Hi

 

My first unRaid build (Microserver N54L) and I'm puzzled by a user share issue.

 

I have the drives and settings as described below (parity disabled at the moment, for file-copying, though it's made no difference to copy-speed).

 

Parity: 4tb WD red (disabled)

disk1: 4tb WD red

disk2: 2tb WD Green

flash: 16gb

 

User Share:

Name: Media

Allocation Method: High-Water

Min. Free Space: 0

Split Level: 3

Included Disks: disk1,disk2

Excluded Disks: flash

Share Empty: No

 

SMB Security Settings:

Export: Yes

Security: Public

 

My issue is as follows:

I'm copying files from my old server across, into the user share 'Media' and so far it's simply filling up the 4tb drive, to the point where there's less than 50% left now. I thought the High-Water method would get to 50% on disk1 (so, once it exceeds 2tb) and switch to writing to disk2, until that is lower than 50% (1tb), then switch back to dsk1 again etc. However, so far there hasn't been a single file written to disk2??

 

I know I've missed something, just don't know what it is?

 

Any ideas.

 

Cheers

 

 

 

Some point on your configuration

• Do not use both include and exclude options.  In your case you can leave them both blank which means use all drives
  
• The flash (and cache if present) are never specified in either the include or exclude fields - only the array drives
  

The way that the high-water allocation works is not quite as you mentioned.  Instead with your disks as examples

• Look at the largest disk (2TB).  Select a high-water point of half that (1TB) and copy files to each disk in turn that has more than 1TB of free space .  A specific disk is used until its free space falls to 1TB.  In your case this means the first 1TB of files are copied to the 2TB drive.
  
• When the free space on all drives falls to 1TB, then set a new high-water mark of half that (500GB).  Start copying files to any disk that has more free space than that.  This means that the next 500GB gets copied to disk1, and only when its free space falls to 500GB will unRAID consider switching to disk2.
  

 

Another point to note is that split-level overrides allocation method.    With a split level of 3, any folder/file that has a path that is more than 3 levels deep (including the share name) is constrained to the disk where its parent resides.  Where that parent is located will depend on which disk unRAID was writing to under the high-water allocation method at the time it was first encountered.

Hi itimpi

 

Thanks for your fast, and very detailed response. Perhaps if I explain what I'm hoping to achieve, you can say what settings I need?

 

Basically I want one main share called MEDIA, this will span (and exist on) all array drives.

Inside Media I want 'MOVIES' and 'TV SHOWS' folders, these should span (and exist on) all array drives.

Inside 'MOVIES' I want genre folders, say 'ACTION', 'SCI-FI' which should span (and exist on) all drives (TV SHOWS would have series sub folders at this level, say 'FRIENDS', which span and exist on all array drives).

Then, finally, inside each movie genre folder or tv series folder, there would be individual folders containing each movie (or tv season). I want each movie folder to exist on a single drive, but if there are hundreds of movie folders at the 'SCI-FI' genre level, then some movie folders might exist on one drive and some on another as the available space become exceeded and the high-water allocation kicks in.

 

Hence my split level of 3, I thought, based on my reading, that this would create MEDIA folders on all arrays drives, within this it would create MOVIES and TV SHOWS folders on all array drives, within these folders would be created the genre folders etc (on all array drives) and only after this level would there be individual movie folder, containing the files for one movie, kept together on the drive it was first written to, determined by the space available at the time of writing.

 

Am I way off the mark here or is this achievable?

 

Cheers

 

One way to think of split-level is how many folder levels can exist on all drives in the share.  It sounds as if split-level 3 will probably do what you want if I understand your need correctly. 

 

It is worth pointing out that split-level and the include/excludes only applies to new folders/files.  When reading folders/files unRAID simply looks at all disks to see what folders/files look like being part of the user share you are browsing.  If you have manually placed files onto the disks this can include files/folders that would be prohibited by the include/exclude and split-level settings that are used for automatic placement of new files.  A side-effect of this is that it is always possible to change split level at a later date (although in that case you may need to manually move files between disks to get the distribution you want) and you can still access all files in the user share.

Thanks itimpi

 

So it sounds like split level 3 is correct for the structure I'm after.

 

I did manaully create the first structure on the 4tb drive to begin with i.e.

 

Media

    Movies

        Action

        Sci-Fi

    TV Shows

 

But I then proceeded, via the user share (over a windows network) to copy files into those folders, rather than copy that whole structure across to the unRaid share.

 

Should I simply be copying file/folders manually into the individual disks on the share or should unRaid sort this out for me i.e. once it reaches the high-water threshold for the first disk, it'll then create the media>movies>sci-fi structure on the next disk and begin placing files/folders inside it?

 

I've now removed all included/excluded disk settings too, so all array disks should be in the share.

 

Cheers

unRAID will automatically create the folders as needed.

 

It is worth pointing out there is another possibility for split-level that can be useful.  That is a value of 0 which means you create the Folder structure that is allowed to exist on each disk.  If you use that then you manually create any Folders you want on any disk (to any depth).  Any files/folders that are then copied to a user share are then constrained to the disk(s) containing their parent.  If the same folder path exists on more than one disk, then the allocation method is used to decide which one to use.  This gives even more control than using higher values of split-level at the expense of a little more initial effort for setup. 

 

As an example I split TV shows into folders according to letter I(I find that helps when browsing a large collection).    I can then control exactly which letter goes to which disk.  If a letter will not fit on a specific disk I can create the letter folder on another disk to allow that letter to be split across multiple disks.  I want each TV show to have all seasons constrained to a single disk so no need to create another level manually.  I then copy files to the user share knowing that unRAID will put them on the disk I want.

Thanks itimpi

 

Well it sounds like, once the high-water method kicks in, that it'll do what I'm after.

 

I'm currently copying files over to my share and my 4tb drive has only 1.08tb free, when this reaches 1tb (or there abouts depending on the size of the file being written at the time) I expect the high-water method to swap writing to my 2tb drive, for the next 1tb, then swap back (at which point I'll have added another 3tb drive into the mix, which should start receiving the next batch of writes - hopefully).

 

I think I'm getting there, but I'll learn by watching the results I expect.

 

I'll let you know how I get on, but thanks so much for your input so far.

 

Cheers

 

Update: Yep, it's creating the sub folders on disk2 as we speak and doing exactly as I wanted it to. Brilliant, thanks for guiding me through it itimpi, hope I can return the favour one day, though I seriously doubt it