Optane accelerator support and new user advice

[AnyOldFool]

I am new to unraid, so new in fact that I have not yet created my install disk nor even received all the parts for my build (last of which should arrive tomorrow).

 

I am wondering if it is possible to use optane memory to accelerate reads from the array. I will be loading a windows 10 VM, or two, and intend to use the array as storage for my steam/games library so Windows compatibility is what is important for me.

 

I would like to use unraid as a nas and plex media server in the background.

 

As a completely new user, albeit having watched several of spaceinvader one's excellent youtube videos, I welcome any hints, tips, advice, suggested reading lists or suggested watchlists.

 

My build is as follows:

 

MSI z370 SLI Plus D4 ATX

8700K

1TB 970 evo nvme * 2

5TB WD Red * 4

1080ti * 2

Intel E1G42ET 2 port network adapter

[JonathanM]

50 minutes ago, AnyOldFool said:

I am wondering if it is possible to use optane memory to accelerate reads from the array.

No. Files on the array are served as is directly from the disk they are on, so read speeds are as fast as the specific disk that holds the file.

 

You should be able to use optane as a home for your VM virtual disks, which will benefit from the speed. Currently the way to do that is use the Unassigned Devices plugin to mount it, then manually specify that mount point as the target for the VM vdisks. If multiple cache pools become a thing in the future, then you can use that. This layout assumes you are using your 4 5TB disks in the parity protected array, and your 2 1TB SSD drives in a RAID1 cache pool.

[AnyOldFool]

36 minutes ago, jonathanm said:

You should be able to use optane as a home for your VM virtual disks

Not quite. I was thinking of the accelerator (32GB version) as opposed to full blown Optane SSD so not really feasible, plus I don’t even think it can be written to manually.

 

I would be willing to sacrifice one of my NVMe drives if the Optane could be forwarded via e.g. an xml edit.

 

Iirc, the Optane accelerator works by copying frequently accessed files to the Optane memory and reading from there so no increase in speed is noted initially but subsequent access, such as when reloading a level, are a helluva lot faster.

 

I am also aware that the accelerator used to only work for the boot drive but I believe this to no longer be the case, since v16 of the software, and can now accelerate a secondary disk.

 

I was really hoping the parity array could be passed through to windows so as it’s visible as a single internal disk (iSCSI?) and have the Optane passed directly through to windows.

 

[JonathanM]

2 minutes ago, AnyOldFool said:

I was really hoping the parity array could be passed through to windows so as it’s visible as a single internal disk (iSCSI?)

Not possible. Array access from the VM is the same as any other network client, via SMB or NFS. The only difference is the network traffic never needs to leave the machine, so you are not limited by wire speed, it's a virtual network connection that is faster.

 

The Unraid array is unlike typical RAID arrays (go figure, it's UNraid) in that each individual disk is kept independent. So while you can have directories that span multiple disks, individual files must fit on one disk. No spanning of files. Read speeds are limited by single disk speeds, write speeds are limited by both target drive and parity drive speeds for the most part.

 

Your optane scenario is not going to work for array operations.

[AnyOldFool]

Thanks for clarifying some of this. I had a google for some alternatives and I may try running the steamcache docker image locally and “download” from that when I want to play a game I have yet to install. Fingers crossed I get everything working.