Balancer/DrivePool not putting Duplicate files on one particular drive in the Pool.

[Woody]

DrivePool V2.2.5.1237

I have one DrivePool virtual drive, that initially contained two identical (bought at the same time) 3TB Toshiba drives. Both 3TB drives (E and F) are completely (their entire partition) used in the pool. 

I run a simple policy/rule:

An Unduplicated folder - where the files are balanced across both drives.
A Duplicated folder - where files are duplicated across both drives.

Everything was working great.

About 1.5 years ago, I purchased a third identical 3TB drive (G) and added it to the pool - which balanced (I thought) and I didn't think any more about it. 

Roll forward to today, and Stablebit scanner tells me that Drive E (of the original 2 drives) has a few SMART alerts. No problem, time to take it out of the pool and replace it, but first, let's check what files are stored where? 

This is where I have discovered some weirdness:

1. Despite Drive G now being part of the Pool, DrivePool has ONLY balanced NON duplicated files to it. Duplicated files only exist on Drives E and F - despite Balancing -> File Placement showing that duplicated files are to be placed across all three disks - see attached screenshot (the unduplicated files do show as balancing across all three disks). 

2. I thought that I might be able to re-balance manually, but in this version, the DrivePool UI has lost the "Rebalance" button - there is no way to force a rebalance from the current UI.

3. Now it could be, that the balancing was never correct in the first place, from when I added the third disk - because there is a tick missing, you will see, from the New Drives check box. However, if I select this and save, it is not persistent, so reopening that dialogue, gets the box un-checked again.

Given that the UI is now a little screwy for me, could I force a rebalance of duplicated files to (only) Drive f and (newly added) to Drive g, by unchecking duplicated files be located on Disk E? It's just that I am kind of nervous, that I have duplicated files - i.e. that I really don't want to lose (hence duplicated) on a drive that I know is on it's way out.

All advice gratefully received - thanks!

[Shane]

1. Curious. It could just be that it's kept picking the first two drives available simply because they've had enough free space to use? Do you have any other Balancers active (e.g. Duplication Space Optimizer)?

2. I have the same version (2.2.5.1237) of DrivePool; as with previous versions the manual Re-balance button should be available from the small upright triangle to the right of the Pool Organization bar. Though if DrivePool's happy with the current amount of balancing it may not do much/anything.

3. I've reproduced this on my own installation and have reported it to Stablebit. Thankyou!

1 hour ago, Woody said:

Given that the UI is now a little screwy for me, could I force a rebalance of duplicated files to (only) Drive f and (newly added) to Drive g, by unchecking duplicated files be located on Disk E?

Yes. It should start automatically moving the files (as in, each file being copied to the new drive then removed from the old drive) across if you do that. If you're worried due to the SMART errors on E, you could also tick "Verify after copy" via the DrivePool main GUI -> Cog icon -> Troubleshooting.

[Woody]

@Shane A BIG thanks for such a fast response.

1. If you look here. Drive Pool is not even acknowledging the third (newest) drive as being a location for duplicated files.

2. See my UI - no re-balance here.

3. Thanks, for reporting that new disk checkbox is not sticky.

 

4. I don't have any additional plugins (only what came pre-installed as standard) so I'll try and force the duplicated files to move:

 

 

 

 

Thanks!

[Shane]

I'd just happened to check the forum and saw your post before going to bed, that's all.

1. Your screenshot indicates that DrivePool is stating the following about the folder you've named "Duplicated":

• Its files may be placed on E, F or G drives.
• E currently has 698 GB free. F currently has 856 GB free. G currently has 856 GB free.
• 18.7 GB of files are currently placed on E.
  18.7 GB of files are currently placed on F.
  Nothing in the folder is placed on G (when nothing relevant is placed on a drive, that drive won't be shown in the "how much is placed where" section of File placement)

If the size of your Duplicated folder is also 18.7 GB according to Windows Explorer, then I'd presume DrivePool is correctly measuring the size (since 18.7 x 2 = default x2 duplication).

With the amount of free space it is reporting on all drives being so much larger than the amount of duplicated content, I would believe DrivePool simply hasn't seen a need to use G yet. However, you might also want to check the settings in the Drive Usage Limiter balancer (since you have it enabled) to ensure that it is allowing use of G for duplicated content.

2. That's the Manage Pool triangle, not the Pool Organization bar triangle. There's a screenshot and further information in the manual here (link).

[Woody]

@Shane A really big thanks for this - as it made me realise I was thinking backwards. Of course you are right: if no new duplicated directories are placed in the pool after the new, third disk, is added, then duplicated files won't be moved to that new disk - makes sense, because they are already duplicated. So rather than move the duplicated files off of the failing disk, I should have moved the unduplicated files - Doh!

HOWEVER, you were right: changing the rule to NOT put duplicated files on E: forced the balancer to start moving them to F and G - which stopped, when it thought it had insufficient space - so I'll do a bit of a clear up and have another go.

In the meantime, I have the challenge that a few others have mentioned, in that I don't have shadow copies or anything like that, but my E: drive has 901GB of "Other" - but once I have made space by deleting files I don't need, I'll have another go at rebalancing to see what happens. 

Note: I do now have the Pool Organization Triangle with the re-balance attribute. Reading the manual again, I see that triangle isn't persistent, it only appears when it makes sense to re-balance - which is why I thought I had lost it from the UI in the latest update.

 

[Shane]

Good to hear. Once everything else is sorted out, if you still can't find the source of the "Other" files then feel free to post here and we'll follow up.

[dval14]

Same here. Ghost files not found anywhere. There are no files outside the pool whatsoever yet this shows there are.