[Solved] Help setting up Pools/Array

[Schmackofatz]

Hello everyone, 

 

the following might sound stupid, but I am kind of stuck here. So for christmas I gifted myself a new 6TB WD Red. 

 

What was: 

3TB HDD Parity

3TB HDD Data

3TB HDD Data

1TB SSD Cache

 

What I did: 

Pull all Movies/Series off the array onto the new 6TB set up as btrfs cache pool. 

Emptied one of the array drives -> new config -> redo array/parity

Add that drive to the existing 6TB cache pool.... -> RAID1 fml

 

- As of now I am saving all data from that cache pool to other disks, because once the 3TB is removed from pool, the 6TB is not mountable

- After balance btrfs to single mode unraid now tells me those 2 HDDs have 12TB

 

 

What I would like to have: 

3TB Parity

3TB Data

 

1TB Cache SSD

 

6+3TB pool without any backup/parity whatsoever (extendeble for future HDDs)

What would be even better: the 1TB SSD for downloading/unpacking, then move to 6+3TB pool

 

 

Any help is greatly appreciated. 🙏

 

Thank you

 

 

 

 

Edited December 30, 2022 by Schmackofatz

[trurl]

Do you mean a pool with 1x6TB HDD + 1x3TB HDD? For different sized disks in a pool with no redundancy, you should use Single mode.

 

[Schmackofatz]

Hey trurl, thanks for your help!

 

Yes, different sized disks, without any security. Just throwing in media files, filling all disk up "high-water" like. 

 

Is is possible to use the ssd though? Can the mover (or a cron job maybe) move files from the cache SSD to this new setup?

And can there be added new disks in the future?

[itimpi]

The mover can only move files to/from the main array and a share associated with a particular pool.   It does not move files between pools if that was what you were hoping for

[Schmackofatz]

It was. I will find another solution then. 

 

However setting as Single Mode was basically what I was asking, so I guess I'll mark this as solved. 

 

Thank you both very much and have a great new year 🙂

[trurl]

5 hours ago, Schmackofatz said:

filling all disk up "high-water" like

Allocation method doesn't apply to pools. A multi-disk pool appears as a single volume.

 

Do you understand the difference between the array and pools?

[Schmackofatz]

The array is protected by the parity drive, pool isn't. 

 

Pool = JBOD?

 

Edit: I also don't get this math

Edited December 30, 2022 by Schmackofatz

[JorgeB]

29 minutes ago, Schmackofatz said:

Edit: I also don't get this math

That's normal when using different size devices, used/free space will be correct though.

[trurl]

1 hour ago, Schmackofatz said:

Pool = JBOD?

No.

A pool is a single volume. There is no way to access each disk in a pool individually. So Allocation method doesn't apply.

[Schmackofatz]

Then how are files assigned to the physical drives? Are the other drives accessible should one fail?

[JorgeB]

5 minutes ago, Schmackofatz said:

Then how are files assigned to the physical drives?

Based on most free space, it's chunk based (1GiB), not file based.

 

5 minutes ago, Schmackofatz said:

Are the other drives accessible should one fail?

Nope.

[trurl]

11 minutes ago, Schmackofatz said:

Are the other drives accessible should one fail?

Only if you use one of the btrfs raid modes that provides redundancy