I have finished setting up my first unRAID box and have a question about the cache drive.  Currently I have a 3TB parity drive, a 3TB data drive, and a 320GB cache drive.  On the data drive I have 2 shares -- Movies and TV, each setup with their own split levels and each configured to use the cache drive.  I have tested this and it works great.

 

I have a folder on the cache drive called ServerApps which is where I am installing sabnzbd and sickbeard.  I have noticed that unraid has created a user share for this folder and I'm not really sure why.  I thought the cache drive was outside of the array and that user shares were meant for data inside the array.  It seems like a user share is made for any new folder I make on the cache drive.  What is the point of this?  If I run the mover script manually these folders / files don't go anywhere and remain on the cache drive.  I guess im just a little confused.

 

Thanks.

 

The concept of cache drive only folders is a new and evolving process for unRaid. Originally the cache drive was never meant to be interacted with directly, only as a fast temporary incoming storage for files destined for the array. As such, it was helpful for files and folders on the cache drive to appear seamlessly as part of the array.

 

You can always set the user share to be hidden.

Thanks for the quick response.  I have the export disabled for each of these shares and I have checked the syslog to make sure mover skips these shares when it runs so I guess there is no real problem

 

If I were to make the ServerApps directory hidden then these shares would not show up right?  Is this what most of you guys are doing?  Or do you just make these directories visible and not export the automatically created shares via samba?

Depending on what version of unraid you have.

 

to make a folder on the cache drive only that does not import to the server will vary.

 

for the newer beta's of 5 (and final), you can create a "share" and set it to "only use cache drive". this share will live on the cache drive and not copy to the array.

 

for older betas and 4.7, create a folder on the cache drive with a "." (period) in front of it. it will not copy to the array and reside only on the cache drive. If you are a mac user, this could be an issue as that is also an OSX special character.

I am using 5.0-RC3 but I do not see any options to create a share and set it to "only use cache drive".  Where do I go for that?

Where you set up the share.

"Use Cache Disk" set to "only"

Thanks, I was looking for a "Use Cache Disk Only" -- Yes / No button.... 

Creating a hidden '.' folder will work in 5 as well. It's what I do - but only because I had no idea 5 had introduced this other cache drive only share feature

FYI, any top level directory you create on a data disk or cache disk automatically becomes a user share. That's just how user shares work - all top level directories are picked-up as user shares when user shares are enabled.

 

Double check the mover and the exporting. I'm not really sure what you're asking or describing. If you turn off the exporting for that share then it doesn't show up over the network. If you have not set it to cache only then the mover should have tried to move it. Check for the share directory also existing on the data disks.