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Posts posted by jmone
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Thanks - it doing a balancing run now - will try again when it is finished
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True - I'm across the ReFS only limits but....
- no way I'm using Storage Spaces
- and it's way better than NTFS
Looking forward to where ReFS support is explicit as from my testing so far DP looks good as a replacement for DB. I'll just keep my other backup pool on DB just incase something goes wrong for now.
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Well - I've got my main 40TB pool all on ReFS going strong so far! ... and I plan to swap a 4tb to 8tb drive when my other DB pool finishes adding some drive so I'll let you know if anything turns pear shaped. I'd really encorage ReFS as I just don't get probs like I've had with NTFS and CHKDSK.
On the mounting - I normally just remove Drive Letters unless I need access to the disks for some reason, but happy with the mount to folder soln as well.
Thanks
Nathan
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I've got the Balancer moving some files around and I can see what is happening in Windows Resource Monitor but the DrivePool GUI just shows "Balancing" without any details under Disk Performance. Is it possible to enable what "Disk Activity" is happening during Balancing the same way it is shown with other apps access files on the pool?
Thanks
Nathan
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So it finished the Balancing and filled up the Seagate 8TB drive (Disk 6 and 7) like I was hoping, though it is still not able to put my Video Editing on the free space now created on my faster Hitachi 4TB drive (Disk 3 - see pic).
Any hints on what I've got wrong, as from what I can see:
- There is only 310GB to be move for the Video Editing Folder (214GB to be moved from Disk 6 and 94GB on Disk7)
- There is 2.66TB free on Disk 3
- The warning says there is 691GB to me moved (not 310GB)
Thanks
Nathan
Edit - I'll try just moving the files off just Disk 7 First and see what happens
Edit2 - Same thing.
Edit3 - Now trying with all Balancers OFF except for "Ordered File Placement"
Edit4 - Same thing.
Edit5 - In Ordered File Placement I unchecked on the Duplicated Tab - "Prioritize the placement of duplicated files" and now it seems to be moving the files in the Video Editing Folder. I also see on the Main screen the Little Red Arrow on Disk 3 at the end has changed to say "New un-duplicated file placement limit 99%" where before I think this said "duplicated file placement limit". The thing is I have no duplication set (except for the stock Meta Data Folder)
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And we should report the pool as ReFS instead of NTFS for ReFS based pools.
That said, the beta builds do have preliminary support, and can be enabled using the Advanced config file.
FYI - It is reported as a NTFS pool (see pic) as it was with Drive Bender. All seems to work so I don't really care. Also - Is there something I need to enable in the Advanced Config File?
Thanks
Nathan
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Some tweaks and it is now doing stuff (though I can not see any details in the UI, I can see in Resource Mgr/Disk Activity the files being moved from one HDD to another). It will take awhile. The Balancing Settings I've now got are:
- In File Placement Options I've unchecked the Seagate Disks for the Video Editing Folder
- Under Balancers I have this order and settings:
#1 StableBit Scanner: On, Default settings
#2 Ordered File Placement: On, Moved the Seagate Archive drives to the top of the list, changed to "Control new file placement and move the existing files..."
#3 Volume Equalization: Off
#4 Drive Usage Limiter: Off
#5 Prevent Drive Overfill: On with "Try not to fill a drive above 99%" and "Or this much free space unchecked"
#6 Duplication Space Optimizer: Off
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Kicked of a manual balance and saw a lot of read activity by DrivePool.Service.exe but no writes. It finished the process saying there was "3TB could not be moved because a suitable destination could not be found. Make sure you have enough disk space in order to satisfy your file placement rules and that they are not conflicting with other balancing settings". So I'll try some variations
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Newbie Q: I have 2 x 8TB Seagate Archive drives and 7 x HDS 4TB drives in my pool. As I need to grow my pool I remove a 4TB and replace with an 8TB.
Given the disparity of performance of these drives I'd like to (if possible):
- Fill Drives the drives to 99% in order (no need for balancing across drives or duplication of files/folders within the pool)
- Keep the Seagate Archives full first
- Keep sub folder content "together" on physical disk were possible
- Keep a selected folder (Video Editing) off the slower to write Seagate 8TB Archives
At present I'm playing with the Balancing Settings as follows but not sure if this is correct:
- In File Placement Options I've unchecked the Seagate Disks for the Video Editing Folder
- Under Balancers I have this order and settings:
#1 StableBit Scanner: Default
#2 Ordered File Placement: Moved the Seagate Archive drives to the top of the list
#3 Volume Equalization: On
#4 Drive Usage Limiter: On with "Try not to fill a drive above 99%"
#5 Prevent Drive Overfill: On with "Try not to fill a drive above 99%" and "Or this much free space unchecked"
#6 Duplication Space Optimizer: Off
Thanks
Nathan
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Well that is "easy" so far, similar to the other thread on how to migrate all I did was:
- Install DrivePool and the Plugins
- Created a DrivePool using the Same Disks as DriveBender
- Added a drive Letter to each HDD
- Stopped the DriveBender and Stablebit DrivePool Services in services.msc
- On each HDD, moved the folders with content from the DriveBender to the DrivePool folders (eg not Recycle Bin, Vol Info etc), this only took a few minutes as it is a move not a copy process
- Rebooted
- Removed Drive Letters for the physical HDD
- Changed the Drive Letter and Name for the "Old / Now Empty" Drive Bender pool
- Changed the Drive Letter and Name for the "New / Full" Stablebit DrivePool to what I was using before
- Rebooted
...and not only is all my "stuff" where it should be, but the Windows Permissions, and UNC Shares were automatically re-established.
To test:
- Ran a FreeFileSync compare over this new Pool vs my Backup Pool (Drive Bender) and all looks good (I got one sub folder with a permission issue but it may have been as I was doing the compare while also changing other things. 2nd compare was fine).
- I use JRiver Media Center and did a missing File check (both on a Local and a Networked PC) = All good
So far Pretty Impressed. Lets see how it goes over a week or so (I've Left DriveBender installed and working, just with no content in the folders).
Thanks
Nathan
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So Far So Good. Moved the folders from DB to DP and DP is now doing a "measuring". Couple more Q as I'm new to the UI:
- Drive Mapping/Mgt: DB lets you assign drive letters etc to both the pool and drives from in their UI. As I can see no equivalent in DP I take it I just use Windows Tools to do this? EDIT: To Answer My Own Q = Yes
- In Balancing: Is it OK to have all the following checked (and is the order fine): 1. StableBit Scanner, 2. Vol Eq, 3. Drive Usage Limiter, 4. Prevent Drive Overfill, 5. Duplication Space Optimizer, 6. Ordered File Placement (I've only changed some settings in this one so far, eg 99% fill or 46GB ).Started a new thread on thisThanks
Nathan
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Thanks Christopher for taking the time to go through these (and you were always great with the WHS Qs over at WeGotServed).
I'll give it a go on my Main (not backup) pool and report back (I've read that migration thread a couple of times). Followup Q on ReFS. ReFS disks are a supported format type for reading in Win10 (and Win8) just fine without the "hack" (which you only need if you want to format drives on Desktop OS). Have you heard of any Issues with ReFS and DrivePool?
Thanks
Nathan
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Overall, I'm a happy Drive Bender user, have been for years, and no doubt would be fine for some time.... but given the recent changes at Division-M and Drive Bender going to Donation Ware, I figure now is the time to look proactivly at alternatives before some yet to be introduced change in the OS "breaks" my pools.
Pool 1: Main PC used for serving Media out to the house (on 24x7)
- Win10 64-Bit, 2x8TB, 7x4TB HDD all using ReFS, M1015 Controller (IT Flashed) + Mobo Ports.
Pool 2: Backup Server I manually and periodically use FreeFileSync to review and then commit any any changes to from my Main Pool (as well as general PC Backups). It is off most of the time.
- Server 2012 R2 Esentials, 1x8TB, 3x6TB, 4x4TB HDD all using ReFS, Mobo Ports, cheap PCI SATA Cards (and a yet to be used Hotway 8 Bay HDD Drive Enclosure USB 3.0 e-SATA encosure)
I've read some of the threads and seem to have the answers that it will all be OK, but..... do you mind confirming the following specifics regarding a DrivePool implementation on both PCs for:
- Is ReFS supported on both Win10 and 2012R2
- Are the 8TB Seagate's OK to use
- Any issues with the mix of SATA/USB Controllers I've listed
- OK to continue to use Hard Disk Sentinel for SMART monitoring
- I don't use (or want duplication)
- I prefer Cascade over Balance for spreading the content across the drives (eg fill up one drive, move to the next)
- OK to use "Lights Out" on my 2012R2 to keep it asleep most of the time
- How fast is the Pool (eg I have teamed Dual Gigabit - 2gbps)
- Any specific notes or issues serving media files (like with windows storage spaces and DVD stuctures)
- Any specific notes or issues with assigning permissions using Homegroup or UNC Shares
Thanks, and any other comments will be great!
Nathan
Q: Balancing Setup - Have I got it right?
in General
Posted
Stopped what it was doing and made this one change (the rest was already done):
Started it again and now it looks like it is moving the Video Editing files.... Will see how it goes with this then I'll re-enable some of the other "Balancers" as "Ordered File Placement" is the only one I currently have active.
Thanks
Nathan