mergerfs - distribution over several disks

Hello friends of OMV!

Can someone explain to me in simple terms what setting I need to make in mergerfs for creating new files?

I really tried to figure it out using THIS site but I'm just more confused.

I have 5 hard drives of different sizes. One is an SSD for the OS.

Now I want to use ALL of the 4 remaining disks. I have no need for redundancy and am aware of the risks. The OMV only serves as a backup NAS.

I would like the data to be saved in its entirety and NOT split across multiple disks. In the event of a failure, I could swap the disk and rsync would re-save the missing data.

I wouldn't have to save EVERYTHING again.

Now I wish that the data would be stored evenly distributed on all disks. So the individual hard drives should all be filled to the same percentage.

I chose "Existing Path - most free space", but my rsync job is currently writing everything completely on the largest one of the discs without using the others

Even if the disk is filled so much, that the others have more space left...

Is it possible to change the data writing policy for the mergerfs plugin after creating the file system? And what would be the right policy for my needings?

Thanks very much !!

Settings:

Dashboard:

- Just wipe all my disks

- creat new BTRFS file systems for each disk

- mount each one new

- create a pool with mergerfs over all 4 Disks

tried it with nearly all settings (existing paths,.... shared paths... least free space, least used space, etc etc...).

But mergerfs always create new files only on my largest disk !!

LoL - even if i choos "RANDOM" only one of my disks getting filled...

What is the right settings, so ALL my 4 Disks gettings same amount of % filled with data...

do i have to put some settings in fstab at the bottom?

Thank you in advance...

thank u for your answer...

yeah - i already tried this.

after fresh settings with empty disks and only one shared folder .... i tried to copy few GB of Data.

Doesnt matter what settings i set - all data will only be createt on my largest disk

i dont know what to do next...

i thought with this settings it should distributed over all disks...

but rsync (and manually copying different files) always create on the same disk

in case someone could help - this is what my fstab looks like

Thank u !!

Thank u so much for your answers...

But in my first post I already filled up the largest disk with more than 40% and nothing got created on the other disks...

Then I wiped all data and did everything from beginning. But again the data are always written only to the 4,27TB disk..

I tried different settings in mergerfs, but nothing changed...

I will wait my rsync job run over night an totally fill the 4,27TB disk. Then I will see what happend next...

Zitat von ryecoaaron

existing path will keep everything in the existing path on the same disk. If you want them balanced and you are not a control freak, just use most free space. But as raulfg said, you will have an imbalance at the beginning because you have one larger drive.

yes - I want it definitely balanced.

But I don't want every single file split over more than once disk (striped).

I want it that way, so I can simply change a disk (if it's broken) and my rsync job will only copy these missing files to that new disk.

All the files stored on the other disks should still be accessible normal.

Zitat von gderf

mergerfs will never split a file across multiple disks.

Thank u... This was clearly a misunderstanding from me.

I just change setting to "most free space" and restart my omv (last time I tried different settings I did not restart).

This time the files are stored/created balanced over all disks

But what do u mean "if I am not an Control freak"??! ryecoaaron

LoL... Very good explained

But I must confess (shame on me): I also have a specific folder structure.... Each folder contains a group of files which belongs together.

It would be perfect to keep all files in one folder as well.

So if one of my disks in the omv machine crashes, the other disks should contain folders with complete content...

Now with setting "most free space" the whole content of each folder is distributed over different disks

Soo... Yeah... Best would be if mergerfs could read my mind

Now I feel like having a 1.st world problem

Zitat von gderf

The capability you are wanting is not within the scope of mergerfs.

i thought "existing path" would do exactely what i want....? keep everything together in it's folders (in the last folder level at the bottom.)

In other words... mergerfs should look at folders as if they where files....

And "existing path - most free space" should do the trick: keep everything in its folder and distripute the folders balances over my disks...

as i remember - i got this working in omv 5. But unfortunally i dont remember my settings there...

Zitat von ryecoaaron

existing path will keep everything in the existing path on the same disk. [...]

yeah - thats what i want... but if i choos "existing path" my files/folders are stored only on the largest disk... even if the other disks have more free space left...

i do not clearly understand the disciption for "most shared path" --> walk back the path if it fails to find a branch at that level

i am sure my problem exists between keyboard and chair ( ) and i am very sorry for that - but i try very hard to clearly understand everything...

Zitat von ryecoaaron

If that is what you want, then don't be surprised when your disks aren't balanced.

you're right... but why doesn't it create Folders on the other disks?

My settings:

NAS --> Shared Folder --> SubFolder --> SubFolders 0001 - 9999 --> manyFiles belong together

my disks now have ALL exact the same free space:

now if i store everything with setting "existing path - most free space" following happend:

Disk1 --> nothing
Disk2 --> nothing
Disk3 --> nothing
Disk4 --> Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0001 -->manyFiles belong together
        > Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0002 -->manyFiles belong together
        > Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0003 -->manyFiles belong together
        > Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0004 -->manyFiles belong togethe

With "most free Space" it happend this way (balanced over all disks what is great)

Disk1 --> Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0001 -->only some of the files if space enough
        > Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0003 -->only some of the files if space enough
        > Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0009 -->only some of the files if space enough

Disk2 --> Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0002 -->only some of the files if space enough
        > Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0001 -->only some of the files if space engoug
        > Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0003 -->only some of the files if space enough

Disk3 --> Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0008 -->only some of the files if space enough
        > Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0003 -->only some of the files if space enough
        > Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0009 -->only some of the files if space enough

Disk4 --> Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0001 -->only some of the files if space enough
        > Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0003 -->only some of the files if space enough
        > Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0015 -->only some of the files if space enough

but if eg. Disk3 fails, i can not use Disk1, because in SubFolder 0003 are some files missing.

What i expect mergerfs to do is to store my SubFolders with its whole content...

Disk1 --> Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0001 -->manyFiles belong together
        > Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0005 -->manyFiles belong together
        > Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0009 -->manyFiles belong together

Disk2 --> Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0002 -->manyFiles belong together
        > Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0006 -->manyFiles belong together
        > Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0010 -->manyFiles belong together

Disk3 --> Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0003 -->manyFiles belong together
        > Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0007 -->manyFiles belong together
        > Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0011 -->manyFiles belong together

Disk4 --> Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0004 -->manyFiles belong together
        > Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0008 -->manyFiles belong together
        > Shared Folder --> SomeFolder --> SubFolder 0012 -->manyFiles belong together

in this case if Disk3 fails, the other disks contain full and complete SubFolders.

I know that this way it can not be balanced 100%... but it should completely fill a SubFolder befor change the disk.

I am awfully sorry for annoying but i just want to understand it right...

is this clearly not possible?!?! i am sure i got this working on my old omv 5