single SSD as landing zone and folder duplication possible?

[mwier]

Hello,

 

I just updated on my old HP X510 Data Vault from WHS v1 to WSE 2012R2 and I am evaluating DrivePool (and Scanner) as successor for the WHS v1 DrivePool and Folder Duplication.

As the X510 only has 4 drive bays, I installed the OS on a 500GB SSD (Crucial m4) with 80GB for the system.

The rest of the drive (D:) should be used as landing zone for files copied via LAN to the server because I have installed 2 Seagate Archive 8TB HHDs as Data Drives (without driveletter) and I found them to be quite slow on bigger copy jobs (about 30 - 40 MB/s).

 

In DivePool I installed the SSD Optimizer Plugin and selected the SSD (D:) as SSD and the two HDDs as Archive.

 

For some of my folders in the pool are folder duplication is enabled. Realtime duplication is disabled, automated balancing is enabled and the "Nicht öfter als" (German Language) option is selected to 2 hours.

 

Now, when I copy files to not duplicated folder the SSD works as landing zone and after some hours the data has moved from the SSD to the archive drives. This is exactly what I expected.

 

But, when I copy files to a duplcation enabled folder, the data is directly copied to the archive drive. I expected the same behavior: landing zone SSD and duplication later some time.

Is there any possibility to achieve this? Or does this work only with a second SSD which is not an option for me as the X510 only has 4 drive bays and I surely will have to add another big archive drive in the future.

 

Thanks!

 

Michael

[Umfriend]

No. With duplication and the SSD Optimser Plugin, you need two HDD/SSD's for the landing zone (or three with x3 duplication etc).

 

I assume the 4 drive bays are 3.5". Could you not use something like http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=140?

 

Also, AFAIK, the recommendation is to have realtime duplication _enabled_.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

@Umfriend:

Yes, the X510 is basically the MediaSmart Server EX497 IIRC (Hardware is the same, so is the OS, just slightly different software).

 

SO the IcyDock thing may work there, actually.

 

 

As for the Seagate Archive drive, that's ... odd. And may be due to the controller.

I've gotten 120+MB/s reliably on SATA III controllers with two of these drives.

Also, something to consider: using larger cluster/allocation unit sizes for the Archive disks. It may also help with the copy speeds.

[mwier]

Thank you for your answers,

 

the mentioned IcyDock thing won't provide me with additional SATA Ports, so this would be no help.

 

But I found those two things:

http://www.jj-computer.com/artinfo.php?artnr=A%20%20%201436

http://www.raidsonic.de/en/products/ssd.php?we_objectID=8206

 

I bought the first one, only to find out, that only the first drive is recognized when connected via SATA. So this dock needs a port multiplier capable SATA controller as stated in the descripion of the raidsonic dock. I think there's no (cheap) solution for putting two SSDs in one drive bay / one SATA port.

 

 

As for the Seagate Archive drive, they are formatted with 64K Clusters as I read your suggestion in another forum post. The SSD keeps a write speed of about 90MB/s whereas the HDDs begin with 100 MB/s and fall down to about 35 MB/s in the middle. The Seagates keep their speed for about 8 GB before they slow down.

 

I hoped to use one SSD as landing zone because of Christopher's statement here: http://community.covecube.com/index.php?/topic/1178-how-files-are-duplicated/&do=findComment&comment=7867

 

If realtime duplication is enabled, then it writes to all the disks in parallel. If not, then yes, it writes to one, and then moves it over later (2AM, by default).

 

 

I understood it the way that realtime duplication writes on the landig zone and simultaneously on an second drive with the result that the slower drive determines the write speed. If realtime duplication is not enabled, the all data are only written to the landing zone and duplicated later. Is there any configuration possible to achieve this behaviour or do I misunderstand the functionality of the duplication mechanism?

 

Michael

[Christopher (Drashna)]

But, when I copy files to a duplcation enabled folder, the data is directly copied to the archive drive. I expected the same behavior: landing zone SSD and duplication later some time.

Is there any possibility to achieve this? Or does this work only with a second SSD which is not an option for me as the X510 only has 4 drive bays and I surely will have to add another big archive drive in the future.

If the SSD optimizer balancer is installed and enabled, and real time duplication is enabled, then it should only write the one copy of the file, and on the "SSD" drive specified in the balancer's settings. 

 

When balancing occurs, it should create the second file and move it off of the SSD.

 

If that's not happening, then please enable file system logging and reproduce the issue:

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Log_Collection