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Evacuate Disk Prior to Removal/Replacement


jsta

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Looking to replace a couple of my drives, and I swear this worked before.

Because the removal process locks the pool to read-only, and can take hours (at least in my case it has taken hours), I was previously using the Disk Usage Limiter balancer, and de-selecting Duplicated and Unduplicated for the drives that are being replaced. That would move the data off the drive(s), then the actual removal process would only take a few minutes.

Currently though, the balancer settings are not being applied.

I was on 2.2.0 something, so went ahead and upgraded to the latest release; 2.2.2.934.
Still, de-selecting Duplicated and Unduplicated for the 2 disks, data is not being moved off those drives even after manually starting another rebalance.

The GUI does report "New file placement limit (0.0%)" for both disks.
Though "Duplicated target for rebalancing" shows -11kb and -37kb (not sure what this actually means though, notation is at the end of the percentage bar)

Is there a more efficient way to evacuate data off specific disks prior to replacement, so that the pool doesn't get locked in read-only state for hours on end?

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There might be another way, but I used file placement rules, and unchecked the disk I wanted to remove from every folder.

Worked great.

Interesting. Looks like it might should at least work better than the part that isn't currently working.

Thanks, I'll give that a shot.

Still would be nice to know why it isn't evacuating with the Drive Usage Limiter.

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Because the removal process locks the pool to read-only

This doesn't happen anymore.   We completely overhauled the removal process. 

Duplicated files remain read only, but the pool should actually be writable. 

.757
* When a drive is being removed from the pool, and there are in use unduplicated files preventing the drive removal, a dialog will show
  exactly which files are in use and by which process.
* [D] Fixed crash when cloning an exceptionally long path due to running out of stack space.
* [D] Rewrote how drive removal works:
    - The pool no longer needs to go into a read-only mode when a drive is being removed from the pool.
    - Open duplicated files can continue to function normally, even if one of their file parts is on the drive that's being removed.
    - Open unduplicated files that reside on the drive that's being removed will need to be closed in order for drive removal to complete 
      successfully. An option to automatically force close existing unduplicated files is now available on the drive removal dialog.
      When not enabled, the service will move everything that's not in use before aborting drive removal.
* [D] Added the ability to close handles on the pool, either by file name, pool part, or a combination of those.
* [D] Added reference counting and locking to open contexts.

So, you should be able to just remove the disk. No extra work. 

But that said... you could use the "Disk Usage Limiter" balancer.  Uncheck the "duplicated" and "unduplicated" option for the disk in question, and it will move everything out of the drive. 

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This doesn't happen anymore.   We completely overhauled the removal process. 

Duplicated files remain read only, but the pool should actually be writable. 


.757
* When a drive is being removed from the pool, and there are in use unduplicated files preventing the drive removal, a dialog will show
  exactly which files are in use and by which process.
* [D] Fixed crash when cloning an exceptionally long path due to running out of stack space.
* [D] Rewrote how drive removal works:
    - The pool no longer needs to go into a read-only mode when a drive is being removed from the pool.
    - Open duplicated files can continue to function normally, even if one of their file parts is on the drive that's being removed.
    - Open unduplicated files that reside on the drive that's being removed will need to be closed in order for drive removal to complete 
      successfully. An option to automatically force close existing unduplicated files is now available on the drive removal dialog.
      When not enabled, the service will move everything that's not in use before aborting drive removal.
* [D] Added the ability to close handles on the pool, either by file name, pool part, or a combination of those.
* [D] Added reference counting and locking to open contexts.

So, you should be able to just remove the disk. No extra work. 

But that said... you could use the "Disk Usage Limiter" balancer.  Uncheck the "duplicated" and "unduplicated" option for the disk in question, and it will move everything out of the drive. 

2 things:
First: huh, guess I should have read some release notes huh? Good to know as I was not aware. My fault for not paying attention to notes.

Second: I did try to use Disk Usage Limiter. Settings do not get honored, and no data gets evacuated from the disks. That is what I swear I did previously, but is currently not working. Even upgraded to latest official release. Stated in OP :)

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do you have the 'unless the drive is being emptied' rule turned on, by any chance?

It is on, yes, but it's under File placement settings and a sub-option of "Balancing plug-ins respect file placement rules."
Reads to me like it would only make an impact when using File Placement rules, though, which I don't (normally) use.

I did use it yesterday to de-select the 2 drives being replaced though, and it's almost done moving data off.

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First: huh, guess I should have read some release notes huh? Good to know as I was not aware. My fault for not paying attention to notes.

Well, a lot of changes. But following the blog may be a good idea: 
http://blog.covecube.com/2017/09/stablebit-drivepool-2-2-0-847-beta/

 

 Second: I did try to use Disk Usage Limiter. Settings do not get honored, and no data gets evacuated from the disks. That is what I swear I did previously, but is currently not working. Even upgraded to latest official release. Stated in OP :)

There was a bug recently that may have caused this.  If you're on the release version (2.2.1.934, IIRC), and you're still seeing this issue, then let me know. 

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There was a bug recently that may have caused this.  If you're on the release version (2.2.1.934, IIRC), and you're still seeing this issue, then let me know. 

Experiencing the issue with 2.2.2.934, which I got directly from the DP download page yesterday.

Upgrading was the first thing I tried :)

File placement rules worked okay, but had to remember to go back in and select the two new disks for every folder.

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Ah, if you're using File Placement Rules and balancers, it can make things complicated. 

You may want to (read: should) take a look at this:
https://stablebit.com/Support/DrivePool/2.X/Manual?Section=Balancing Settings#File Placement Settings

Chances are, there is a conflict here.

I only used File Placement rules after the balancer failed to do its job.

Balancer did not remove data from disks after de-selecting duplicated and unduplicated for them, then I updated to latest version which experienced the same issue.  So I used file placement rules to get the data evacuated.

I have not previously used file placement rules, and was only used to evacuate the data off the disks since the balancer did not work properly.

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