Ok, until now I haven't had the need to configure a share using more than one disk.

 

So I've got a Movie share setup. I'm going to use this share across 2 1.5TB disks.

 

Disk1 currently has about 1TB free

Disk2 currently has about 100GB free

 

What I'm after is to have Disk2 filled up until it has 60GB free, and then Disk1 is used.

 

 

My directory structure for the share is as follows:

 

The share name is Movies, so:

 

Movies-->

    Resolution (HD or SD)-->

            Rating (PG or restricted)-->

                   directory for each movie

 

 

So I want to make sure that anything past the Rating directories is always on the same disk.

 

Edit: OK, rethinking, the above sentence should be: I want to make sure the files in the movie directories underneath the ratings directly remain on the same disk.

 

 

So for my Movies share I set Allocation method to High-water

Min. free space to 60GB

Split level to 3

Included disks is disk1,disk2

 

 

So have I set this up correctly? Also, I have a different share configured to use one of those disks with a completely different directory structure but I am assuming that doesn't matter.

 

 

Hrmm, with this setup new data is being written to Disk1 when I was expecting it to write to Disk2 until there is about 60GB left. Should I be using the Fill-up option? The wiki isn't updated to explain that particular allocation method.

Hrmm.. found the following in one of the 4.5 release notes:

 

Along with split0 feature, added also a new allocation method called "Fill up", which will cause disk space to be allocated from the lowest numbered disk provided the amount of free space remaining is greater than "Min free space" (a new share config parameter which also applies to the other allocation methods).  Min free space units are in 1024-byte blocks.

 

So, it looks like with Fill-up it'll put data on disk1 first since it is the lowest numbered disk, but I'd like the data to go on disk2 first until it reaches the Min free space. Am I not going to be able to do this without switching disks around?

 

For the fill-up option, would be nice if it would respect the disk order placed in included disks (i.e. for my case if I did disk2,disk1 for included disks)

Anyone? Am I thinking about this the wrong way?

Yes, I believe you will need to use the 'fill up' allocation method, and that you will need to swap your current disk1 and disk2.  You do not need to physically move these two disks at all.  In fact, you don't even have to reboot the server.  The method is simple:

 

0) Run a parity check, just in case.  Not really required, but always a good practice before making any changes.

1) Stop the array (press 'stop' on the 'main' page)

2) Go to the 'devices' page

3) Write down the serial numbers of your current disk1 (w/ 1 TB free space) and your current disk2 (w/ 100 GB free space).  Alternately, you can take a screenshot and save it to your desktop/laptop.

4) Unassign both disk1 and disk2

5) Assign the drive with 100 GB free space (formally disk2) into the disk1 slot.  Assign the drive with 1 TB free space (formally disk1) into the disk2 slot.

6) Go back to the main page and start the array by pressing the 'Start' button (you may need to check the little 'I'm sure I want to do this' checkbox first).

 

At this point all disks should be green, you should still have parity protection, and everything should be dandy.  Post here if you have any problems.

Thanks Rajahal! 

 

I thought about doing that based on how I read the fill-up method to work but just wanted to be sure there wasn't some other way to configure my share to do what I wanted. Went ahead and changed the two disks around, and with most things with unraid, ended up being very quick and easy to reconfigure.