After rebuilding my server I am going through the process of backing up my cache drive to an M2. drive.  I'm watching Space Invader's video on this.

 

One question I have that is not in the video is I now notice that there's an option for Cache to Array or Array to Cache.

 

Specifically I'm looking at the appdata and system shares. I'm a little unsure what these should be set to.  By default they are on Array to Cache. Do I just leave it like that?

While going through his video I'm having a problem.  He indicated to create a share called appdatabackup...which I am following however, when I create the backup folder on my array and click Done...the share doesn't show up under the Shares tab. I tried it twice and still doesn't show...can't figure out why...

 

Here's what my share looks like

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Mxvx8wMKMNZusHCJ7

I noticed that looking at my other shares they have an SMB Security Settings option but when creating a new share I don't have that option. I also don't have an option for Prefer for the cache drive...I'm using 6.12.5

 

I've attached my diagnostics if that helps

tower-diagnostics-20231211-2229.zip

Edited December 12, 20232 yr by DigitalDivide
attaching file

3 hours ago, DigitalDivide said:

After rebuilding my server I am going through the process of backing up my cache drive to an M2. drive.  I'm watching Space Invader's video on this.

 

One question I have that is not in the video is I now notice that there's an option for Cache to Array or Array to Cache.

 

Specifically I'm looking at the appdata and system shares. I'm a little unsure what these should be set to.  By default they are on Array to Cache. Do I just leave it like that?

With appdata its typically a good idea to keep it on the cache drive because an ssd/nvme is more advantageous due to their speed for docker containers, most other things could do without the speed of an SSD.

 

With that said, when defining a share, you can choose its "primary" and "secondary" storage. Using appdata as an example, if you intend for it to exclusively use the SSD as its storage you would select "Cache" for primary storage and leave it at that. But in the case where you think your cache drive may fill up, you can also set a "secondary" storage. You would set this to "Array". 

 

This means that if the cache were to be filled, unraid would start placing any new files onto the Array instead of the cache drive. So this is where the "mover" comes in, the share will contain a field for "Mover action" if you have specified a primary and secondary storage. Essentially the mover will transfer files in the direction specified. In the case from before where we set cache as primary and array as secondary, if we specify "Array to Cache" this means that any files placed into the array from appdata will move back to the cache when the mover is invoked. However, that only happens if cache space has been freed up.

 

Hope that answers your question.

Edited December 12, 20232 yr by Scheev

3 hours ago, DigitalDivide said:

I noticed that looking at my other shares they have an SMB Security Settings option but when creating a new share I don't have that option. I also don't have an option for Prefer for the cache drive...I'm using 6.12.5

 

I've attached my diagnostics if that helps

tower-diagnostics-20231211-2229.zip 129.12 kB · 0 downloads

The SMB options only appear once the share has been created.

 

I don't remember exactly when, but unraid was updated fairly recently and changed the wording/language around primary and secondary storage. This is likely why your unraid differs from the video.

 

As for the share not appearing when you click done, I'm uncertain of what that might be? possibly just a simple restart may fix it.

I rebooted my server but the shares  I created are still not showing up.

 

My cache drive is an SSD...not sure if that matters...I did have a plugin that had SSD trim in the name or something like that in the name but it had an error and removed it.  I don't even see listed as a plug to download anymore..so maybe it's no longer needed.

 

 

I think I'll break this out into it's own topic as the cache drive issue explanation you provided helps.

For actual advice on the Mover action, typically you would do what I described before. As it means that if the cache gets full your not screwed. So I would keep it as that.

 

For the opposite Mover action of "Cache to Array" this is useful as a way to sort of accelerate the storage in a way. As an example, in my NAS I have an SSD that I use as a media cache, so whenever I download media it first goes to the cache ssd. Then once the mover is invoked, it will get put into the array.

 

SSD covers a few different storage media, but essentially if it doesn't have any moving parts and is intended for internal PC storage, its an SSD. NvMe and SATA define the "protocol" in which the data is transferred. M.2 and the SATA connector are just the name for the Physical connection.