Share Settings for General Backup

[EarthImage]

Hello, Just built my first unraid server with parts laying around the office. The purpose of the server is for general backups of digital art (files up to a couple gig). The server will be used for backing up data. We will not be watching movies from it! Have to admit I'm a bit confused with shares and split levels. Currently I have 3 2TB green drives installed, one as parity.

 

So if I want to create a simple share called "Art", then I assume using "Allocation Method = Fill up" is best (??), but then what should I set the "split level" to? Eventually I can see having 6 2TB drives.

 

On my desk at work the parts are piling up for a 24 drive beast that will be used for storing satellite imagery (HUGE datasets up to 100GB+). So I'm hoping that by fiddling with my little home server I can get my head around the share settings and basic unraid concepts.

 

Any general guides out there for us non-streaming media folk? 

 

Absolutely thrilled by what I have seen of this unraid technology!!

 

Thanks, Peter

 

 

 

 

[lionelhutz]

Look at the shares section in the unofficial manual in the unRAID Wiki.

[EarthImage]

"Look at the shares section in the unofficial manual in the unRAID Wiki."

 

I have read the Wiki (official and un-offical UnRaid Manuals and many, many posts on this subject), but the subject, to me a least, is a little confusing. From what I have read, it seems that for general backup that setting "Split Level = 100" and an "Allocation Method = Fill-Up" might be good? But I am just guessing. Is "Allocation Method = High Water" better?? Is my Split Level set at 100 wrong? Being absolutely new to UnRaid and these concepts I have to say the answer is not clear to me.  Most examples and discussions are around Media and streaming movies (sigh... ).

 

Maybe a section in the Wiki for general backups would be good? An example of how digital photographers might want to setup there shares would be great.

 

There are always going to be people like me that just don't get it!

[aptalca]

It doesn't really matter whether it's videos or pictures or whatever. It's all about which files or folders within a share you would like to be stored together on the same disk.

 

Let's assume you have all of your stuff in a folder called "Pictures" within a "Backup" share (think of that share as a network shared folder that can span the entire array)

 

Your first level is the "Backup" user share

Second level is "Pictures" folder

Third level would be any folder directly under "Pictures" -for instance "Volume 1"

Fourth level would be any folder directly under "Volume 1" and so forth -in this example let's say "Day 1"

 

If you set the split level to 1, "Backup" user share will be created on every disk, but the "Pictures" folder will reside only on one disk. If that's all you will use, one of your drives won't be used at all.

 

If you set the split level to 2, "Backup" share and "Pictures" folders will be created on all disks, but the "Volume 1" folder will only be on one disk. So anything under "Volume 1" will be altogether.

 

If you set the split level to 3, "Backup" share and "Pictures" and "Volume 1" folders will be created on all disks, but the "Day 1" folder will only be on one disk.

 

 

The reason some of us care about it for our media is that, when we watch a movie with subtitles, both the video and the subtitle files get accessed. If they are both on the same drive, only that drive spins up, the others remain sleeping. That makes it quieter and more energy efficient.

 

If you don't care about having some of your files or folders to be stored together on the same disk, then just set a high split level (such as 100, or 1000 if you like), that way all of your files and folders will be distributed over the entire array.

 

For allocation method, I recommend "high water". That kinda fills up the array drives evenly. Personally I would get annoyed if some of my drives were completely full while some of them were completely empty, but it's just me. Also the wear and tear on your drives would be more even.

 

PS. With the split level, setting it too high is not gonna hurt you. But setting it too low might cause problems, such as if you fill up a folder that only exists on one drive all the way, the next time you try to copy something to that folder unraid will act like there is no space left because that drive is full, even though the rest of the drives might be empty.

[lionelhutz]

^^ what he posted.

 

The questions you posted can't be answered because you don't describe how you want to store your data.

 

The only other comment on the above - a too-high split level can hurt you if you're obsessive and just must have certain files stored together on certain drives. It can scatter files all over and then you have to go back and fix it.

 

The high water allocation works well unless you are compulsive about having your disks all equally used. Then, most free would be best. I don't recommend using fill-up.