Unraid OS version 6.9.0-rc1 available

As always, prior to updating, create a backup of your USB flash device:  "Main/Flash/Flash Device Settings" - click "Flash Backup".

Besides bug fixing, most of the work in this release is related to upgrading to the Linux 5.9 kernel where, due to kernel API changes, it has become necessary to move device spin-up/down and spin-up group handling out of the md/unraid driver and have it handled entirely in user space.  This also let us fix an issue where device spin-up of devices in user-defined pools was executed serially instead of in parallel.

We should also now be able to properly support SAS device spin-up/down (finally) and with extraordinary help from @doron we are almost there.  SAS devices are generally designed for enterprise environments where device spin-down is rare, and many devices have inconsistent behavior surrounding this functionality.  This release itself does not include SAS device spin handling built-in but @doron is providing a plugin where we continue to address some nagging details.  We expect to have this ironed out before stable release.

Along with re-work of device spin control, we have also integrated spin-up/down and temperature monitoring for unassigned devices.  We have coordinated with @dlandon to ensure proper integration with the Unassigned Devices plugin.  If you've read this far, and you are using the Unassigned Devices plugin, please remove it first before upgrading and then re-install UD via Community Apps.

Since we have not identified any data loss bugs related to the user-defined pools feature, I have removed the -beta designation and we now enter the -rc phase.  Our plan is for this to be relatively short and limited to squashing bugs.  We are in the process of writing up more thorough release notes in preparation for stable release.

A lot of exciting changes and features are coming to Unraid OS and I want to thank everyone for participating in our Pre-release program!

Version 6.9.0-rc1 2020-12-09 (vs -beta35)

Base distro:

• aaa_elflibs: version 15.0 build 27
• hdparm: version 9.60
• icu4c: version 68.1
• intel-microcode: version 20201118
• kernel-firmware: version 20201130_7455a36
• nginx: version 1.19.5
• openssh: version 8.4p1
• pam: version 1.5.1
• php: version 7.4.13
• samba: version 4.12.10
• xfsprogs: version 5.9.0

Linux kernel:

• version 5.9.13
• md/unraid: version 2.9.17
  removed spinup group spinup/spdindown support (functionality moved to emhttpd)
  added configurable sync start offset
• added iSCSI kernel support:
  CONFIG_ISCSI_TARGET: Linux-iSCSI.org iSCSI Target Mode Stack
  CONFIG_ISCSI_TARGET_CXGB4: Chelsio iSCSI target offload driver
  CONFIG_LOOPBACK_TARGET: TCM Virtual SAS target and Linux/SCSI LDD fabric loopback module
  CONFIG_NVME_TARGET: NVMe Target support
  CONFIG_NVME_TARGET_LOOP: NVMe loopback device support
  CONFIG_NVME_TARGET_PASSTHRU: NVMe Target Passthrough support
  CONFIG_TARGET_CORE: Generic Target Core Mod (TCM) and ConfigFS Infrastructure
  CONFIG_TCM_FILEIO: TCM/FILEIO Subsystem Plugin for Linux/VFS
  CONFIG_TCM_IBLOCK: TCM/IBLOCK Subsystem Plugin for Linux/BLOCK
  CONFIG_TCM_PSCSI: TCM/pSCSI Subsystem Plugin for Linux/SCSI
  CONFIG_TCM_USER2: TCM/USER Subsystem Plugin for Linux
• added USB/IP kernel support:
  CONFIG_USBIP_CORE: USB/IP support
  CONFIG_USBIP_VHCI_HCD: VHCI hcd

Management:

• emhttpd: implement spinup group spinup/spindown; add spinup/spindown callouts
• emhttpd: get rid of poll_attributes event
• emhttpd: fix disk "SMART controller type" not being honored when reading temperatures
• rsyslog: fix broken "Mirror syslog to flash"
• webgui: Fix wrong docker run URL reference
• webgui: Fix crash when reading very large log files (limiting output to 1000 lines).
• webgui: Fix dismiss all notification
• webgui: Fix Started VMs not appearing in dashboard
• webgui: VM manager: add virtio-win-0.1.190-1
• webgui: Notifications: Fix gap on white / black
• webgui: Do not show CA profiles in Add Container list
• webgui: support spin-up/down and temperature monitoring of unassigned devices
• webgui: VM manager: Fix: Changing from VM VNC graphics to GPU passthrough
• webgui: Change Icon for Motherboard Info from cog (settings) to info