Some basic questions for a new unraid user

[Smokie]

Hi All,

 

I am looking for some advice on how things should be set up. I currently have an 8 disk array each disk is 1tb, I will be adding more in the future. I just installed a 500g ssd and configured it as a cache pool. I have nextcloud, Mariadb for nextcloud and cloudfared tunnel installed apps and they had all been installed before I put the cache drive in. I have a SMB share configured also.

 

My question is should all apps be setup to use the ssd cache drive? If they are the Mover would then transfer to the disk array when set and the cache drive clears itself? Is that how it works? What would be the best practice?

 

I can see some videos on YouTube but a lot of them seem to be a couple of years old and I’m guessing some features have been added to unraid.

 

I haven’t started to add photos and such to nextcloud but I am wondering about back in up things going forward? Is there a one click backup everything and if shit hits the fan it can be restored? Again what would be best practice?

 

Sorry if these have been answered before but for some reason its hard to find up to date guides.

 

Thanks

[Smokie]

I have also just noticed that my appdata has a yellow triangle now and is saying “some or all files are unprotected”. I also noticed that nearly 5 gig is been used on my cache drive. All I have done since installing it is create some users in my nextcloud.

 

Is there something I should be doing to have the setup running properly?

[SimonF]

4 minutes ago, Smokie said:

I have also just noticed that my appdata has a yellow triangle now and is saying “some or all files are unprotected”. I also noticed that nearly 5 gig is been used on my cache drive. All I have done since installing it is create some users in my nextcloud.

 

Is there something I should be doing to have the setup running properly?

If you have only a single dev in the cache pool with files on it if it was to fail they would be lost hence the triangle.

 

if you added a 2nd drive to the pool it would be protected.

 

5g is likely to be the file system overhead.

[Smokie]

So I see in the shares tab the appdata folder is set to “prefer” so Mover transfers from the array to cache. Prior to my cache drive going in everything sat on the array and was protected by parity I’m guessing? What happens when the cache drive fills up? I thought the cache drive was just to be used for speed then would be transferred to the array overnight etc. I will always have the triangle error as long as I am running one cache drive? Unless I set the appdata folder to yes? Then the cache drive will transfer to the array when mover is run

 

I’m just trying to understand exactly how it all works and what’s the best practice.

[SimonF]

Shares that are prefer wi!l be move to the pool. Appdata is normaly kept on the cache. If it was set to yes only files notmin use would be moved to the array and the array drive would be kept spun up. No issue running single drive you may need to look at doing backups more often. i.e. using appdata plugin.

[kizer]

The easiest thing is to click on the little ? near the top right of the tool bar and you can get a popup menu on each line in the Share settings to give you an idea of what each setting does and how it effects your cache. 

[Smokie]

Appdata plugin? Is that an app?

[Smokie]

3 minutes ago, kizer said:

The easiest thing is to click on the little ? near the top right of the tool bar and you can get a popup menu on each line in the Share settings to give you an idea of what each setting does and how it effects your cache. 

I think I’m getting the hang of it. Since my cache drive has gone in it has moved the appdata, domains and iso folder to the cache drive and because I only have one cache drive they ain’t protected.

[kizer]

4 minutes ago, Smokie said:

Appdata plugin? Is that an app?

 

He's talking about the Appdata Backup/Restore Plugin. Its highly recommended for backing up your dockers or other things stored there. 

[Smokie]

Cheers lads,

I’ll add that now

[Smokie]

Is there a guide for using Backup/Restore?

 

I was thinking of backing up to USB but I see this on the settings page.

 

NOTE: USB Backup is deprecated on Unraid version 6.9.0 It is advised to use the Unraid.net plugin instead

 

Any help appreciated