May 16, 201313 yr I've been running unraid for a few weeks now but there are still a few problems I can't figure out by myself. Every time I connect a share on my mac running 10.8, unraid spins up all disks. (only 1 data + parity + cache at the moment) I have one share on my array, called unRAID and 3 shares that only use my cache drive. (a hidden share for plex and pyload, a time machine share and a share for temporary stuff like downloads) When I connect to my time machine share or my download share, unraid also spins up disk1+parity und a few things are read und written on both drives. This means that every time, time machine mounts the share all disks are spun up. That's not acceptable for me. inotifywait tells me following: /mnt/disk1/ ATTRIB,ISDIR /mnt/disk1/ ATTRIB,ISDIR /mnt/disk1/ ATTRIB,ISDIR unRAID /mnt/disk1/unRAID/ ATTRIB,ISDIR /mnt/disk1/ ATTRIB,ISDIR unRAID /mnt/disk1/unRAID/ ATTRIB,ISDIR I googled it, but couldn't find out how to avoid it. I also hate those damn .Appledb files and "network trash folder" and "temporary items" folders that continually create user shares... When I connect to my server through the finder sidebar and don't even access a share, it spins up my drives and writes files: /mnt/disk1/ ATTRIB,ISDIR /mnt/disk1/ ATTRIB,ISDIR /mnt/disk1/ ATTRIB,ISDIR unRAID /mnt/disk1/unRAID/ ATTRIB,ISDIR /mnt/disk1/ ATTRIB,ISDIR unRAID /mnt/disk1/unRAID/ ATTRIB,ISDIR /mnt/disk1/unRAID/.AppleDesktop/ OPEN .volinfo /mnt/disk1/unRAID/.AppleDesktop/ MODIFY .volinfo /mnt/disk1/unRAID/.AppleDesktop/ MODIFY .volinfo /mnt/disk1/unRAID/.AppleDesktop/ CLOSE_WRITE,CLOSE .volinfo /mnt/disk1/.AppleDouble/ OPEN .Parent /mnt/disk1/.AppleDouble/ ACCESS .Parent /mnt/disk1/.AppleDouble/ CLOSE_WRITE,CLOSE .Parent /mnt/disk1/Network Trash Folder/.AppleDouble/ OPEN .Parent /mnt/disk1/Network Trash Folder/.AppleDouble/ ACCESS .Parent /mnt/disk1/Network Trash Folder/.AppleDouble/ MODIFY .Parent /mnt/disk1/Network Trash Folder/.AppleDouble/ CLOSE_WRITE,CLOSE .Parent /mnt/disk1/Temporary Items/.AppleDouble/ OPEN .Parent /mnt/disk1/Temporary Items/.AppleDouble/ ACCESS .Parent /mnt/disk1/Temporary Items/.AppleDouble/ MODIFY .Parent /mnt/disk1/Temporary Items/.AppleDouble/ CLOSE_WRITE,CLOSE .Parent /mnt/disk1/.AppleDesktop/ OPEN .volinfo /mnt/disk1/.AppleDesktop/ MODIFY .volinfo /mnt/disk1/.AppleDesktop/ MODIFY .volinfo /mnt/disk1/.AppleDesktop/ CLOSE_WRITE,CLOSE .volinfo I'm pretty upset as nothing I have tried yet to disable this worked. Is there a way to at least don't make time machine spin up all drives? best regards
May 16, 201313 yr Parity will spin whenever a write is done to the array. AFP will write meta-data to the Apple files when the AFP share is opened. The cache drive will spin for reading in order to list the directory contents. The cache-dirs add-on may help to limit the spin-up due to read directory listings. Time machine is writing to the array so at least disk1 and parity must spin when TM is active. If you stop using to cache drive with the TM share it will not need to spin.The cache drive is only used for new files; modifications to existing files are written directly to the array, unless the file still resides on the cache.
May 16, 201313 yr Author I'm already using cache-dirs. Time machine uses a cache-only share, it's not writing anything to the array except the few lines I've posted above when mounting the share. My Cachedrive is spinning all the time because of pyload and plex. I don't care about that. The thing that's annoying me is that my array is spun up although I'm not accessing anything on it.
May 18, 201313 yr Author It has no Files on the Array. But Whenever my Time machine share is mounted on my Mac, inotifywait gives me the following Lines on Disk1: /mnt/disk1/ ATTRIB,ISDIR /mnt/disk1/ ATTRIB,ISDIR /mnt/disk1/ ATTRIB,ISDIR unRAID /mnt/disk1/unRAID/ ATTRIB,ISDIR /mnt/disk1/ ATTRIB,ISDIR unRAID /mnt/disk1/unRAID/ ATTRIB,ISDIR What do they mean? I also noticed that writing to a cached share or a cache-only share is as Slow as writing directly to the Array. If I write Files directly to the cache disk share, the Write Speeds are as expected, about two Times faster than writes to the Array. The Files are definitley only written to the cache drive, as the read/write counter for disk1 and parity in the webinterface doesn't rise during writing. What could be the reason that writing to a cached User share is as slow as writing directly to the Array? (20-25mb/s) while writing to the cache Disk share is a lot faster? (40-60mb/s)
May 18, 201313 yr Not an Apple guy, but a few things jump out from this thread ... (a) It appears the Apple is writing some metadata files every time you access the array ... this would explain the spin-ups. (b) The slow writes are a mystery => are you sure every share is set to be cached? © If you simply spinup all drives (Click the "Spin Up all ..." button), is the performance okay then? (d) Most important (in terms of isolating this to the specific interface vs. the UnRAID server) ... do you have the same issues if you access UnRAID from a PC ?
May 18, 201313 yr Author Hi gary, I'm absolutely sure that the shares are set to be cached. Most of the time I'm using my mac, all drives are spun up anyway so there's no difference in performance. But the last test gave me some interesting results. I booted up windows 7 on the same machine (macbook pro) and connected to several shares on my unraid server. The first thing I noticed was that the directory view was muuuuuuuuch more responsive. I clicked on a folder and it opened without any delay, while on mac os it sometimes takes several seconds. By the way, the handling of network shares in windows 7 is much better than in mac os. Then I transfered a mkv file (1.8gb) to a cache-only share and got pretty stable transfer speeds in the low forties. (42-44mb/s) After that I transfered the same file directly to the cache-disk and got a slightly better, but highly fluctuating speed (around 49mb/s). (shown in the picture) I have to mention that my cache drive is a pretty old 250gb 2.5inch laptop drive that won't provide any better performance. I'm pretty sure that changing that drive should give much better speeds. So this is the exact behaviour I would expect from unraid, except the fluctuating speeds. In Mac OS I get these fluctuating speeds all the time. I tried the smb share in mac os after that and got slightly better speeds than with the afp share, but not as good as in windows. I had a netgear nas before and it was highly responsive in finder, like unraid in windows. I never compared the write speeds between windows and mac, because I never had any issues with that device and got stable write speeds in the high 40s. Is it a known issue that the performance of unraid under mac os is that bad, or is it just me? If it's just me than setting up a fresh mac os would probably solve this?
May 18, 201313 yr The old, small cache drive may in fact explain why your writes are only in the mid-40's. As f"... What could be the reason that writing to a cached User share is as slow as writing directly to the Array? (20-25mb/s) while writing to the cache Disk share is a lot faster? (40-60mb/s)" ==> Clearly you SHOULD get the cache speeds, not the slower writes-with-parity rate that direct array writes cause. Are you SURE you're writing to the share? e.g. if you have a share called "MyStuff", then there will be a "MyStuff" folder on each drive that's got data for the share. So you can write to "\\Tower\MyStuff\", or to the component folders ... e.g. \\Tower\Disk1\MyStuff\ or \\Tower\Disk2\MyStuff\, etc. But only the first one is actually writing to the share -- if you direct a write to the component disk folders it is NOT cached. Also, as I noted earlier, in v5 there's a box you have to check on the Shares setup page to set a share to be cached ... if that's not checked, then all writes are directly to the protected array. It sounds like you've already done that ... but it never hurts to be sure.
May 18, 201313 yr Author I have a cache-only share called "Cachedrive". I'm absolutely sure it doesn't write anything to the array. If i write to \\Tower\Cachedrive in mac os I get those slow write speeds. If I write to \\Tower\Cache I get the speeds I would expect when writing to the cache drive. Anyway, in both cases the write speeds are highly fluctuating under mac os. (down to 5mb/s and up to 60mb/s) Connecting to the same shares in windows works without any issues, so it's definitely caused by mac os, but I have absolutely no idea what could cause this behavior.
May 18, 201313 yr ... it's definitely caused by mac os, but I have absolutely no idea what could cause this behavior. The good news is the UnRAID box is working well. The bad news is that doesn't help with whatever is going on with the Mac. I'm as stumped as you are -- I'm simply not a "Mac" person. Have you tried the various network protocols UnRAID supports? [in particular AFP] It seems likely that SOME combination of protocol settings on the Mac & UnRAID will resolve this, but I simply am not familiar with what works best with Macs. Hopefully an "Apple guru" who uses UnRAID will chime in
May 18, 201313 yr Author I'm using afp, but the issue also occurs with smb. That was one of the first things I tried. Nfs didn't work straightaway and I won't care about it as afp should be the way to go with a mac. If no one has any more ideas, I will try to set up a fresh mountain Lion and unraid install and see if that will make any difference.
May 18, 201313 yr ... set up a fresh mountain Lion and unraid install and see if that will make any difference. Certainly seems like a good idea. Post back with the results.
May 21, 201313 yr It has no Files on the Array. But Whenever my Time machine share is mounted on my Mac, inotifywait gives me the following Lines on Disk1: /mnt/disk1/ ATTRIB,ISDIR /mnt/disk1/ ATTRIB,ISDIR /mnt/disk1/ ATTRIB,ISDIR unRAID /mnt/disk1/unRAID/ ATTRIB,ISDIR /mnt/disk1/ ATTRIB,ISDIR unRAID /mnt/disk1/unRAID/ ATTRIB,ISDIR What do they mean? I suggest that you delete all of the Apple files on disk1. AFP will create them as needed. Somehow the files have been placed on disk1. They should be recreated on the cache-only share.
May 25, 201313 yr Author Reinstalling Mac OS and unraid did nothing about it. But I'm now absolutely sure that it's an issue with the user shares. I checked the writing speeds directly to disk1 without parity and directly to my cache disk. They were absolutely fine. But as soon as I wrote to a user share, the write speeds dropped to around 25mb/s. Tested with smb and afp. The issue with slower write speeds to user shares also occurs under windows, but not as rigorous as under mac os. Under windows it's just a few mb/s. Can someone confirm this? Back to my initial question: I deleted all Apple files several times on all disks and tried it with a new share but it didn't solve the thing. Anyway, It seems I have just found the solution: Every time a mac connects to the server, the mac seems to access all user shares that are enabled for the user you use to connect to it and therefore spins up all disks. I created a new user called "tm", that only has access to my time machine share. I'm just doing the initial backup and it didn't spin up my array during connecting. I will see if it stays that way during further backups and post back.
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