A few questions about SMB and array


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Hello dear forum members. I  have a few questions about unRAID.

 

  1. When I stop the array, by clicking the Stop button, does it spin down the drives in the array?
  2. Is it possible to schedule the drives to be spun down after 24 hours of non usage?
  3. Following on with the question #2, do you guys reccomend spinning down WD Red drives? Other users keep them running 24/7, and some spin them down after a few hours. My use case is really similar to the regular raid, as I access data with varying age and location. So, when I'm using unRAID, it's very likely spinning up all drives.

 

And I left the hardest question for the end, about SMB.

  1. I know that it's possible to move data between shares without any issues, as it's only symbolic links. So, if I'm moving from share, it's only share to share. And if I'm moving from disk, it's only disk to disk. I already did this before without any issues. However, I never moved data between a cache share and an array share. I believe disk cache to disk array is fine, but what about /mnt/user/CACHE_ONLY_SHARE to /mnt/user/RANDOM_ARRAY_SHARE? I have a feeling this would lead to lost data. Has anyone tried this before?
  2. I modified my smb.conf file to create a private share of my /mnt/user/ directory. I remember reading about this a few years ago, someone called it a "rootshare". It works, but I haven't experimented with it yet. How will it act with moving data? Will it be instant, and will it cause any issues?

 

Thank you so much in advance. Kind regards.

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31 minutes ago, Arandomdood said:
  • When I stop the array, by clicking the Stop button, does it spin down the drives in the array?

It spins them up so that it can issue a sync command

 

31 minutes ago, Arandomdood said:
  • Is it possible to schedule the drives to be spun down after 24 hours of non usage?

In the GUI (Settings - Disk Settings) it can be set to between 15 minutes and 9 hours

 

32 minutes ago, Arandomdood said:

Following on with the question #2, do you guys reccomend spinning down WD Red drives? Other users keep them running 24/7, and some spin them down after a few hours. My use case is really similar to the regular raid, as I access data with varying age and location. So, when I'm using unRAID, it's very likely spinning up all drives.

I use 15 minutes.  It's all up to you.

 

33 minutes ago, Arandomdood said:

but what about /mnt/user/CACHE_ONLY_SHARE to /mnt/user/RANDOM_ARRAY_SHARE? I have a feeling this would lead to lost data. Has anyone tried this before?

That's fine, no problems.  It's still share to share

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37 minutes ago, Squid said:
  1. It spins them up so that it can issue a sync command
  2. In the GUI (Settings - Disk Settings) it can be set to between 15 minutes and 9 hours
  3. I use 15 minutes.  It's all up to you.
  4. That's fine, no problems.  It's still share to share

Thank you fo replying to my questions Squid, much appreciated. I'm wondering about the stopping. You said it spins them up. I understand that, but what happens after? Do they keep spinning?

 

Regarding the 15 minutes and 9 hours of spindown time. Is there a way to go for more? I want to do more than 9 hours.

 

Also regarding your reply about moving files between cache and array shares. What if you're moving from an array share to a cache only share? (Basically, you have a normal share, which stores it's data on the array, and then you move the symbolic link pointer (read this as move the file between shares), to a cache only share). Do you see where I'm going with this?

 

So you get a file, which appears to be located by it's symbolic link in a cache-only share, but it's actually located within the array, as it wasn't a disk to disk move, but rather a share to share, which only moves the symbolic link pointer. That could easily confuse the system and cause some nasty things to happen. It all depends on how the unRAID was designed, which we don't know - closed source.

 

Thank you again. 

 

P.S. Do you happen to know anything about my /mnt/user/ share "issue"? Any info is welcome.

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1 minute ago, Arandomdood said:

You said it spins them up. I understand that, but what happens after? Do they keep spinning?

I've never kept it stopped long enough to see what it does.  Not much point in running unRaid if the array is stopped.  Better off to shut it down / leave it running but have the drives spin down etc.

 

2 minutes ago, Arandomdood said:

P.S. Do you happen to know anything about my /mnt/user/ share "issue"? Any info is welcome.

If you move a file from

 

/mnt/disk1/someShare/file.mkv to /mnt/user/someShare/file.mkv, the file will get corrupted.  Damn near impossible to do over the network unless you enable disk shares (disabled by default)

 

A cache-only share, and an array only share are identical are are all located within /mnt/user.  IE: shares are shares are shares.  On what disk they are located is immaterial to the system.  Only when you mix a share and a reference to the disk do you run the risk of corruption if you don't know what you are doing.

 

You can search for "User Share Copy Bug", but it is not a bug in the system, but a lack of understanding on the users part and as noted very hard to replicate unless you're working directly at the command prompt in which case you should know what you're doing in the first place.

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6 minutes ago, itimpi said:

Not sure why you keep referring to symbolic links for files - they are actual files and not symbolic links.

I'm sorry, I just checked and you're indeed right. I thought they were symbolic links, because you can move files between shares instantly without any delay. 

 

Could you please explain me a bit further how does this work? 

 

What's actually stored on /mnt/user/ and what's stored on /mnt/diskX ?

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2 hours ago, Arandomdood said:

What's actually stored on /mnt/user/ and what's stored on /mnt/diskX ?

To hammer home the point, NOTHING is stored in /mnt/user if you want to get technical. It's just a combined view of all the root folders on /mnt/diskX and /mnt/cache, like itimpi said.

 

Moving from share to share that happens instantly is simply renaming the path from one root folder to another, it doesn't actually change what disk it's on. It depends on what generates the move and the paths it has access to whether it's a rename, or a copy then delete, which isn't instant, and can move from disk to disk, depending on the share configuration.

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2 hours ago, jonathanm said:

To hammer home the point, NOTHING is stored in /mnt/user if you want to get technical. It's just a combined view of all the root folders on /mnt/diskX and /mnt/cache, like itimpi said.

 

Moving from share to share that happens instantly is simply renaming the path from one root folder to another, it doesn't actually change what disk it's on. It depends on what generates the move and the paths it has access to whether it's a rename, or a copy then delete, which isn't instant, and can move from disk to disk, depending on the share configuration.

If those files aren't symlinks as I suspected, they must be something similar. What exactly are they?

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