SABnzbd temp folder on cache drive - how do I stop that? Should I?

[jademonkee]

Hi there,

I have a 124 GB cache pool across two SSDs. For the first time yesterday I started downloading a NZB that was greater than the size of the cache pool (200GB).

I didn't think it was set to, but SABnzbd was saving the temp download files to the cache drive. So a few times during the download I had to pause the download, stop SABnzbd, invoke the mover, then start SABnzbd + the download again after the mover had completed.

Then, once the download had finished, I noticed that it was unpacking to the cache drive - I believe this is because it's extracting to a User Share that uses the cache, and I didn't think to disable that option until it had started unpacking. As such, I think I've solved the unpacking part of the problem (I'll create a 'large SABnzbd files' share that big SABnzbd files can be extracted to. It won't use the cache drive, and I will set it as the destination for a particular SABnzbd category - if I'm wrong in this solution, please let me know).

Anyway, I only noticed that it was unpacking to the cache when I got a warning that the cache drive was filling up, so I invoked the mover, and it seems to be emptying only a fraction slower than it's filling up as the files unpack, so I think I've avoided it becoming critically full. I was unsure if the mover would be happy performing this, but it seems to be working fine.

 

So, after all this, I have two questions:

[*]How do I stop SABnzbd from using the cache drive for its temp folder? I have set the incomplete_downloads folder to /mnt/user/bigfiles/sabnzbd/incomplete (as at the moment, that share does use cache, but I have previously set it to *not* use cache, and SABnzbd still stored the downloading files on the cache drive (I could see it filling up). So it must be a setting somewhere else, yes?

[*]What would happen if I *didn't* invoke the mover while SABnzbd was extracting a huge archive? Like, say I'm away from my computer while this happens - will it end in catalcysm? Or will it just start writing directly to the array like it ain't no thang? I didn't want to risk the scenario, which is why I invoked the mover so many times, but if the archive extraction seamlessly starts extracting to the Array, then it won't be a problem, will it?

 

Anyway, thanks for your help.

[tdallen]

Sab is behaving how it's "generally" supposed to, but "generally" doesn't anticipate 200GB files.  That's a big file.

 

Check your volume mappings for the docker as well as Folders in Sab.  I believe you'd have to change both the /config and /downloads directory in the docker volume mappings to move Sab's location onto the array.

 

If you had filled up the cache drive unRAID should have started writing to the array but I haven't put that to the test and I'd be worried about the final unpack where you were writing a single file to the cache drive that exceeds the entire capacity of the cache drive.

[jademonkee]

Sab is behaving how it's "generally" supposed to, but "generally" doesn't anticipate 200GB files.  That's a big file.

 

Check your volume mappings for the docker as well as Folders in Sab.  I believe you'd have to change both the /config and /downloads directory in the docker volume mappings to move Sab's location onto the array.

 

If you had filled up the cache drive unRAID should have started writing to the array but I haven't put that to the test and I'd be worried about the final unpack where you were writing a single file to the cache drive that exceeds the entire capacity of the cache drive.

Yeah, I've never downloaded anything so large before - my fibre internet connection kept chucking a fit while it was downloading, too. Like Scotty: "I canna give it any more, Cap'n!" or something like that.

It was a collection of many files: first the many rars, then many small files unpacked from them, which is why the Mover could do its thing while the archive was being unpacked (I was lucky in that regard).

Given that it's so rare for me to dl files that large, perhaps I can just work around it like I did this time. I don't really want to move /config onto the array.

Thanks for the pointer re the config directory.

[tdallen]

I'm just guessing at /config, but since most of the paths in Sab are relative to the /config doc root, I'm guessing it could play into it.  Time for bigger SSDs!

[Azza666]

Imho you want your sab to use your cache drives as all of the little files are created and deleted and the downloaded files building before being unrared will mean that parity will be getting written a bucket load. All for transient files.

 

 

[jademonkee]

Imho you want your sab to use your cache drives as all of the little files are created and deleted and the downloaded files building before being unrared will mean that parity will be getting written a bucket load. All for transient files.

Yeah, good thinking. I shall keep config on the cache. Thanks.

 

I'm just guessing at /config, but since most of the paths in Sab are relative to the /config doc root, I'm guessing it could play into it.  Time for bigger SSDs!

I'm always keen for an upgrade