Good day Unraid Community,

 

I'm pretty new to it. About 2 weeks ago, I've built my first server with 3x 3TB Hitachi drives. I've been using the free version to give me an idea of how well it worked and I liked it so much that I've just purchased my pro license. Now, I'm facing a little problem and I'd need your input on how to solve this; it may be just my understanding...

 

Here's my original setup (don't mind the space left, it's just for the big picture) on Unraid 5 beta 12:

 

Device 	Identification 	Temp. 	Size 	Free 	Reads 	Writes 	Errors
parity 	                Hitachi_HDS5C3030ALA630_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (sdb) 2930266532 	33°C 	3 TB 	- 	600247 	419015 	0
disk1  /mnt/disk1 	Hitachi_HDS5C3030ALA630_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (sdc) 2930266532 	34°C 	3 TB 	45.99 GB 	355225 	1502 	0
disk2  /mnt/disk2 	Hitachi_HDS5C3030ALA630_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (sdd) 2930266532 	34°C 	3 TB 	4.1 KB 	469866 	136472 	0

 

My share is named "media", on mode "High-water" with split level 2 and originally 0 min space. I filled them up until I had no space anymore. Then, I got myself the pro license and installed a cache drive, and 1 x 1.5TB and 1 x 2TB. But they never get written on it. So, I've move files manually from disk1-2 to disk3.

 

Here's what I have now:

Device 	Identification 	Temp. 	Size 	Free 	Reads 	Writes 	Errors
parity 	                Hitachi_HDS5C3030ALA630_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (sdb) 2930266532 	33°C 	3 TB 	- 	600247 	419015 	0
disk1  /mnt/disk1 	Hitachi_HDS5C3030ALA630_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (sdc) 2930266532 	34°C 	3 TB 	45.99 GB 	355225 	1502 	0
disk2  /mnt/disk2 	Hitachi_HDS5C3030ALA630_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (sdd) 2930266532 	34°C 	3 TB 	4.1 KB 	469866 	136472 	0
disk3  /mnt/disk3 	ST31500341AS_XXXXXXXXX                  (sdf) 1465138552 	38°C 	1.5 TB 	1.08 TB 	382351 	264188 	0
disk4  /mnt/disk4 	WDC_WD20EARS-XXXXXXX_WD-XXXXXXXXX       (sde) 1953514552 	* 	2 TB 	2 TB 	84512 	13 	0
cache /mnt/cache 	ST3320620A_XXXXXXXXX                    (hda) 312571192 	37°C 	320.07 GB 	319.92 GB 	3083 	203359 	0
flash  /boot (flash device) 	USB_Mass_Storage_Device 	- 	2.06 GB 	1.91 GB 	1206 	85 	0

 

I then continue copying stuff on the server, but it keeps going only on drive 1-2, until they were full. So, I've moved files again manually from disk 1 to disk 3. Then, it would fill disk2... (I'm now at the point where my disk2 is full, and it won't allow me copying anymore).

 

Not sure what was the intended behavior, I've started playing around with my share settings. I've put a min free space to 50000000, hoping it would start copying files to other drives. I've even changed the share mode to fill-up or most-free, but no luck. I've also put in case it was the issue the "Included disk(s):" to "disk1,disk2,disk3,disk4", same thing.

 

So, now I'm stock with disk 1 and disk 2 always being filled up and never going onto other drives. And I've still got content to copy but unless I do it manually onto the desired drive, Unraid won't handle it by itself.

 

What am I doing wrong? Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

Thanks for your help and have a good day!

Set the min free space to be larger than the largest file that you will ever write.

It could be the split level. No-one can confirm this since you never described your storage structure.

 

Peter

 

Thanks for your replies guys.

 

As for the min space, I believe this was way more than necessary as stated in my previous thread: "I've put a min free space to 50000000". In the wiki, it says this size is in Kb. So, I honestly thought 50GB should be a good min. size?

 

As for my structure, here's how it is:

 

media
--> Audio
-----> [#LETTER#]
-----------> Artist
-----------------> Albums
--> Movies
-----> Movie name
--> TV
-----> TV Show
-----------> Season X

 

I had read the split level of 2 would work well with this structure... Am I wrong?

 

Thanks for your help guys!

I have seen a problem similar with all of the beta 5 versions I have used, starting with 5.0 beta 6. After adding a new disk, unRAID will not write to it until the array has been stopped, the server rebooted and the array restarted.

2 = #LETTER#, Movie Name and TV Show will all stay on a single disk.

 

Peter

I've already tried stopping the array, reboot and restarting the array, but no luck.

 

@lionelhutz: So, you're suggesting a split level of 3?

You have the typical problem that occurs when you try and cram all the media into one share. 3 works fine for the music and it will keep each TV season (not show but season) together. However, it allows each movie to go whever. If you have a movie directory holding the movie file and some metadata then that directory and contents might not stay together on a single disk.

 

Peter

You have the typical problem that occurs when you try and cram all the media into one share. 3 works fine for the music and it will keep each TV season (not show but season) together. However, it allows each movie to go whever. If you have a movie directory holding the movie file and some metadata then that directory and contents might not stay together on a single disk.

 

Peter

 

That was the problem I was looking at with keeping movies and tv shows in the same share, my solution was to add one level of depth to the movies file structure, one that turned out to be usefull as well.  Using Split level 3

 

The path to a given movies folder is //TOWER/Media/Movies/Resolution/MovieFolder

Tv Shows are in the same share //TOWER/Media/Television/TV Show/Season Folders

 

This keeps anything in a season folder on one drive and anything in an individual movie folder on one drive, a TV show can span multiple discs but the seasons remain together.  I didn't find splitting movies up into resolution as being too distracting either as it helps me see which movies I have that I'd like to buy on HD format when possible.

 

What I'd really like to see is a utility like the mover, something that would move existing data on the array to spread it out and balance the disk loads, especially after adding new drives to the array.  If I have 5 disks with 150 gb left each and add 3 new 2tb drives, I'd like to have a way of telling the system to spread data off those disks to the new ones, balancing out the free space, or maybe a utility smart enough to do the opposite as well, take a system with 10 disks each 2/3 full and consolidate the data to the fewest drives it can so you can remove a disk etc.  I know it can be done manually using the disk shares but that's kind of a hassle.

You have the typical problem that occurs when you try and cram all the media into one share. 3 works fine for the music and it will keep each TV season (not show but season) together. However, it allows each movie to go whever. If you have a movie directory holding the movie file and some metadata then that directory and contents might not stay together on a single disk.

 

Peter

 

That was the problem I was looking at with keeping movies and tv shows in the same share, my solution was to add one level of depth to the movies file structure, one that turned out to be usefull as well.  Using Split level 3

 

The path to a given movies folder is //TOWER/Media/Movies/Resolution/MovieFolder

Tv Shows are in the same share //TOWER/Media/Television/TV Show/Season Folders

 

This keeps anything in a season folder on one drive and anything in an individual movie folder on one drive, a TV show can span multiple discs but the seasons remain together.  I didn't find splitting movies up into resolution as being too distracting either as it helps me see which movies I have that I'd like to buy on HD format when possible.

 

What I'd really like to see is a utility like the mover, something that would move existing data on the array to spread it out and balance the disk loads, especially after adding new drives to the array.  If I have 5 disks with 150 gb left each and add 3 new 2tb drives, I'd like to have a way of telling the system to spread data off those disks to the new ones, balancing out the free space, or maybe a utility smart enough to do the opposite as well, take a system with 10 disks each 2/3 full and consolidate the data to the fewest drives it can so you can remove a disk etc.  I know it can be done manually using the disk shares but that's kind of a hassle.

 

I would also really appreciate this feature. Moving things between disks with MC is a pain.

You can move it to the cache disk if you have one. It will rebalance when moved back.

 

It's possible someone may impliment such a thing with the new 5.0 release. Actually, I think someone here has a script to do it already.

 

Peter

I did the same thing to balance out my movies. bump it up to split 3

 

I created sub folders for movie quality. it took a while to sort at first.

 

media
--> Audio
-----> [#LETTER#]
-----------> Artist
-----------------> Albums
--> Movies
-----> Movie Quality (HD_Bluray, DVD, Divx)
-----------> Movie name
--> TV
-----> TV Show
-----------> Season X

 

 

I also agree, some sort of re-balance application might come in handy.

 

Sorry to revive old thread....  Thank you lionelhutz for the advice of moving to cache.  I managed to balance out my drives that way after I converted them to XFS.  But yeah, Johnm's suggestion is a good one if you don't have a cache, a way of "balancing" data would be nice (taking the share's split level in consideration like what the cache drive does.)

I didn't post before but make sure you move the files from the disk share to the cache share. Don't try to move from a user share because it confuses unRAID.

Yes, thank you for clarifying.  I did indeed use /mnt/disk#/ to move, not /mnt/user0 or /mnt/user 

Yes, thank you for clarifying.  I did indeed use /mnt/disk#/ to move, not /mnt/user0 or /mnt/user 

This should NOT be done!  This is mixing a disk share and a user share in a copy command - it is likely to lead to data loss (0 length files).    You should either use just disk share or just User hares.

Yes, thank you for clarifying.  I did indeed use /mnt/disk#/ to move, not /mnt/user0 or /mnt/user 

This should NOT be done!  This is mixing a disk share and a user share in a copy command - it is likely to lead to data loss (0 length files).    You should either use just disk share or just User hares.

 

Re-read what you quoted. He used disk shared. You can't use the user shares to move between disks.

I did it how I wrote it, nothing bad happened, all my files are there, double checked after reading this msg.  I have almost empty drives I filled up this way, moved the files to the cache drive, then invoked the mover and it moved the files to the empty drives.  What did I do wrong again and why?  And what's the correct way to do it?  Just curious....

 

EDIT:  Reason I did drive share is because I needed to move the data from the most full drive to cache so the mover could move it to one of the empty drives and it worked, didn't lose any files.

You didn't do anything wrong. Someone didn't properly read what you posted and then mistakenly told you not to do it the correct way.

Oh ok.  I am still spreading data across my drives this way.  Wishing there was a tool/plugin...  Any devs willing to do it?

Take a look at these two threads:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2689.0

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=36201.0

 

They should both help you out with what you're doing.

Take a look at these two threads:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2689.0

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=36201.0

 

They should both help you out with what you're doing.

 

I checked and the 1st post is the opposite.  The 2nd one has an interesting script though, not the consolid8 because that is also the opposite of spreading the data..  Thanks will check out that 2nd script..

 

EDIT: 2nd script works good to move from one drive to another, that way I was able to bring them closer to even, now proceeding to move to cache so it handles the rest.  :-D    We need an app/plugin/script to do this automatically....  Meh....