the plugin with custom rsync flags (under the settings)? the -m flag would prune empty directories but doesn't appear to be part of the default flags.

 

I've never used the gather before, only scatter and I've never seen this behavior.

 

You could turn up the logging verbosity to full and perform a dry run to look and see what rsync's doing without actually affecting your shares or folder structure.

[miicar]

Hey thanks for the reply.  No i didn't modify that, and i checked if it was and it only shows the default "-X".   I will try the dry run, like you suggested, but i think i'll avoid this plugin from now on.

Edited October 30, 2022 by miicar