How does cache options work?


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Basically for shares and stuff what's the difference between 'prefer' and 'yes'

 

I have a plex server and I don't want the videos cached but all the metadata cached. I'm not sure which shares need to be selected to do that and what the different options even mean. 

 

Thank you!

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21 minutes ago, stoigeboiii said:

I have a plex server and I don't want the videos cached but all the metadata cached. I'm not sure which shares need to be selected to do that and what the different options even mean. 

Basically, the difference between Cache - Yes and Cache - Prefer is the following:

 

"Yes" means put on cache initially, move to array when mover runs; "Prefer" means put on cache, keep on cache if possible, otherwise move to array when mover runs.

 

The Plex media is stored in whatever shares you have designated on the array for the media whether it is one "master" Media share with all media in subfolders or separate shares by media type, e.g. Movies, Photos, Music, etc.  Whether or not any of that is initially stored on the cache drive is determined by the Cache setting on each share.  If you don't want media cached, set the relevant shares to Cache - No.

 

The Plex metadata is stored in the appdata share which could be on the array or on the cache drive or an unassigned device.  If appdata is stored on the cache drive (highly recommended especially if it is an SSD), the recommended setting is Cache - Only so that appdata is always stored on the cache drive and no part of appdata is ever moved to the array.  Of course, this assumes your cache drive is large enough to store all the Docker appdata files (databases, configuration files, etc.) for all the Docker containers you have or will install.  That should be no problem if all you store on the cache drive is appdata and possibly the system and iso shares for VMs.  The latter could get large depending how many VMs you have and how they are configured.  Some prefer to move all VM related shares and files to an unassigned devices SSD.

 

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7 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

Basically, the difference between Cache - Yes and Cache - Prefer is the following:

 

"Yes" means put on cache initially, move to array when mover runs; "Prefer" means put on cache, keep on cache if possible, otherwise move to array when mover runs.

 

The Plex media is stored in whatever shares you have designated on the array for the media whether it is one "master" Media share with all media in subfolders or separate shares by media type, e.g. Movies, Photos, Music, etc.  Whether or not any of that is initially stored on the cache drive is determined by the Cache setting on each share.  If you don't want media cached, set the relevant shares to Cache - No.

 

The Plex metadata is stored in the appdata share which could be on the array or on the cache drive or an unassigned device.  If appdata is stored on the cache drive (highly recommended especially if it is an SSD), the recommended setting is Cache - Only so that appdata is always stored on the cache drive and no part of appdata is ever moved to the array.  Of course, this assumes your cache drive is large enough to store all the Docker appdata files (databases, configuration files, etc.) for all the Docker containers you have or will install.  That should be no problem if all you store on the cache drive is appdata and possibly the system and iso shares for VMs.  The latter could get large depending how many VMs you have and how they are configured.  Some prefer to move all VM related shares and files to an unassigned devices SSD.

 

That makes alot of sense. I accidently cached my videos and just selected no for caching. My NVMe ssd is now at 99% utilization. I only have 3 dockers right now. Will it naturally go down as it starts to uncache the Videos share

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3 minutes ago, stoigeboiii said:

That makes alot of sense. I accidently cached my videos and just selected no for caching. My NVMe ssd is now at 99% utilization. I only have 3 dockers right now. Will it naturally go down as it starts to uncache the Videos share

If you select cache:no then new files will write to the array, but mover won't touch existing files on the cache. Read the descriptions on the help text with those settings. You want cache:yes to clear those files off the cache drive.

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3 minutes ago, jonathanm said:

You want cache:yes to clear those files off the cache drive.

@stoigeboiii As noted above, since you already have cached media on the cache drive, you have to set the share to Cache - Yes to get it moved off the cache drive and onto the array.  In the meantime, until the mover runs (you can do it manually), don't write any more data to those shares.  Once all of the cache media is off the cache drive and on the array, you can then set the shares to Cache - No so no more data in those shares is ever written to the cache drive/pool.

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