change behaviour and wording of the mover / cache-settings

[Greyberry]

Hi,

 

Because new users seem to have a common misconception on how the mover works[1], I would make the suggestion to make this more clear.

This includes also the not quite intuitive way of moving the data from 'array-only' to 'cache-only': If you have data on the array and want to set it to cache only, you have to go the route of setting the share to "prefer" trigger the mover and once the mover is finished to "only".

As a newcomer you intuitively set it to "only" and assume that the mover will move the data to the cache instantly because you set it to use the cache only.

 

I know improvements were made recently in the wording, to make this more clear, but I just fell into this trap and other (newcomers) will do also.

So i would suggest the following extended improvement not only in the wording but also a slight change in the mover's behaviour.

 

IMHO, a good and more user-friendly way to makes this more clear out-of-the-box would be something like:

# ==> Share-Settings ==> Use Cache?
** Array only
** Array after Cache (scheduled)
** Cache if possible
** Cache only

 

(1) will write data directly to the array, and instantly move all data to the array if it was stored on the cache.

(2) will write data to the cache, the mover will move them to the array on schedule

(3) will write data to the cache if there is enough free space, if not, write them to the array. mover will move data from the array to cache if there is enough free space after the "move to array" operations of other shares.

(4) will write data directly to the cache only, and instantly move the data if it was stored at the array before

 

What do you think?

 

best regards

 

[1] eg. following threads, and I am sure there would come up many more after some googleing

[testdasi]

What you ask for is essentially to have Mover for Cache = No and Cache = Only. They should be separate options (so additional 2 options Cache = No with mover and Cache = Only with mover.

There are current valid use cases with Cache = No and Cache = Only for which the data exists in both cache and array. You don't want an update to suddenly cause existing users issues (i.e. regression) because things suddenly start to work differently.

 

To be honest though, it's kinda obvious in the Help tips and there aren't that many new users have the misunderstanding.

It's kinda like the red warning that formatting will destroy your data that Unraid prompts quite visibly and yet every now and then we still have people doing that when trying to restore a failed drive.