Trigger a scheduled task or script after balance?

[fattipants2016]

Easy question, today.

Is there any way to trigger a scheduled task, or execute a script from the command-line after balancing?

I'm trying to sync DP & SnapRAID, and by time isn't cutting it.

I disabled DP's background balancing, and told the scheduled task (SR) to only start when the computer's idle, but it just starts in the middle of balancing anyways.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

IIRC, you need to "double escape" the strings here. 

So you need:

    "Override": "C:\\Snapraid\\Balancing.txt" 

 

[Christopher (Drashna)]

There is the "DrivePool_RunningFile" setting. This creates a file when StableBit DrivePool is running a task (balancing, duplication, removal, etc). 

You could set that and check for the existence of the file. 

 

 

[fattipants2016]

Thank you. I should be able to do something with that.

[fattipants2016]

DrivePool_RunningFile doesn't seem to do anything in 2.2.906.

I've tried both "Override: C:\Snapraid\Balancing.txt" and "Override: "C:\Snapraid\Balancing.txt"" (with and without quotes,) rebooting before each test.

No file is created at any point during balancing.

I still desperately need help with my SSD Optimizer balancing issues, as well.

 

[fattipants2016]

Thank you! That worked.

Is there any plan to, or a layman explanation why not, add support for event logging? It would have been very easy to trigger snapraid based on an event.

And for anyone else with similar needs, I used a powershell script called "Powershell FileSystemWatcher" to write an event, and used said event to trigger snapraid-helper (also PS.)

A bit convoluted, but launching one powershell script from another is suprisingly complex.

 

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Honestly, I don't know. I'll have to ask Alex (the Developer).  

But at least one reason is that it gives us much more control over the logging.  Since the logs can grow very quickly, it may cause the Event Viewer logs to grow very large.

[B00ze]

This isn't working for me. I've got this:

  "DrivePool_RunningFile": {
    "Default": "",
    "Override": "D:\\StableBit DrivePool\\Service\\CurrentlyBalancing.txt"
  },

Then I pick an un-duplicated folder and make it duplicate - no file is created while the duplication is running...

I restarted the DP service, which should be sufficient for it to re-read the json file. I'll try rebooting but I shouldn't need to...

Regards,

[fattipants2016]

They may not be monitoring this thread anymore, since I marked it answered.

Does the folder D:\stablebit drivepool\service\ already exist? Is it write protected?

Try putting the file in the root of D:\ just to rule out any problems with the path.

Another thing to try is to temporarily re-instate the "DrivePool.Service.exe.default.config" (rename to DrivePool.Service.exe.config) settings file in programfiles, and enable it there.

I got it to work that way, temporarily, until I heard about having to use the double \\'s. Just don't forget to rename (disable) those old settings, afterwards.

[B00ze]

Lol, once again, my mistake.

Tried a TON of things, loaded-up Process Monitor, made sure DrivePool was loading the settings file; monitored for my "lock" file -> Nowhere to be found.

After like 40 minutes I had a look at the DrivePool logs and found this:

DrivePool.Service.exe	Warning	0	[JsonSettings] Error parsing JSON settings file. Using application defaults. Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: F. Path 'BitLocker_PoolPartUnlockDetect.Override', line 4, position 16.	2018-04-12 22:57:55Z	15061268610
DrivePool.Service.exe	Warning	0	[JsonSettings] Error parsing JSON settings file. Using application defaults. Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: F. Path 'BitLocker_PoolPartUnlockDetect.Override', line 4, position 16.	2018-04-12 22:58:05Z	15098892007

Looks like TRUE and FALSE are CASE-SENSITIVE. Maybe now I will see if my drives spin-down? lol.

Thanks.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Sorry, I've not checked the forums in a few days.  

 

And to make sure, the file is only created when a "task" is running (balancing, duplication, measuring, etc) 

And yeah, check the logs frequently, when messing with the settings.

[B00ze]

Hi Christopher.

Lol, you know what that means: my BitLocker_PoolPartUnlockDetect.Override setting had not been working since the get-go! I don't really hear the drives spin-up or down, so it's hard for me to see if they spin-down as they should, I'd have to leave the computer idle on purpose and I haven't really had time to test this. I /think/ they don't spin-down, but it could be something else than DrivePool, like the Intel RAID driver that's still running the drives (I had to disable spin-down in Windows when this was a Intel RAID otherwise the Intel driver was fighting the sleep and re-spinning the drives up immediately. I have since re-enabled sleep in Windows, but not tested.)

PS: The lock file works fine now that I don't have an error in the config.

Regards,

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Awesome, glad to hear it.

 

Also ... StableBit Scanner will keep the drives awake too. The SMART query will do this, and throttling it should help.