Unraid problems

[Kjetil]

Thats it, I did not press the Plex icon, but the text. Now I got the menu and deleted Plex.

 

Now I lost track a bit. Shall I go to apps and download again (a new version?) I can see there are several to choose from...

[trurl]

Those all match "plex" in their descriptions, but they are not all plex. Some are things to be used with plex, and some are other things similar to plex.

 

I use linuxserver.io plex so that is the one I am most familiar with. If you have other linuxserver.io dockers then there is some benefit to staying with them. On the other hand if you have other binhex dockers then there is some benefit to staying with them.

 

If you don't have a preference just choose linuxserver.io plex. It is the first one on the second row of your screenshot.

 

Whichever you choose you need to edit some things on the Add Container page so post a screenshot when you get to that page.

[Kjetil]

I have no apps in docker now. How can I see if I have linuxserver.io or binhex docker ?

[trurl]

Based on your Previous Apps screenshot you don't have either. You only had 2 different templates for the same deprecated limetech plex, and a couple of plugins (not dockers) related to preclear.

[Kjetil]

Not sure I understand. So should I make a linuxserver.io or binhed docker first, then install Plex ?

[Kjetil]

I think also I want to make new shares, set them up as you recommend, then copy files into them batch by batch. This way I also can add only the new shares to Plex, and update info batch by batch, to be sure all metadata is as wanted. Can you give me the tip on how to have the settings for the new shares ?

[trurl]

16 minutes ago, Kjetil said:

Not sure I understand. So should I make a linuxserver.io or binhed docker first, then install Plex ?

You install a linuxserver.io plex or you install a binhex plex. They are both docker containers, and though there are some technical differences between those containers, it is all ultimately the same plex code and will work the same. Linuxserver.io is likely to get more "timely" updates.

[trurl]

17 minutes ago, Kjetil said:

I think also I want to make new shares, set them up as you recommend, then copy files into them batch by batch. This way I also can add only the new shares to Plex, and update info batch by batch, to be sure all metadata is as wanted. Can you give me the tip on how to have the settings for the new shares ?

I don't see any reason to go to all of this trouble. Which disks the files are on isn't particularly important, you can change the settings of the existing shares if you want, and you can even rename the existing shares if you want.

 

If you want to consolidate some of the shares for some reason that would be the only reason to copy or move them.

 

I don't speak your language so I don't actually know the meaning of your share names, though I could take a guess at some of them.

 

So what do you have in mind?

[Kjetil]

Well, as I mentioned the reason for making new shares and copying files in batches would be

1) I can also add files in batches to Plex, that would give me more control over checking and correcting metadata, choosing the movie artwork etc

2) I tidy up the server in a way, so that all files regarding one folder is on the same drive (in case something should I happen with the server at some time, it would be easier to find complete folders and start over...

 

Its christmas coming, so there is time to do this now.

 

Is there some software that copy files within Unraid (like Qnap and Synology have - I think its called File Station). That would make it quicker to copy each batch.

[trurl]

Before I get to how you might copy / move files within the server, let me just give some warnings here.

1. You must never copy / move from a user share to a disk or from a disk to a user share. Linux doesn't know that user shares and the disks are just different views of the same things, so it won't realize when the source and destination are the same file and will try to overwrite what it is trying to read.
2. Moving files between user shares won't necessarily move them to the disks you want regardless of the include/exclude settings of the destination user share. Linux will take the easy way out and just rename them so they are in a folder for the user share on the same disk.

Here is a post I made about these "surprises!":

 

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/61985-file-browser-in-webui/?do=findComment&comment=723474

 

 

 

[trurl]

I think the unBALANCE plugin may be the best option for what you want to do. I have not used it in a very long time though and I know it has been updated quite a bit since I first used it. I don't currently have unBALANCE installed on my system.

 

You can find the unBALANCE plugin on the Apps page.

 

And here is a good opportunity to tell you about how to find support threads in the forum for your dockers and plugins.

 

On the Apps page, each docker and plugin has a ? icon under it. If you mouseover that you will see that it goes to the support thread for that docker or plugin.

 

Also, after you have actually installed a docker, you can click on its icon on the Dashboard or Docker page and select Support, similar to the way you did Remove earlier.

 

Similarly, after you have already installed a plugin, it will be on the Plugins page, and each of your plugins will have a Support Thread link under it.

 

Take a look at unBALANCE and see what you think. I will make another post with some other ideas.

[trurl]

The way I usually work with files directly on the server is by using the builtin Midnight Commander. You have to go to the command line to get to it with by using the command mc.

 

Midnight Commander is a textGUI file manager that has plenty of documentation on the web, and isn't really that difficult to figure out. When using mc I only work directly with the disks and never the user shares.

 

You can also just do linux commands at the command line if you know how or want to figure that out, but linux is very powerful and often has very little feedback so it can be pretty easy to make very big mistakes.

 

[trurl]

And, reviewing your diagnostics again, I see most of your disks are pretty small by today's standards, and they are pretty full.

 

Probably the first step if you really want to reorganize your files will be to replace one or more of those small disks with larger ones. Since your parity disks are 10TB it is pretty easy to get more capacity by just replacing an old small disk.

 

This thread has gotten a little long now, and you have a lot of disks. I don't remember now so I will ask again. Do any of your disks have SMART warnings on the Dashboard?

 

[trurl]

I should also mention the Krusader dockers. Krusader is a GUI linux file manager, and the Krusader dockers just put the application into a container. It is probably even easier to figure out how to use than mc once you get it setup. It is probably the most popular general purpose file manager around here these days. I don't use it myself since Midnight Commander is already builtin and I have been using it since long before Unraid even had dockers. But I'm sure I could guide you through setting it up at least.

[Kjetil]

This seems a bit too complicated for me. Maybe I just do a drag and drop to a new share using the Finder on my mac. That way I guess I would be sure the files are moved to one disc ? And after delete the old share? The old discs are enough for me for now, I dont have more to add to the server, and I will upgrade once the 10TB discs are going down in price, they are about 350 dollars here in Norway right now. 

 

Can you give some recommendations on the settings if I make new shares ?

[trurl]

4 hours ago, Kjetil said:

Maybe I just do a drag and drop to a new share using the Finder on my mac.

You could try it that way. It would be slower since the files would have to make a round trip to your mac and back.

 

4 hours ago, Kjetil said:

The old discs are enough for me for now

The reason I suggested upsizing at least one disk is because all of your disks are pretty full and if you had one with a lot of free space you would have some space to move things around.

 

4 hours ago, Kjetil said:

Can you give some recommendations on the settings if I make new shares ?

If you can tell me in enough detail what you want to do I can help you do it.

[trurl]

As a starting point to help understand which disks have which shares already, go to Shares - User Shares and click the Compute All button at the bottom. Wait for the result, it might take several minutes. Then post a screenshot.

[trurl]

If it hasn't produced a result yet try refreshing the screen.

[Kjetil]

I was away some hours. The file is quite long so I made it into a pdf to get all data.

FederalReserve:Shares.pdf

[trurl]

OK that will be a good starting place perhaps for a discussion of what you want to do that is different from what you already have.

 

That page shows each of your shares, and how much of each disk each of those shares are using.

[Kjetil]

I have ordered another 10TB drive to replace the drive that is almost full. The other drives look ok. I want to setup the new shares so that they perform well, ie not spin up several discs because the files are spread over many discs - as @trurl recommended in an earlier post. How should I set up these new shares, before starting to copy files ? Any recommendations is welcome. I dont know enough about the setting so I can not say what I would like  I just need to go by your recommendations on what generally work well (like setting minimum free space to match (at least) the biggest file I would copy (which would probably be an uncompressed rip of my blueray disc = 35-50gb).

[trurl]

As you can see from your pdf, most of your shares are spread across most of your disks. Also notice there is a total amount used by each share shown on the line with the share name at the top of each share listing. A few of your shares are too large to fit on a single disk.

 

As for how they perform, I would need to know more about how you use them to give any specific recommendations. Newer larger faster (RPM) disks will likely perform better than older smaller slower disks, but whether or not that difference will be noticeable in real use is another question.

 

How many simultaneous streams do you expect from Plex, for example? I rarely have more than one, and have never had more than two. Other people expect to have more. I have also used plex to record one program while also playing back a recording already made. I do my plex DVR on cache SSD for that reason.

 

Another possible scenario. If you want most disks to spin down while you are binge watching a TV series, and get no delays while a disk spins up when you go to the next episode, then it would make sense to have that series all on the same disk. That is the point of the Split Level setting. That might also be important to you if you listen to music the old fashioned way, where you expect to play a whole "album" together in the intended order. Keeping albums together on the same disk makes this a little smoother since it won't have a pause while another disk spins up if the whole album is together.

 

The way I handle things personally is to just restrict certain shares to certain disks using the Include setting. I have some shares that are too large for a single disk so those include more than one disk. I have other shares that are small enough that they can go together with other shares on the same disk. I just use the default Highwater allocation to let things get distributed if a share needs more than one disk, and don't bother with Split Level since Highwater will usually keep things together anyway if they get written together. And I don't worry about spinup delay if they don't happen to wind up on the same disk.

 

And as mentioned Minimum Free is important so Unraid will choose another of the Included disks (or all disks if you don't restrict a share to certain disks) when a disk gets too full.

 

[trurl]

And other people will have other opinions about this that make more sense to them.

 

Some people think it makes more sense to spread their baby pictures across multiple disks, so that in the event a specific disk can't be recovered, then they will not lose all of the baby pictures.

 

I always say it just depends on how you want to gamble.

 

You can spread them out over 5 disks and then if one of them can't be recovered, you have a 100% chance of losing 20% of them. Or, you can put them all on 1 of the 5 disks, and if one of those 5 disks can't be recovered, then you have a 20% chance of losing all of them.

 

And really, the chance of not being able to recover a disk isn't all that much if you do things right since recovering a disk is what parity is all about. And, you should always have another copy of anything important and irreplaceable (like baby pictures). Parity is not a substitute for backups.

 

You get to decide what qualifies as important and irreplaceable. Personally I don't bother to backup a lot of my stuff since it doesn't qualify for me. And those things that do qualify I have 2 copies offsite.

[Kjetil]

Ok, thank you. I will have a look at this when the new disc arrives. Do you preclear discs before adding it ?

[trurl]

6 minutes ago, Kjetil said:

Do you preclear discs before adding it ?

I'm going to do some explanation here but first I want to say that your use of the word "add" in this context is somewhat ambiguous, and it often pays to be precise when talking about your data.

 

The only time Unraid requires a clear disk is when ADDING it to a NEW slot in an array that already has valid parity. This is because a clear disk is all zeros, and  has no effect on parity. So adding a clear disk maintains parity. If you add a disk that has not been cleared, Unraid will clear it so parity is maintained. Old versions of Unraid would take the array offline while it cleared a disk, so pre-clear was invented to clear a disk before (pre) adding it. Current version of Unraid will clear a disk without taking the array offline, so it is OK to let Unraid do the clearing and preclear is not needed for this.

 

In your case, you will not be adding a disk, you will be replacing a disk. Unraid does not require a clear disk in that case, since the entire disk is going to be overwritten from the parity calculation anyway.

 

Some people still use preclear as a way to test disks and perhaps "burn-in" a new disk to get it past some of the "infant mortality". The disk will get some testing and burn-in anyway just as the result of the rebuild, and a non-correcting parity check is often recommended after to confirm the rebuild went well, so that would be even more testing and burn-in. As long as you keep the original disk with its data intact you shouldn't have any data loss even if there is a problem.