Balancing rules question

[Wannes]

Hi, I bought drivepool just a couple of days ago, so still getting the hang of it.

Could anybody comment on my setup of balancing rules, and maybe give me some pointers on how to make it more efficient?

 

I have a HDD pool of 3x 20TB drives

This "HDD pool" is part of bigger pool, (HDD pool + 2TB SSD), called "SharePool"

 

SharePool has these balancers (in this order):

- Prevent drive overfill: 90%, empty up to 80%

- Ordered file placement: Only new files, fill SSD first, HDD pool second. Do not fill above 95%.

 

HDD pool has these balancers:

- StableBit Scanner (default)

- Disk Space Equalizer (default)

 

I use File Juggler 3 to empty out the SSD buffer:

- If a file is older then 4 weeks AND is bigger then 10MB, it gets moved to the HDD pool

There is a second, failsafe rule to move small files from HDD pool back to buffer, in case of overflow or whatever:

- all files smaller than 10MB get moved from HDD pool back to SSD Buffer

 

 

 

So with this behavior I ensure that I have a fast SSD disk to write to, and all small files stay on that disk.

Recent  bigger (video) files also stay on that disk for up to 4 weeks, to ensure fast playback, and to accommodate changes (better quality downloaded etc).

I use File Juggler for this, as I saw no way at all to do this via balancing rules (file date, file size is not present). Unless I'm mistaken?

I have mounted the SSD and the HDD pool to empty NTFS folders, and file juggler interacts with those. Will this mess up my pools at all? I would assume not?

 

Regarding my HDD pool, I would like it if the balancing is only done with newly written files.

Let's say for example my HDD pool is perfectly balanced. For some reason, I delete over 500GB out of 1 specific drive.

I do not want extra read-write cycles on all of my drives, just to get the pool balanced again.

I want the pool to balance again by writing all new files in the future back to that one drive which is underfilled. even if it takes a month.

So no files get moved from one disk to another. Is this possible?

 

[Shane]

Q. "I use File Juggler for this, as I saw no way at all to do this via balancing rules (file date, file size is not present). Unless I'm mistaken?"

A. Correct, DrivePool's balancing doesn't support balancing by file date or file size, only by file name.

Q. "I have mounted the SSD and the HDD pool to empty NTFS folders, and file juggler interacts with those. Will this mess up my pools at all? I would assume not?"

A. If the File Juggler program is pointed at a pool, there shouldn't be any issue. If the File Juggler program is pointed at a poolpart (one of the hidden folders that comprise a pool) then it could mess up DrivePool's measuring which could in turn affect balancing; if you find this is happening and File Juggler can run a command or script after it completes a juggle then you may wish to have it order DrivePool to perform a re-measure (DrivePool may also automatically initiate a re-measure if it notices the discrepancy).

Q. "Regarding my HDD pool, I would like it if the balancing is only done with newly written files. So no files get moved from one disk to another. Is this possible?"

A. Given what you've described, for the "HDD Pool" I would remove Disk Space Equalizer and would suggest using Prevent Drive Overfill instead.