Cache/Pool issues

Mover is not moving files

The commonest cause for this is simply new users misunderstanding the Use Cache setting for a share and getting the Yes and Prefer settings back-to-front. If you want files to initially be written to the cache and later moved to the array then you ned to use the Yes setting and not the Prefer setting.

Another common mis-conception is that changing the Use Cache setting to Only or No will trigger mover to transfer files to/from their current location to match the new Use Cache setting. In fact mover takes no action on shares that have this setting so the files are left in their current location.

Another point is not realizing that the Docker and VM services keep certain files permanently open (particularly in the system, domains, and appdata shares) and this can stop mover acting on those files. It is not enough to simply stop all running containers and/or VMs - you actually need to disable the services themselves to allow such files to be moved.

###Files end up on a pool (cache) despite Use Cache=No setting for a share

This behaviour is the one that new users find most perplexing.

It arises when a 'move' action is attempted at the Linux level. (This can be either from the command line or within a container (since all container are Linux based).) It arises from the fact that Linux is not aware of User Shares combined with the way that Linux implements a 'move' operation. If Linux thinks that both source and target are on the same mount point (and all User Shares are under the /mnt/user mount point) then it first tries a rename command and for speed and only if that fails does it revert to trying a copy + delete operation. In the case of a cache/pool this 'rename' succeeds so the file is left on the same drive but under a new folder name corresponding to the target share name. Since User Shares are simply an amalgamated view of the top level folders on all drives this means that suddenly the file(s) in question can end up on a drive that has the Use Cache=No setting. Since mover ignores shares with the Use Cache setting of No or Only this will result in the files being left stranded on a pool that the target share has not been configured to use for caching purposes.

*This behaviour can also occur if you try and move files between two User Shares that are set to use different Pools for caching purposes.* Once again this can result in the files ending up on the wrong pool.

Workarounds to this issue are by doing any of the following:

• Manually move the file(s) in question to the drive where you want it to be finally located.
• Set the share that the file has ended up in to have the Use Cache=Yes setting and then when mover runs the file will get transferred to the array following the rules for that share to pick the array drive. You can either start mover manually from the Main tab or wait until it runs automatically at its next scheduled time. Once mover has been run you can either leave the Use Cache setting as Yes or change it to the setting you want to use long term.
• Do an explicit copy + delete operation.
• Do the move over the network as at the network level two different User Share will never appear to be on the same mount point so a copy + delete is done automatically.
• Make sure the mount points for source and target appear to be different at the Linux level.
• Move between physical drives rather than at the User Share level.