I have searched the forum for a solution but I have not found one that actually gives a definitive answer. When I started UnRAID I had to 2TB drives for storage of just media for Plex which was putting the data on the drives evenly. Over time I got two more drives of 2TB each but I wanted to know is there a plugin that will re-balance the drives to equal levels? I looked at rsync and plugin unBalanced but it is just mainly moving it from one disk to another. I am not sure there is a solution yet to evenly re-correct each drive to create equal spacing. I am just hoping I missed something in the forum that may help out.

 

Thank you all for the great advise you have given since I started using UnRAID.

 

v/r,

 

Greg

You can use rsync or Midnight Commander to move files from one disk to another, if you want to. I'm not aware of an automatic method of balancing files across all disks. Presumably you are using the high water allocation method and your original disks got fairly full before you added the new ones. Well, as you add more files they will automatically end up on the new disks so things will eventually balance anyway. The thing is, it doesn't really matter very much which disk a particular file is on and in some cases it's preferable for related files to be on the same disk anyway.

John,

 

  Yeah that is what I thought too... I just kind of noticed it doesn't evenly divide the stuff across all drives assigned to share as well as I would like. I have not had a failure yet but I hope if I do it will recover fine.

 

Thanks

 

Greg

unRAID doesn't move files once they are written to a disk so the only way to get several disks to fill up together is to install them all on day one and use the high water allocation method. Otherwise you have to move them manually. I actually prefer to fill up one disk before moving to the next to I use the fill-up strategy. It really doesn't matter though and a nearly empty disk takes just as long to rebuild as a nearly full one.

There is a unBALANCE plugin that might do what you are looking for.

 

The unBALANCE plugin doesn't really work in this case as I think it is designed to move data out of a disk. It would kinda worsen the OP's situation as he would have 1 empty disk + multiple filled disks.

 

My recommendation is to switch your shares allocation to "Most Free" and don't bother with redistributing existing data. It will eventually "flatten" as you copy more data into the server.

 

If you still really want to redistribute, mc / rsync or even dockers like Krusader / Dolphin would work.

But be extra careful that you are moving contents from DISK to DISK. If you move from disk to share and vice versa, there's a very high probability of losing data.

 

 

 

 

testdasi,

 

  Thanks that is what I am going to do is stay with "most free" and just let it do its thing. Thank you all for the help and advice.

 

v/r,

 

Greg