October 3, 200916 yr Ya.. i know this topic has come up before, but... I am not doing very well applying what others have done to what I need to do and I am getting a bit frustrated ( as seriously, I am not an idiot ) I've moved into a new thread as my other one(s) were getting way off the original topic. Where things stand now is that I have: 1. Cleared my flash drive of ver 4.4.2 and installed ver 4.5 beta 6 2. Pre-cleared the 2 1.5TB drives in the server (Seagate and WD) 3. Used the //tower access and assigned the WD to disk1, formatted it and started it and did the same the Seagate/disk2 I only have 2 drives in the array as I need to clear data off my other drives ( 1.5TB Seagate, 1TB Seagate, 750GB Seagate ) before I can put them in the array. I also have another 1.5TB Seagate coming in the mail later next week. Is it reasonable to start moving data to both drives in the array ( with no parity ) and then when the new drive comes in at the end of the week, use it as parity? ( I realize my data isn't protected until that point ). I could use the 1.5TB drive I am moving the data off to, as the parity drive, however I have had it for 10 months, so I would prefer to use the brand new drive coming in later in the week ) I have a Popcorn Hour, so the shares need to be setup to accommodate it. Drive Shares /media /media/TV /media/DVD /XXX /music I'm uncertain about a few things. How to handle XXX content. I don't really want it being listed in with my regular movies, so maybe it shouldn't be under the /media share (as I did). Music, I figure it will be played through my PS3, so it doesn't need to be under the /media share either. EDIT: So, I figured what's the harm in adding a "share" as I should be able to delete it. So, I added one called "media". When I browse my network, I see under "tower", disk1, disk2, flash and now "media". Under "disk1" I also see the "media" directory, but its not on "disk2". Is this because the share doesn't need "disk2" yet, so it doesn't bother creating it? I felt more adventurous, so I created another one called media/dvd and media/tv and that resulted in folders being added under the media one, however those "shares" do not appear in the http://tower/shares.htm list. I didn't set split levels on them and wanted to go back and edit them. Because they are beneath the "media" share, does that just mean they will follow the split level I set for the media share or should I have got them right in the first place as I can't edit them now? Split Level If I go with the above structure: I would then have folders below what's there such as: /tower/media/tv/show_name/file (this gets a bit confusing as I have some ISO's of shows and some .avi's) /tower/media/DVD/Title/.iso /tower/media/DVD/Title/Video_TS/files /tower/media/DVD/Title/.mov (trailer) /tower/music/artist/album/songs AND /tower/music/songs ( un-sorted, however title of song has ARTIST - TITLE ) /tower/xxx/title/.iso AND /tower/xxx/title/Video_TS/files I don't have too many DVD's in the VIDEO_TS format, so if its easier I can convert them to ISO's. As I haven't grasped the share creation, this part is more difficult to understand. I keep reading another post ( http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=3996.msg35214#msg35214 ) but I can't get my head around it. 0 - Tower 1 - Media 2 - TV 3 - TV Show Name 4 - show.avi 0 - Tower 1 - Media 2 - TV 3 - TV Show Name 4 - disk1.iso 0 - Tower 1 - Media 2 - TV 3 - TV Show Name 4 - Video_TS 5 - files 0 - Tower 1 - Media 2 - DVD 3 - DVD Title 4 - dvd.iso 0 - Tower 1 - Media 2 - DVD 3 - DVD Title 4 - Video_TS 5 - dvd files The different ways things can be stored is really making it hard to understand how to do split levels when it looks like you need almost 2 type of splits in one share. HELP!
October 4, 200916 yr Is it reasonable to start moving data to both drives in the array ( with no parity ) and then when the new drive comes in at the end of the week, use it as parity? Sorry man...golf outing all day! Absolutely it makes sense, especially if you keep the drives holding the data as your backup until you add the parity drive. Once you pre_clear the new drive, you can assign it as your parity drive (what I also still have to do since my transfer completed earlier today). I have a Popcorn Hour, so the shares need to be setup to accommodate it. Drive Shares /media /media/TV /media/DVD /XXX /music I'm uncertain about a few things. How to handle XXX content. I don't really want it being listed in with my regular movies, so maybe it shouldn't be under the /media share (as I did). Music, I figure it will be played through my PS3, so it doesn't need to be under the /media share either. EDIT: So, I figured what's the harm in adding a "share" as I should be able to delete it. So, I added one called "media". When I browse my network, I see under "tower", disk1, disk2, flash and now "media". Under "disk1" I also see the "media" directory, but its not on "disk2". Is this because the share doesn't need "disk2" yet, so it doesn't bother creating it? I felt more adventurous, so I created another one called media/dvd and media/tv and that resulted in folders being added under the media one, however those "shares" do not appear in the http://tower/shares.htm list. I didn't set split levels on them and wanted to go back and edit them. Because they are beneath the "media" share, does that just mean they will follow the split level I set for the media share or should I have got them right in the first place as I can't edit them now? Split Level If I go with the above structure: I would then have folders below what's there such as: /tower/media/tv/show_name/file (this gets a bit confusing as I have some ISO's of shows and some .avi's) /tower/media/DVD/Title/.iso /tower/media/DVD/Title/Video_TS/files /tower/media/DVD/Title/.mov (trailer) /tower/music/artist/album/songs AND /tower/music/songs ( un-sorted, however title of song has ARTIST - TITLE ) /tower/xxx/title/.iso AND /tower/xxx/title/Video_TS/files I don't have too many DVD's in the VIDEO_TS format, so if its easier I can convert them to ISO's. As I haven't grasped the share creation, this part is more difficult to understand. I keep reading another post ( http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=3996.msg35214#msg35214 ) but I can't get my head around it. 0 - Tower 1 - Media 2 - TV 3 - TV Show Name 4 - show.avi 0 - Tower 1 - Media 2 - TV 3 - TV Show Name 4 - disk1.iso 0 - Tower 1 - Media 2 - TV 3 - TV Show Name 4 - Video_TS 5 - files 0 - Tower 1 - Media 2 - DVD 3 - DVD Title 4 - dvd.iso 0 - Tower 1 - Media 2 - DVD 3 - DVD Title 4 - Video_TS 5 - dvd files The different ways things can be stored is really making it hard to understand how to do split levels when it looks like you need almost 2 type of splits in one share. HELP! Ok, I understand your frustration but I think you are making this a little more complicated than it needs to be. First, the single most important reason for creating a share is so you have one location to point the NMT for accessing your media. You can setup as many access points (or shares as far as the NMT is concerned) but the issue is that the NMT does not automount shares. That's why "user shares"' in UnRAID is so helpful. In this case, you need a share at the root level which amounts to the same first level subdirectory on every drive (e.g. /root/media). Regardless of which subdirectories you have under /root/media, if you create a share called media then every subdirectory on every drive under /root/media will be available on that share. This means that if you have /root/media/TV on both of your 1.5TB drives then they will be recognized as one subdirectory of /root/media/TV on your media share. If you decide to have a /root/media/XXX on the first drive and not on the second drive, the XXX subdirectory will still be available on the media share. If you create a subdirectory at the root level called XXX (i.e. /root/XXX) then this will not be available on the media share. In my case, I manually controlled the creation of the share by setting up my directory structure as previously mentioned (i.e. /root/media on both drives and then /root/media/TV, /root/media/DVD, /root/media/BluRay etc. depending on the file structure of the movie. I only needed one share for my UnRAID server as I want to be able to access ALL media through that one share. If you want to separate some content from this share, you can create another share and set it up on the NMT as well (e.g. /root/XXX). Using YAMJ, you could create separate jukeboxes for each share and navigate to the index.htm file for each manually. However, the content of the XXX folder will still be visible in the default GUI of the NMT using this method. I'm not sure what options might be available if you needed to hide this content from unauthorized viewers (i.e. children). Let me know if you need some screen shots to clarify. I just don't want to go through the hassle of uploading images to a site so they are visible in the forum unless you're not sure. As far as using split levels, I haven't researched the pros and cons. I personally don't think letting user shares control how you copy information to the server is the best way to go. I prefer to use disk shares for this and control where the files are located manually. This just seems like the best method to me but I'm sure there are pros and cons. EDIT: As far as copying files to the server, from Windows you can copy to the individual disk shares (e.g. disk1, disk2 etc.) or you can copy to the user share. Depending on how you have your user share setup, the files will be managed accordingly. This is why I said it is easier for me to manually copy the files to the individual disks rather than letting UnRAID user shares manage where the files will be located.
October 4, 200916 yr Author I'm on the right track then. When I want to watch a movie, I may have the girlfriend over with her kids, so I would like to avoid having them see the porn that I have downloaded in the master movie listing, so setting up a separate share for it ( then I can load that specific index.html file with the PCH if just the girlfriend is over Music, I don't want launched my the PCH, so it is also in a separate share. If I get what you are saying, you don't save to your shares, you save to the drives directly and the shares are just used for the PCH. If that is the case, then the split level you just leave blank or set to zero ? If I save to the disk1 or disk2 , then I am bypassing the "share" rules of the split levels. If I save under the share name, UnRaid determines where best to save the information and following the split level I set. When I setup the share /media/dvd , I don't think I really setup a share, but just a sub directory off the real share called "media". So, I guess my question is do i really need to even worry about saving to the shares and not the drives directly if I have a cachedir in place? Considering the cachedir saves the drives from spinning up all the time, then I am definitely going to get that running after I get all my data moved. One final question, for anyone.... if your cachedir exceeds your amount of space in ram, can it spill over into a cache drive (rather than having to go back to the whole array to get the information) ?
October 4, 200916 yr If that is the case, then the split level you just leave blank or set to zero ? If I save to the disk1 or disk2 , then I am bypassing the "share" rules of the split levels. If I save under the share name, UnRaid determines where best to save the information and following the split level I set. When I setup the share /media/dvd , I don't think I really setup a share, but just a sub directory off the real share called "media". So, I guess my question is do i really need to even worry about saving to the shares and not the drives directly if I have a cachedir in place? Considering the cachedir saves the drives from spinning up all the time, then I am definitely going to get that running after I get all my data moved. My split level is currently blank and yes, I believe that is how copying to the share works; hence, the reason for the 3 different allocation options (high water, free, fill-up). Basically, I'm filling up each disk sequentially. I have some "logic" to my subdirectories but alternatively, I could just copy to the correct share subdirectory and set my preferred allocation method. I'm a bit of a control freak so I just prefer to do it my way from the start! One final question, for anyone.... if your cachedir exceeds your amount of space in ram, can it spill over into a cache drive (rather than having to go back to the whole array to get the information) ? Good question...I was wondering that myself as well. Don't you need a Pro license for cache directory though? I'll definitely get one eventually but it might be longer than I thought before I completely fill up my 2TB drives! I'm already starting to wonder about transferring system files to a new USB stick!
October 5, 200916 yr Move the data you can to the array. Put the new 1.5T as parity once it arrives. Build parity and then do a parity check to confirm it is OK. Keep the working existing data drives as is until you have the parity confirmed. After parity is confirmed and you have moved the data from an existing drive to the array, install that drive in the array and add it. Did the media/DVD and media/TV shares appear as seperate shares on a windows machine - did they actually share? You are correct that those are just subdirectories of a share and I'm not sure what happens when you do that. You didn't post how you want the data to be stored. What I mean is - do you want certain data stored on certain drives? If you want it to just fill the array however then use level 2. This means that a TV sub-directory and DVD sub-directory will go to every drive but any subdirectories below those will not split. Each TV series will stay on a certain drive and each DVD movie will stay on a certain drive (multiple file movies will not be spread out over a couple of drives). The only trouble you might run into is that a TV series fills a drive since the whole series is confined to a single drive once the root "series name" directory is created. You could also use level 1 and manually create DVD and TV sub-directories where you want those to go. For example, start with Media/DVD on one 1.5T and Media/TV on the other 1.5T. Then, create a new DVD sub-directory on the third 1.5T once it is installed. This way, you pick where the DVD and TV folders go. The Popcorn Hour requires a single share point, correct? Peter
October 5, 200916 yr You could also use level 1 and manually create DVD and TV sub-directories where you want those to go. For example, start with Media/DVD on one 1.5T and Media/TV on the other 1.5T. Then, create a new DVD sub-directory on the third 1.5T once it is installed. This way, you pick where the DVD and TV folders go. What's the difference between level 1 and leaving split levels blank or set to 0? The Popcorn Hour requires a single share point, correct? You can create multiple shares on the NMT PCH but it does not automount the share when you access a drive which makes it inconvenient for larger libraries. One share point is the way to go unless there are limitations within the UnRAID server to doing it this way (i.e. maybe requiring the use of cache_dirs script so drives don't spin up during browsing but maybe that's not an issue if you're using a library and skin that reside on a drive within the PCH??).
October 5, 200916 yr You could also use level 1 and manually create DVD and TV sub-directories where you want those to go. For example, start with Media/DVD on one 1.5T and Media/TV on the other 1.5T. Then, create a new DVD sub-directory on the third 1.5T once it is installed. This way, you pick where the DVD and TV folders go. What's the difference between level 1 and leaving split levels blank or set to 0? See here for behavior change in 4.5-beat5 of 0 vs. blank. http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=3760.0
October 6, 200916 yr You could also use level 1 and manually create DVD and TV sub-directories where you want those to go. For example, start with Media/DVD on one 1.5T and Media/TV on the other 1.5T. Then, create a new DVD sub-directory on the third 1.5T once it is installed. This way, you pick where the DVD and TV folders go. What's the difference between level 1 and leaving split levels blank or set to 0? I probably should have put 0 above there, even though I believe in this case 1 would work as well. Basically, use level 0 and create your own directory structure first. Then, when you drop files into this user share into an existing directory the allocation method is used to decide which drive, of the drives with the required directory, gets the data. Peter
October 7, 200916 yr I probably should have put 0 above there, even though I believe in this case 1 would work as well. Basically, use level 0 and create your own directory structure first. Then, when you drop files into this user share into an existing directory the allocation method is used to decide which drive, of the drives with the required directory, gets the data. Yeah, I get it now. I just copy the files to the actual disk so I know they are going where I want them to! Call me a control freak...
October 9, 200916 yr I think it applies to every allocation method. If you copy multiple files at once the most free might change after one or 2 of the files get to the server. Peter
January 8, 201016 yr I now have split level 3, because I had a problem with the file allocation across the hdd's. I'm thinking it must be a mess on those drives at the moment and I would like to know is it possible to change it back to 1? I also notice that my 8 drives have 26 gigs of free space, but would not take a file thats 20 gigs. One drive has only 32 megs of free space, although I have set the minimum free space to 512 megs... Does unRAID split file data across the drives or are the files saved as a whole on one drive. So that I could still get the data if all fails. Even though with split level 3, i might have very interesting structures on the discs.
January 8, 201016 yr I now have split level 3, because I had a problem with the file allocation across the hdd's. I'm thinking it must be a mess on those drives at the moment and I would like to know is it possible to change it back to 1? You can change the level at any time. I also notice that my 8 drives have 26 gigs of free space, but would not take a file that's 20 gigs. One drive has only 32 megs of free space, although I have set the minimum free space to 512 megs... The "min free" is only used if you copy to "user" shares, not "disk" shares. Also, it is the min free to "start" to copy a file. unRAID has NO way to know how large a file will become when you are finished copying to it. (Most files start at 0 bytes in size and are incrementally added to until a copy is complete. So, if you had 542 Meg free, and started to copy a 512 meg file, it could use all but the last 32 meg of space) Does unRAID split file data across the drives or are the files saved as a whole on one drive. So that I could still get the data if all fails. Even though with split level 3, i might have very interesting structures on the discs. Individual files are NEVER split across disks. A directory with a set of files may be split, with some of the files on one disk, and others on parallel (identically named) directories on one or more other disks. lastly, "min-free" Units are 1024-byte blocks. So if you set Min free space to 512 that would be 512 x 1024 = 524,288 bytes. If you set the field to 512, it is not 512 MEG, but instead you will only start to copy a file to that drive when there is more than .5 Meg of free space... With all this in mind, you might not have 20 meg free on any single disk for the file you are attempting to copy. Or... if you do on one disk, your copy might be starting as a zero byte file on the disk with 32 meg free, and growing, and because the final size is unknown to unRAID (Windows knows its final size, but unRAID has no idea) , unRAID starts to perform the copy and fails when it runs out of space. Joe L.
January 8, 201016 yr I'm thinking it must be a mess on those drives at the moment and I would like to know is it possible to change it back to 1? You can change it but unRAID will not fix the directory structure. You have to do that yourself. I have previously posted methods to fix the shares using large copy and paste operations. Lots of computer time but little user time. No-one who was trying the method posted that it didn't work so I think the method is sound. Peter
January 8, 201016 yr Thank you both! I am really found of the quick and thoroughl answers I get here.
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