Okay, so I've been using a 250GB Samsung SSD as a "cache" drive a little after I started using unRAID.

 

I did not use this as an actual cache drive that would increase transfer speeds and then utilize the mover though. Instead, I used the cache drive for my Docker containers (Plex, Sonarr, Radarr, etc.)

 

I did this because it made them faster to load and I just don't have the need to quickly transfer things to the Array.

So, I recently decided to upgrade my SSD/Cache set up and purchased an NVMe drive for my unRAID box.

 

I try to add it as a cache drive and it wants to combine it with my original 250GB drive and create a cache pool. But again, I don't need this type of setup and it wouldn't even read the data on the older cache drive because of some unknown cache pool uuid thing or something. I'm not sure.

 

I got by this by unmounting the old SSD drive, putting the new NVMe drive in its place (so there is only one cache drive) and then I went in and recreated my Docker containers on the new NVMe cache drive.

 

That's cool and has been a nice upgrade and all, but I would like to do something else with a secondary cache drive. Maybe I would use it for unRAID's actual cache purposes to increase transfer speeds and let the mover do its thing. Maybe I will use it for a dedicated sabNZB download drive. I'm not sure.

 

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So my question is, how can I add a secondary SSD drive to my unRAID box as a 'cache' drive (so it isn't used when I copy stuff to the array) but in a way that it won't want to create a cache pool and so I won't lose the data I have on my current NVMe drive. 

 

Is it possible to add it as a cache drive this way? Or, is there a way that I could add the SSD as a regular drive in the array, but only let it be used by stuff that specifically points to the drive (instead of being included in my user shares)?

 

I'm just curious about the best way to go about this.

 

Thanks in advance!

Edited May 26, 20197 yr by Endda

15 minutes ago, Endda said:

Or, is there a way that I could add the SSD as a regular drive in the array, but only let it be used by stuff that specifically points to the drive (instead of being included in my user shares)?

Add it outside the array by using the Unassigned Devices plugin

4 minutes ago, Squid said:

Add it outside the array by using the Unassigned Devices plugin

Thanks! I've never heard of that plugin before. Installing it now

On 5/26/2019 at 10:29 AM, Squid said:

Add it outside the array by using the Unassigned Devices plugin

hrmm, so when using this plugin I have noticed that the Format button is grayed out/disabled on an unassigned drive. Any idea how I can get around this?

4 minutes ago, Endda said:

hrmm, so when using this plugin I have noticed that the Format button is grayed out/disabled on an unassigned drive. Any idea how I can get around this?

Read the Support topic for the plugin on the forum. It tells you what to do.

26 minutes ago, testdasi said:

Read the Support topic for the plugin on the forum. It tells you what to do.

Perfect, thanks!