So I've had an Unraid box running for a couple of months and have set up shares, VMs (home assistant) and Docker containers (qtorrent, plex, etc) with everything working quite well. The server is based on an HP EliteDesk 800 G4 with two 18TB HDDs and an nvme (with a spare slot for another nvme) for a cache drive. 

My use case for this box is primarily for long term storage with the occasional media/video download and streaming. This in my mind would mean that I should be able to reconfigure the system so that it allows the HDDs to spin down as the data hosted on them is only accessed occasionally. 

How should I structure the storage (two HDDs and an nvme) so that all of my docker containers and VMs run from the nvme(cache) and only wake up the array drives when I want to access the long term storage or stream some media? Is this even possible? I've recently enabled HDD spin down but the drives never spin down so my config is clearly not correct.

Attach Diagnostics to your NEXT post in this thread. 

Here's the config of my Unraid setup.

ivanoviunraid-diagnostics-20240906-1717.zip

You want the 'appdata' and 'system' shares to be completely on the ;cache; pool to optimise the performance of docker containers (at the moment some of their data is on disk2) and to stop them keeping array disks spun up.   If space permits you also want the 'domain' share to do the same for VMs, 

 

The procedure to do this is documented here in the online documentation accessible via the Manual link at the bottom of the Unraid GUI.  In addition every forum page has a DOCS link at the top and a Documentation link at the bottom.   The Unraid OS->Manual section covers most aspects of the current Unraid release.

 

Once all the files for a share are on the 'cache' you can remove the Secondary storage option from the shares' settings and then make sure the Exclusive Shares  option is set under Settings->Global Share Settings to get even better performance for those shares. 

 

Do not forget that since you do not have a redundant cache pool files held there are unprotected so you want to use something like the appdata backup and VM backup plugins to make regular backups to the array.

 

OK, I moved across the appdata, domains, ISOs and system folders/shares using the instructions in the unraid manual but the drives still don't spin down. also for some reason there are a few folders which did not get removed from my array for some reason. Any ideas?

ivanoviunraid-diagnostics-20240908-2013.zip

The ‘appdata’ and ‘system’ shares still have files on the array.  This will keep array disks spun up.

Any sugetions on how to have those files moved? manually deleting them seems like a bad idea.

3 minutes ago, rossibg said:

Any sugetions on how to have those files moved? manually deleting them seems like a bad idea.

You could manually move them using Dynamix File Manager.

 

What is not clear is why they were not moved by Mover if you followed the procedure correctly.

Moved the remaining files manually which seems to have resolved my issue. Docker containers seem to work fine and the array does spin down which is what I was after. I'll add a second nvme to the pool for redundancy in the next few weeks and further configure for day to day things to go onto the pool and then get moved to the array for back up.

15 hours ago, rossibg said:

configure for day to day things to go onto the pool and then get moved to the array for back up.

Mover just moves, it doesn't do backup. Anything moved off pool will not be a backup, it will just be on the array and no longer on pool.

On 9/11/2024 at 2:35 AM, trurl said:

Mover just moves, it doesn't do backup. Anything moved off pool will not be a backup, it will just be on the array and no longer on pool.

Um... yea. I just used the word move as in the verb not meaning to reference the "mover" function in unraid. 

 

However you move it won't be a backup. Copy is the verb you need.