Drive pooling

[PenkethBoy 2063]

lol

 

yes usually

 

but actually its to ensure they are not usable by others/ data security

 

sometime i take them apart for the powerful magnets and recycle what you can

[Guest asrequested]

Well, this drive was part of the DVR pool, so nothing sensitive on there. I'll probably drill holes through it

[CharleyVarrick 277]

I figured I would ask the experienced poolers here.

I'm about a week away from adding more drives to my servers. In the past, adding a drive or replacing a smaller one for a larger translated in a ton of subsequent work to let Emby and Kodi know where those files went. I really like the simplicity of a virtually "elastic" mega movie drive, instead of growing separate drive.

 

DrivePool and DriveBender seem to be the 2 main contender, the later being less expensive is a plus. Which would you consider the most user friendly.

I do not need parity or raid.

 

Also, can it work "out of the box". as in I tell it to combine drive "R","S","T","U", even though there's already data on those?

Edited May 27, 2017 by jlr19

[mediacowboy 438]

I can't speak for Drivepool but yes driver bender can take data on the drives and merge them. As you have probably seen it is a 50 50 mix on here. Take each for a spin both offer a trial.

[PenkethBoy 2063]

yep drive pool can do this also

 

you can have pooled and unpooled data on the same drive

[CharleyVarrick 277]

I will definitely take them for a spin, it would be the perfect timing just before I add a drive.

Thanks! 

[CharleyVarrick 277]

I have installed Drive Bender on my "A" Server, but I have not yet created a pool or convert existing drive.

At first glance, Drive Bender price plan suits me better than StableBit DP. Especially as I also have a "B" server, a mirror copy.

 

For now I'm looking at the help documentation within the program. I do not want to rush in and make stupid mistakes or worse.

Already some questions pop to mind

 

1) Whats differs in A) creating a pool first, then adding/merging files to it as opposed to B ) Start by converting an existing drive to a pooled drive

 

2) I haven't seen much info about pooling folders (as opposed to whole drives), my present setup* might require that

 

3) Do I need to modify present drive/folder name scheme* before I dive in the pool. Is it better if I lose the year span and just have identically named "movies" and "films" parent in those 4 drives.

 

4) I need to keep all French content separate from English, and setup Emby preferred language accordingly. This is really important, can I keep it as it is or should French content be all moved together inside a same drive? (hence my previous question can I pool folders or just whole drives?)

 

 

*In each servers, I have 4 movie drives

They're setup by movie year span and they each have an English (movies) and French (films) sub folders

It goes something like this:

 

Server A (server B has identical mirror setup)

Drive M 1900-1990

(parent folder) movies 1900-1990 (inside all parent folders are k's of movie sub-folders, each containing movie file and related files)

(parent folder) films 1900-1990

 

Drive N 1991-2000

(parent folder) movies 1991-2000

(parent folder) films 1991-2000

 

Drive O 2001-2010

(parent folder) movies 2001-2010

(parent folder) films 2001-2010

 

Drive P 2011-now

(parent folder) movies 2011-now

(parent folder) films 2011-now

 

In the end, I wish to have a Q (pool) drive for all movies 1900-now, and a similar but separate pool drive (or pool folder) for (French) films 1900-now

Edited May 29, 2017 by jlr19

[CBers 6771]

1) it would be better to create the pool with an empty disk and then merge your other in after. That's how I have done it in the past.

2) you can't. You add the whole drive to the pool. It is not recommended to have non-pool data on the same drive.

3) When you merge a drive, IIRC, or will ask you under which folder in the pool you want to add it, so it would be the root (/)directory normally.

4) You have to realise that any folder called the same on the disks will be grouped together.

 

There is online help for DriveBender here: https://support.division-m.com/hc/en-us

[CharleyVarrick 277]

1) it would be better to create the pool with an empty disk and then merge your other in after. That's how I have done it in the past.

2) you can't. You add the whole drive to the pool. It is not recommended to have non-pool data on the same drive.

3) When you merge a drive, IIRC, or will ask you under which folder in the pool you want to add it, so it would be the root (/)directory normally.

4) You have to realise that any folder called the same on the disks will be grouped together.

 

There is online help for DriveBender here: https://support.division-m.com/hc/en-us

Hi CBers

1) Why would it be better?

2) Got it

3a) IIRC? Come again

3b) Still unclear If I should rename those folders (remove year span) to just "movies" and "films"

 

I have looked a bit at online help, just couldn't find a "getting started" kind of doc

 

Thanks

[CBers 6771]

1) It was always a recommendation in the early days and it's something I've stuck with. Probably not required now, as you can create an empty pool then merge in the disks.

3a) If I Remember Correctly

3b) It's entirely upto you. If you merge multiple disks you will have a Movies (2000) folder, a Movies (2001) folder etc. You can always move them around once your folder structure is setup the way you want.

 

You could also check out the DriveBender forums: https://community.division-m.com/index.php

[CharleyVarrick 277]

1) Got it

2) DKTO (didn't know that one )

3) Mind's not made up about that, but I'm leaning for this setup (compared to post#82)

 

Server A (server B has identical mirror setup)

Drive M

(parent folder) movies (inside all parent folders are k's of movie sub-folders, each containing movie file and related files)

(parent folder) films

 

Drive N

(parent folder) movies

(parent folder) films

 

Drive O

(parent folder) movies

(parent folder) films

 

Drive P

(parent folder) movies

(parent folder) films

 

Drive Q (pool)

(parent folder) movies

(parent folder) films

[CBers 6771]

When you add drives M, N, O and P to the pool, the contents of your movies folders will be under (parent folder) movies.

 

Likewise for films.

 

What is (parent folder)?

[CharleyVarrick 277]

And a really noob question about file duplication (local protection against ONE failing drive).

At this moment, for my movie collection, I have 4x 6tb hdd that are about 74% full (that's about 18tb of data)

What's would be my cost in hdd if I want 2x duplication (every files on at least 2 different drives)

 

My guess is 4x additional 6tb (?)

Edited May 29, 2017 by jlr19

[CharleyVarrick 277]

What is (parent folder)?

Parent as in top level folders I have in each of my movie hdd's

 

eg:

present setup:

 

M:\Movies 1900-1990\¡Three Amigos! (1986)\¡Three Amigos! (1986).mp4

M:\Films fr 1900-1990\3 hommes et un couffin (1985)\3 hommes et un couffin (1985).avi

 

N:\Movies 1991-2000\Ace Ventura; Pet Detective (1994)\Ace Ventura; Pet Detective (1994)

N:\Films fr 1991-2000\Grosse fatigue (1994)\Grosse fatigue (1994).avi

 

O:\Movies 2001-2010\9 Songs (2004)\9 Songs (2004).mkv

O:\Films fr 2001-2010\36 Quai des Orfèvres (2004)\36 Quai des Orfèvres (2004).mp4

 

P:\Movies 2011+\2-Headed Shark Attack (2012)\2-Headed Shark Attack (2012).mp4

P:\Films fr 2011+\2 automnes 3 hivers (2013)\2 automnes 3 hivers (2013).mkv

 

would become:

 

Q(pool):\Movies\¡Three Amigos! (1986)\¡Three Amigos! (1986).mp4

Q(pool):\Movies\2-Headed Shark Attack (2012)\2-Headed Shark Attack (2012).mp4

Q(pool):\Movies\9 Songs (2004)\9 Songs (2004).mkv

Q(pool):\Movies\Ace Ventura; Pet Detective (1994)\Ace Ventura; Pet Detective (1994)

 

Q(pool):\Films fr\2 automnes 3 hivers (2013)\2 automnes 3 hivers (2013).mkv

Q(pool):\Films fr\3 hommes et un couffin (1985)\3 hommes et un couffin (1985).avi

Q(pool):\Films fr\36 Quai des Orfèvres (2004)\36 Quai des Orfèvres (2004).mp4

Q(pool):\Films fr\Grosse fatigue (1994)\Grosse fatigue (1994).avi

Edited May 29, 2017 by jlr19

[CBers 6771]

If you want to duplicate, then you need more storage, equivalent to the storage being duplicated.

 

If you're going to "mirror" to 2nd server/pool, do you really need duplication?

[CharleyVarrick 277]

If you want to duplicate, then you need more storage, equivalent to the storage being duplicated.

 

If you're going to "mirror" to 2nd server/pool, do you really need duplication?

I am already mirroring server A to B, If I lose drive M in serverA, I can get a copy from serverB (for a 6tb drive, I'm looking at 6 to 8 hours)

With drivepooling up and running, if again I lose drive M in serverA, I would need to copy all of serverB back to serverA, (that's 4x6-8 hours job).

 

With a smart software such as FreeFileSync, it would compare those huge pooled drives from server A and B and point out what's missing 

[CharleyVarrick 277]

Come to think of it, it doesn't make sense to have drivepooling file duplication PLUS whole server mirroring.

 

File duplication would protect against a single drive failure, while my present server mirroring protects against all drives failure.

[CBers 6771]

How do/will you copy from server A to server B?

 

If a drive totally fails (ie. the files are totally inaccessible), with duplication in use, then when you put a new disc in, DriveBender will re-duplicate the files to the new disc, setting them as either the master or the duplicate.

 

Again, duplication is storage hungry.

[CharleyVarrick 277]

I have been using https://www.freefilesync.org/ for a couple of years now.

Its a pretty smart piece of software that compares 2 folders (or 2 whole disks) and gives detailed lists of what's equal, what's added (or missing) and what's modified, both ways.

Mine is setup strictly as one-way mirror (A to B ), so If I lose a drive on server A, it doesn't automatically delete my copy on server B, for instance.

Edited May 29, 2017 by jlr19

[CharleyVarrick 277]

So a first test spin with DriveBender didn't go so well, not because its a bad product, but more because I didn't had a clue what I was doing. I really messed up big time and even thought for a moment I'd lost some drives.  On the positive side, they offer a 60 day trial and ask a mere 10 bucks for it.

 

I am presently trying out the competition (StableBit DrivePool) and got stuck about 10 minutes figuring out how to get my files in the pool. They offer a 30 day trial, and it goes for 30$. The UI is a sad looking affair, but the most important thing is I was up and running in less than 15 minutes.

 

I'll probably give DriveBender another shot because of their reasonable price plan and the jazzier UI, but my first impressions favours DrivePool.

Edited May 29, 2017 by jlr19

[PenkethBoy 2063]

Welcome to the drivepool club

 

The second (and subsequent) licence you will need if you stay with DP is much cheaper.

 

UI is not great but after you have it running how you want you dont go to it often, apparently lots of improvements on the way now they have finished the clouddrive app - finally!

[Happy2Play 8290]

The second copy of Drive Pool would be 15 dollars.  There are bundle options also, you just have to mess around with each produces "buy a copy" page and change the quantity.

[CharleyVarrick 277]

@@PenkethBoy

If i need to choose between bells and whistles and intuitiveness, I'll often go for the later. It's a nice feeling to try a software for the first time and be fully functional within minutes.

Its now setup on both my server, I performed a first sync between the 2 machines and it went great, obviously its a little longer to compare 2x 16TB, but then again, I have 4 less drives to compare after the big one's done. I'm impatiently waiting for stuff I ordered to add a 7th and 8th drive to both servers, and the big payoff will be how simple stupid it'll be to manage. I will still have future option to add a 9th and a 10th drive to each machine, so I should be ok for a few years (maybe ).

 

Last year, I added a hard drive for my movie collection, it must have took me a good week to manually balance the files between existing and new drives on both servers, then have Emby and Kodi figure where the files went. Just being done with this is enough to warrant the software's fee.

Edited May 30, 2017 by jlr19

[CharleyVarrick 277]

@@Happy2Play

Yes, I saw the reasonable 2 licenses options, and also they're pushing to bundle the scanner and cloud thing along, Not quite sure I need those though...

Edited May 30, 2017 by jlr19

[CharleyVarrick 277]

previous setup:

 

M:\Movies 1900-1990\¡Three Amigos! (1986)\¡Three Amigos! (1986).mp4

M:\Films fr 1900-1990\3 hommes et un couffin (1985)\3 hommes et un couffin (1985).avi

 

N:\Movies 1991-2000\Ace Ventura; Pet Detective (1994)\Ace Ventura; Pet Detective (1994)

N:\Films fr 1991-2000\Grosse fatigue (1994)\Grosse fatigue (1994).avi

 

O:\Movies 2001-2010\9 Songs (2004)\9 Songs (2004).mkv

O:\Films fr 2001-2010\36 Quai des Orfèvres (2004)\36 Quai des Orfèvres (2004).mp4

 

P:\Movies 2011+\2-Headed Shark Attack (2012)\2-Headed Shark Attack (2012).mp4

P:\Films fr 2011+\2 automnes 3 hivers (2013)\2 automnes 3 hivers (2013).mkv

 

New setup:

 

D(drivepool):\Movies\¡Three Amigos! (1986)\¡Three Amigos! (1986).mp4

D(drivepool):\Films fr\2 automnes 3 hivers (2013)\2 automnes 3 hivers (2013).mkv

 

Why did I wait so long before pooling?

Edited May 30, 2017 by jlr19