I have (2) 1TB nvme ssd drives mirrored for my cache pool. There is only about 400 GB available. When I download a large amount of data, I have to invoke the mover back and forth. I changed to downloading direct to the array temporarily, knowing it would affect speed. The actual download speed is about the same, but unpacking and other file completion processes are really slow on the array.

I have an old SATA 2TB SSD drive and two mounting spots in my server case. I was wondering if I should install it to download to it. Would that help with speed? Can I added it to my cache pool, or will that screw up the mirrored aspect of the (2) nvme? Or leave it as an unassigned device and use it for temporary download location

I realize I could upgrade the existing cache drives, but they are pricey.

Any guidance/input is appreciated.

16 minutes ago, wdpaynter said:

I have (2) 1TB nvme ssd drives mirrored for my cache pool. There is only about 400 GB available.

What is taking up the space? Do you already have your Docker/VM related shares - appdata, domains, system - all on your existing cache mirror?

Make the 2TB another pool, maybe call it download.

I have 2 pools.

2x256G nvme "fast" pool for Docker/VM related shares, they aren't moved.

2x1TB nvme "cache" pool for caching user share writes.

Yes, I have all my appdata on the cache. So I make another pool that is part of the cache, but not mirrored?

40 minutes ago, wdpaynter said:

So I make another pool that is part of the cache

It is a new pool - not part of the cache pool. Whether a share is cached is set at the individual share level, and it can use any pool (i.e. it does not need to be called cache).

There is often confusion between a pool called ‘cache’ and the caching facility which can use any pool. It just historical that the default name for the first pool is ‘cache’ as originally that was all it could be used for.

Got it. Thanks!

I changed my share settings back to download to cache until I add the new pool. I restarted the docker container (SABnzbd), but it is still showing my free space as the Array. I've refreshed the webGUI, etc. Any ideas?

1 hour ago, wdpaynter said:

Yes, I have all my appdata on the cache.

That is just one of the shares I mentioned. And arguably not as important as system share.

Attach Diagnostics ZIP to your NEXT post in this thread.

3 minutes ago, trurl said:

That is just one of the shares I mentioned. And arguably not as important as system share.

Attach Diagnostics ZIP to your NEXT post in this thread.

It seems to be working like it did prior to the temporary change, I just can't get SABnzbd to accurately show my free space.

Diagnostics attached

media-server-diagnostics-20260413-1250.zip

appdata, domains, system have all files on cache.

47 minutes ago, wdpaynter said:

still showing my free space as the Array

Not a lot of difference between freespace of /mnt/user0 (array) and freespace of /mnt/user (all user shares). 120G free on cache is sort of a rounding error when compared with 25T total free.

Do you have anything specific that would show what you mean?

So I have around 400Gb free on my Cache Pool after Mover does it thing each night. Like I said, today I temporarily changed my share settings to download directly to the Array which has 24TB free, which SABnzbd shown accurately. I switched downloading back to the Cache like normal, but SABnzbd still shows the 24TB free (Array), instead of however much I have left in the Cache Pool

Only way to fix that is to assign the download share exclusively to the specific pool you created in the share settings and setting secondary to none

Otherwise sab sees the /mnt/user combined free space for that share which would be SSD + Array

You can also see on the unraid "Share" Tab what it will appear as, note the column on the far right under FREE

Edited April 13Apr 13 by MowMdown

Just now, MowMdown said:

Only way to fix that is to assign the download share exclusively to the specific pool you created in the share settings and setting secondary to none

The free space that SAB reported instantly changed (accurately) when I changed downloading from Cache to Array. It was also correct for the last year or more before the change today. I then changed it back and it won't change back. I didn't change any settings

make sure you un-check the secondary and that the primary is set to the SSD youre using for downloads.

I'll check it out. Thanks!

EDIT: it worked removing the secondary. Thx! I thought it needed to be set that way so that the Mover would move from Cache to Array. Guess I am still confused

Edited April 13Apr 13 by wdpaynter

Downloads share in those diagnostics is configured to move to array, so array is included. Did you have it cache-only before?

Also, Downloads share has some files on disk18, so making it cache-only now won't get anything moved off the array.

Just be aware that mover will not move files from this storage device you will need to use other means/methods to move files to the array, this was only to have SAB report accurate free space.

1 minute ago, MowMdown said:

Just be aware that mover will not move files from this storage device you will need to use other means/methods to move files to the array, this was only to have SAB report accurate free space.

Yeah, this is weird b/c SAB was accurate and Mover worked as it chould (Cache>Array each night) prior to me making any changes today

2 minutes ago, trurl said:

Downloads share in those diagnostics is configured to move to array, so array is included. Did you have it cache-only before?

Also, Downloads share has some files on disk18, so making it cache-only now won't get anything moved off the array.

I just want SAB to download to Cache and then mover move it all to Array every night like it did prior to my changes. SAB was also accurate with it setup like that

If you have SAB configured with a mapping to /mnt/cache/Downloads, it will see only cache. If you have SAB configured with a mapping to /mnt/user/Downloads, then it is going to see the whole user share, cache + array.

11 minutes ago, wdpaynter said:

thought it needed to be set that way so that the Mover would move from Cache to Array.

It does. Without Secondary storage, there is no Mover action.

3 minutes ago, trurl said:

If you have SAB configured with a mapping to /mnt/cache/Downloads, it will see only cache. If you have SAB configured with a mapping to /mnt/user/Downloads, then it is going to see the whole user share, cache + array.

I am confused b/c I didn't change that and SAB was only showing Cache space prior. I think there's another setting or something that got changed in the shares or in unraid

I'm not talking about any settings within the SAB application. I am talking about the mappings where you setup how the container /downloads path is mapped to the host.

Post docker run for SAB

Wait, maybe SAB was moving files from "Downloads" to "Mediastorage" so I didn't have secondary storage selected for Downloads b/c it was just a temporary location. Then Mover would move files from "Mediastorage" on Cache to "Mediastorage" on Array ?

That's possible, but whether it would actually work like that would depend entirely on your mappings.

If /incomplete-downloads was mapped to /mnt/user/Downloads, and /downloads was mapped to /mnt/user/Mediastorage, then when SAB moves the incompletes to completed, they will go from /mnt/user/Downloads to /mnt/user/Mediastorage.

8 minutes ago, trurl said:

Post docker run for SAB

1 minute ago, trurl said:

That's possible, but whether it would actually work like that would depend entirely on your mappings.

If /incomplete-downloads was mapped to /mnt/user/Downloads, and /downloads was mapped to /mnt/user/Mediastorage, then when SAB moves the incompletes to completed, they will go from /mnt/user/Downloads to /mnt/user/Mediastorage.

I'm fairly confident this is how it is. Thx