Struggling with LZ vs Shares

[diggityDawg]

I have two 1TB drives configured in my storage pool for Greyhole. They are configured as follows:

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/var/hda/drives/internal_3 /gh /lost+found /lz /[shares] (i.e. Pictures,Music,Movies,etc) /var/hda/drives/external_1 /gh /lost+found

Now, as you can see above, I have put my landing zone on my internal_3 drive. I created a symbolic link in /var/hda called "lz" that points to /var/hda/drives/internal_3/lz so I can easily get to that. I've setup all of my shares to point to that link. So, for example, Pictures points to /var/hda/lz/Pictures. I think putting the lz on the same drive as I am using in my storage pool is fine, but I have a feeling pointing my shares to the lz folders is not recommended. What is? Where should I point my shares to?

The reason I ask is, I am losing files - files get deleted or disappear shortly after I move them into the lz. I understand that's what is supposed to happen, but I'm confused as to where to point my shares so that all of the files in the storage pool will show in the shares? Also, my internal drive has less than 5% free, and my external_1 drive has about 55% free. It's been that way for many days and I don't know how to get it to balance out. I've tried running an fsck and then a rebalance, and it does start to get better. But then it quickly gets out of balance again and I can't move anything into the lz any more.

I've read through a LOT of documentation on Greyhole, Samba and Amahi. I may not have absorbed all of it, but I tried. I still don't quite get it. If someone could just give me some clear direction for what is suggested I would really appreciate it!

Thanks!

[bigfoot65]

In my opinion, it's best to keep it simple. Keep all shares mounted at /var/hda/files. You can make the 1TB drive mount as /var/hda/files then have Greyhole still use it for the storage pool.

The more complicated you make it, the greater chance something will go wrong. What you did should work, but it seems more work that was needed.

Are you changing files locally on the HDA? If so, are you using the mount_shares_locally script? That is necessary to keep things in order.

The latest Greyhole version is 0.9.31 which if you don't have might correct this problem. There is guidance in the wiki for updating.

[diggityDawg]

Ok, it's been a few weeks and I've made some progress on this, and I think I have nailed down the reason I'm still confused. I have set my shares to point to my landing zone folders. So, for example, my landing zone for pictures is /var/hda/lz/Pictures and in my Settings -> Shares -> Pictures I have the folder set to /var/hda/lz/Pictures. Is that correct? Or should I be pointing to a different folder? The landing zone doesn't keep the files that are dropped in it, does it? It spreads them out across the drives in the pool, right? So where do I go to see all of the Pictures files across all of the drives in the pool? Is it also the landing zone folder? This is the part that I just don't get, and I think it's because it's not very well spelled-out where the pooled shares are located, or set... Any guidance on this? I think I need very specific instructions.

Thanks!
Eddie

[bigfoot65]

It seems you are over-complicating things. The LZ is nothing more than the location where your shares live. For example, by default the shares are located in /var/hda/files on the OS drive.

If you have a small OS drive, many mount a second drive as /var/hda/files. The shares either way will point to /var/hda/files/share and provide a larger storage area. When Greyhole does its thing, it copies files as you have configured per share to each Greyhole drive. It then replaces the original file on the share with a symbolic link.

You might want to read the info in the wiki about Greyhole and the LZ as well.
https://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Greyhole
https://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Greyhole_landing_zone
https://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Moving_landing_zone

As you can see, no need to make a separate location as you have done called /var/hda/lz/Pictures. It does not do anything and leaving them as /var/hda/files/pictures has the same result. It's where you choose to have the LZ (i.e. different drive) that is important.

Hopefully that will help you better understand.

[diggityDawg]

Ok, so the lz IS THE SAME as the location for my shares? That could be more clearly spellled out. If it said that anywhere I would have understood it, but it doesn't. I figured out that I have to restart Greyhole every time I copy files to my landing zone so that it re-balances my drives. Otherwise the -l option doesn't work for me...

Anyways, thanks for the help, I think my storage issues are resolved for now. Now on to remote desktop issues, and network domain issues, and...

[bigfoot65]

It does in the wiki.
https://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Greyhole_landing_zone

Probably could be explained better though.

[ Post made via Android ]

[diggityDawg]

Well, not exactly... I read that several times and I couldn't figure out where the shares fit into the model. It says "Pick a big enough LZ partition that will allow you to copy enough data.", but it probably should say something about using the same folder structure for the LZ and Samba shares...?

[bigfoot65]

I was referring to this statement:

ll the data you copy to your HDA's shares will first land into your LZ, which is by default located in /var/hda/files/share_name.

Probably needs to be explained better as you indicated.