Questions re: shares & split level

[jimmysticky]

Up all night reading about split levels.  UGH.  Wish they made that easier.  Anyway, I attached a pic of my setup.  When I click on "TOWER" I see disk1, 2, flash, and my newly created share, "Movies".

 

1. Why did it share each disk and the OS flash drive by default?  I don't want to see these shares, can I turn them off?

2.  Looking at the attached pic, I chose a split level of 2.  Is "disk1" considered a numbered share?  Is it zero?

 

I chose High-water, min fre space:50GB (metadata might grow), and included all (2) disks.

 

My current file directory is this:

 

Movies (share)

-----/new movies

----------/American Hustle

---------------/the movie and metadata

-----/Blu Ray

-----/DVD

-----/tv

----------/Seinfeld

---------------/season 1

--------------------/disc1

-------------------------/video_ts

------------------------------/vob's

 

3.  So this is how I understand the split level of 2.  Unraid may put the "new movies" folder on all disks but it will keep all folders after that together.  American Hustle and it's contents will be grouped on the same disk?

 

4. For TV. Seinfeld and it's folder contents will stay together.  I thought this was ok since I might jump around to different seasons and didn't want to wake several disks.  The Seinfeld folder is 174GB in size.  Friends is 235GB, King of Queens, 172GB, so on. Not sure if this matters.

 

Thanks for probably answering these types of threads thousands of times. 

 

Just wanted to add a #5.  No parity is set (yet), and no cache drive.  Copying data from a Windows span of WD greens to WD green HDD in the unRAID box, and it's transferring about 27MB/s.  Normal?  It started at 50MB but seems to like 27MB/s now.

[garycase]

To turn off the disk (& flash) shares, just click on the drive label on the main Web GUI page and set "Export" to either No or to hidden (hidden won't show up when you browse Tower; but you'll still be able to access it from Explorer if you type the name [e.g. \\Tower\disk1].

 

[garycase]

Not sure what you mean by "a numbered share" -- can you expand on this question?

 

r.e. the Movies share -- to use all the disks, you do NOT need to set any "Includes".  Probably don't want to do that; as UnRAID won't then automatically use any additional space you add later unless  you change the setting.  Includes and Excludes (Do NOT use both) are designed to either specifically include or exclude the disks used by a share.

 

I presume you understand that with High Water allocation, disk2 won't be used until disk1 is half full.

 

[garycase]

r.e. your extra question (#5) ... that's a very slow transfer rate for an array without parity.

 

What specifically are you copying FROM ("a Windows span" isn't very descriptive) ??  ... and what is the specific model # of the WD green drive you're copying to?

 

 

 

[jimmysticky]

I let the transfer go all night and when i checked this morning it was 1/8 done. The transfer rate slowed to 8MB/s. This not good. I was transferring 2.38GB from a span of three hdds. In my windows machine i combined two 2TB and one 1TB into a span. Basically, They are converted into dynamic disks and are striped.

 

These are wd ears drives. Copying to my freeNAS setup (all drives spin up on a stripe) the speed was a consistent 80MB/s. For comparison. Hmmmmm.

[itimpi]

I let the transfer go all night and when i checked this morning it was 1/8 done. The transfer rate slowed to 8MB/s. This not good. I was transferring 2.38GB from a span of three hdds. In my windows machine i combined two 2TB and one 1TB into a span. Basically, They are converted into dynamic disks and are striped.

 

These are wd ears drives. Copying to my freeNAS setup (all drives spin up on a stripe) the speed was a consistent 80MB/s. For comparison. Hmmmmm.

You might want to grab a syslog from unRAID for the period when the copy was in progress.  This would show if there were any issues that need looking at.

[jimmysticky]

Ok, how do I do this?

[jimmysticky]

To turn off the disk (& flash) shares, just click on the drive label on the main Web GUI page and set "Export" to either No or to hidden (hidden won't show up when you browse Tower; but you'll still be able to access it from Explorer if you type the name [e.g. \\Tower\disk1].

Great.  Thanks

 

Not sure what you mean by "a numbered share" -- can you expand on this question?

[glow=red,2,300]Meaning, is "Disk1" number zero or #1 when it comes to split level?  I set up a share of "Movies".  I counted this as level#1.  But if Disk1 is share #1, then Movies should be #2.  I think it is zero, so my setup is correct.[/glow]

 

r.e. the Movies share -- to use all the disks, you do NOT need to set any "Includes".  Probably don't want to do that; as UnRAID won't then automatically use any additional space you add later unless  you change the setting.  Includes and Excludes (Do NOT use both) are designed to either specifically include or exclude the disks used by a share.

[glow=red,2,300]In the literature it said leave both these fields blank if you want to use all disks and exclude none.  So I left them both blank.[/glow]

I presume you understand that with High Water allocation, disk2 won't be used until disk1 is half full.

[glow=red,2,300]Yes, this also confused me.  Not sure if the other settings would be better.[/glow]

 

Ultimately, If I can't figure out why my transfer speeds are so low, this was all for nothing since I would need to switch to a different NAS OS.  Glad I didn't buy the license yet. 

[dgaschk]

See SYSTEM LOG in my sig. The "numbered share" is called a Disk share and has nothing to do with the split level. The User share Movies is level 1.

[jimmysticky]

Thanks, ok I'll report back after work.  Hopefully the system log is intuitive enough for me to understand it.

[dgaschk]

Attach the syslog.

[jimmysticky]

Here you go.  Thanks buddy.

 

I started the transfer around 1 AM (this morning), and at 8am it only copied 267GB.

syslog.txt

[garycase]

As already noted, split levels have nothing to do with disk #'s.    The split level refers to how "deep" in the directory structure you can go and still split files across multiple disks.  A split level of 2 is fine for what you've outlined for your Movies share.

 

Leaving both includes and excludes blank is exactly right for your share settings -- that will let the share use all of your disks as you grow the system (if you decide to buy a license and build a larger system).

 

I had assumed you were referring to a large dynamic disk volume, but just wanted to confirm that.  As you've already noted (by copying to a different system), that volume should be able to read at disk speeds with no problems ... the 80MB/s you copied at is consistent with that.

 

Your transfer speed to UnRAID does not make sense.  I'd stop the transfer; shut down UnRAID, and reboot the system.  In addition, try a different set of Ethernet cables ... a cable with discontinuities will cause significantly lower transfer speeds.    You might also try a different port on your router or switch ... ports do go bad, and often not in ways that result in complete failure, but simply significantly lower performance.

 

[jimmysticky]

As already noted, split levels have nothing to do with disk #'s.    The split level refers to how "deep" in the directory structure you can go and still split files across multiple disks.  A split level of 2 is fine for what you've outlined for your Movies share.

 

Leaving both includes and excludes blank is exactly right for your share settings -- that will let the share use all of your disks as you grow the system (if you decide to buy a license and build a larger system).

 

I had assumed you were referring to a large dynamic disk volume, but just wanted to confirm that.  As you've already noted (by copying to a different system), that volume should be able to read at disk speeds with no problems ... the 80MB/s you copied at is consistent with that.

 

Your transfer speed to UnRAID does not make sense.  I'd stop the transfer; shut down UnRAID, and reboot the system.  In addition, try a different set of Ethernet cables ... a cable with discontinuities will cause significantly lower transfer speeds.    You might also try a different port on your router or switch ... ports do go bad, and often not in ways that result in complete failure, but simply significantly lower performance.

 

Would you recommend high-water, or fill up, or the other one?

 

Well, it's a newly installed network.  All same gigabit switches with same monoprice cat6 cables.  Being that I can transfer at 80MB/s with freeNAS I don't think it is anything on the PC/network.  It's gotta be unRAID.

 

Now with freeNAS all disks are involved since the data is striped.  Perhaps that is the difference.  Not sure.  I'm transferring about 900GB to the NAS using freefilesynce and that is going from 5MB/s to 60.  It's all over the place.  I'll attach a video to show.

[garycase]

Well, it's a newly installed network.  All same gigabit switches with same monoprice cat6 cables.  Being that I can transfer at 80MB/s with freeNAS I don't think it is anything on the PC/network.  It's gotta be unRAID.

 

Unless, of course, it's the cable that goes to the UnRAID system.  Certainly doesn't hurt to try a different cable and a different switch port.

 

The allocation method is entirely up to you.  If you want to fill one disk before using another, use "Fill up";  if you want all disks to be used uniformly, use "Most free";  if you want all disks to be used; but don't want UnRAID to switch disks very often, use "High Water".    Which you use makes essentially NO difference in the performance of UnRAID.

 

 

[jimmysticky]

Ok, I'll leave it at High water.  I'd love to buy a plus license but need to make sure I get this data problem sorted out.  I just realized the wife was doing an exercise video.  This was streaming to the WDTV in the living room. I stopped the transfer to the NAS.  Now my network utilization reads at .50%.  I'll reboot the NAS and try again.

 

Sorry GC, I'm not being difficult, just trying to understand how changing the cable would matter since it worked fine 2 days ago.  But, I will try.  BTW, I'm using the same exact NAS box that I was using with freeNAS.  I just wiped the drives and installed unRAID on the same box.  I don't have 2 NAS boxes.

[jimmysticky]

I did see a lot of this stuff in my log:

 

Files changed, reloading.

Apr 16 19:05:54 Tower emhttp: Restart SMB...

Apr 16 19:05:54 Tower emhttp: shcmd (486): killall -HUP smbd

 

Doesn't look good, but I'm a noob currently.

[garycase]

Your writes will be a LOT slower if the server is also being used by other devices at the same time -- e.g. streaming videos.    Seems unlikely that was happening overnight, but just something to be aware of.

 

[jimmysticky]

Rebooted but still doing the same thing.  I attached a video.  It starts at 10 seconds.  Notice at 30 second mark it jumps up to 100MB/s but then goes right back to 5MB/s.  That is where it stays.

http://youtu.be/H0OLFJcyfv8

[jimmysticky]

So, I started googling "slow write speed unraid" and came across a thread that linked to this page:

http://legodave.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/network-bandwidth-throttling-in-windows-7/

 

I did the first tweak and the third. Transferred the same folder as before when I was getting a solid 5MB/s, Troy (20GB).  It started at 80MB/s and crawled to around 20MB/s.  Came back to the page and did the other tweak in the middle of the page, Profilenetworkthrottlingindex, and set that at 50.

 

Transferred the same file and it started at 80MB/s and stay at a consistent 57MB/s until completion.

 

WTF?  Is that the average speed of a wd green drive? 57MB/s, with no parity or cache drive?  If so then that did the trick.  Of course the pc builder in me can't seem to wonder, what change happened where I needed that fix?  Maybe I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

[garycase]

Interesting -- at least the tends to confirm that the issue isn't UnRAID.

 

I will, however, note that I've never seen this problem with Win7 ... and I transfer a LOT of data between the various systems I have at home.

 

[jimmysticky]

It was short lived.  It must have crashed somewhere in the night.  Restarted in the morning.

 

Whenever I restart the system I have to go to the NAS box and put in "Root" and my password in order to connect remotely.  Why is this?

[jimmysticky]

deleted the array, created new share and it's back to copying around 15MB/s.  It peaks at 50MB then goes down to 9MB, averages around 25MB/s.

 

What is the deal?  Here is the log from when I created the new array.  I used Fill-up method this time.

unraidlogjimmysticky.txt

[garycase]

As I noted before, the allocation method you use doesn't matter with regards to performance.

 

Just for grins ... try copying directly to a disk share instead of the user share.

 

[i.e. copy to \\Tower\Disk1\Movies  instead of \\Tower\Movies ]

 

That should NOT make a difference ... but it'll at least confirm this isn't something strange with your share configuration.

 

[jimmysticky]

ok, I'll try.  I'm almost to the point of giving up.

 

What about the rebooting question?

 

And, I didn't pre-clear my drives, not sure if this is relevant.