Hi folks, first post so be gentle.

 

I've built a new machine, put in three 3TB drives (2 disks, 1 parity), loaded up unRAID, precleared, started the array, and I'm all set to go.

 

I'm getting just a bit hung up on the split level. It's a pretty easy concept (mostly) but I'm wondering, why wouldn't I just set my split level to a high number (10 - 20, etc.) and let all of the files and folders split across disks? Why should I care what gets put on what disk since unRAID will present a nice organized share? This should provide finer granularity for spreading across disks as well. The *only* downside I could see is that I may have to wait for another disk to spin up when, for example, going from one song to another in the same album.

 

I appreciate any knowledge you guys can share. Thanks!

 

Cary

Rather than setting a high value for split level I think you can simply leave it blanks?

 

The main downside as you mentioned of allowing files to be put any drive is a the spin-up delay if you switch to a different drive while playing media.  Many find this extremely annoying.

 

Others just like to have a level of control over where their files are placed.

Spin up delay can be several seconds. Maybe not bad if just going from one song to the next, but if you have a movie which is split into multiple files then maybe not so good.

 

Having said that, I don't bother with split level myself.

I vote with the smart guys above.

Ignore split level. 

YOU"LL KNOW LATER if its a problem, and it can be easily fixed then.

Otherwise, its a setting that helps in certain situations, but can otherwise be ignored.

 

Same with INCLUDE EXCLUDE.

I've found only rare examples where INCLUDE /EXCLUDE really matter.

(in my case, I use MAC Time MAchine, and to work properly all time machine data MUST be INCLUDEd on One Physical Disk.)

 

 

Thanks for the help!

 

I have been using mkv files or ISO files so I'd never get bombed waiting for a disk to spin up while watching a movie but that may not always be the case I guess.

 

When you say "ignore split level", what does that mean? Make my share split level 1 or 0?

 

Or do you mean that you write files directly to the individual disks (disk1, disk2, etc.)? That actually wouldn't be too bad I guess. I could still set up a share that exposes all disks as a single continuous share to my streaming devices (xbmc in my case) but just "manually" write to the individual disks when putting media files into unRAID (which will be infrequent). Is that what you mean?

 

Thanks again!

 

Cary

Leave it blank.

To ignore split level just leave it blank.

 

r.e. your "why bother" question => as already discussed, there's NO functional reason to bother with it with all of your media in single files.    The only notable disadvantage to having files split across multiple disks is if a single movie is, for example, in DVD file format with multiple VOB files, and during playback it needs to transition to another disk that isn't currently spinning when switching VOB files -- if you're watching the movie it'll be as if you pressed the Pause button for a few seconds while the disk spins up.  But with all your movies in ISO or MKV containers, that's not an issue at all.

 

 

Thanks again guys.

 

I did RTFM, but I didn't search the forum (boooo...)

 

I found this: "By the way, split level 99 is essentially the same as simply turning off split level (just leave it blank)."

 

So essentially, from what I understand now, leaving split level blank is the same as putting in a high number there. unRAID will take care of splitting folders/files across drives and I'll just have to be aware that if I ever store a video as a DVD/Blu file structure, it may span drives and cause a pause while the next drive spins up. I can live with that I think.

 

Cary

So essentially, from what I understand now, leaving split level blank is the same as putting in a high number there. unRAID will take care of splitting folders/files across drives and I'll just have to be aware that if I ever store a video as a DVD/Blu file structure, it may span drives and cause a pause while the next drive spins up. I can live with that I think.

 

Yes, that's correct.  Just leave it blank.  Note that even if you do start storing files in their original structure, UnRAID doesn't change drives often when writing files unless you've got the allocation method set to "Most free" (in which case it changes much more frequently).