Oh well. In at the deep end  ........best way to learn.

 

im not sure how to go about the migration process with regards to shares and split levels, this is mainly a media server, movies, TV and a small ammount of music..the drives in the UNraid system  and QNAP now are....

 

UNraid server pre cleared unnassigned >>> 3 x 1TB, 1 x500GB, 1 x 320GB (earmarked for cache drive if i need it) & one free slot

 

QNAP >>> 4 x TB @ RAID5

 

The plan is to migrate everything from the QNAP to the UNraid (i have done some major housekeeping on QNAP), i plan to do this without assigning a parity drive, i know its risky but my data will be semi safe on the QNAP for now, when the migrate is complete i will pull one of the 2TB from the QNAP and put it in the empty slot of the UNraid and then preclear it and assign it as parity, so in that time the QNAP will be running as if there is one disk failure..once parity is completed and verified i will start swapping out the other drives from QNAP one by one, preclearing and assigning to array and letting parity rebuild on to it, eventually having....

 

UNraid 4 x TB (one as parity), 1 x 1TB & 1 320GB (maybe still earmarked for cache)

 

 

Heres the worry i have...i want to take advantage of using split level, do i need to set shares and split level after assigning array and before moving data over ? will i be able to play around with this after migration and change/move shares and split levels once all the 2 TB drives are in ?

 

Can you offer any better advice on how to complete this final phase of moving ?

Hi Loady,

I just finished my build last night and am in the process of moving all the data over.

 

Here is what I have so far:

 

I have basic license with 2x 2TB drives. I have not set the parity drive yet (will wait after all the files are copied over before setting up parity drive and deleting data from old drives)

 

I created a share called Library and set the split level to 2. Also, allocation method is set to High Water.

 

Then I browsed to \\tower\library from my Windows machine and created the following folders:

- Movies.EN

- Movies.Kids

- TVShows.EN

- TVShows.Kids

- TVShows.DOC

 

Now when I browse to \\tower\library, I see the folders above. After I copied over 1.4 Tb to TVShows.EN (660 GB), TVShows.Kids (400 Gb), TVShows.Doc (340 GB), 1 Tb was copied on disk1, remaining on disk2. I did copy TVShows.EN first then TVShows.Kids, and TVShows.DOC using TeraCopy with Test mode on. Seems to working just fine. Hope that helps.

but wont that leave you with files for the same program strewn accross two discs at some point ?, can you change that after you have moved everything over ?

 

Thanks

Let me make sure I understand:

 

Let's say I copied Chuck season 1-4 over to TVShows.EN along with whole lot of other files till disk1 was at 50%. Some time later, I add season 5 files. I would assume that the season 5 files would end up on disk1 rather than disk 2. Let me test this out. My initial copy is almost done. Once it is, I will add more files and see where they end up.

Files can be moved from disk to disk manually. Share settings only effect writes to user shares. User share files on any disk will be included in the share view. unRAID will not automatically move files from array disk to array disk.

What im getting at, can i just get the data over now into one share(s), i e, a movie folder and a TV folder, no split level and then once data is accross setup the shares and split levels i need depending on the space taken by them.... once all the 2tb drives are in i can allocate plenty of disk space to certain folders

Can't you just copy to \\tower\disk1\<sharename> or \\tower\disk2\<sharename> if you want them on specific disks? I have done this a lot and it does not compromise parity.

 

Similarly you can manually move content from \\tower\disk1\<sharename> or \\tower\disk2\<sharename>.

 

Check your share settings on each disk to make sure that the disk is shared. Either Yes or Yes (hidden).

im not copying from unraid to unraid. Im reading to much into this split level....i understand i have created a share called movies and have set the split level to 2, do i have to make shares within that folder of say SD films, HD films etc etc or can i just  create folders inside of the movie share via network in windows ??..doing so will populate those folders acrross the disks as per the split level i set

can i just  create folders inside of the movie share via network in windows ??..doing so will populate those folders acrross the disks as per the split level i set

Indeed, that is correct!

If you want to control exactly what disk things go to, once the Movies share is created, then you will see a Movies directory on \\tower\disk1 and \\tower\disk2 (for example). You can copy then either to \\tower\disk1\Movies or to just \\tower\Movies. The latter will decide which drive to put it on based on split level and the method of filling you have selected.

but given ample space, the folders will not be created untill theres a need to ? i have set high water which i think is the better setting for me, i certainly cant see a movie folder on disk4 and it is empty

Correct. The folders are only created when needed.