So...I have unraid installed (5.0-rc12a) and it appears to be working fine, but I am sure it isn't setup "properly". I am just confused about certain things, so I have some questions:

 

My server is primarily for media storage (movies, music, pictures and random files)

 

1. What should I set the allocation method to?

2. What should I set the split level to?

3. Should I use cache disk? (I have a 32GB SSD for cache)

4. Should I have all my shares use the cache disk? (I currently store Plex Media Server Library and tmp on cache disk).

5. I currently do not have the parity disk installed, so why is Mover enabled? Can I disable Mover? I think Mover killed my Plex library/tmp because there was no parity drive to write to. (Perhaps I am unclear on the Mover task...)

Update to the latest release, currently rc15a. rc12a has several bugs that have been fixed. Ask about plex configuration in the user_customization or add-on forum. The mover has nothing to do with parity; it moves files from the cache drive to the array.

Yes highly recommend 15a

You need to read the Wiki manual to get a better understanding of split levels and allocation methods => but the bottom line is you can ignore both and the server will work just fine.

 

If you don't mind the slower write speeds, you can set your shares so they don't use the cache.  This will have the disadvantage that writes will be slower;  but the advantage that your data will be fault-tolerant as soon as you write it to the server (assuming you assign a parity drive).

 

Note that without a parity drive installed, there's certainly no reason to use a cache drive for your shares -- the writes directly to the data drives without a parity drive will be very fast.