Unraid - Upgrade Cache Disk Question

[ChrisLoudon]

Hi guys,

 

I have an Unraid NAS which has been using a 480GB SSD as a cache disk for a while now.

 

I had an unassigned 4TB SSD which has been unused until earlier today when I wanted to use it as the cache disk instead.

 

Not 100% sure I've done things correctly as the old 480GB disk is still showing a 'ghost record' see screen grab below:

 

I thought that stopping the array then just changing the cache disk to the 4TB would do the trick but it whinged at me. Sorry, can't remember what the whinge was.

 

It seemed to work when I just added the 4TB as a 2nd cache disk then unassign the 480GB one.

 

Not sure if I've done it right. How do I remove the 'Not Installed' entry and change the 4TB disk to 'Cache 1'?

 

On a similar topic, as I am running a little low on space and probably don't needdouble parity, I'm thinking of removing my 2nd parity drive (6TB) and adding it to the main storage pool. Can anyone detail the steps? I think I tried similar steps to the above earlier and it whinged.

 

FIY - Unraid ver 6.12.3

 

Cheers

 

C

[voyager_]

It's been a while since I made those same changes but if I remember correctly to remove one parity drive you need to stop the array. remove that disk from parity then start the array again and it should be set, then stop it again move the drive into the array and start again. It will need to check/rebuild parity and I would pre-clear the previously parity drive before moving on and adding it to the array.

 

For the cache drive check out: https://forums.unraid.net/topic/145920-replacing-ssd-cache-drive-with-larger-ssd/

 

The unraid group on facebook is also a great resource to checkout. Tons of helpful people there the unraid forum is also a good place to go and many questions already have good solutions.

[ChrisLoudon]

12 minutes ago, voyager_ said:

It's been a while since I made those same changes but if I remember correctly to remove one parity drive you need to stop the array. remove that disk from parity then start the array again and it should be set, then stop it again move the drive into the array and start again. It will need to check/rebuild parity and I would pre-clear the previously parity drive before moving on and adding it to the array.

 

For the cache drive check out: https://forums.unraid.net/topic/145920-replacing-ssd-cache-drive-with-larger-ssd/

 

The unraid group on facebook is also a great resource to checkout. Tons of helpful people there the unraid forum is also a good place to go and many questions already have good solutions.

Thanks for the info buddy.

 

Yeh, I'm pretty sure I did what was in the linked article and it appears to have worked but the old drive entry is still showing.

 

I was hoping to be able to reduce the pool size from 2 to 1 but 2 is now the minimum value...

[Jarsky]

Have you tried running the mover so its empty, then remove the cache completely, erase the disk, then assign the disk back to the cache? 

Also keep in mind those QVO's are horrible for sustained large writes. If you're writing very large files, write can tank down to 20MB/s

[ChrisLoudon]

14 hours ago, Jarsky said:

Have you tried running the mover so its empty, then remove the cache completely, erase the disk, then assign the disk back to the cache? 

I might give that a shot later. Is working perfectly as far as I can tell but its this weird 'ghost' record of the original disk that's still there.

 

The same things has now happened with my Parity Disk. I moved the 6TB disk from Parity 1 to the storage array and now the only remaining 8TB Parity drive is named 'Parity 2'. Again, not an issue, just an OCD thing, lol

 

14 hours ago, Jarsky said:

Also keep in mind those QVO's are horrible for sustained large writes. If you're writing very large files, write can tank down to 20MB/s

I'll keep an eye on that. Its a primarily a Plex server so while I do shift large files, its usually only once and then I never touch it again.

[ChrisLoudon]

On 3/19/2024 at 6:41 PM, Jarsky said:

Also keep in mind those QVO's are horrible for sustained large writes. If you're writing very large files, write can tank down to 20MB/s

On second thoughts, have you got any good suggestions for a suitable alternative?

 

I decided to move some large files around and I've just hit the <20MB/s limit you spoke of and its gonna take ages!

 

its an old Z77 mobo so no M2 or Nvme support.

 

Just a good fast 4TB 2.5" SSD that will maintain fast reads and writes regardless of the file size (70ish GB per file)

[Jarsky]

On 3/27/2024 at 6:48 AM, ChrisLoudon said:

On second thoughts, have you got any good suggestions for a suitable alternative?

 

I decided to move some large files around and I've just hit the <20MB/s limit you spoke of and its gonna take ages!

 

its an old Z77 mobo so no M2 or Nvme support.

 

Just a good fast 4TB 2.5" SSD that will maintain fast reads and writes regardless of the file size (70ish GB per file)

 

Sorry mate im away from home at the moment so havent been logging on here. 

As nice as an NVMe is; if its primarily a Plex Server; unless you have like a 10Gbit fibre connection; A SATA SSD will do just fine. 

I'd get something like a 1TB Samsung 870 EVO SSD (or similar series from Kingston, Intel, etc..) and use that.

The mover runs nightly so you shouldnt need a 4TB SSD. Unless youremoving huge volumes of data. 

If you're wanting to host Docker, VM's, etc...id keep that on a seperate array (UnRAID now does multiple arrays); and keep the cache purely for cache. 

[ChrisLoudon]

3 hours ago, Jarsky said:

Sorry mate im away from home at the moment so havent been logging on here. 

As nice as an NVMe is; if its primarily a Plex Server; unless you have like a 10Gbit fibre connection; A SATA SSD will do just fine. 

I'd get something like a 1TB Samsung 870 EVO SSD (or similar series from Kingston, Intel, etc..) and use that.

The mover runs nightly so you shouldnt need a 4TB SSD. Unless youremoving huge volumes of data. 

If you're wanting to host Docker, VM's, etc...id keep that on a seperate array (UnRAID now does multiple arrays); and keep the cache purely for cache. 

No worries buddy.

 

I think your previous comment about those drives hot home pretty hard. After moving a load of large files around the array, my write speeds tanked and the whole process took about a week to perform.

 

I'll look into getting a 1TB SSD for the cache at some point but I'm hoping I won't need to shuffle 12TB of files around any time soon.