Cache Drive Benefit Question

[DigitalDivide]

Hi, I am currently rebuilding my server as my motherboard died. All equip is pretty old so rebuilding from scratch. I'm wondering if in my case, there's any benefit to having a cache drive.

 

I basically use my server as storage for movies, music and photos. I have 5 drives in the array. I use Sonaar, Radarr, Emby and Deluge VPN.  I use Emby server on my Nvidia Shield TV with Emby to watch movies or listen to music. 

 

I also have two unassigned devices not part of the array. Deluge downloads to one drive that is an unassigned device and Sonarr and Radarr will then copy the downloaded file to another unassigned disk.  These are all files that are just temporary. Deleted once I watch them. On some occassions I will copy the downloaded file to my permanent library in the array.

 

So I'm wondering if I'm actually getting any benefit of a cache drive?

[JorgeB]

14 hours ago, DigitalDivide said:

So I'm wondering if I'm actually getting any benefit of a cache drive?

Based on your use case looks like you won't benefit much.

[DigitalDivide]

Thanks. 

 

To be honest, I'm not even sure how I would use it. If I want to say copy a movie to a share on my array called Movies. Do I copy the file to the cache drive, then Mover will copy it to my Array? How does Mover know to copy the movie to my share called Movies?  I guess I'm lacking some info on how to actually use a cache drive.

 

 

[foo_fighter]

It's pretty transparent. If you have an older drive or ssd and a spare port you might as well try it. In the shares setting, you can set the preferences for "Movies." It will first copy it to the cache and then later, the mover will move it from cache to the array. The entire time, it will appear is if it is under the "Movies" share. You'll speed up transfers to the limit of your network connection instead of your array write speeds. 

In your case, it might not have any benefits. 

Edited December 2, 2023 by foo_fighter