I just built my UnRaid server:

 

Core 2 Duo 2.66

Msi Motherboard (8 Sata Ports (parity drive plugged in here)

4 Gb Ram

2x Ataptech Raid Cards ( 4 ports each )

15x 500 Gb Hard Drives

1x 1 TB Hard Drive

10/100/1000 Network Card

Unraid Server Pro V 4.5

 

The question, when I access the network share I see 15 folders, I would like to have one folder that stores everything. Please tell me how i can do that.

I would like to have a Folder that spans all the available drives.....

I would like to have a Folder that spans all the available drives.....

You can enable User shares:

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=UnRAID_Manual#User_shares_2

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=FAQ#User_Shares

 

 

Give us a little bit of time to answer... you waited all of 15 min.

 

Now, with that said you could have done a search on the subject and found some suggestions.  I will outline what you need to do to make it appear that you have "one big drive."

 

Create one folder on one drive (call it whatever you like) then move all the current folders at the root of the hard drives to that one folder.  From there you can enable user shares as specified above.  This will allow you to view the unRAID server as if it were one drive.

Give us a little bit of time to answer... you waited all of 15 min.

13 min.   

 

@Exilepc: If you can learn to live with those 15 folders, and not use User shares,

then you'll be better off in the long run.  User shares can be somewhat messy.

Or, at least just export the User shares as read-only.

(just my 2 cents)

 

 

Just for another perspective, I've been using my unRAID since day one with User shares only (in fact, I don't think I've ever accessed a disk directly more than to just check if it worked), and I've never had a 'messy' circumstance from them. I've been using unRAID for only 5 months, so I'm not brand new, but it's not certainly a long term review from me though.

 

Another benefit from user shares is that you can give them readable names, not disk names, which to me is important.

Another benefit from user shares is that you can give them readable names, not disk names, which to me is important.

 

The approach discussed here http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=3138.msg26647#msg26647 lets one use readable names without needing to use user shares.

 

The main reason I use this approach is to have control over where my files go.

I would recommend you create a user share for each type of data you want to store. For example, create one for "Movies" and one for "TV Shows" and another for "Music" and yet another for "Applications" and so on.

 

And, before you begin to use shares, read about and make sure you understand the settings, especially the split level.

 

Peter

 

The approach discussed here http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=3138.msg26647#msg26647 lets one use readable names without needing to use user shares.

 

That post is a little dated.  Stock unRAID will now automatically include file  /boot/confing/smb-extra.conf  if it finds such file in the config folder on your flash key.

 

 

Just for another perspective, I've been using my unRAID since day one with User shares only (in fact, I don't think I've ever accessed a disk directly more than to just check if it worked), and I've never had a 'messy' circumstance from them. I've been using unRAID for only 5 months, so I'm not brand new, but it's not certainly a long term review from me though.

 

Another benefit from user shares is that you can give them readable names, not disk names, which to me is important.

 

Agreed, I also use only user shares.  If you take the time to set up your 'includes' and 'excludes' properly for each share, then you have control over where your files go.  For example, my server has a total of 6 data disks.  All my music resides on one disk, all my TV shows on two disks, and all my movies on four disks.  This consolidation of disks helps to limit the number of disks that spin up when I'm browsing through my files (I'm running unRAID stock, no cache_dirs script).  If I didn't use includes and excludes, all those files could be spread out across every disk, and every disk would likely spin up when I browsed my media.

Agreed, I also use only user shares.  If you take the time to set up your 'includes' and 'excludes' properly for each share, then you have control over where your files go.  For example, my server has a total of 6 data disks.  All my music resides on one disk, all my TV shows on two disks, and all my movies on four disks.  This consolidation of disks helps to limit the number of disks that spin up when I'm browsing through my files (I'm running unRAID stock, no cache_dirs script).  If I didn't use includes and excludes, all those files could be spread out across every disk, and every disk would likely spin up when I browsed my media.

 

This is like, 'you can limit the spin up of other disks if you only browse one disk'.

A cache_dirs script eliminates disk spin-ups altogether, wherever you are browsing.

 

 

Agreed, I also use only user shares.  If you take the time to set up your 'includes' and 'excludes' properly for each share, then you have control over where your files go.  For example, my server has a total of 6 data disks.  All my music resides on one disk, all my TV shows on two disks, and all my movies on four disks.  This consolidation of disks helps to limit the number of disks that spin up when I'm browsing through my files (I'm running unRAID stock, no cache_dirs script).  If I didn't use includes and excludes, all those files could be spread out across every disk, and every disk would likely spin up when I browsed my media.

 

This is like, 'you can limit the spin up of other disks if you only browse one disk'.

A cache_dirs script eliminates disk spin-ups altogether, wherever you are browsing.

 

 

 

Yes, I know.  And some day I'm sure I'll get around to installing cache_dirs.  However, at least the stock unRAID install gives you some way of addressing the issue.