Hello all,

 

Question:

 

I've got a super large flash drive. I want to install Docker and Plex on the flash so that I can keep my data disks spun down when I'm not actually reading media from one of the disks.

 

I've tried installing docker to /flash, /boot, and /root. None result in anything being written to the flash drive itself, although the GUI accepts those as valid locations when I click "apply".

 

Any suggestions, or is this disabled in GUI purposefully?

Very few people here would recommend you install anything which does a lot of reading and writing to the flash drive. It's tied to your license, so if you cause it to fail your server is down.

I agree this is a bad idea for several reasons that have already been mentioned on your other thread. Also someone mentioned taking the guesswork out of this by actually understanding the OS file structure instead of just taking random guesses. While I don't recommend using the flash drive the way you intend, I thought I would take this opportunity to explain some things anyway.

 

If you go to the command line by console, telnet, or ssh, you can run Midnight Commander with the command

mc

 

Midnight Commander is a text-based dual-pane file manager that is really pretty easy to use and it can help you explore the OS file structure.

 

There are a few things you need to keep in mind about unRAID. Most of the OS folders are actually in a RAM filesystem. The OS is unpacked completely fresh on each reboot into this RAM filesystem. There are two folders that are not in RAM.

 

/boot is the root folder of the flash drive. This is where the packed OS files are kept as mentioned above. This is also where all of the settings from the webUI are stored. You can actually read many of these files since they are just text. mc has a file viewer (and an editor) builtin if you want to take a look at some of them.

 

Plugins and docker templates are stored on flash. Some people also store scripts and other sorts of customizations on the flash. Basically anything that needs to be available independently of the actual disks.

 

/mnt is the mount point of all of the actual disks and the user shares. The user shares are just an aggregate of all of the top level folders on cache and the array data disks. Each share has the same name as its top level folder. If you create a user share in the webUI it will create top level folders on one or more disks as needed depending on the share settings. If you create a top level folder on cache or an array data disk, it will be a user share with default settings unless you set them in the webUI.

 

Except for /mnt and /boot, all other root folders of the OS are actually in RAM and will not survive a reboot.

 

Thanks for the reply @trurl.

 

I poked around on Midnight Commander before I stared doing heavy thrashing of my unRAID test rig because I wanted to see what I could see/do/edit while the server is operational. I just like to know all of my options before deploying new software so I have a toolbox full of options available when sh*% hits the fan. For obvious reasons, I don't like to have to learn under pressure.

 

Anyhow, I already looked at mc and unRAID's folder structure and premature flash failure is not a concern to me. unRAIDs documentation indicates a method to swap your license over to a new drive in near realtime (if you have your backup preinstalled, which I will). You can do this through the automated page once/year, and more if you contact support. I do not expect a flash to die more than once/year, no matter how many Plex operations I'm performing (remember, the vast majority of the I/O ops would be the transcode itself and I have all of that stuck in RAM). If my flash does die too frequently, I'll switch back to using the array.

 

All of these warnings are appreciated, but not helpful to resolving my question. If, as you say below, /mnt and /boot are the folders that survive a boot, how can I

 

install Plex to a new folder directly on the flash that will survive a reboot

or

install Plex in one of those two directories?

 

Except for /mnt and /boot, all other root folders of the OS are actually in RAM and will not survive a reboot.

 

Thanks,

Noob

Are you wanting to install Plex directly or use a docker (or plugin if one exists)?

You do know that the FAT32 system has a max file size limit of 4GB making it hard to use it for the docker image?

Hey Noob, all I can say is I wouldn't....

 

/boot is the flashdrive path as others have stated.

 

But, seriously, stop and question why people are telling you that it's a bad idea.  Next look at lionelhutz & trurls's post count...

 

These guys have been around for an age and know Unraid.  trurl is also a mod.

 

/mnt is the root filesystem you can't put stuff in there.

 

In /mnt is disk1 disk2 etc etc & user user0 & cache...