14 hours ago, trurl said:

Wait for it to complete, then post new Diagnostics

tower-diagnostics.zip

Everything that belongs on cache is on cache now. But not much really there. docker.img is gone of course, and libvirt isn't very large. Probably most of appdata and domains was lost when cache failed.

You could set appdata, domains, and system shares to Primary:cache; Secondary:none

and set them for Exclusive access which will make them more efficient since the OS will know they won't have anything on the array.

All of your other User Shares are set to not use cache. Writing to the array is always the bottleneck due to parity updates, but reading from the array only involves the single disk with the file.

On 1/8/2026 at 11:51 PM, trurl said:

Mover does work if things are configured correctly. I see you have the mover tuning plugin installed. Good idea to remove that at least until you have things working correctly and moving normally. I personally don't use that and never saw a need for it if you have things setup well.

Here is my philosophy on caching and mover.

The default schedule for mover is once per day in the middle of the night. Mover is intended for idle time. It is impossible to move from fast cache to slow array as fast as you can write to cache. Trying to move while still writing makes things even worse, so running mover more often isn't a solution.

Don't cache initial data load. If you need to write more to a user share at one time than cache can hold, don't cache that user share while that large write is happening.

To cache a user share, you set it to

Primary:cache; Secondary:array; Mover action:cache->array

You need to set Minimum Free on cache to larger than the largest file you expect to cache. If it needs to write a cached User Share file larger than Minimum Free, it will go to the array (Secondary) instead. This is often called "overflow".

You need to set Minimum Free for each of your User Shares to larger than the largest file you expect to write to that share. When it needs to write a User Share file to the array, if a disk has less than Minimum Free, it will choose another disk.

Even if you decide not to cache anything right now, you should go ahead and take care of Minimum Free for cache and for each User Share.

2 minutes ago, trurl said:

Even if you decide not to cache anything right now, you should go ahead and take care of Minimum Free for cache and for each User Share.

User Shares that will never be cached need Minimum Free set for the share so it can choose another array disk as mentioned.

I usually cache downloads, which can also speed up any post-processing needed. I use the DVR feature of Plex to record to cache. And I have some shares that I keep on cache just to avoid having to spin up an array disk. A subset of my music and photos for easy access by devices on my network, for example.

After you have taken care of those Minimum Free settings and setting up any cached user shares you want, post new diagnostics and we can proceed to trying to get your dockers and VMs going again.

5 hours ago, trurl said:

After you have taken care of those Minimum Free settings and setting up any cached user shares you want, post new diagnostics and we can proceed to trying to get your dockers and VMs going again.

I've set the minimum sizes across all shares.

I guess what I would like to do is have sabnzbd download to the cache, so downloads are quick and not using spinning disks, then have mover move the files off the cache (at some point) to the array. Which user share will i need to set up for this? Downloaded files into come to user/data/usenet/incoming

Are you using any 'arrs?

2 hours ago, sihorrocks said:

user/data/usenet/incoming

Not entirely clear about that path. Do you mean it is downloading to a subfolder of the user share named data?

1 hour ago, trurl said:

Are you using any 'arrs?

Not entirely clear about that path. Do you mean it is downloading to a subfolder of the user share named data?

Yes the full suite. And yes - i followed the pretty standard TRaSH guide and used the folder recommendations in there. Do I just setup user/data share as cache > array?

Edited January 13Jan 13 by sihorrocks

So the 'arrs will actually be moving the downloads to other user shares?

Yeah but still within user/data - so sabnzbd is downloaded to user/data/usenet/incoming and then unpacked file added to user/data/usenet/complete then arr picks them up, renames and places in user/data/usenet/media - with corresponding subfolders (movies/TV-shows etc)

15 minutes ago, trurl said:

So the 'arrs will actually be moving the downloads to other user shares?

So actually, the answer is no. Not to other user shares.

Set data user share to

Primary:cache; Secondary:array; Mover action:cache->array

10 hours ago, trurl said:

post new diagnostics

30 minutes ago, trurl said:

So actually, the answer is no. Not to other user shares.

Set data user share to

Primary:cache; Secondary:array; Mover action:cache->array

Done.

Diagnostics attached.

tower-diagnostics-20260113-1548.zip

So actually, the answer is no. Not to other user shares.
Guess I didn't understand the question totally, I am bit woolly on what is defined as a user share or disk share vs. a folder. Is the definition of an individual share defined by it being created and listed in the share list?

The movies and music shares are empty and unused. I should probs remove.

11 hours ago, sihorrocks said:

Done.

Diagnostics attached.

Looks like you set your data share to

Mover action:array->cache

instead of

Mover action:cache->array

11 hours ago, sihorrocks said:

I am bit woolly on what is defined as a user share or disk share vs. a folder. Is the definition of an individual share defined by it being created and listed in the share list?

I don't recommend using Disk Shares. Some ways to get yourself into trouble with that. In particular, you must never mix User Shares with array disks/pools when moving or copying. You can work with the disks directly in the built-in File Manager in the webUI, which will prevent you from making this mistake. No need to have disks/pools directly accessible on the network.

User Shares are simply the combined top level folders on array disks and pools (such as cache). This is how Unraid allows folders to span array disks/pools. Files cannot span array disks/pools, each file is completely contained on a single array disk or pool. Unassigned Devices are not part of User Shares.

When you create a user share in the webUI, Unraid creates a top level folder, named for the user share, on array and/or pools as needed in conformance with settings for the share.

Conversely, if you create a top level folder on array or pools, it is automatically a user share named for the folder. If you don't make settings for a user share it has default settings.

11 hours ago, sihorrocks said:

The movies and music shares are empty and unused. I should probs remove.

If you put all your media into the data user share, you can't make different share settings for your different media types since they are all in the same user share.

This may not be important to you.

Minimum Free

https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/using-unraid-to/manage-storage/shares/#minimum-free-space

Allocation Method

https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/using-unraid-to/manage-storage/shares/#allocation-method

Split Level

https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/using-unraid-to/manage-storage/shares/#split-level

Split Level lets you keep files together that might be used together so different disks don't have to be accessed. Music Albums, TV Seasons, etc. For example, if a music album has files on different disks, there might be a delay when going from one song to the next while another disk spins up.

Highwater Allocation (default) will usually keep files together if they are written together, so that might be another way to accomplish that.

18 minutes ago, trurl said:

never mix User Shares with array disks/pools when moving or copying.

Linux doesn't know user shares and array disks/pools are different views of the same files. So it might allow you to specify the same file as both source and destination. This results in it trying to write what it is trying to read. It creates an empty file to write to, then there is nothing to read.

16 hours ago, trurl said:

Looks like you set your data share to

Mover action:array->cache

instead of

Mover action:cache->array

Thanks for that - not sure what happened there. User error I suspect!

16 hours ago, trurl said:

If you put all your media into the data user share, you can't make different share settings for your different media types since they are all in the same user share.

This may not be important to you.

Minimum Free

https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/using-unraid-to/manage-storage/shares/#minimum-free-space

Allocation Method

https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/using-unraid-to/manage-storage/shares/#allocation-method

Split Level

https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/using-unraid-to/manage-storage/shares/#split-level

Split Level lets you keep files together that might be used together so different disks don't have to be accessed. Music Albums, TV Seasons, etc. For example, if a music album has files on different disks, there might be a delay when going from one song to the next while another disk spins up.

Highwater Allocation (default) will usually keep files together if they are written together, so that might be another way to accomplish that.

Thanks - yeah I am happy with them all in one highwater share. Has worked for me, just for access from my various devices running jellyfin player in the house and garage. Haven't encountered any issues with playback.

So what's next for the docker and VM? New diagnostics attached.

tower-diagnostics-140126.zip

On the previous page, you gave me a screenshot of your docker templates from flash (config/plugins/dockerMan/templates-user).

Those are all the containers you can reinstall with the Previous Apps feature on the Apps page. Probably you don't want all of those, looks like there were some that were different versions of the same thing. And maybe you don't need krusader anymore either since you can manage files in the webUI now.

Default docker.img size is 20G, but you had it set to 100G. Unlikely you would ever need 100G. docker.img usage shouldn't grow except a small amount when you install another container. If it is growing, that usually means you have some application writing to a path that isn't mapped.

I have run as many containers as you had and never got close to filling the default 20G.

Go to Settings - Docker. Change these

Docker vDisk size (GB): 20 (we can make it larger if we need to later)

Docker vDisk location: /mnt/user/system/docker/docker.img

enable docker and apply

Then post new diagnostics

Docker settings updated. Diagnostics attached.

Can I go ahead and reinstall my apps? Will not reinstall legacy apps.

tower-diagnostics-150126.zip

Doesn't look like you actually enabled docker

DOCKER_ENABLED="no"
DOCKER_IMAGE_FILE="/mnt/user/system/docker/docker.img"
DOCKER_IMAGE_SIZE="20"

31 minutes ago, sihorrocks said:

reinstall my apps?

Yes. Have you used the Previous Apps feature before? Any that are missing their appdata will be starting over of course.

Great. I'll crack on with installing and resetting up my arr suite (will take a while). And I will be back in touch when they are all installed.

Do I need to do anything before starting the VM for Home Assistant? The SpaceInvader all-in-one HA package creates the VM as part of the install process.