Help with Settings

[DreamStatic]

Hello, I have been using DrivePool for a month or so as merely a way to pool my drives together. And have been using Snapraid as my backup solution. However, I lost a drive and since some of the files on other hard drives had been changed; Snapraid was only able to rebuild 3/4 of the data on the 5TB drive. So I am thinking of switching over to DrivePool and at least 2x Duplication. With my recent experience still fresh in my mind, I am a little gunshy and want to be sure everything looks correct before I pull the trigger on the duplication as I do not have backups of my data at the moment. Yikes!! Please let me know if I have something off or can offer any advice in my situation. Thank you so much. 

 

Pool details:

• 59.6 TB Total
• 28.4 TB Unduplicated
• 31.1 TB Free
• 23.6 GB Other
• 20 Drives of various sizes

I have more empty drives I can add to the Pool if needed, just didn't know if I should include them now or as needed?

 

Settings details:

• Performance
  • ON - Real-time duplication
  • ON - Read striping
  • ON - Network I/O boost
• File protection - OFF currently but want to enable 2x duplication at least
• Balancing
  • ON - Balance immediately
  • Balancing Settings Tab
    • Balance if ratio falls below 90%
    • ON - Or if at least this much data needs to be moved 10 GB
    • ON - Allow balancing plug-ins to force immediate balancing
    • ON - File placement rules respect real-time file placement limits set by the balancing plug-ins
    • ON - Balancing plug-ins respect file placement rules
      • ON - Unless the drive is being emptied
  • Balancing Balancers Tab
    • OFF - Stablebit Scanner (thinking of adding once everything is up and running)
    • OFF - Volume Equalization
    • ON - Prevent Drive Overfill (95% full or 95 GB free)
    • OFF - Drive Usage Limiter
    • ON - Duplication Space Optimizer
    • ON - Ordered File Placement
  • Balancing File Placement Tab - Left as default for now

Current Drive snapshot

[Christopher (Drashna)]

First,  I'm sorry to hear about the drive failure, and related issues, as that is never a pleasant experience. 

 

As for the duplication, I highly recommend duplicating EVERYTHING.  As somebody that's lost multiple drives in short succession, having multiple copies makes everything easier. (I'd also recommend using StableBit Scanner, and keeping that balancer enabled, if you're not already). 

 

As for the drives, I'd recommend adding all the drives you plan on using for the pool immediately.  Let it balance the data out between the disks as needed. 

 

 

As for the balancing settings, are you still going to use SnapRAID? 

 

Also, I'd say set the ratio to 100%, or as close as possible. This should more aggressively rebalance data to meet the target balancing config. 

 

As for the other balancing settings, leaving them enable should be okay.  But I would highly recommend moving the Ordered File Placement balancer at the top, or the second from the top.  The list is actually the order of priority. So the higher up it is, the higher priority it gets in the final placement calculations. 

 

I would also definitely recommend enabling the StableBit Scanner balancer.  I'd also recommend enabling it to move unduplicated data from a drive in the case of SMART errors.  That should reduce the risk of data loss if a disk is having issues.  But for unduplicated data isn't a bad idea. 

But that said, things like temperature warnings will trigger this. So if the drives run hot and hit this often....

[DreamStatic]

No, I do not plan on continuing the use of Snapraid. I plan to duplicate everything in DrivePool instead. 

 

When you say "ratio to 100%", which ratio are you referring to as there are many options that look similar in the settings and plugins.

 

I agree and plan to utilize StableBit Scanner as well. Once I have that software up and running, I will enable the plug-in. 

 

Since I do NOT plan to continue Snapraid, do my settings still hold or should I do something different other than the "ratio to 100%" advice?

[Christopher (Drashna)]

The ratio that I'm referring to is the balancing ration on the main "Settings" page for the balancers. 

 

Specifically, the second image (in the "When is balancing necessary" section) on this page: 

http://stablebit.com/Support/DrivePool/2.X/Manual?Section=Balancing%20Settings

 

 

Increasing this means that the software is more aggressive about moving the data around (eg, more sensitive to things being "out of whack").  90% is a good value, but if you're ... obsessive at all, then higher is better.

 

 

As for StableBit Scanner, the plugin is enabled automatically in StableBit DrivePool. As long as both are installed and running, the communication happens automatically.

 

 

 

 

And not having snapraid doesn't really change things here.  The ratio is more of a preference, but should help keep the pool properly balanced.  Everything is perfectly fine.