SSD Optimizer and Placement Rules Frustrations

[MatthewW]

There are a lot of SSD Optimizer threads, and I've thread through most of them.  I'm still having frustrations, so here's a thread of my own.

 

My Setup

 

For some context, my previous setup was:

 

- DrivePool for download/scratch space, with SSD Optimizer active

- Final copy of files live on network share outside of pool

 

This was fine!  But space was running out on the NAS.  In order to easily spill into the scratch space, I now:

 

- Mount NAS storage via iSCSI (so local drive letter)

- Merge these into DrivePool drive

- Apply file placement rules so "D:\Plex" only lives on these iSCSI mounts

 

SSD Optimizer and File Rules Failure

 

This is where I have been totally unable to find a solution where the SSD Optimizer will play sensibly.

 

I just moved to 2.4.0.740 in the hopes it would help.  I see the same behavior as before.  My setup is:

 

Balancers:

 

This setup actually works, as long as I have no placement rules.  But I want the media folder to only live on the network ("Vault") disks, so the simplest setup is editing the folder, which makes this rule:

 

 

Immediately I have two problems:

 

1) Pool Organization freaks out.  This makes no sense, because I've verified that the Vault are indeed storing the right content:

 

 

 

2) The SSD Optimizer is no longer covering "D:\Plex".  I can verify this by copying large files there from somewhere else and watching Disk Performance in the StableBit DrivePool window.

 

Adding SSDs to Placement Rules

 

So, my next step is to think "well, maybe I should include the SSDs in the placement rule".  

 

This re-enables SSD Optimizer coverage of the drives, except that balancing now begins to move content onto the drives.  Worse, it seems emptying one full SSD just spills over onto the others.

 

I have tried various combinations of the placement settings, to no avail.  It either complete turns off SSD Optimizer coverage of the path, or turns it on and begins to permanently store content on the SSDs.

 

 

Final Thoughts

 

I did perform a full "reset all settings" and reboot after moving to the beta.

 

All I want is:

 

- SSD Optimizer coverage of the entire pool

- When moving from SSD -> Archive disks, respect the file placement rules

 

And I haven't found a way to do this.  Help?

 

(Also, yes, I should absolutely move to mount points instead of disk letters--didn't quite expect the drive count to get this high when I started with this setup).

[Spider99]

have you got "File placement rules respect...." checked?

 

If so uncheck it and see if that improves things

[MatthewW]

I have, to no avail.  My experiments can be summed up with:

 

- The only way I've found for SSD Optimizer to cover a folder is to either have no placement rules set, or to include the SSD drives in the placement rules.

 

- But, if I include the SSD drives in the placement rules, I haven't found a way to stop the balancer from permanently storing files there too.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Uncheck "unless drives are being emptied".

 

Also, make sure you select the SSD drives for the file placement rules.

[MatthewW]

Unchecking "unless drives are being emptied" didn't help, I tried that initially.

 

The SSD Optimizer is great, but it's pretty clear it needs to operate as a 1st-class feature in order to really work in more advanced scenarios.  As near as I can tell, the isn't any real difference between "file being created" and "file being balanced" rules, which is what I really need.

 

P.S.  Adding the SSDs to the file placement rules just results in one SSD emptying to another SSD endlessly, without the files permanently moving to the archive drives.

[MatthewW]

As a conclusion here, I just ended up breaking off the Vault disks into their own pool (used de-seeding, new pool, re-seeding, was just a few minutes of work).

 

I lose a tiny bit of space overflow flexibility, I guess, but much easier to manage both pool separately without rules clashing everywhere...