Not putting data on all disks

[tucansam]

See Disk 3 below.

 

I am using high water, all disks are available for writing, and I have a min free spcae requirement of 30gb.  Disk 3 is taking very little data (disk 2 is actually taking almost all new data and its got the least amount of free space...)  Split levels vary from 2 to 4.

 

Any ideas?

[dgaschk]

See Disk 3 below.

 

I am using high water, all disks are available for writing, and I have a min free spcae requirement of 30gb.  Disk 3 is taking very little data (disk 2 is actually taking almost all new data and its got the least amount of free space...)  Split levels vary from 2 to 4.

 

Any ideas?

 

Split level has precedence over allocation method.

[tucansam]

So do I want my split level higher or lower? 

 

Also, when I change the split level on a share (using simplefeatures), it doesn't take.  If I refresh the browser, the share level returns to its original state (all shares currently set at "2").

 

Do I need to reboot after a split level change?

[Frank1940]

So do I want my split level higher or lower? 

 

Also, when I change the split level on a share (using simplefeatures), it doesn't take.  If I refresh the browser, the share level returns to its original state (all shares currently set at "2").

 

Do I need to reboot after a split level change?

 

Read this section of the unofficial manual:

 

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Un-Official_UnRAID_Manual#Split_level

 

 

[tucansam]

I've been through the Split Levels section of the manual, and sometimes I get it more, and sometimes it confuses me more.  I still have trouble understanding how it works.

 

Right now my share looks like this:

 

media\movies\movietitle\moviefiles

media\tvshows\tvshowtitle\episodes

 

(I am still fighting to get Sab to save to season folders)

 

Everything is set at Split Level 2.  I tried to switch it to 3, and 4, but it wouldn't change from 2.

 

According to what I've seen in the manual, I am thinking of creating two new shares:

 

movies\movietitle\moviefiles

tvshows\tvshowtitle\episodes\episodefiles

 

If I do this, should I do 2 for the movies and 3 for the tv shows?  Or 1 and 2?

 

On another note, if I have a positively huge folder full of misc files that need sorting (3TB+, tens of thousands of folders, six to ten levels deep), what split level should I be using to get the most out of my storage space?  The manual says that I can set the Split Level to a ridiculously high number (999?) and that will essentially disable split levels... What does that mean exactly?  What about level 0?

 

[Frank1940]

........

Everything is set at Split Level 2.  I tried to switch it to 3, and 4, but it wouldn't change from 2.

 

Did you click on 'Apply' and then on 'Done' to save the changes? 

 

According to what I've seen in the manual, I am thinking of creating two new shares:

 

movies\movietitle\moviefiles

tvshows\tvshowtitle\episodes\episodefiles

 

If I do this, should I do 2 for the movies and 3 for the tv shows?  Or 1 and 2?

 

On another note, if I have a positively huge folder full of misc files that need sorting (3TB+, tens of thousands of folders, six to ten levels deep), what split level should I be using to get the most out of my storage space?  The manual says that I can set the Split Level to a ridiculously high number (999?) and that will essentially disable split levels... What does that mean exactly?  What about level 0?

 

let's look at an example.  Let's say the split  level is set to 1 for the movies and 2 for tvshows.  This will keep all of the files associated with each movie on a one disk but allow the movies themselves to be allocated to different disks as dictated by the storage allocation method.  In the case of the tvshows, using 2 will allow the episodes of of each TV show to be on separate disks but all of the files for each episode will be on a single disk. 

 

Why is the split level important?  Let's look at the case of a DVD.  The file structure of a DVD splits the video up into several files of less than 1GB.  If these files are split across two disks, when the first file finishes playing, the second disk will have to be spun up and the playback of the movie will pause until the disk is ready.  Most people consider this behavior to be completely unacceptable.  Hence, we need a method to assure that this does NOT happen and the Split Level is the mechanism that unRAID uses.  (Note this only happens WHEN the first disk reaches reaches the point that it meets the 'start using the next disk' point as determined by the 'Space Allocation' method.  Up to that point, all files go to the same disk.  It really becomes a major issue when the entire array approaches its totally full point!) 

 

However, setting the split level too low can result in all files being forces to a single disk.  This is what happened with your setting of 2 with your original share setup. 

 

Setting the Split Level to 999 essentially eliminates the split level control.  The sole determining factor will be the Storage Allocation method.

 

 

[tucansam]

Thanks Frank, this actually make a lot of sense now.  The split level is the actual depth in the directory tree at which a split across disks is allowed to take place.  That makes perfect sense.  I don't know why all the drawings, manual, and posts were so confusing.  Maybe I needed to have it compared to my own directory structure as you did so I could get it.  Awesome, thanks.

 

And in simple features I think my only option is "save" when I change the split level... Could be wrong though but I'll check when I get home.  Should it be possible to change the split level of an existing share to a lower depth (higher number)?  And that will have the effect of beginning to spread more data around more disks on future copies to that share?  Hopefully I am getting this right.

 

Final question... Should I decide to simply redo my shares completely, and have a "tv" and a "movie" share separately, instead of nested in a "media" share as I do now... Can I just move the contents of each directory in my existing share over to a temp share (I have a share called "temp" with a split level of 999)?  And then move the contents back into their new shares?  And that will start the allocation/split level process right off the bat?

 

In a situation like that, are the old/empty directories on the server, that are no longer even part of a defined share, cleaned up automatically, or will I need to address each physical disk by hand and clean up?

[Frank1940]

Man, you have a problem that will require some real thought and planning.  You don't have a lot of free space on you array to do a massive amount of 'moving' of files-- Particularity between disks.  A normal 'move' in Linux between disks involves a copy operation followed by a delete (or remove) operation.  Both files exist for period of time.  For a single file this will properly not present a problem.  But I am not sure what the exact process is when you are doing more than one file.  If all of the files are copied before they are deleted, you could run into a space issue. 

 

I am also not quite sure what Linux does when a move is called for a single disk.  (With Windows, the file pointers are merely changed and the actual data is not moved.)  If Linux doesn't change the pointers, you will have two copies of the same file on the disk at the same and the space issue could crop up.

 

By the way, do you know that you can export each individual disk drive via samba by clicking on the disk name (Disk 1) on the Main page of the interface.  This will allow you see exactly how things are stored and may be a good way to lan out your migration.