New to Unraid storage question

[cosmicrelish]

Hello,

Firstly, I am sorry if this is covered elsewhere, if so please direct me to it.  I don't know what to search for and have tried several times without the correct results.

I have never built a raid before and I know using unraid is different from conventional raid set ups.  I have watch videos on proper set up and it looks as though if I build a system with a parity drive of 8tb and the add 2x4tb drives and 1x3 tb drive then the system says I will have a total storage capacity of 11tb.  No does that 11tb capacity act as a single data drive or are they all separate?  I'm asking because I currently have a windows server running plex and I have filled one of my 4tb drives but then I need to redirect my downloader to write to the second 4tb drive.  I was wondering if in Unraid do I still need to do this or will the system keep writing to the next drive once the first fills up?  Plus in Plex I would then have to create another movie directory for the additional files on the second drive, I'd rather keep it simple and only have one directory.

 

thanks!!!

[JonathanM]

Each data drive is a separate file system and can be accessed as such if necessary, but for normal use, most people use "User Shares". Every root folder on each data drive and cache pool is a user share, and the contents all appear together for identically named root folders. So if disk1 has a root folder called MOVIES, and disk2 also has a root folder MOVIES, then all the files in both those folders will be accessible in the user share MOVIES.

 

There are rules that each user share can be configured to follow that determine which physical drive is the initial and final destination for a file written to that share.

[cosmicrelish]

Great thanks!

So if I'm downloading using deluge or something to my first disk to that user share MOVIES and that disk fills up can I make it jump to the next disk in line with the same user share MOVIES?  Or is this something I need to physically stop deluge and reroute it to the next drive?

 

Then in Plex I just show my library location in the first root folder MOVIES and it'll see all movie files across the array as long as they are all in the same share?

[JonathanM]

2 minutes ago, cosmicrelish said:

Great thanks!

So if I'm downloading using deluge or something to my first disk to that user share MOVIES and that disk fills up can I make it jump to the next disk in line with the same user share MOVIES?  Or is this something I need to physically stop deluge and reroute it to the next drive?

 

Then in Plex I just show my library location in the first root folder MOVIES and it'll see all movie files across the array as long as they are all in the same share?

As long as the share allocation settings are set correctly, Unraid will write to a different disk when needed. Yes, if you point plex at the user share, it will see all the files, regardless of which disk they happen to be on.

 

Share allocation can be managed a multitude of different ways, so there is no one correct setting. Some people want to fill up a single drive before moving on, some want to spread the data evenly across all or a subset of the drives, some want to be sure to keep like files on the same drive. There are gotcha's with each scenario, so it's very possible to run into a combination of settings that ends up running out of space and not moving to a new drive automatically. You will need to figure out which way you want to keep things organized, and read the help tips with each setting to be sure you don't have clashing requirements.

[cosmicrelish]

Thank you!  I'm getting ready to build this new server and unraid sounds great but I don't want to have to always be on top of it.  Your answers are perfect!