Quick newbie help:

[Bjur]

Hi I have some questions. I bought an Unraid license and want to set it up. I have 3 x 8 TB + 1 x 6 TB + a IBM 1015 controller card. 1 for parity and the other for array.

Questions are:

 

1. I have created a rootshare and have just created a share called TV Shows and a Share called Movies. Since I don't have a media share, should I then choose "Automatically only split the top two" for TV Shows or should it be top three?

For Movies should it be Top one or Top 2.

I have Movies/Moviename/Files

TV Shows/Showname/Season/Files

 

2. When I add an cache drive to Downloads will it then be moving the files quickly when I use rootshare to the array?

 

3. Should I use the include disk option to separate Movies and TV Shows or just leave it to all? If I leave it to all will Unraid then automatically balance the drive and can the same be achieved with using the include disk options to balance the only included disks?

Edited January 24, 2020 by Bjur

[Decto]

1) Spliting just means that directory can be on more that one disk. It's invisible when you browse the user share. Unraid creates a folder on each drive but presents as a single folder. I let my directorys split  wherever it likes.

 

2) If a share is cached  (set to Yes) then it will write to cache first. The cached files sit on the drive until the mover runs. By default this is once per day but you can set almost any interval of hours, days, weeks etc. When the files are on the cache, they still present as a single user share so if you are copying movies you just see one directory regardless of if the actual file is on cache or disk 1, disk 2, disk 3 etc. Using cache allows the array to sleep however there is a performacne penalty when it is running as it needs to read and write parity so you typically get a little less half the parity disk speed and any operations that use the active disk or parity will be slower.  I run mover once per day, overnight when the system is otherwise idle, though when I was transfering 2TB files between NAS over the WAN  I rocked it up to 6 hours to make sure it didn't get full. You can turn the cache off for the share in such situations and let it write to the array direct. Note Cache 'Prefer' keeps the files on the cache, not usually what you want for downloads.

 

3) I let unraid balance most, I do have a couple of 2.5" 4TB drives that I use as archive to hold infrequently accessed info so they are exluded from some shares and some share use them exclusively. For most purposes you can leave well alone.

 

Don't worry to much about shares / folders. You can add in 'unbalance' and use that to move files around any time you like. (subject to disk speed) and change cache behaviour at any time.

[Bjur]

Thanks for an elaborating answer:) 

2. If I just want the cache drive to be a temp drive for DL and move the completed DL after finishing, can't I get it to to that with Sab and run a script there for instance with filebot? 

2a./3 if I use the cache drive with for Plex docker will my disks then spin up when browsing or only the cache drive? If it's only the cache drive then it shouldn't matter with the drive included option. 

[Bjur]

Can you help

[Decto]

2) You can let Sab download to 'Downloads' (or any other temp folder) and then run whichever script to move to 'Movies' , 'Series' or wherever else. If you have cache 'Yes' set on 'Movies' and 'Downloads' the file will move into 'Movies' but stay on the cache until mover runs. If you don't set cache 'Yes' on the 'Movies' share then the script will move it straight to the array. This means the array spins up with every fresh download. I let NZBGET move it to movies on the Cache drive, then let mover clear the cache overnight in one operation.

 

3) Ideally you'd set 'appdata' and 'system' to be on the cache so plex should only be accessing the database during browse. When you select a file it will spin up whichever drive the data is on. You're choice on include, you can change this at any time but you can use it to group files to less drives.  

[Bjur]

Thanks again. 

2. So I create a download share on cache drive where my subfolders are temp and Movies & Shows. In Sab I set category as movies or shows. It places the finished DL in one of those folders and sonarr/radarr picks it up?

Also wouldn't all these DL writes to Samsung 860 EVO drain/kill the drive quickly?

3. If I select include 2 Drives will Unraid fill half the drive first and automatically switch over to drive 2 if I select high water and split level 1?

[Gragorg]

SPACEINVADER ONE on Youtube has a series of great UnRaid tutorial videos that will anser alot of your questions.  I recommend installing Dynamix SSD Trim plugin from the app store to help take some wear and tear off your SSD.    When creating shares hit the help (? top right hand corner) button and it will explain the allocation method and the split level.

[Bjur]

Thanks have at some of them. In regards to allocation and split I know that but it doesn't state what recommendation is for include disk/all