Setting up shares

[senrab]

OK I have the drives formatted and it appears that everything is ready to go(I think..lol)

 

I want to add shares to my two drives that I have for data(1x2TB and 1x3TB).

 

I've read the wiki and I'm a little confused on how to do this.

 

I will be putting a lot of HD movies on these drives, music, software and well anything else I want safe.

 

What is the best way to set this up?

 

Thanks for the help(again!!)

[senrab]

K I think I have it figured out.

 

I set a share called 'Movies':

Allocation method: High-Water(was default so left it)

Min.Free space: 0(default so left it)

Split level:blank

Included disk(s): disk1 disk2

Excluded disk(s): blank

Share empty?: No

 

Does this look right?

 

K so when I map to the 'movies' share and copy movies to it, will it put the data on both discs? Is that how this works?

 

Sorry for the questions and thanks for the help!

 

[lionelhutz]

You might want to pick a split level if your movies are each in a folder with other support files.

 

You don't need to include disks if you're using all of them.

[trurl]

See here for allocation method.

 

High-water will use both disks (eventually).

[garycase]

For a movies share, assuming you're storing DVD folders containing VOBs, etc., I'd either leave the split level blank (which will, on rare occasions, potentially result in a folder that crosses disk boundaries); or set it to 2, which will keep all of the files for any single movie on the same disk.

 

As noted already, you don't need to list your disks as "Included" if you want all of them included.    Basically, if you list "includes", it will only write to those disks;  if you list "excludes", it will write to all disks EXCEPT those excluded.    [it doesn't hurt, of course, to always use one or the other to ensure precise control of which disks you want used for each individual share.]

[senrab]

For a movies share, assuming you're storing DVD folders containing VOBs, etc., I'd either leave the split level blank (which will, on rare occasions, potentially result in a folder that crosses disk boundaries); or set it to 2, which will keep all of the files for any single movie on the same disk.

 

As noted already, you don't need to list your disks as "Included" if you want all of them included.    Basically, if you list "includes", it will only write to those disks;  if you list "excludes", it will write to all disks EXCEPT those excluded.    [it doesn't hurt, of course, to always use one or the other to ensure precise control of which disks you want used for each individual share.]

 

Thanks for the help.

 

My movies are all MKV files. Most of the time there is only the one files in each folder but sometimes it does have additional files.

 

I have already copied a lot of movies over. Can I change the split level now? or will that screw things up?

 

Thanks again!

[itimpi]

I have already copied a lot of movies over. Can I change the split level now? or will that screw things up?

Split level only applies to where new files will be located.  It is irrelevant to files that are already on the array.

[garycase]

. Can I change the split level now? or will that screw things up?

Thanks again!

 

You can change any of the parameters at any time, and it will have NO impact on what you've already copied to the array -- i.e. split level, allocation method, which disks are included/excluded, etc.    All of these actually only apply to future writes to the array.  [e.g. if you remove a disk from the list of "Included" disks, anything already on that disk will still show up in the share.

 

[lionelhutz]

or set it to 2, which will keep all of the files for any single movie on the same disk.

 

Not necessarily true. I have to use 1 to keep all the files together. The Movies share simply holds a movie folder for each movie. 1 allows my movies share to split, but not each movie folder.

 

2 would apply if you had catagory folders and then movie folders under that. It would allow the movie share and the catagory folders to split, but not the movie folders.

[senrab]

Thanks for all the help!

[senrab]

OK I have all of my movies and TV shows copied to my unraid server and now it is time to add documents, music and stuff like that.

 

I am wondering what allocation method and split level I should use to set this up with. Sometimes there can be several folders and files inside of a root folder.

 

Is it possible to have all of these types of files on the same disk? Example: I created a share for my wife using her name and she wants to put all of her pics, documents and music on the unraid server.

 

Thanks for the help!

[jbartlett]

If you can store it on your PC, you can store it on the UNRAID server.

 

As for the allocation method, you'd have to look at your directory layout to see what you would benefit from.

[senrab]

If you can store it on your PC, you can store it on the UNRAID server.

 

As for the allocation method, you'd have to look at your directory layout to see what you would benefit from.

 

 

Well that's kind of where I'm stuck. I would like to just give my wife access to her share and she can copy things over the unraid server. Does it really matter if the files are on the same disks?

 

Thanks!

[garycase]

No, it makes no difference where it's stored -- UnRAID will manage the allocations.  Just make a share for her so when you're each browsing you see your own files 

[jbartlett]

You're overthinking it.  With the User shares (such as "Movies" or "Music"), you're given one directory that contains all of the files in that directory. Behind the scenes, the files could be located on multiple drives but you won't see that via the Movies share.

 

I have the split level on my Movies share set to 2 and my TV share set to 3. For the movies, the MKV & images are stored on one drive for each movie. For the TV shows which are stored like "TV/Supernatural/Season 1", each season is stored on a single drive.

 

When you use the split level, UNRAID first searches each drive in sequence until it finds a drive that contains the desired directory - it will then write to it disregarding other validations such as allocation method & min space. If it can't find the directory, it creates it on a drive using the specified allocation method.

 

Side note: If you have "TV/Supernatural/Season 1" on drive 1 & 2, UNRAID will only put new files copied to the share on drive 1 since it's the first drive it found the directory on.

[garycase]

Agree -- you're overthinking this.    As I noted above, it simply doesn't matter.  UnRAID will spread the shares across your disks as needed in accordance with your allocation settings and share settings.  It's effectively transparent to you -- you just access the share, and you'll see your files.

 

However, if you DO want to force data to a specific disk, you can always write to the disk share instead of the UnRAID share.  In other words, insead of writing data to, for example \\Tower\MyShare, you could write data to \\Tower\disk2\MyShare to force that specific data to be on disk2 => but it would still be part of your "MyShare" share in UnRAID.

 

[senrab]

Thanks for the reply.

 

I wasn't trying to over think anything. I was just wondering how I can get certain folders to have everything on the same disk. I have some software install folders that contain a lot of files and I think it would just make sense for them to be on the same disk. That way if I ever have any serious problems(knock on wood), I won't lose some of those files on a failed drive.

 

After a lot of reading I now understand that if I just map to the disk share and copy things that way it will all be on the same drive.

 

I will be doing that for certain things now. I don't really care if my movies and tv shows are on different disks.

 

Thanks again for all the help!

[garycase]

Thanks for the reply.

 

I wasn't trying to over think anything. I was just wondering how I can get certain folders to have everything on the same disk. I have some software install folders that contain a lot of files and I think it would just make sense for them to be on the same disk. That way if I ever have any serious problems(knock on wood), I won't lose some of those files on a failed drive.

 

After a lot of reading I now understand that if I just map to the disk share and copy things that way it will all be on the same drive.

 

I will be doing that for certain things now. I don't really care if my movies and tv shows are on different disks.

 

Thanks again for all the help!

 

A couple of comments:

 

(a)  If you want certain things to always be on a specific disk (or disks), then simply use an "Include" when you create the share, and UnRAID won't write to any disks not listed on the Include line.    [Alternatively, you can Exclude specific disks instead.]

 

(b) r.e. "... That way if I ever have any serious problems(knock on wood), I won't lose some of those files on a failed drive."  ==>  (a)  No way to predict which drive might fail, so this is a 2-way sword;  if the files were spread across multiple disks, you'd only lose those on the failed drive;  whereas if they happened to be on the same disk, you could lose them all;  and (more importantly) (b)  You should ALWAYS have backups of all your important data anyway.    Fault-tolerant storage is NOT a backup !!

 

[lionelhutz]

For the most part, it sounds like you don't care where the files are stored. Set a high split level (say 99) and use the most free or high water allocation method. Set include and exclude disks for each share if you so desire. The files will go where there is space.

 

Then, for the specific files you want to keep together using the disk share would be the easiest. Otherwise, come up with a directory structure for these and then a split level can be chosen to do it automatically.

 

 

Side note: If you have "TV/Supernatural/Season 1" on drive 1 & 2, UNRAID will only put new files copied to the share on drive 1 since it's the first drive it found the directory on.

 

This is not true with a split level of 3. The Seasons folders will be created on as many drives as necessary according to the allocation method as the show file are written to the Season directory. There will be no split level limitation on where the files are written. No wonder so many people get confused with the split level - people keep posting wrong answers that just confuse the issue.