September 24, 200916 yr I've created the first beta of a web-based array capacity calculator. I have no idea if such a thing already exists, but as a coder, I don't mind just making one myself. unraid.category5.tv <-- Click that link to launch the calculator. The system allows you to enter up to 21 drive capacities (based on the "fake" capacity shown by your drive manufacturer on the label - eg. 500 GB) and will tell you how much data storage space you'll have on your unRAID array. Currently, Parity is forced. However, as Parity is in fact optional for unRAID, I will inevitably add an ability to remove Parity. The calculator supports addition of a cache drive, and does all the math to give you real numbers with regards to your potential capacity (not the fake manufacturer numbers). While seasoned unRAID users understand the capacity, I thought this would be a great tool for people who are curious about unRAID, as it shows how much capacity you'll get (in reality) if you build an array with whatever hard drive specifications you provide. Hope you all enjoy. If you have feature requests, just let me know. I'm also perfectly happy to share the code if someone wants to play with it, although I'll keep hosting the "official" program at the url listed above, indefinitely. Regards, Robbie
September 24, 200916 yr Author Oh yes; I forgot to mention, it also calculates the approximate power consumption of your array; so it can also be used as a tool to help you select what power supply you buy for your array. Just remember, your other components use power too... so take it all into account. Robbie
September 26, 200916 yr Author Has this tool been useful to anyone? I wasn't sure if I'd get any replies, but I kinda hoped to Regards, Robbie
September 26, 200916 yr I checked it out, it was neat. I think if anything it would be useful for power review. Perhaps a few benchmarks using the most popular large drives. For example, my drives say WD10EACS .70a 12v, .55a 5v Barracuda 7200.11 1TB, .85a 12v, .6a 5v. I would pull it off my 1.5tb's but they are busy and I do not want to shutdown the torrent client.
September 27, 200916 yr Has this tool been useful to anyone? I wasn't sure if I'd get any replies, but I kinda hoped to I meant to, sorry. Yes, very interesting. It was distressing to learn how much storage you *actually* had... :-) What was your basis for calculating the cache size? --Bill
September 27, 200916 yr Has this tool been useful to anyone? I wasn't sure if I'd get any replies, but I kinda hoped to I meant to, sorry. Yes, very interesting. It was distressing to learn how much storage you *actually* had... :-) What was your basis for calculating the cache size? --Bill I am assuming he used the smallest drive that was put into the calculations.
September 27, 200916 yr Author Yes, that's right. The Parity drive is the largest (obvious) and the cache is the smallest. I figured, nobody's going to have an itty-bitty drive in their array, so that'll usually be acceptable. But if people want it, I could make it so they can actually SELECT which drive to use for cache. Might be a good way to do it... Thanks Robbie
September 27, 200916 yr Yes, that's right. The Parity drive is the largest (obvious) and the cache is the smallest. I figured, nobody's going to have an itty-bitty drive in their array, so that'll usually be acceptable. But if people want it, I could make it so they can actually SELECT which drive to use for cache. Might be a good way to do it... Thanks Robbie That would be best. Some will elect to have the cache drive as big as their parity drive, as it then becomes a "warm spare" ready to be put into service should a different drive in the array fail. (un-assign it as cache, re-assign it as replacement for whatever drive failed.) Don't even need t power down the server until the new replacement for the cache drive arrives. You can even shop for a sale price, since you could live without the cache drive for a week or two. What might be nice is a checkbox next to each drive to indicate if it is a"green" drive or not... or, a field to input the total number of "green" drives, since their power requirements are lower than the non-green drives. Joe L.
September 27, 200916 yr Author Very good points Joe, and I *love* the warm spare idea. I'm now planning to do that in my array - haha! Thanks, Robbie
September 27, 200916 yr I think a little checkbox next to a drive marking it as the cache drive would be effective.
September 27, 200916 yr Author I think a little checkbox next to a drive marking it as the cache drive would be effective. My thought is, keep the checkbox where it is, and have it default to the smallest drive, but instead of showing "Cache Drive: 100 GB" the 100 GB would be a drop down which lists all drives available to use as cache. Changing it will re-allocate your array accordingly. Sound good? I'll implement this fairly soon!! Thanks, Robbie
September 28, 200916 yr That would be best. Some will elect to have the cache drive as big as their parity drive, as it then becomes a "warm spare" ready to be put into service should a different drive in the array fail. (un-assign it as cache, re-assign it as replacement for whatever drive failed.) Don't even need t power down the server until the new replacement for the cache drive arrives. You can even shop for a sale price, since you could live without the cache drive for a week or two. That's a good idea. I usually just have a drive sitting on the shelf waiting. After I rebuild my server with 20 drives, then I'll do this. just got an X7SBE mobo.
October 1, 200916 yr Author Done; I added a cache drive drop-down now. If you have not selected a cache drive yourself, the system will automatically set your cache drive to the smallest drive in your array (to reduce the impact to the overall capacity). If, however, you change the drive using the drop-down and re-calculate the numbers, the system will report how this will impact your capacity appropriately. Upon changing your Cache Drive to a data drive, simply uncheck "Use cache drive" to calculate how this will affect your array. If you've failed a drive, make sure you remove it's value from the list of drive capacities. Robbie
October 1, 200916 yr Something's not working correctly. It worked fine in both Firefox and Safari previously, and now clicking the calculate button doesn't do anything in either...
October 1, 200916 yr Author Something's not working correctly. It worked fine in both Firefox and Safari previously, and now clicking the calculate button doesn't do anything in either... I'm using Firefox and it works fine for me. Can you try something absurd; just add a 2000 GB drive to the list and calculate, and tell me if your total changes? Thanks! Robbie
October 1, 200916 yr Something's not working correctly. It worked fine in both Firefox and Safari previously, and now clicking the calculate button doesn't do anything in either... I'm using Firefox and it works fine for me. Can you try something absurd; just add a 2000 GB drive to the list and calculate, and tell me if your total changes? Thanks! Robbie I tried it using Firefox, and it did nothing for me when I clicked either "Calculate" button.
October 1, 200916 yr Same here, it use to work previously in Firefox but it will not work at all now. Pushing the calculate button does noting on my end.
October 1, 200916 yr Didn't work for me either. Thought it was just me.. but it seems to affect others too.
October 1, 200916 yr Author Fixed; thanks. Sorry about that! It seems my cookie was preventing me from seeing the bug (as my browser was remembering my previously entered settings. Try now, and enjoy the new Cache drive feature Robbie
October 1, 200916 yr Added to the FAQ (with a link to here). Feel free to edit or expand. How much usable space will I get from an unRAID array? If you have any concerns about the direct link to your site, please let me know and I'll make whatever changes you like. You are welcome to edit the wiki yourself, of course.
October 1, 200916 yr Author If you have any concerns about the direct link to your site, please let me know and I'll make whatever changes you like. You are welcome to edit the wiki yourself, of course. No no; dude--thanks! I appreciate the link for sure, and I hope people will really find use out of it. I know it's one of the questions I had when I first started using unRAID a month or so ago, and I had to learn by building my array--so hopefully this tool will become a benefit to the community. And, I welcome people to make suggestions for added features I'll be beautifying the script as well, making it look nicer -- once it's considered "complete" so to speak. Thanks, Robbie
November 29, 201213 yr Hey Robbie Ferguson, Just wanted to let you know that I love you calculator and actually used it for prior to creating my new setup. I was however wondering if you would be so kind as to update it to include RC8 which supports up to 22 Drives + Cache and Parity. Thank You
May 2, 20179 yr Sorry to revive such an old thread, but I came across this calculator, and the only addition that would be nice would be if you choose to run dual parity.
May 2, 20179 yr 11 hours ago, Spyrule said: Sorry to revive such an old thread, but I came across this calculator, and the only addition that would be nice would be if you choose to run dual parity. The second parity drive does not alter the capacity at all, so just don't add one of your largest drives to the calculator.
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