Archive optimizer and SSDs

alex06

Hi all,

I havent actually purchased this software yet, I havent finished my new home server build. I most likely will be getting StableBit though.

I have a question about the Archive Optimizer plugin and SSDs. I want to use a spare 120GB SSD that I have as a feeder disk. Since I will want to have duplication enabled for all files, will I need to buy another one?

A though I had was to partition the SSD into 2 60GB partitions and add both of those to the pool, and set those 2 partitions to feeder disks. This way I can bypass the costly option of buying another SSD.

I currently have a WHSv1 server that is dead and I cant wait to upgrade to WHS 2011 + Stablebit!

Thanks!

saitoh183

If im not mistaken, duplication must be to another physical disk

Shane

saitoh183 is correct. Hmm. If you wanted to avoid having to buy another SSD, you could try setting duplication to occur later instead of immediately (so that the duplication happens during or after balancing)?

alex06

Is there any way to have the feeder disk evacuated at the same time duplication and balancing happens? 

Not really sure how it works, as I've never used the software, but it would be nice to have the feeder disk emptied (at for example 2am) and balance/duplicate at the same time.

Thanks guys for your info!

Shane

Feeder disks are emptied by the balancer at the balancer's scheduled time. Delayed duplication runs at the time set by FileDuplication_DuplicateTime, which can be configured as an advanced setting. I don't know which would be most advantageous, setting the balancing to begin before, with or after the duplication begins.

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_-_Download_Balancing_Plugins#Archive_Optimizer

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Advanced_Settings

alex06

Hm.. Thanks a lot for the links Shane.

What I think I might try is do the balancing first, then duplication.

I'm still open to other ideas though.

Thanks

alex06

If I had my OS on an SSD and had another SSD, could I use the remaining space on the OS SSD (whatever is left after the 30GB partition) as the other feeder disk?

I have 2 SSDs that I can use for this build, didnt really want to use both for just feeder disks, wanted to use 1 for the OS, but I just remembers WHS makes a small partition.

Thanks!

Shane

Yes, you could do that. With one SSD as C (System) and D (Data), and the other SSD as E (all data), and with duplication enabled, your "landing space" will be equal to the size of the smaller of D and E. With duplication off it would equal the total size of D and E.

Note that WHS normally requires a system drive of at least 160GB, from which it allocates 60GB for its system partition, but it is possible to alter this by creating an "answer file" in the root of a USB drive (or even in the root of the SSD drive you intend to use):

http://connecteddigitalworld.com/2011/09/20/installing-whs-2011-or-sbs-2011-essentials-on-ssd-or-sata-hard-drives-smaller-than-160gb/

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/answer-file-install-2.aspx

alex06

Awesome, that's exactly what I wanted to hear. 

I've read through a couple blog posts on installing WHS on a drive smaller than 160GB so I'll do that.