Hi everybody,

 

I'm running the latest unraid server software (not the 5 beta) and I have a problem.

 

My splitlevel is 2 and I've made 1 share: Movies.

 

Under this directory I've made directories like Action, SF, etc etc. In these genre directories I've made directories with the name of the movie. Inside these movie folders are the actual movie files.

 

So, splitlevel 2 (I presume) can form the genre directories over all drives and the movie folder will be on only 1 drive, so no splitting of a movie.

 

I hope I've made the right assumptions?

 

Now the problem: I was copying some data to the next folder: //Movies/Digital Video/Folder1, Folder2, etc etc.

 

When the drive was full I've got the error that the drive was full and I had to free up more space. I was copying from a windows PC to the unraid server (not to a specific drive, but towards the share //Movies/ etc etc).

 

 

Why didn't the unraid software start copying the data to the next drive??

 

Kind regards,

 

Erwin

I think I'm having the same problem... I initially thought it was due to Avahi and so I updated the unraid software to the latest 4.6 version, got rid AFP and Avahi and am using SMB. 

Then this AM tried using it and same problem.

 

I have setup the shares as:

Music: split level 0

Videos: split level 3

 

I started using itunes as my Media manager and so the videos are being placed in the Music folder...

 

Question is... what is the most flexible split level? 

eamesz, What do you have set for minimum free space setting on the drives? That should be set if you're planning on using user shares.

 

Hi BRiT,

 

The min. free space is 0 (zero), Allocation method: fill-up, nothing entered in included and excluded disks

 

Kind regards,

 

Erwin

Hi BRiT,

 

The min. free space is 0 (zero), Allocation method: fill-up, nothing entered in included and excluded disks

 

Kind regards,

 

Erwin

That means that if a file of zero length can be created on the drive it will be....  even if the process creating the file starts at zero bytes and eventually writes the full size file that cannot fit on the free space on a given disk.

 

A free space of "0" is a recipe for disaster if you want unRAID to allocate space for you.  The min-free MUST be set to an amount of space equal to twice the size the largest file you will write (plus a small margin)

 

Assuming you write 5Gig ISO images, you need to reserve 10 Gigs of space.  The extra space is used for the journal entries made by the OS so it can recover from an abrupt system powerdown when you next power up. 

 

10 Gig would be entered as:

10000000

(The field in in "kb")

Hi Joe L.,

 

I have a problem to understand what you're saying.

 

If I have a free space of 10 Gigabyte and I want to copy, lets say a 6 GB file, it will write to that disc. The next copy of a file, lets say a 5 GB file, won't be written on that disc but on the next in my array??

 

If this is true then I understand what you are telling.

 

But, if I extract files (RAR) from my windows machine to my unraid share //Movies/Genre folder then unraid wouldn't know the filesize in the archive and will try to write to the first disc and when full I get a problem??!! What happens if I want to copy a bluray rip (BDMV structure) instead of an ISO? The first files will be written, but then what?

 

Kind regards,

 

Erwin

 

 

Hi Joe L.,

 

I have a problem to understand what you're saying.

 

If I have a free space of 10 Gigabyte and I want to copy, lets say a 6 GB file, it will write to that disc. The next copy of a file, lets say a 5 GB file, won't be written on that disc but on the next in my array??

 

If this is true then I understand what you are telling.

Correct.

But, if I extract files (RAR) from my windows machine to my unraid share //Movies/Genre folder then unraid wouldn't know the filesize in the archive and will try to write to the first disc and when full I get a problem??!!

That is why you must set the min-free-space for every share if you are intending unRAID to put the files where you expect.  Almost no process writes full size files.  They amost all start with an initial small file and append to it as the file is created.

 

Personally, I almost never user user-shares when adding files to my array.  I use the disk shares so I know there is space available and I know where the files will reside.  I have a "Movies" share on every drive on my array, but each physical drive holds a specific "alpha" range of titles.  When I add a new title I add it to the appropriate disk.  I have a shell script I run occasionally to re-balance the free space on the drives so I have an equal percentage of space on all the drives relative to the actual size and the "other" non-movie files stored on them.

What happens if I want to copy a bluray rip (BDMV structure) instead of an ISO? The first files will be written, but then what?

If you set it up with a 10Gig min free space and a split level that prevents the next disk from being used, the rip will run out of space since it will not be able to use another disk.

 

Joe L.

The min. free space is 0 (zero), Allocation method: fill-up, nothing entered in included and excluded disks

 

I'd recommend you use the high-water and forget about using fill-up. It just causes problems like you are experiencing.

 

Question is... what is the most flexible split level? 

 

I'm not sure, you never really described what you wanted to happen. I will say that using 0 means that you have to manually create any directory you want to split. ie, if you have DVD on disk1 and want it to also appear on disk2 then you have to create the DVD directory on disk2 yourself.

 

Peter

Assume I'm using the fill-up allocation method with min free space set to 10GB.  If I have >10GB of free space then unRAID will attempt to write a file to the disk, even if I'm trying to place a file that is larger than the amount of free space remaining on the disk.  Basically unRAID is only checking to see if you've satisfied the min free space requirement not that you have enough space to fit the file on the disk.  Is this correct?  Hence Joe L's rule of thumb that when using the fill-up allocation method you should set the min free spce to be twice the size of the largest file you'd EVER write to that share - not usually write but EVER write.

Fill-up is intended for archives like backups where split level is usually not an issue. Most-free balances allocation on equal sized disks and high water balances allocation on different sized disk.