Noob Question: Best Practices for Dockers (Volume Mappings)

[TexasDave]

Hi folks,

 

First - I am really impressed with the unRAID community. Folks like CHBMB, Leifgg, Squid and others have been great.

 

I am trying to follow "best practices" on setting up my dockers. One thing I can not quite get my head around is the section when adding dockers called "Volume Mappings".

 

I get (I think) that the "Container Volume" if the file structure the docker container sees.

 

And the "Host Path" is what is actually on my unRAID server (the host). Or I think that is is... 

 

Where I am a bit confused is when to use my "cache" drive versus the "regular"(array)  disks.

 

It seems many dockers (so far) have a "data" container volume and a "config" container volume.

 

Is it better to put one on cache and one on the normal volumes? How do most folks mange this and are there any "do's and don'ts" for either keeping things manageable and/or making performance better.

 

For instance, I am wanting to install "Deluge". What values (host locations) would folks recommend for data and config in this case and is this pretty typical?

 

Sorry - this may be obvious but I am trying to do things "right" (although I am sure there are many ways to do this...

 

Many thanks!!

 

Dave

[Leifgg]

Thanks for kind words (blushes… )

 

Volume mappings are where the Docker app expect to read data and/or store data. It’s basically the way a Docker app can communicate with the world outside the container (except for the port mappings that configures network interface for the container).

 

Your assumption for the use of Data and the Config mappings is correct. Have a look on my setup for DelugeVPN.

 

The mapping for

/config

is

/mnt/user/Apps/DelugeVPN/

and is pointing at a share named Apps on my cache drive that has a sub folder DelugeVPN that contains the configuration files for Deluge as well as my VPN parameters for my VPN provider.

 

The mapping for

/data

is

/mnt/user/Temp/Downloads/

and is pointing at a share named Temp on my array and a sub folder Downloads that is where Deluge store my downloads. In order for Deluge to store downloads there you need to go to Preferences (in Deluge) and set Download to:

/data

, this way it is stored where it should be and not inside the container!

 

How you do your mappings is depending on your setup but using a cache drive for config data is very common. Often an SSD is used as a cache drive and since some Dockers (like Plex for example) updates its data a lot and it can be done without spinning up a drive on the array, this way it will be faster and save some energy. It’s also important to set the Apps share (or what you call it) on your cache drive to Use cache disk: Only otherwise the mover will grab your files and move them to the array.

[TexasDave]

 

Many thanks for this - good stuff! And I think this will fix another issue I was having.

 

Part of the joys of getting started - you make mistakes and have to slog through them.

 

I see you use the VPN version - I may give that a go once I have this version running.

 

Thanks!

[trurl]

Another reason for putting the config, which is the applications "working storage", on cache instead of the parity protected array is because any writes to the parity protected array will also write to parity, so you would have two disks spinning.

[keymaster]

Hi,

I had to sort another guys Unraid server at my house and ever since my mapping for Sabnzbd/Sonarr/Radarr/Lidarr has went to pot, \\tower\downloads\complete now has two new folders called complete and incomplete inside  the downloads complete folder and if I delete them they just come straight back.

The Lidarr docker health saying "You are using docker; download client SABnzbd places downloads in /downloads/complete/music but this directory does not appear to exist inside the container. Review your remote path mappings and container volume settings." but if I delete them they come back grrrrrrrrr all were working perfectly previous....Can anybody advise please..all dockers Linuxserver.🤔