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From first post in this thread:

Click on Enable SMB Security? and see what the Help text says.

Have you gone there yet?

Looks like you've got it! Don't forget that linux is case sensitive. I know there are a lot of docker users here who don't really get it and have accidentally gotten things to work by following some instructions. Much better if you know how it works and can decide for yourself how you want to use it.

Tools - About - Update OS

I don't have any experience with those but there are threads about them here. Not a problem to stop and replace parity. You wouldn't even have to New Config. When it sees you have replaced parity it will automatically want to resync.

Some people do it that way, but of course that gives Plex access to ALL your user shares. Another way is to map specific user shares (Host Path) to different container paths. Do you understand docker volume mapping?

Whatever you choose, at the next step unRAID will let you change the disk assignments as you choose before it actually does anything. We usually just tell people to choose All and go from there. After choosing All, at that next step, you would unassign the missing disk if it isn't already unassigned. Then, it will let you start the array and rebuild parity. You must NOT check the box that says parity is already valid, since it isn't without that original disk5.

No, there is no way to do a parity check with a missing disk. I think what it will let you do is called a "read check". It can't check or correct parity with a missing disk. So, that brings us to the 1st scenario, the one I thought you had in mind before I proposed the others. ___________ Scenario 1: In order to make parity valid without that disk you would have to go to Tools - New Config, set a new disk configuration without the disk, and resync (rebuild) parity. Then after parity is valid (with one less disk in the configuration), you could ADD the precleared disk. When you ADD a disk to an array with valid parity, unRAID will clear it unless it is already clear. This is so parity will remain valid. This is technically the only time a clear disk is required. A clear disk is all zeros so has no effect on parity. After the disk is added then unRAID will let you format it. Format is only writing an empty filesystem (just a top level directory with no folders or files in it). That write of an empty filesystem updates parity just like any other write operation, so formatting a disk that is in the array maintains parity. In the end, Scenario 1 means you have to rebuild parity, clear a disk, and format it. ___________ Scenario 2: You could replace the missing disk with the new 8TB disk and let it rebuild that missing data disk onto the new disk. Even though the missing disk doesn't have any files on it, it is not a clear disk. It has an empty filesystem, and it really still has a lot of data on it that isn't really part of the filesystem anymore. When you delete files they aren't overwritten with zeros (cleared), they are just marked as deleted in the filesytem. So all of that deleted data is still part of parity. If you rebuild onto the 8TB, you will end up with an upsized disk that has an empty filesystem on it (still the same type of filesystem as before), and parity will remain valid. Then you can change the disk's filesystem, formatting it. And as already mentioned, format is just a write operation and that will update parity so it is maintained. In the end, Scenario 2 means you rebuild/upsize the missing data disk, then format it. Doesn't really matter if it was clear or not since it is completely overwritten during the rebuild. ___________ Scenario 3: You could set a New Configuration with the 8TB disk in place of the missing disk, and resync (rebuild) parity. Then you can format the new disk. In the end, Scenario 3 means you rebuild parity with a new larger disk in the array and format it. Doesn't really matter if it was clear or not since parity is going to be completely overwritten to conform to what was on all the disks anyway. ___________ Any of these ways will wind up at the same place, with valid parity and 8TB XFS disk instead of the old 500GB disk. Note however that Scenario 2 doesn't require rebuilding parity. That means that at any time, if there was a problem, you could put the original 500GB disk back in (New Config) and tell it parity is already valid. Because it would be. And if the problem was on another disk, you could rebuild that other disk from parity plus the original 500GB disk and all other disks. And Scenario 2 is very similar to what the rest of this thread is about. You empty a disk so you can format it to XFS. Then repeat with your other disks. You don't have to rebuild parity at any time. The only difference in your case is you upsize the disk in the usual way before changing its filesystem. I know this is kind of long, as is the rest of this thread, and there are links to procedures to follow that are kind of long. But if you understand how unRAID uses parity, all of these scenarios are sort of obvious.

And another possibility would be to just New Config without the 500GB and with the 8TB then rebuild parity and format the 8TB. That is probably the simplest and quickest. Do you have good backups?

Have you precleared the 8TB? Just to make sure I understand what you propose. You want to remove a 500GB disk from the array. That will require a New Config and parity resync. Then you want to add an 8TB disk to the array. If it isn't precleared unRAID will clear it for you so parity will remain valid. You can format the new 8TB as XFS. That sounds OK. Another approach would be to rebuild the 500GB to the 8TB then format it. So, it's either rebuild parity and clear/format the new disk or rebuild/upsize the empty data disk and format it. If you haven't precleared already rebuilding/upsizing the empty data disk is probably quicker. And parity would remain valid the whole time.

It is more efficient to move things directly on the server instead of moving them across the network and back.

Moving files from the emulated drive to other drives in the array isn't really the best approach, since that involves a lot of writing to an unprotected array. Rebuilding to another disk, then trying to figure out if the original has a problem is the preferred method. Assuming the disk has good SMART, the next best method would be to just rebuild to the same drive. I don't see any reason to copy or worse yet move files from the emulated disk to other disks in the array. It would make more sense to just copy them somewhere off the array if you're that worried about losing them. Moving files from the emulated disk to other disks in the array requires reading all disks so the file can be copied to the destination and parity updated, and reading all disks so the file can be deleted from the (emulated) source and parity updated. I don't know why anyone would want to move files around on an unprotected array in order to save them, when just rebuilding the disk will save them and get you back to a protected state much more quickly.

It's almost like unRAID gives you too many ways to control things.

I still use High Water, but what I do is only include a disk in a share as that share needs additional space. Many of my shares are confined to a single disk. Some are on a single disk with other shares. And because of the way they are used they will probably never need more. Other shares got too big for a single disk so I added a disk and included it for the share. So the way I am managing things Allocation Method is probably moot.

Not entirely sure I understand your question or what you propose to do. You talk about a 4TB drive then you ask about formatting a 3TB drive. In any case, the only way to format a drive that is already in the array is to let unRAID format it by changing its filesystem while it is still in the array. Any other method would obviously invalidate parity.

Restoring a backup of docker.img as I said is not the best way to get your dockers going again. Delete docker.img and reinstall everything with CA - Previous Apps, then if you are still having problems you can post a diagnostic.

Default Allocation Method of High Water is a good compromise between distributing your files to all disks in the share without constantly switching disks just because one disk temporarily has more free space than another.

This is not the way you should reinstall your dockers. You should delete docker.img, recreate it from scratch, then reinstall your dockers from Community Applications - Previous Apps. All the settings from your dockers are saved on flash and Previous Apps will use those settings. Then you will get fresh copies of the applications, but they will use the application data you already have.

Sounds like a question for the plex forums. How long have you been using Plex? Plus, you haven't really given us any details about what you have done. Plex tries to match movies and shows to online databases but it can have trouble matching those databases with the way you have named your files/folders. If one database doesn't match, you can get it to try another. But, we don't have any plex developers here. This thread is mostly about how to get this particular plex docker setup and running. And there are more plex users on the plex forums than here so maybe those forums are better suited to answer questions about how to actually use plex.

Simple questions often don't have simple answers. It's not because the answers are too hard. It's rather because the questions are too simple. The answers you arrive at will depend on the way you use these particular user shares. Not everyone will use them the same even if they choose the same names for them. Go to the Settings page for one of your user shares and turn on help. Let us know if you have any further questions about what each of the settings do.

What did you do with the backup? There is no point in backing it up since you can't restore it and it was corrupt anyway.

If you can't remember it do you really miss it?

Where are your volume mappings? There should be at least 2 Paths above the Container Variables. Have you read the Docker FAQ? If you don't understand volume mappings you will always be in the dark about how to make dockers work. Maybe just start from a new linuxservio/plex install from Community Applications. I'm pretty sure the default template you will get that way will at least have some Paths to work with and we can go from there.

That's one of the annoying "features" of the new forum software. I can understand someone wanting to turn it off, but having it off by default isn't that great for this forum, because there is often a lot of useful information in people's sig. And other people had sigs on the old forum software that got imported, but they don't even know there are sigs here, so their sig will say they are running a totally different version of unRAID than they are asking for support on. But now that I've directed my attention there. I fixed the links in my own sig.