Questions regarding the use of the SSD optimizer

[hsehestedt]

The notes for the SSD optimizer on your web site include the following statement:

If you are using duplicated files, then you should specify multiple SDD disks or else the system will fall back 
  to an Archive disk for one or more of the file parts.

I'm having difficulty understanding what this means. I'll take a stab at this, and I would appreciate it if you could tell me if I am getting this right...

My guess is that this is saying that if I have duplication enabled and I then drop files onto an SSD, DrivePool will try to duplicate those files before it moves then off of the SSD resulting in the duplication occurring to a non-SSD disk. Is my understanding of this correct?

If I have that correct, would dividing an SSD into two logical drives so that it has two separate drive letters satisfy the requirement to have more than one SSD?

Is there no option to tell DrivePool to not duplicate the file until they have been moved to the non SSD storage?

Thanks for helping me to understand this.

[Shane]

Your guess is basically correct in most respects: DrivePool will prioritise its duplication settings (reliability) over the SSD Optimizer plugin's settings (performance) in any circumstance where they conflict. However, per the documentation, duplication will (or at least should) only write to separate physical disks so splitting the SSD into two logical volumes won't be effective (and even if it was, it would also halve the write performance of the SSD).

Assuming only one SSD is available, the simplest workaround would be take advantage of DrivePool's ability to nest pools, each with their own settings:

1. Create a pool (we'll call it "H") of the HDDs; set this pool to use duplication and to not use the SSD Optimizer.
2. Create a pool (we'll call it "P") of the SSD and the "H" pool; set this pool to not use duplication and to use the SSD Optimizer.
3. In the "P" pool set the SSD as your SSD and the "H" pool as your Archive.

You would then use the "P" pool to do your work; files in this pool will be cached to the SSD and then offloaded to the HDDs as per your SSD Optimizer settings.

[hsehestedt]

Love it, clever idea. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

If I may just ask one more question:

I sent a request to support already, but out of curiosity, do you know offhand if there is a self-help portal where I can reset license keys for DrivePool? I have 3 licenses but was not aware before I decommissioned 2 systems that I need to actively deactivate them. As a result, I show all 3 to be activated at this time.

[Shane]

There is a cloud management portal that you can create an account on to manage your StableBit licenses, although if you have any existing manual installations those have to be linked from their UI before they'll show up. Linking up to 8 devices (note: the limit is on "devices", not "licenses") is free.