SimpleFeatures Tutorial - Disk Preclear


Recommended Posts

Together with simpleFeatures v1.0.11 comes a new plugin "disk preclear". This is essentially a GUI wrapper for the original preclear script written by Joe L. All credits go to Joe for his excellent piece of work.

 

To make use of the disk preclear GUI functionality the following conditions must be met:

 

1. The disk is not assigned to the array

2. The array is started

3. The display setting "Display unassigned disks" is set to yes (default)

 

Unassigned disks are displayed below the array itself and have the name +++. See the picture below.

 

preclear and parity sync.png

 

When the preclear process is running, its status and progress can be viewed in the table. Note that actions can run in parallel, that means multiple preclears can be started and can run together with a parity sync for example.

 

The name itself is a hyperlink to the disk preclear function. And an initial settings page is shown.  See the picture below.

 

preclear settings page.png

 

By default the execution mode "Test only" is selected. This mode performs a reading of the current disk status, without changing anything. To do a "real" preclear operation, it is required to select the appropriate execution mode. A warning message is given, and users need to acknowledge the operation to proceed - as a safety measure.

 

Once the preclear operation is started, its progress can be followed in real-time. See the picture below.

 

preclear details page.png

 

It is possible to stop a running preclear operation, but this may lead to a disk with corrupted data.

 

You are not obliged to stay on the preclear page. The preclear operation is started in the background and keeps running when you leave the page of close the browser. Upon returning to the page, the actual status is shown.

 

Hope this tutorial helps in working the disk preclaer plugin.

 

BonieNL

 

 

Link to comment

I was trying to figure this out, in the end I just used the command line, I notice my issue now:-

 

2. The array is started

 

Maybe add an option for people new to unraid (like me) who currently can't start their array due to the fact they have no precleared data drives?

 

That is a good point, I did not consider the situation where a new system without array requires preclearing of disks. Something to add for the next version of the disk preclear plugin. :)

Link to comment

Together with simpleFeatures v1.0.11 comes a new plugin "disk preclear". This is essentially a GUI wrapper for the original preclear script written by Joe L. All credits go to Joe for his excellent piece of work.

Although I'm sure you think you've made me happy, you have not. 

Please write your own preclear script and support it.  I do not support you using mine.

 

You did not even have the courtesy of asking my permission to distribute my work within yours AND you gave it a version number not under my control that conflicts with mine.

 

Please remove my code from your plugin.  You do not have my permission to use it.    Write your own d*** script.

 

Joe L.

 

 

 

Link to comment

Together with simpleFeatures v1.0.11 comes a new plugin "disk preclear". This is essentially a GUI wrapper for the original preclear script written by Joe L. All credits go to Joe for his excellent piece of work.

Although I'm sure you think you've made me happy, you have not. 

Please write your own preclear script and support it.  I do not support you using mine.

 

You did not even have the courtesy of asking my permission to distribute my work within yours AND you gave it a version number not under my control that conflicts with mine.

 

Please remove my code from your plugin.  You do not have my permission to use it.    Write your own d*** script.

 

Joe L.

Joe, I am sorry to hear this. It is certainly not my intention to offend you. Thought I was doing the community a favour by making preclear more accessible to noobs.

 

If you really that pissed off, I ask speeding_ant to remove this plugin from the download side.

 

If you have other ideas about how to integrate things, I am all ears.

 

 

Link to comment

Together with simpleFeatures v1.0.11 comes a new plugin "disk preclear". This is essentially a GUI wrapper for the original preclear script written by Joe L. All credits go to Joe for his excellent piece of work.

Although I'm sure you think you've made me happy, you have not. 

Please write your own preclear script and support it.  I do not support you using mine.

 

You did not even have the courtesy of asking my permission to distribute my work within yours AND you gave it a version number not under my control that conflicts with mine.

 

Please remove my code from your plugin.  You do not have my permission to use it.    Write your own d*** script.

 

Joe L.

 

As someone who both knows what it's like to have your work "Stolen" and as someone who knows how annoyingly hard it is for users who don't quite understand the CLI, sleep on it and tell us you're feeling tomorrow? I understand you're mad that he didn't ask you to use your script, however, his intentions were good, it was to help the community and make your program newbie friendly and was no where near "Mwuahaha, I'm going to steal all Joe's credit for his work".

 

Either way, I can understand why you'd do it, however, my input is that I'd rather see it stay, but, it's your script so you can do whatever you want.

Link to comment

May I offer an intermediate solution:

 

Let the gui show progress of preclear only. This works allready, I started preclear the known way and status was visible on the main page.

 

This is added functionality and not an intrusion on Joe's tool.

 

I think he's more pissed about the fact he didn't ask than the fact that he used it, personally, if I made something and someone asked to include it in their project, I'd say sure, however, if they just took it I'd be pretty pissed.

 

Although, I'm not Joe, I'm probably far off.

Link to comment

Whilst I understand and agree with Jo that permission should of been sort to use the plugin and the version numbers shouldn't have been touched this is a sad day.

 

I honestly believe simple features betters unraid and the pooling of all info and features into a centralized point can only be a good thing. It can be annoying jumping setting checking the status of various tasks.

 

With that said could we not leave the plugin in to display the progress of any active pre-clear?

Some info is better then none.

 

I'll be leaving the plugin installed on my system until a definitive solution can found using the Web interface.

 

Sorry I dint want to installs UN menu even though I miss some of the features since weeping my system and starring again with simple features and a couple of other plugins.

 

Just my 2 cents

 

 

 

Link to comment

May I offer an intermediate solution:

 

Let the gui show progress of preclear only. This works allready, I started preclear the known way and status was visible on the main page.

 

This is added functionality and not an intrusion on Joe's tool.

 

+1

+2

+3

I don't think this intrudes on Joe L's script it just uses the output to display the status.

The preclear itself will still be run on Joe L's original script from the command line.

 

Link to comment

this could have been handled a lot better.....    but even now I can't see why a GUI can't be released that requires the user to obtain the original script from its original source and then manually added to a folder... as long as it was made clear that the author of the original script did not provide any support then I can't see an issue... 

 

 

Link to comment

Cant see the problem either if all the plugin is doing is outputting from the script, but here's hopping that sense prevails.

 

There can be more then one mymain type interface :)

It was NOT just displaying the output.  It included a modified version of my preclear_disk script in the released plugin without asking permission or coordinating with me in any way.

 

When the original extensions for e-mail notification and MyMain status display were developed, their respective authors contacted me and submitted their respective changes so the preclear_disk program could be made better.  In both cases, I included their changes and the final result was better as they did not have the scripting experience needed to make the final result more polished and idiot proof.  (yes, I said it, idiot... because at the time you accidentally clobber your own data  as a result of using any program you'll feel like an idiot, and blame the author, calling them an idiot as well.)

 

bonienl elected to include a modified version of my script in his plugin.  It does NOT just display the output.  I was not involved in making sure the changes would not cause issues elsewhere.  I really do not like the ability to bypass the "I'm sure" prompt, as a single mistake can cause so much grief. (as well as other issues I can think of in just a quick review...)

 

Rather than work WITH me on a solution, bonienl elected to go off on his own.  Great initiative, but so wrong.

 

For that reason I asked he remove my code from his plugin. Otherwise, we would have to worry about side effects from his changes, and my improvements overwriting his...  Or worse, his overwriting mine.

 

I appreciate his taking the initiative, and attempting a solution on his own, but it is not as if I'm very hard to find, contact, or work with.

 

Joe L.

Link to comment

I wrote a little program years ago and the same kind of thing happened. I wasn't too upset because I was the one that made it publicly available on the Internet, didn't have a patent or copyright protection on it so there is nothing I could do anyway. Once you put something up on the Internet, it is pretty much out of your hands. I wish it wasn't like that, but that's the way it goes.

 

 

 

Link to comment

I wrote a little program years ago and the same kind of thing happened. I wasn't too upset because I was the one that made it publicly available on the Internet, didn't have a patent or copyright protection on it so there is nothing I could do anyway. Once you put something up on the Internet, it is pretty much out of your hands. I wish it wasn't like that, but that's the way it goes.

 

Aha, but at least we have the decency to accept the mistake, apologise gracefully, and remove the offending plugin completely. 

Link to comment

You did not even have the courtesy of asking my permission to distribute my work within yours

 

To clarify (slightly off topic) - you don't see the preclear script as something that can be distributed or modified by others full stop because you own the code?

 

Or you're more concerned that it was modified and still credited to you (i.e its effectively no longer your script) for support reasons?

 

If the former - it would be worth making this exceptionally clear within the script and in the forum topic (perhaps formally applying a specific license to it based on your needs) for it as I think most people would assume - given the nature of the script and how it's distributed - that it would be ok to reuse it as necessary. I can't obviously see anything that would make it obvious this would upset you at the moment.

 

More on topic - it's a shame this has been removed as it would really be an excellent integration to have.

Link to comment
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.