My concern regarding cache drive:

 

I added a 500GB cache hard drive. However, when I login to //tower the cache drive is always blinking (it has spun down.) Even if I "spin up" and start downloading files to the server from the Internet, or transfer files internally, the free space always stays 500GB out of 500GB. It's like the cache drive isn't even being used. Why are my files not being transferred to the cache drive first and then to the parity? Even when I download files directly from the Internet to the unRAID server, shouldn't they be technically saving to the cache drive first?

 

 

I'm running 5.0 RC11.

 

8GB RAM, quad core process, 1 Gigabit LAN, etc. Pretty powerful system for unRAID (I think).

 

Any ideas on this?

systemlog.txt

Whether or not to use cache is configurable per share. You must set a share to use cache before writes to the share will be written to cache. Then when mover runs any cached files for each share will be moved to the array.

Agh! I can't believe I missed this.

 

I went into my Settings tab > Share Settings > Cache Settings > Use cache disk > No. <--- I changed it to YES!

 

 

Another feature of unRAID version 5 cache is cache-only shares. These are shares that stay on the cache and will not be moved. This is useful for scratch storage when using plugins and other addons. Many of us have an "apps" share that is cache-only and we setup our plugins to store any needed working data there. Cache is ready before the array is started and so applications that are automatically started when unRAID boots will be able to start while the array is still starting.

I'm having an issue with the cache drive now that it's setup. The files are not moving automatically every morning at 3:40am to the array. I just checked this morning and the cache drive still said 330GB free out of 500GB. I was really hoping to see the files moved and the cache drive back to 500GB free out of 500GB.

 

The settings are set to move "automatically."

 

Am I missing something else here? 

If any of them are still open I don't think it can move them. Are you running Transmission or some other torrent? I think torrents that I am still seeding don't get moved.

 

Also, anything in a cache-only share or in a .folder are ignored by mover.

 

Shoot, I think you're right. I still have active torrents / seeding.

 

So basically just stop transmission on everything once my cache drive starts filling up, and then click the "move" button manually. Will this work?

If any of them are still open I don't think it can move them. Are you running Transmission or some other torrent? I think torrents that I am still seeding don't get moved.

 

Also, anything in a cache-only share or in a .folder are ignored by mover.

 

Best bet in this case would be to have transmission move the files itself upon 100% download, instead of letting the mover do it.

 

EDIT:- Or have it copy to a different folder (Where it doesn't seed) and then seed from somewhere like:-

 

.\cache\.appdata\Transmission\Completed\

 

and then have it delete once it reaches a 2.0 ratio or whatever.

Errr, LOL that sounds confusing to me.

 

Can I just shutdown uTorrent for a little bit, then login to //TOWER and click the move button and let it do it's thing? Once completed, it shouldn't screw anything up with the torrents and their seeding, right? My unRAID server is all just "one" massive drive letter.

Errr, LOL that sounds confusing to me.

 

Can I just shutdown uTorrent for a little bit, then login to //TOWER and click the move button and let it do it's thing? Once completed, it shouldn't screw anything up with the torrents and their seeding, right? My unRAID server is all just "one" massive drive letter.

 

Not very automated, is it? As per my name you can probably tell I like automation.

I took the cache drive out because I didn't like this non-automated stuff. However, the write speeds dropped dramatically. I think I found a solution. Let me know what you think.

 

The automatic move is supposed to happen at 3:40am every day. However, if torrents are going, or any access to the disk is happening, then the move doesn't happen.

 

What if I just setup a simple computer task to tell the computer to shutdown uTorrent at 3:35am, give it a good 2 hours (maybe 3 hours? what you think?) and then create another simple task to start uTorrent at 5:35am? I'm not sure how long the move process takes to go from the cache drive to the disk array. At most I download 200GB in one day. How many hours do you think I should give the move process to copy from the cache to the disk array if 200GB is the max it would have to move every day?

i would worry that utorrent would then say "wtf, i downloaded that, oh well, lets do it again" and start the download from scratch because its still in the active list.

I took the cache drive out because I didn't like this non-automated stuff. However, the write speeds dropped dramatically. I think I found a solution. Let me know what you think.

 

The automatic move is supposed to happen at 3:40am every day. However, if torrents are going, or any access to the disk is happening, then the move doesn't happen.

 

What if I just setup a simple computer task to tell the computer to shutdown uTorrent at 3:35am, give it a good 2 hours (maybe 3 hours? what you think?) and then create another simple task to start uTorrent at 5:35am? I'm not sure how long the move process takes to go from the cache drive to the disk array. At most I download 200GB in one day. How many hours do you think I should give the move process to copy from the cache to the disk array if 200GB is the max it would have to move every day?

 

Or, why don't you just tell tranmission to copy it to a cache only share, seed from there, and delete it.

 

Notice the word copy, not move, that way the original one is still able to be moved by the mover. It's what I do, works fine.

i would worry that utorrent would then say "wtf, i downloaded that, oh well, lets do it again" and start the download from scratch because its still in the active list.

 

There's an amazing think in P2P environments that's often referred to (in torrents) as "seeding".

i would worry that utorrent would then say "wtf, i downloaded that, oh well, lets do it again" and start the download from scratch because its still in the active list.

 

There's an amazing think in P2P environments that's often referred to (in torrents) as "seeding".

 

i know what torrents are.

 

my comment meant that i worried it would download multiple times until you notice and stop.

 

utorrent downloads to "/mnt/cache/.downloads/"

 

you stop utorrent, move the files, start utorrent.

 

the torrent is still active in the utorrent interface. my experience with utorrent on windows machines is that it will perform a verify on the download, find its gone, and re-download it.

Umm, I'm lost by what you guys said! LOL

 

When I closed uTorrent last time, logged in to the Tower and began the move process from cache drive to disk array, I let it complete, open up uTorrent and there were no problems. Nothing tried to redownload, etc. I think uTorrent could find the complete files by my drive letter path \\MDrive\Torrents, so I was all good to go.

 

I think I will just create a computer task to shut uTorrent down for a few hours while the move does it's thing every night, and then create another computer task to start uTorrent at like 6:00am. I'll just have uTorrent be closed for say 4 hours out of the day.

 

I'll let you guys know how it goes! I'm going to do it this weekend.