Installed Plex, now lots of disk clonking... is this normal with no SSD cache? - UPDATE: Cache added, please help me move Plex to SSD

[champ222]

Hi All

 

Unraid noob, ive set eveything up and all is working fine. On Friday evening i installed plex into unraid, and it went about adding movies and TV shows to the library.

 

The HDDs have been clonking away ever since. If i log into plex from my PC, it shows no activity there. 

 

Using "Disk Activity" i see no share or disk activity, that isnt me.

Using "Open Files" i see:

shfs has 49 Plex related files open

dockerd has 6 files open

A bunch of things all have "working directory" open 

"Plex Media serv" also has 49 files open.

 

I'm not using an SSD yet, but it is my plan to (and perhaps i should have done this first) but is the plex server running thats causing the disks to clonk away and not spin down?

 

If thats not it, any other ideas?

 

Thanks  

Edited January 5 by champ222

[champ222]

So i stopped "all dockers" and the HDDs have gone into standby.

 

Hopefully if i can figure out how to move plex to the SSD, that will resolve the issue.

[Squid]

Typical Plex Appdata will have thousands and thousands of files contained within it.  

 

IMO, a cache pool is required to run containers.  If only because of performance issues when appdata and the docker image is on a parity protected array.

 

You can use mover to move appdata to the future cache pool, or appdata backup / restore to do it also (it should wind up being faster)

[champ222]

ok great, i'll do that.

 

thanks

[champ222]

Ok, i'm now trying to set this up.

 

Ive added my SSD. Ive added as a cache pool ive set Appdata and System to be on the Cache drive. 

 

 

If i "compute":

 

Are the file still on the Array and not the cache?

 

I went to the main screen and click "Move" but nothing happened. the screen updates, but nothing seems to change.

 

What am i doing wrong?

 

Thanks guys

[itimpi]

Why do you expect anything to change with those settings?   Mover ignores any shares which only have Primary Storage set.

[champ222]

Well obviously your right, but could you help me? what do i need to do? Ive searched on here/google etc and the suggestions got me this far.

 

Changing where something should be stored and clicking "Move" doesnt seem so illogical to me, clearly Unraid is different, but why?

[trurl]

Attach diagnostics to your NEXT post in this thread

[champ222]

Diagnostics attached.

 

Thanksunraid1-diagnostics-20240105-2302.zip

[trurl]

On 11/4/2023 at 8:31 PM, Squid said:

IMO, a cache pool is required to run containers.  If only because of performance issues when appdata and the docker image is on a parity protected array.

And array disks can't spin down since these files are always open.

 

Nothing can move open files. Disable Docker and VM Manager in Settings and leave them disabled until you get everything moved.

 

As noted, mover ignores any share where there is no Mover action specified. You must specify Secondary storage: array so you can set Mover action to array->cache. You need to do this for appdata, domains, and system shares.

 

Then you can run mover.

 

Mover won't replace files, so if a file exists in both places, you will have to decide which to keep.

 

Dynamix File Manager plugin will let you work with files directly on the server, but Mover with the correct settings for these shares should be able to do most of the work.

[champ222]

Ahhhhhh, now i see. ok cool. mover is now doing its thing.

 

So once the mover has completed. I'll have the stuff in the cache, AND the Array at the same time? 

 

At that stage, do i then set appdata, domains, and system shares to Cache only?

 

Thanks, i appreciate the help

[trurl]

9 minutes ago, champ222 said:

So once the mover has completed. I'll have the stuff in the cache, AND the Array at the same time? 

No. The whole point is to get these shares off the array.

 

After mover completes post new diagnostics so we can see if there is more to be done before enabling Docker and VM Manager.

[champ222]

Yeah, I get that the whole point is to get these shares off the array, i meant, does the mover delete the files off the array once they are on the cache, or will the files exist in both places, and the next step is to remove from the array by some other means? is this the job of the Dynamix File Manager plugin you mentioned?

 

new diagnostics:

 

unraid1-diagnostics-20240105-2358.zip

[trurl]

Mover moves the files (if it can) so they will no longer be where they were.

 

Diagnostics looks good, all files for those shares are on cache now. You can make them cache-only if you want just make sure you don't let your cache get too full.

 

You can enable Docker and VM Manager again.

 

 

[champ222]

perfect. Thanks very much for your help. can you tell from the diagnostics if the mover deleted all the files from the array successfully?

 

Thanks again

[trurl]

You already showed you know how to use the Compute... feature on the User Shares page.

 

Also, in your diagnostics, in shares/shares.txt

appdata                           shareUseCache="prefer"  # Share exists on cache
B-----s                           shareUseCache="no"      # Share exists on disk1
C-----t                           shareUseCache="no"      # Share exists on disk2
domains                           shareUseCache="prefer"  # Share exists on cache
isos                              shareUseCache="prefer"  # Share exists on cache
M---a                             shareUseCache="no"      # Share exists on disk1, disk2
M----s                            shareUseCache="no"      # Share exists on disk1
system                            shareUseCache="prefer"  # Share exists on cache
T------s                          shareUseCache="no"      # Share exists on disk1, disk2

so appdata, domains, and system shares have files on cache and no files on any array disk.