I've searched Youtube, Unraid forums and docs, etc., but I am having a hard time getting a clear picture of the following.  I'm sure time will reveal all answers, but if you have any insight or knowledge, it would be appreciated.  I'm running Unraid 7 Beta 2, have a 8 drive SATA xfs Array, a raid1 nvme cache btfs pool, and a mirrored smaller btfs SSD pool.

 

1. Is there anyway to speed up 'reads' from the Array with this setup?  I know ZFS has additional sub pools that can help with this, but is it possible using xfs/btfs?
2. Are there any apps that backup the Flash Drive that Unraid uses for the OS?  I know I can manually back it up by downloading the file, but is there an automated method that does it periodically and saves it to the array?
3. Most of my usage will be for media storage/server.  Since I have over 20TBs of media, I have to keep this data on the SATA HD Array not in high speed storage.  I know streaming is fine off of mechanical drives but I am concerned about the time it might take to spin up the drives where the data is located.  While I like the idea of the drives being spun down when not in-use, I don't want the user experience of browsing movies/tv shows to be slow due to the amount of time it takes to spin up the drives.  What concerned me the most is a video I saw that showed that Unraid 'has to' spin up the drives in order.  For example, it will spin-up drive one, then will spin-up drive two only when the first has completed (and so on).  If the data were on drive 8 for example, how long would it take for it to become available? I'm hoping this was an old video that no longer is accurate.
4. How do I designate a drive as a hot spare?  Do I add it to the array first, or leave it unassigned?  Is this a manual process (i.e. I add the drive to the Array once one fails), or is there a way to make this happen automatically when a failure is detected?

1.  You will be limited to speed of the single array drive.  Of course ZFS pools will be faster than a standard array but you lose the flexibility to easily expand as needed.

2.  If you install Unraid Connect it will back up USB for you periodically.

3.  In my experience it take 2-3 seconds to spin up a drvie.  If a video is started it will only spin up the drive with the video.

4.  You would just leave the drive unassigned.  You would select the drive manually that you want to replace.  You don't really want this automated as it could fail due to power or connection problem.

To add to 3, I don't notice a delay if a drive spins up. To be honest, it takes 5-8 seconds to start anything.

47 minutes ago, dougraid said:

I know I can manually back it up by downloading the file, but is there an automated method that does it periodically and saves it to the array?

This is actually a bad idea.  99% of the time if the boot drive fails, you will not have access to the array so the backup is unavailable!

 

51 minutes ago, dougraid said:

I know streaming is fine off of mechanical drives but I am concerned about the time it might take to spin up the drives where the data is located. 

 

There is a plugin called 'Dynamix Cache Directories' that you can install that will speed things up to some extent.  If you use it, just cache the Media share(s).  (It keeps the file info in RAM and if you try to cache too many files, you will get 'churning' if you don't have enough RAM.  I have about 2500 titles and it works fine with that number of items.) 

I just did some timing using KODI.  It takes about 12 seconds to open an 1080P .ISO file from a spun-down disk and about 8 seconds to open a 1080 .MKV file from a spun-down disk. 

 

It takes about 3 seconds to open an .MKV file from a spun-up disk.

1 hour ago, Gragorg said:

1.  You will be limited to speed of the single array drive.  Of course ZFS pools will be faster than a standard array but you lose the flexibility to easily expand as needed.

2.  If you install Unraid Connect it will back up USB for you periodically.

3.  In my experience it take 2-3 seconds to spin up a drvie.  If a video is started it will only spin up the drive with the video.

4.  You would just leave the drive unassigned.  You would select the drive manually that you want to replace.  You don't really want this automated as it could fail due to power or connection problem.

Great info, thank you.  

 

1 hour ago, kumper33 said:

To add to 3, I don't notice a delay if a drive spins up. To be honest, it takes 5-8 seconds to start anything.

That's not too bad.  I plan on filling up the first couple drives so they will be spun up most of the time anyway. 

 

1 hour ago, Frank1940 said:

This is actually a bad idea.  99% of the time if the boot drive fails, you will not have access to the array so the backup is unavailable!

 

 

There is a plugin called 'Dynamix Cache Directories' that you can install that will speed things up to some extent.  If you use it, just cache the Media share(s).  (It keeps the file info in RAM and if you try to cache too many files, you will get 'churning' if you don't have enough RAM.  I have about 2500 titles and it works fine with that number of items.) 

That makes sense regarding the boot drive, I will make an off server backup.  Is it possible to have a backup USB ready to go with the key ready as well?  It would be nice to have one ready on a moments notice if the current usb flash drive fails.

 

I did just install Dynamix Cache Directories.  I will change it so it just looks at the media shares.

 

Thank you all, this has been very helpful.

On 9/30/2024 at 7:12 PM, dougraid said:

Is it possible to have a backup USB ready to go with the key ready as well?

Only if you are willing to buy an extra license. The *.key is the license file, and it's bound to one flash drive at a time.

 

Realistically, the time it takes to transfer a key to a new USB is minimal, it's automated so as long as you have internet, it's just a couple clicks. The only caveat is the automated transfer is once a year to prevent abuse. Contacting support to get a key transfer sooner than a year is pretty painless, just need to tell them what happened and they'll get you sorted.