Hello,

I'm running 6.3.2 with an array of ten drives (9 data + 1 Parity).

 

Since I started using some dockers I have serious issues with spin downs. As long as any docker is running (also if is is not doing anything), my parity and at least another drive won't spin down. This results in very high tempretarues (over 55 Celsius!).

What are the steps to track down and fix this issues? Is there a general fault in my setup?

 

Whatever Input u need, I'll provide

 

Thanks & Hoping someone can help.

9 minutes ago, Jaster said:

This results in very high tempretarues (over 55 Celsius!).

 

Regardless of your issue disks should be able to stay spinning without overheating, e.g. during a paruty check or rebuild, you need to improve your cooling, disks should stay under 45C at all times.

 

If the docker image is on disk1 it's normal for both it and parity to spin up, you should use a cache device for the docker image.

If you have the docker image on an array drive it would be expected behaviour for that drive and the parity drive to remain spun up as the vast majority of dockers will be doing some continual write to logs internal to the docker.

 

you should have sufficient cooling installed on your unRAID server that drives never get excessively hot even if they are all spun up.   There will always be times this can happen (e.g during a parity check)

OK, cooling is a different topic, which I have to address any way. But from what you are telling me, There is a general failiure in my setup. So:

- I would like not to use a cache drive (or at least I don't want to cache files from/to the array). Should I add a drive outside the array then, or should I add it as a cache drive, but disable general caching (somehow?)

- Further: What kind of drive should I be using? SSD/HDD? Is an USB 3.0 flash an option?

- Is there a possiblity to migrate the Existing dockers to the new drive, or would I have to setup everything from scratch?

- Does this all apply to VMs as well?

19 minutes ago, Jaster said:

- I would like not to use a cache drive (or at least I don't want to cache files from/to the array). Should I add a drive outside the array then, or should I add it as a cache drive, but disable general caching (somehow?)

Just set all of the shares (with the exception of your docker appdata share) to be Use Cache: NO

20 minutes ago, Jaster said:

- Further: What kind of drive should I be using? SSD/HDD? Is an USB 3.0 flash an option?

SSD.  USB drives are supported, but I've never used one.

20 minutes ago, Jaster said:

- Is there a possiblity to migrate the Existing dockers to the new drive, or would I have to setup everything from scratch?

Couple of different ways to do this.  Via using mover, or CA Appdata Backup / Restore, Manual Commands.

 

21 minutes ago, Jaster said:

- Does this all apply to VMs as well?

Yes.  Just search in the forum for advice on relocating VM vdisks.

Yes, you can use a drive outside the array (but it is then your responsibility to handle backups as it would not be protected by parity).  Performance would always be better as writes on the array drive incur a significant performance cost.

 

if you want to add a cache drive then you specify what uses the caching.  For shares this is done under the share settings.  For VMs and dockers it is controlled you either explicitly specify the cache drive or alternatively a user share set to ‘prefer’.

 

in theory a USB flash drive could be used but I would expect performance to be bad and anyway such drives have limited write lifetimes.   Whether you use a SSD or HDD is up to you.   SSDs give better performance but at increased cost.

 

Both VMs and Dockers are affected similarity.   Since VMs in particular get the most performance gains from a SSD it is not unusual for a user to have both a cache drive for dockers/share caching and a SSD mounted outside the array dedicated to VMs.

@itimpiIf I use a cache drive, it should be not protected either, right?

 

 

I'll start by adding an SSD. I would probably get back about moving and reconfiguring...

In unRAID 6+ the cache drive has become the defacto "application" drive.  There's no need to use it for caching writes to the array if you don't want to.  If you format your cache SSD with BTRFS you have the option of creating a redundant pool of cache devices in the future.