(SOLVED) Cache vs Unassigned Drive, media box use case

[dziewuliz]

Hi all, 

 

Just built my first unraid system two weeks ago, mainly to be used as a media box, with Plex/Sonarr/Radarr/NZBGet running in the background. I also just bought an nvme 1tb drive, that I initially thought to use as cache drive. But as I looked more at other setups, I learned that most people, with similar needs, don't necessarily use cache, but instead Unassigned Drives. Thus my following question:

1) For my needs, what are the pros/cons on using cache-only shares vs unassigned drive?

I don't have plans on running VMS, just occasional docker apps which I also planned to run off the nvme drive (expecting better performance?).

2) If I were to use unassigned drive, and keep appdata/downloads there, would that be considered a bad practice? I was thinking of running backups for appdata separately, in case my nvme died.

 

Thanks in advance! 

Edited December 23, 2020 by dziewuliz

[itimpi]

The main downside of Unassigned Devices drives is that they cannot be part of the Unraid User Share system.  Depends on whether that matters to you.

[dziewuliz]

Understood. So there's no real difference in using, say, cache-only shares e.g. "appdata", "downloads" and keeping them in unassigned drives, just a different way of managing them?

[itimpi]

2 hours ago, dziewuliz said:

Understood. So there's no real difference in using, say, cache-only shares e.g. "appdata", "downloads" and keeping them in unassigned drives, just a different way of managing them?

Except that they cannot be ‘user shares’ in the normal Unraid sense and Unassigned Devices are completely ignored by the ‘mover’ application.   You can store files that have similar purpose on an Unassigned Device  but not in share with those names, and there is no automated copying of files to the array by the ‘mover’ process.

[dziewuliz]

Thanks @itimpi. Can this be marked this as resolved? 

[itimpi]

Just now, dziewuliz said:

Thanks @itimpi. Can this be marked this as resolved? 

You can do it yourself by editing the first post in the thread and add "(SOLVED)" to  the title.