Question on organizing drives within the array

[subterminal]

Hello, all!

 

I'm working on my very first UnRAID setup and have two questions.

 

Let's say that I have two data drives in the array (plus a 3rd parity). Now, I want to transfer over my media library to the array, which is full of subdirectories, movies, shows, etc. Is there any advantage or disadvantage to putting the entire media share on one HDD of the array as opposed to spreading it out over both of the HDDs? From an organizational standpoint, my brain tells me it makes sense to put it on one HDD, while putting other related data on the 2nd HDD.

 

Second question. Once I fired up and formatted my initial array, it created the default shares on that array's HDDs. However, I have an unassigned SSD that I would like to have the VMs/dockers/etc on. Do I simply change the filepath of those associated shares? Or do I have to move the share folder over?

 

Thanks!

[Frank1940]

You might want to start by reading this:

 

https://wiki.unraid.net/Un-Official_UnRAID_Manual#Allocation_method

 

You should to read the sections on Allocation method, Min Free Space, and Split level.

 

You don't really want to spread files around any more than necessary because you can cause unnecessary disk spin-ups to even read a directory.  Plus, there are times when you don't want to split up certain sequences of files across multiple disks.  (Think of .VOB files in the VIDEO_TS folder for a DVD.)

 

4 hours ago, subterminal said:

Second question. Once I fired up and formatted my initial array, it created the default shares on that array's HDDs. However, I have an unassigned SSD that I would like to have the VMs/dockers/etc on. Do I simply change the filepath of those associated shares? Or do I have to move the share folder over?

I assume that you have created a User  Share on your server.  Now go to the  Shares  setting.  Click on one of the share names in the left column.  Now turn on the 'Help' icon on the right of the toolbar.  Read the Help for the   'Use cache (for new files/directories):'  option. 

 

You probably have questions as this whole area can be confusing.  Don't be afraid to post again if you can't figure something.