Rick Sanchez Posted October 10, 2015 Posted October 10, 2015 Hey, Currently I have a 500GB laptop hard drive [sDD according to UnRAID]. I have a spare 240GB SSD on my desk. - Is a 240GB SSD large enough for a VM or two? Is there a recommended SSD size? - Is their a recommended disk for UnRAID 6? - If I need more space later on; how easy is it to swap out the 240GB and put a larger SSD in? - How would I transfer files from SDD to SSD? Thank you
itimpi Posted October 10, 2015 Posted October 10, 2015 Hey, Currently I have a 500GB laptop hard drive [sDD according to UnRAID]. I have a spare 240GB SSD on my desk. - Is a 240GB SSD large enough for a VM or two? Is there a recommended SSD size? It all depends on what OS you want to use, and what you want to store on the VM's disk images and what is on unRAID. In that sense it is just like sizing a disk for whatever OS you expect to use, except for the fact that because you store disk images in a file there can be multiple ones on the same drive. I typically expect to use 25-50GB per VM for OS such as Windows and Mac OSX as I store all my large files on the unRAID array outside the VM. However you could easily have specialist VM's that use much less than that. - Is their a recommended disk for UnRAID 6? Not as such - any SATA disk can be used. You do not typically get much performance boost by trying to use very fast disks for array data drives. One of the strengths of unRAID is the ability to mix and match disk sizes so most people simply start off with drives they already have lying around and then either add more drives or replace existing drives with larger drives as their needs increase. - If I need more space later on; how easy is it to swap out the 240GB and put a larger SSD in?Very easy. Safest procedure is backup files to an array drive and then restore them after swapping the drive, but other approaches are possible. - How would I transfer files from SDD to SSD? Not quite sure what you are asking - just copy them as SSDs are no different to HDD in this respect. This can be done either across the network, or from a console/telnet session using a tool like Midnight Commander ('mc' command).
Rick Sanchez Posted October 10, 2015 Author Posted October 10, 2015 Ok, thanks for that information. So both the VMs and Dockers are stored on the cache drive? - Could I use my SSD for VMs and my current 500GB for downloads etc before transfer? Or is that pointless/problematic? But the plugins are stored on the flash drive?
itimpi Posted October 10, 2015 Posted October 10, 2015 Ok, thanks for that information. So both the VMs and Dockers are stored on the cache drive? They are stored wherever you tell unRAID to store them. This is often the cache drive, but can be an array data drive or a drive outside of unRAID direct control. I for instance store my VM images on a SSD outside unRAID control. - Could I use my SSD for VMs and my current 500GB for downloads etc before transfer? Or is that pointless/problematic? You can use the drives how you want. A cache drive has a couple of special characteristics: It can be used as temporary staging area for files that are later to be written to User shares on the main array data drives. This can improve perceived performance when writing files that end up on the main array drives as writing directly to array drives is comparatively slow due to the overheads of maintain parity within the unRAID architecture.. You can create a 'pool' of drives in the cache to get protection of files on the cache drive without the performance penalty of writing to main array drives. It can be used to store and run applications that need better performance that running them from array drives. What actually gets stored on the cache drive is basically under User control. But the plugins are stored on the flash drive? Yes - but they are trivial in size (typically only MBs in size). If a plugin needs work space then you can configure where this is to be placed, and that would not be on the flash drive.
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