Reallocation script

[stomp]

Hi!

 

I have currently drives that are filled over 90% and drives filled under 50%. How can I automatically reallocate files in order to level the filling per drives? Is there a script to do this? I know I can do it manually but this is pretty boring.

 

unRAID's allocation works fine and always fills the least filled drive. I have an historical imbalance because some drives where filled too much before adding a new drive.

 

Now, does this question make sense? I heard that drives filled above 90% might slow down the system. Any thoughts?

 

Thanks a lot for your inputs guys!

 

stomp

[Helmonder]

There is no such script. Only way to go is manual. I posed a similar question some time ago, most pluginwriters consider it (understandable) a bit risky to work on scripts that actually touch the data..

[garycase]

There's no reason to move any of your data.    WRITING to very full drives can slow down the system a bit, but reading from them doesn't cause any issues (other than the normal inner cylinders are slower than outer cylinders issue -- but that's always going to be true).

 

If you have your allocation method set so UnRAID is filling the other drives, it will never try to write anything to your 90% full drive unless/until all of the drives are filled to this level.

 

Bottom line:  Just leave your data where it is 

[stomp]

Ok thanks.

 

I did experience serious issues when my system was like 95% filled overall: I had to try to transfer several times the same file in order to complete the transfer. This resulted in dupes and corrupted files. Now that I installed a cache drive, I think this is no more an issue.

 

Thanks.

[Helmonder]

There's no reason to move any of your data.    WRITING to very full drives can slow down the system a bit, but reading from them doesn't cause any issues (other than the normal inner cylinders are slower than outer cylinders issue -- but that's always going to be true).

 

If you have your allocation method set so UnRAID is filling the other drives, it will never try to write anything to your 90% full drive unless/until all of the drives are filled to this level.

 

Bottom line:  Just leave your data where it is 

 

There could very well be a reason you want to balance your data differently though... Filled up drives with "old" data might remain spun down more, also having things split evenly will make for the loss of less data in case of double drive failure.. It is absolutely not necessary technically but there might be reason someone wants to do it..

[garycase]

...  having things split evenly will make for the loss of less data in case of double drive failure..

 

There shouldn't be ANY loss of data in the event of a double drive failure - no matter how the data is allocated on the drives.  That's what BACKUPS are for 

 

 

It is absolutely not necessary technically

 

Agree completely, as I noted above.

 

 

... but there might be reason someone wants to do it..

 

Agree.  Some just like the "feel" of having all of a particular type of data or a share on one specific disk (or set of disks).    But the reality is it simply doesn't matter from UnRAID's perspective.

 

UnRAID does allow some control, both in WHERE shares are written (via Includes or Excludes); and in HOW the disks are filled up, via the allocation levels.  Some like each drive to be filled before using the next (Fill-up);  some like to have the same amount of free space on all drives (Most-free); and others like to write a reasonable amount to a drive before switching, but not fill it up (High-water).

[Helmonder]

And some will want to change that strategy because they think there is a better way... Then unraid has no possiblilty of having the allready filled disk conform to the storage strategy you have chosen..

 

But its not that important really.. I have fallen into the set-and-forget mode with unraid a few months before and I really like it :-)

[garycase]

"Set and forget" is probably the best strategy 

 

... one point to consider:  UnRAID's writes work best on disks that aren't full ... so if you have a lot of "static" data you're copying all at once, you may want to ignore the allocation method and copy it directly to a disk share that's already getting moderately full.  Since the data's static, the fact you fill (or nearly fill) that disk doesn't have any future impact on performance.

 

On my media server, I do that once a disk gets above 90% ... UnRAID never copies to those disks, as I fill them up manually.  I have 5 2TB disks with less than 1GB of free space as a result -- thus virtually no wasted space.

 

 

[Helmonder]

"Set and forget" is probably the best strategy 

 

... one point to consider:  UnRAID's writes work best on disks that aren't full ... so if you have a lot of "static" data you're copying all at once, you may want to ignore the allocation method and copy it directly to a disk share that's already getting moderately full.  Since the data's static, the fact you fill (or nearly fill) that disk doesn't have any future impact on performance.

 

On my media server, I do that once a disk gets above 90% ... UnRAID never copies to those disks, as I fill them up manually.  I have 5 2TB disks with less than 1GB of free space as a result -- thus virtually no wasted space.

 

I do the same.

[itimpi]

I use Split Level settings on my shares to control how much things like TV series can be split across disks.    This means that once the path depth reaches the Split Level setting then any further file/folders under that are constrained to the disk where the parent folder was created regardless of the allocation method setting used.  This can mean that I occasionally need to manually move a TV Series between my drives to get a more balance allocation.