Minimum drives online to manage a x2 backup pool

[focuson55]

Hello,

 

I have 2 questions:

 

1) Is it possible to build and manage an 8 drive pool with x2 backup (one additional copy) using 2 drives connected/hotswapped at a time?

2) When drives of a pool are not connected, are all files still shown (just not accessible if drive is not connected)?

 

This is actually a followup to a general question on hardware setup I had asked here: https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/3d1cta/second_psu_for_dualpurpose_machine/

 

Thanks

Focus
 

 

[Christopher (Drashna)]

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking here, but I'll try to answer the best I can. 

 

To start with, all the drives need to be online to show the contents of the pool.  Any drive that is not, will be shown as "missing", and put the pool into a read only state. 

 

This sounds like pretty much the opposite of what you want.

 

 

However, you could create multiple pools here.  Each with only two drives in it, and with duplication turned on. 
When you removed the drives, it would remove the pool and it's list. But as soon as you reconnected them, it would recreate the pool automatically (and use the same letter it had before, if it's the same system/install and it's not already in use).

[focuson55]

Thanks Drashna for replying.

 

I am trying to figure out if the cheaper alternative of using as few as possible hotswapped drives is an option over a 'proper' solution where all drives are online. The link had some detail on the scenario, but was more about PSU requirement for the solution that has all drives connected. In brief, once a week, I move movies recorded by my TV capture card back and forth between my HTPC and various external drives. Pooling wil make file management and backup easier.

 

I'm presuming from your reply, it is possible to build a regular pool (ignore backup option), of say 8 drives, with 1 disk connected at time. Connect disk A , add to pool, eject disk A, connect disk B, add to pool, eject disk B, and so on.

 

Once this pool of 8 drives is built, will I be able to see the details of the files/filestructure in the pool without any disks connected? I'm not expecting access to the files obviously as the pooled drive won't exist, but does DrivePool store and can it display the filestructure of the disks last connected?

 

I'm having trouble understanding: "all the drives need to be online to show the contents of the pool.  Any drive that is not, will be shown as "missing", and put the pool into a read only state". So if I have a pool of just 2 disks, A and B, what do I see in the pooled drive:

- if A is down - just the files in B, without any mention of the files in A (like "greyed out")?

- if both A and B are down - nothing? or all files "greyed out"?

 

I would like 1 big pool with x2 backup (simple mirror of 1 additional copy of a file on one other disk, nothing fancy like parities, striping, etc.) so in my simple mind this could be achieveable with as few as 2 drives connected at the same time, as a new file is received into one disk DrivePool mirrors on second. I realize this may require tweaking the filling logic, let's just assume I put in what DrivePool expects. A related and important question is when the opposite happens. Let's say I have a simple 2 disk pool, disks A and B which are mirrors DrivePool is maintaning. I connect disk A and delete a file. I take disk A offline. I then connect disk B. How does DrivePool react? Will it know to remove the unneeded/mirrored copy? Will it do nothing?

[Christopher (Drashna)]

I'm presuming from your reply, it is possible to build a regular pool (ignore backup option), of say 8 drives, with 1 disk connected at time. Connect disk A , add to pool, eject disk A, connect disk B, add to pool, eject disk B, and so on.

Unfortunately, no.  Because the pool grabs the "live" information (files or file list) and not a cached version, it means that all of the disks need to be attached.

If a disk is not present, then the files that are on it are not listed in the pool and not accessible. 

 

Specifically, StableBit DrivePool needs and expects all the pooled disks to be attached, or the pool is not "usable". 

 

Unfortunately, given specifically what you're trying to do, I don't think that StableBit DrivePool would really work here. And I'm not familiar with any program that would really do what you want. 

It sounds like you really want an inventorying program, and not a pooling program.

[focuson55]

I understand. Thank you for replying. Thank you for the quick and honest feedback. I agree DrivePool does not seem the right use for my case.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

I understand. Thank you for replying. Thank you for the quick and honest feedback. I agree DrivePool does not seem the right use for my case.

You are very welcome.  I'd rather steer you in the right direction, than try to coerce you into something that doesn't fit your needs.

 

 

And as I said above, it sounds like you're really after an inventorying system, as opposed to anything else. 

Unfortunately, I don't have enough experience with anything like that to point you in the right direction.

 

However, if you do find something you like, please do let us know. I'd be very interested in learning what works for you.

 

Also, "alternative.to" is a great sight for looking for software. It may help you find something that fits.