Running unRAID 4.5 PRO

 

I have finished reading the unRAID Server 4.3 beta 4 release notes which detail what a cache drives does. And I have setup a cache drive on my unRAID Server 4.5 system and enabled the use of the cache drive for all 3 of my top level shares: "BluRay", "Movies", and "Television" which reside across 4 data drives. Here is what I'm not clear about:

 

1. I presume that after creating movie or TV content media files on my main computer, I must copy them to the "Cache" drive and magically at 3:40am every morning, the "Cache" drive will automatically copy the media files to the correct shares on data drives 1,2,3 and 4. However, when I look at the Cache drive I do not see corresponding share names (folders) into which I can copy the media files from my main computer to the unRAID Server's Cache drive. I presume such a folder structure on the Cache drive is needed in order for the Cache drive to know where to copy each media file.

 

Q. Do I need to manually create share folder names (mkdir) on the Cache drive that match the share folder names on the data drives and then copy, for example, a TV episode to the "Television" folder and a "movie file" to the "Movies" folder on the Cache drive?

 

2. Currently:

 

    - "root" is the only user on unRAID server and has a password;

    - "Share Security = user level"; and

    - all shares are currently set to "read/write".

 

Up to this point, I have been accessing the server through my Ubuntu box for creating and moving media content and I plan to use XBMC on my Linux box to watch content off the server. Others in the house will access media files through a Western Digital Live 2 TV appliance which has an IP of 192.168.0.177.

 

I don't want anyone using the WD Live 2 TV appliance to be able to write to any of the shares on unRAID server. I wish them only to read and play the media files on the server.

 

Q. If I export all 3 shares mentioned above as "read only" I presume this will prevent anyone from changing data on the server except "root". However, in order for me to maintain the data on the server from my Linux box, do I need to add myself as a "user" and exception to each of the "read only" share exports?

 

Thanks, in advance, for any clarification on these questions.

Running unRAID 4.5 PRO

 

I have finished reading the unRAID Server 4.3 beta 4 release notes which detail what a cache drives does. And I have setup a cache drive on my unRAID Server 4.5 system and enabled the use of the cache drive for all 3 of my top level shares: "BluRay", "Movies", and "Television" which reside across 4 data drives. Here is what I'm not clear about:

 

1. I presume that after creating movie or TV content media files on my main computer, I must copy them to the "Cache" drive and magically at 3:40am every morning, the "Cache" drive will automatically copy the media files to the correct shares on data drives 1,2,3 and 4. However, when I look at the Cache drive I do not see corresponding share names (folders) into which I can copy the media files from my main computer to the unRAID Server's Cache drive. I presume such a folder structure on the Cache drive is needed in order for the Cache drive to know where to copy each media file.

 

Q. Do I need to manually create share folder names (mkdir) on the Cache drive that match the share folder names on the data drives and then copy, for example, a TV episode to the "Television" folder and a "movie file" to the "Movies" folder on the Cache drive?

If you've enabled the cache drive on several user shares then when you write to those user shares the cache drive will be written to instead of the normal protected data disk.  It is completely transparent to you.  From your perspective, if you copy a file to \\tower\Movies and are looking at the \\tower\Movies share,  You will see the file as if it already existed in \\tower\Movies

even though it is stored in a directory on the cache disk.    The user-share system merges the files in the view presented to you on the LAN.  You do not need to create the directories on the cache drive.  You just need to enable it for the user shares you desire.   

 

2. Currently:

 

    - "root" is the only user on unRAID server and has a password;

    - "Share Security = user level"; and

    - all shares are currently set to "read/write".

 

Up to this point, I have been accessing the server through my Ubuntu box for creating and moving media content and I plan to use XBMC on my Linux box to watch content off the server. Others in the house will access media files through a Western Digital Live 2 TV appliance which has an IP of 192.168.0.177.

 

I don't want anyone using the WD Live 2 TV appliance to be able to write to any of the shares on unRAID server. I wish them only to read and play the media files on the server.

 

Q. If I export all 3 shares mentioned above as "read only" I presume this will prevent anyone from changing data on the server except "root". However, in order for me to maintain the data on the server from my Linux box, do I need to add myself as a "user" and exception to each of the "read only" share exports?

That is one way to do it.

 

Personally, I have my user-shares as read-only.  My disk shares are read/write but hidden.  I can write to them if I know they exist, but they do not show in any of the media players.  I control where I write my data.  I don't have to worry about split levels, as they don't apply to writing to disk shares.  When I store a new movie I write it to \\tower\disk1\Movies.  It is visible in \\tower\Movies.

 

I don't use a cache drive.  (No need... I'm never in any real hurry, and when ripping a new DVD could care less if it takes 10 minutes or 20.  I would rather it be protected immediately anyway)  To me it was a gimmick to appease users who years ago were complaining of slow write speeds.  Those speeds are much better these days, even without a cache drive.

 

Thanks, in advance, for any clarification on these questions.

Probably confused you as much as anything else.  I personally find the user-shares perfect for consolidating my movies for the media players to see a full list in one place.  The user-shares to me just get in the way when writing data. I want to control where I write files.

 

The cache drive used to be more useful to some people who had to have fast write speeds.  (recording live TV streams) but recent changes in unRAID 4.5 have nearly doubled the write speed of the array.  That combined with newer 7200 RPM drives vs older 5400 RPM (and slower) drives has made write speed enough for most people even without a cache disk.

 

Joe L.