Change prompt for the Use Cache Disk setting


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There seems to be a lot of confusion about the meaning of the Use Cache Disk setting (although it is clear how it works if Help is enabled in the GUI).

 

My suggestion is that the prompt should be slightly changed to read “Use Cache Disk for new files”.     Although this seems like it is purely a cosmetic change I would think that would make it clearer at first glance what the various settings are for this option and would result in far less forum posts because of the user having issues because of selecting the wrong option.   At the moment I do not believe that new users initially realise that this setting is primarily about where new files are placed (and the resulting Mover behavior).

 

ideally it would be a good idea to also indicate (without turning on help) what the resulting mover action will be when any particular setting is selected but this might be a bit harder to achieve in a convenient manner.

 

Does anyone else think this is a good idea?

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36 minutes ago, itimpi said:

There seems to be a lot of confusion about the meaning of the Use Cache Disk setting (although it is clear how it works if Help is enabled in the GUI).

 

My suggestion is that the prompt should be slightly changed to read “Use Cache Disk for new files”.     Although this seems like it is purely a cosmetic change I would think that would make it clearer at first glance what the various settings are for this option and would result in far less forum posts because of the user having issues because of selecting the wrong option.   At the moment I do not believe that new users initially realise that this setting is primarily about where new files are placed (and the resulting Mover behavior).

 

ideally it would be a good idea to also indicate (without turning on help) what the resulting mover action will be when any particular setting is selected but this might be a bit harder to achieve in a convenient manner.

 

Does anyone else think this is a good idea?

 

Maybe get the word temporarily in there, which would elude to a later step to move it to the array. "Use cache disk to temporarily store new files"

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Not arguing against this, but every user share setting is about where new files get written. Some people have thought that changing a setting will redistribute files, for example. And every disk with the folder is read regardless of include/exclude.

 

I don't know how to convey this information in the help, but the whole page is about settings which only affect new writes.

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I don't have a definite answer, but changing the title to "Use Cache Disk for new files" is likely going to raise the question "what happens with my existing files?" and help needs to be consulted just as before.

 

Adding the word "temporary" doesn't match the choices "only" and "prefer" cause here files will stay permanently on the cache.

 

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53 minutes ago, bonienl said:

I believe the biggest confusion is what trurl explained. Some people expect that magically everything moves when changing this setting.

 

I was trying to come up with an initial suggestion which would be trivial to implement and might avoid some confusion.   It is definitely not a definitive answer to the problem, but it might mean that new users at least select the right setting and then ask the right questions to achieve what they want when it is not about writing new files.   If there is no obvious downside and no change in functionality the change in wording could be done to see if it changes the tenor of questions added in the forum by new users.

 

As was mentioned these settings are all about writing new files to the array.   Something that is not obvious to new users is that the settings are largely irrelevant to reading files. 

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Specify whether new files and directories written on the share can be written onto the cache disk/pool if present.

No prohibits new files and subdirectories from being written onto the Cache disk/pool.

Yes indicates that all new files and subdirectories should be written to the Cache disk/pool, provided enough free space exists on the Cache disk/pool. If there is insufficient space on the Cache disk/pool, then new files and directories are created on the array. When the mover is invoked, files and subdirectories are transferred off the Cache disk/pool and onto the array.

Only indicates that all new files and subdirectories must be writen to the Cache disk/pool. If there is insufficient free space on the Cache disk/pool, create operations will fail with out of space status.

Prefer indicates that all new files and subdirectories should be written to the Cache disk/pool, provided enough free space exists on the Cache disk/pool. If there is insufficient space on the Cache disk/pool, then new files and directories are created on the array. When the mover is invoked, files and subdirectories are transferred off the array and onto Cache disk/pool.

 

Suggested edits:

Specify how the cache drive/pool will be used as new files are added to the array for this share.

Never - new files and subdirectories written to this share will always be written directly to the array. The cache is never used for this share.

Temporary - new files and subdirectories will be temporarily written to the cache disk/pool provided it has enough free space. The Mover will move cached files to the array depending on the Mover schedule.

Only - indicates that the cache disk/pool will become the permanent repository of this share. The Mover will not attempt to move files to the array for this share. Do not use if you have no cache drive or if the share is too large for your cache drive.

Prefer - similar in concept to "Only". New files and subdirectories are written to the cache disk/pool if it exists and has room. If not, they are written to the array. If/when a cache drive is available/has space available, files in the share on the array will be moved (by the Mover) from the array to the cache (use for smaller shares).

 

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17 minutes ago, pwm said:

"Never" and "Temporary" is definitely better than "No" and "Yes".

 

I agree these are better for new files.

 

A question is whether it is worth mentioning in the GUI that changing these settings may not affect existing files (although one could argue that is not strictly true where changing the setting could result in mover taking action to move files).    Should there perhaps be a link included in the GUI to the relevant part of the documentation where this is described in more detail?

 

BTW:  considering the amount of feedback/discussion that has resulted from raising this request maybe it is more valuable than I originally thought - especially as nobody has suggested that nothing needs to be done.

Edited by itimpi
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Why not something like:

Always - Files are written to the cache. If there is insufficient space, the transfer will fail.

Prefer cache - Files are written to the cache. If there is insufficient space, files will overflow to the array, and be moved back to cache by the mover on a schedule if there is sufficient space.

Prefer array - Files are written to the cache. They will be moved to the array by the mover on a schedule.

Never - Files are written to the array.

Existing files are not affected by these settings. If files on cache should be on array, or visa versa, they should be moved manually first.

 

I think the wording and order are both important here. I feel ordering them in how much they use the cache drive is more intuitive, and naming them more consistently would help as well. I also tried to keep the word count down, as users stand a better chance of understanding it, and reading it in the first place. I'm not entirely happy with the warning text though.

 

Thoughts?

Edited by -Daedalus
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I find the use of ‘never’ and ‘temporary’ more intuitive than your suggestions and also think ‘prefer’ and ‘only’ are reasonably descriptive and intuitive‘.    I also feel that the list should be in order of increasing use of cache so that the order becomes ‘never’ (was no), ‘temporary’ (was yes), ‘Prefer’, ‘Only’ rather than the other way around.

 

all this discussion raises the question as to whether the included/excluded disks should also mention new files.   It is perfectly possible to have files that are not on a disk allocated to the share and as long as that disk is not excluded in the global share settings you will still see the files as belonging to the share (at least with current behaviour) and there are certain scenarios which exploit this behavior.    You can also have a Use Cache setting of ‘only’ and any files on array disks that are in the folders belonging to the share are still seen when browsing the share.

Edited by itimpi
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41 minutes ago, itimpi said:

all this discussion raises the question as to whether the included/excluded disks should also mention new files.

It's not just include/exclude though. All the other settings only affect where new files are written. None of the settings affect reading, and the only settings which affect existing files are those cache settings which invoke mover.

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