Adding Disks and advice on pooling them

[housestark]

I'm new to all this but have successfully set up my server and would like some guidance in adding drives, specifically the correct way to use disk pooling (or not).

The first thing I'd like to do is use Amahi as a backup device for the various Windows desktops and laptops in our home. My understanding is that it's not a good idea to save backups to a pooled disk array because if one disk in the array fails it can take out any backups that were even partially contained on that disk. Is that correct?

Assuming that's the case then I would want to add one 5TB drive to my server specifically for backups (not pooled), and then add more drive(s) for other purposes like streaming media (possibly pooled depending on whether I add more than one).

What is the best way to accomplish this. Do I use greyhole for all of the additional HDDs, pooled or not? As to whether or not to pool all my drives, do have have to choose one or the other, or can I mix pooled storage with a non-pooled HDD as I described?

[bigfoot65]

My understanding is that it's not a good idea to save backups to a pooled disk array because if one disk in the array fails it can take out any backups that were even partially contained on that disk. Is that correct?

That is typically only true if using RAID. Greyhole puts copies on multiple drives, providing you have it configured to do max copies. If one drive dies, you can tell Greyhole, remove it, and insert a new one if needed.

Do I use greyhole for all of the additional HDDs, pooled or not? As to whether or not to pool all my drives, do have have to choose one or the other, or can I mix pooled storage with a non-pooled HDD as I described?

I would pool all drives and then as I mentioned before set copies to max. You can leave some drives out of the pool, but keep in mind if that drive dies, so do the files.

Hope that helps.

[housestark]

Alright, I'm mostly following along, along with learning Crashplan, etc. It's a lot to take in at once and I just want to make sure I install the right drives, the right way, the first time.

Here's what I have onhand:
- Amahi Server installed on a 500GB HDD. User accounts are set up, but nothing else yet.
- 2 x 5TB HDDs for my storage pool, to be installed
- 1 x 2TB HDD, along some 1TB drives that I could add if needed.
- 2 x USB 3.0 HDDs containing video files to be used with Plex server that I plan to install on Amahi. These drives are nearly full and are already backed up elsewhere, so I don't really want them to become part of the pool that I write to, and I don't need to make copies of the files. I just need to be able to access them with Plex or from other PCs on my network.

Here's what I want to do:
- Use Crashplan to back up 4 Windows 10 PCs
- Back up just over 2TB of personal photo/video files (so far) from one of those PCs, which I assume will be part of the Crashplan backup unless there's a better way
- Run Plex Server
- Possibly run BitTorrent and/or other functions once I learn more

So what's the best way to proceed? Should I bother with the 1TB and/or 2TB drives or just leave them out of it? Would one of them make a good Landing Zone? I don't totally understand what's needed for that.

Finally, this page says I shouldn't put Crashplan data files into my Greyhole shares. If not, then where??

[bigfoot65]

So what's the best way to proceed? Should I bother with the 1TB and/or 2TB drives or just leave them out of it? Would one of them make a good Landing Zone? I don't totally understand what's needed for that.

Recommend you read up on the Landing Zone in the wiki. Basically it's where the files go initially until Greyhole spreads them around the storage pool. A 1TB drive would be good for a LZ and left out of the pool.

Finally, this page says I shouldn't put Crashplan data files into my Greyhole shares. If not, then where??

They should be put on a drive that is not managed by Greyhole. This would be a good use of the 2TB drive, left out of the storage pool and only used for back ups.