Hey guys, I finally was able to put in a full 8tb into my ex490.
Previously I had 3tb, 1TB = Factory OS drive and 1(2tb) drive that I added.

I recently cloned the 1tb drive using guides to move the data onto the 2tb drive. Server boots fine and all is good. I started moving data to the server and I've noticed now that the server is not using the inital 2, 2tb drives for duplication.

I was under the impression that with duplication, it would fill the primary drive then it would move over onto the next pair.

I will attach a screen shot later tonight to help explain this a bit better.

_________________
EX 490 with 4GB of memory, E8400 and 8TB of drives.

the system D: drive is a last resort space.
Meaning it will use all the other 3 drives first. then when space is exhausted it will start to use it.
Also it takes a while to balance/duplicate the drives.

Meaning it could take days before the server settles down.
That of course is assuming that there were not any issues due to cloning.

Personally I am not a fan of cloning the system drive.

_________________
VGA/PS2 Keyboard/PS2 Mouse/Serial debug board
Popcorn C-200
Popcorn A-200
Dune HD Connect
Rasberry PI OSMC(KODI)
ReadyNAS RN316
Amazon FireStick
Amazon ECHO
AnyDvD
MyMovies

If you install the ADD-IN DiskManagement you can monitor the storage usage of your drives and see the actual drive activity and transfer rate on each drive. I have always found this ADD-IN useful when I was monitoring drive utilization but each day you can look at the individual drives and see the progress of duplication because it will show you how each drive is being used. WHS does not do a great job in showing this but it does display a pie chart to show you your data vs duplicated data and you could monitor the duplication with that but DiskManagment will show you each individual drive. Its also useful for when you transferring files to the server to see which drives the files are being saved to. If you monitor it long enough you will gain a better understanding on how WHS data storage works and you will see which drives are filling up the fastest and how much space is available on each drive.

For more information on DiskManagement check out the following link: http://www.tentaclesoftware.com/product ... management

As for cloning it does have its advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes it depends on the condition of your existing drive and how well you follow the documentation on what you need to edit which is a PITA but for my primary server with all its modifications to the OS its a big help. For all my other servers I just use the recovery software because they run with stock installation and no OS modifications. Only real pain about recoveries is that if you have Storage Pool Drive issues it can cause recoveries to fail.

One thing about WHS and they way it duplicates is you need a lot of patience for it to complete its task depending on how much data your asking it to duplicate. Better if the duplication is turned on when you first setup and start using the server but on a server that has been in use for quite sometime the duplication could take quite a long time and with DE active there will be a performance hit too so patience will be needed for some time then when its all said and done the performance will return.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Sorry for the late reply, the past few months have been really hectic!

I am not sure if I explained my question properly but here is a screen capture of what I'm referring to:



Basically, since Disk 0 and Disk 1 are 48/54% full, why did the files that I put onto the server start filling up disk 2 and 3? I would have thought that it would have filled Disk 0/1 first.

_________________
EX 490 with 4GB of memory, E8400 and 8TB of drives.

Actually it matters not where the files get stored as long as they are in your storage pool. Typically WHS likes to use the drives with the most available capacity but there is also something where it will also keep certain file types together.

WHS uses the term Balancing but its sort of misleading as it never really balances the pool out where all the drives get used equally. Some like all their drives to be used equally and some run a utility to do this but I never bothered with it. Over time if you really watch your server closely you will see Drives 2 and 3 catch up to Drives 0 & 1 but typically WHS only uses the System Drive as the last place to store data so you may see drives 1, 2 and 3 fill up quicker then Drive 0 at some point in time. My guess is that you started with Drive 1 and ran a single drive system for a while or started the system with 2 drives and ran those for a while then later added the other 2 drives and also have duplication turned on.

Anyway what your seeing is basically typical and I would not read too much into it.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

For this reason I only keep as many drives as I have to in the server, if I can get away with 2 drives I will only put two in or same thing with 3 drives.
1) It saves power running a drive that is not really needed.
2) It saves wear and run time on a drive that is not really needed.

I won't add another drive until my free space gets down to about 1/2 a TB.
Save the drive in the static bag on the shelf till you really need it and it will save some heat and extra electric.

Just my 2 cents.

Now if you were using stablebit then it would make sense to have all the drives in because you can tell stablebit to make 2 or 3 or 4 copies of each file, then it would need the extra drives to do this.

But stablebit is the DE replacement when you go to WHS 2011 or higher.
Goodluck

_________________
[X510 CPU/RAM/All 2 TB Red's] [X510 CPU/Sync'ed Backup/All 2 TB Hitachi's]
[X510 /2 in box]
[X710 LIAN LI DIY W2016E] Stablebit Drivepool [EX-503 LIAN LI 5-bay USB3 External]
Fear the Cloud