tunetyme

Trurl: I was just reading Johnathanm comment regarding legacy issues. I had two Shares that was ans is set up one for music (P) and one for movies (S). I did this when 4.7 was set up and I initially had a few small drives. RobJ: I was not trying to be critical. I followed that step and I took the information literally. I am determined to learn all the ins and outs of unRaid and Linux over the coming years. I remember reading the Unix command descriptions (in the 80's while working with AT&T haven't used them 25 years) that were cryptic at best for a new user. When an event or message appears that I do not expect, nor a caveat what to do if such and such happens, then my first question is what did I screw up in the process. If it appears that I did things correctly and now have some additional steps (fumbling around trying things) then it appears to be convoluted. I think the question for the process describe is does parity need to be maintained or not? I used this for media NAS for the last 6 years under 4.7. I see that what you have been creating while I sat quite happy with my system cranking along without any hiccups until I needed to increase the size of my disk drives. Back to the issue: If parity needs to be maintained then follow method A: If parity does not need to be maintained then method B: Please remember when learning a new system it is the unexpected items that pop up causing end users to do stupid things. If you it would benefit you and other users I will gladly help with trying things and help finding items that may need further explanation or a reference to a detailed description. It kind of like that old TV commercial "Let Mikey eat it he hates everything" suddenly Mikey is eating the cereal. I could benefit greatly by becoming more knowledgeable and an asset to the forum and hopefully reduce some of the misunderstandings by users that create a lot of questions. OK, and I thought that the plugins were the new thing too. I think that the steps I need to do is first finish straightening out my data, make sure my basic NAS sytem is working with JRiver media center, (I would like to talk with you during this process to be sure I get everything setup to step into the brave new world of unRaid) then upgrade my mobo, cpu and ram. At least I will know what kind of an upgrade I will need to do. I have looked into the new AMD Ryzen (low end) CPU that uses 65 watts, Asus mobo and DDR4 RAM 16MB and it turns out to be surprisingly affordable. I actually will not need to do some of the other hardware upgrades like power supply, high end cpu cooler etc. that brings the cost in-line with a FX-8350 (125 watts) based rig. Either way I will be out of pocket about $600 but If I wait a few months there may be some new less expensive options that may provide a more cost effective solution.

Sorry about the venting. I tried following the guide to the letter and when I exchanged the 4TB drive for the 2TB parity was no longer valid put me over the edge. I realize (or hope) this will be the only time I have to go through this process. I only have two more data drives to change out of 6 and then I think I would like to change the cache drive to xfs. I still think the NewConfig command could be improved by keeping each of the disks format identified. I am not sure "auto" is beneficial. I am preclearing 2 previous written to data drives now so that will take a couple of days. I should have done the conversion as I replaced the drives and spread out the task over a longer period of time. I won't move it. On the plus side I have wanted to get some exposure to the rsync command. I have seen a number of references to it and I would like to find an in depth tutorial on it's use. While I complain sometimes about the process I am more frustrated with my lack of knowledge more than anything else. I have wanted to rearrange my disks for a number of years so I am going to take this opportunity to do it. While I have an easy time setting up disks for preclearing I seem to have difficulty having the format button show up????? I have had it show up on occasion but it wouldn't execute the command when I clicked on it. Can't tell you how I got there as I was trying everything. I did not know about the legacy stuff on /mnt/diskx vs /mnt/user locations. Is there something in the WIKI?? Is there any other legacy issues I am unaware of since I have jumped from 4.7 to 6.3.2? Thanks for your help.

Trurl: My 2 cents is that there must be a way to stream line this process. I followed the directions in the Wiki reference step by step. It finished the rsync sometime late last night, moved the drives around as directed now it says "All data on the parity drive will be erased when array is started" Every possible combination of configurations ended up with the same message. Considering all the time it takes to do this one disk at a time, I would suggest that a backup copy of each disk be made using rsync, then preclear all the data drives again and format them xfs. In my case it would save about a 3 -4 days time per disk. Another option would be to buy a new disk that is the same size or larger. Preclear and format dive XFS. Unassign the disk being replaced. Put new disk in slot. Somehow prevent the rebuild, then use rsync to copy from the old RFS disk to the new XFS. No offense, but this is a convoluted process because now I have to preclear the old RFS drive then format it and I find that I don't get the format button and reboot and use trial and error until it pops up. I have no idea what I've done or not done to get this accomplished. At this point, since I have backups of all my drives on NTFS format, I think the best way to deal with this is to unassign the parity drive and go through the lengthy process of doing one drive at a time then rebuild parity. If a file is damaged, I have a backup or I can get the original back out and rip it again. I don't see all this as mission critical stuff and frankly it shouldn't be this hard and time consuming. It has taken me 1 day+ to preclear and format a 2TB drive 1.75 days to copy using rsync 1.7TB of data. I have 2 more drives to do one 4TB (double the time) and one 2TB. At least I can preclear both of them at the same time. Thankfully, I have Icy Dock data drive bays. I can't begin to imagine what people do when they have to climb inside their case every time. BTW I think it is a significant flaw when you use new config that drive format goes to auto. Major source of frustration to go through and change everything back. It seems to me that there be a program that allows you to use the same drives in the same slots add one disk that files are copied to, Copy file then reformat drive (hopefully this can be done without preclearing the drive again) move files back to drive. Repeat until all disks are converted. At that point rebuild parity or if there is a way to maintain parity then do so. The only downside is you have to copy the files twice and at least on my rig, that takes a long time. Well in another week or two this nightmare will be over. (I hope) I won't have to mess with this again until it is time to install the other two 4TB drives in a few months.

I think it was inevitable that I would end up here. I have recently upgraded from 4.7 to 6.3.2. Now the challenge is to get all my drives converted to XFS. My configuration: Disk1 new 2TB XFS blank This will stay as a 2TB drive 0% used Disk 2 new 4TB XFS copied from disk1 no new data is on drive 49% used Disk 3 new 4TB RFS was formated XPS but tried to do a rebuild vs copy no new data is on drive Still have the original Disk 3 (just removed from the array) 47% used Disk 4 old 2TB RFS keep on a 2 TB drive until I replace with 4 TB drive 95% used Disk 5 old 2TB RFS keep on a 2 TB drive until I replace with 4 TB drive 78% used Disk 6 new 2TB RFS keep on a 2 TB drive until I replace with 4 TB drive 88% used Parity new 4TB Cache new 1TB BTRFS If this could be XFS I would prefer to have everything with the same format 0% I have 2 open slots available for for drives in my ICY Dock trayless Additional drives: I have the original 2TB disk3 untouched I have the 2TB parity drive I have the original 2TB disk 2 (needs to be precleared and formated for use I have complete backups of each drive on NTFS drives so I am not worried about losing anything. I am looking for the most efficient way to change each data drive to XFS and if advised to do so convert the cache drive. The server is in what I call maintenance mode so I will not make any changes to the data on any drive but will move wherever it needs to go. When I did the copy vs rebuild on the 4TB drives, it took about the same length of time. Disk one could be used as a temporary disk as this is a different share than all the other drives. 1. What is the best method to convert to XFS? 2. Should I convert the cache drive too? 3. I have fumbled around to preclear and format my drives XFS that have been previously used. What is the best method to do this? For example disk 3 was converted to RFS (formated XFS) because I used the rebuild method. Do I need to preclear the drive again? What steps do I need to do to convert any of my old drives to XFS and begin replacing the RFS drives? 4. I would like to learn how to use rsync command to move the files if that is advisable. It appears to be quite useful when one learns how to use it properly. 5. If I need to mount one of the NTFS drives and copy what is the best method and how do I do it? Geezzz, I need to go back to school. I think they teach this stuff in first grade. It would be so embarrassing trying to sit in one of those little chairs with my knees next to my ears.

Turl, Yes I found it and I did miss it the first time around as I was looking for answers to specific questions. Frankly, I haven't been active on the forum for years and only became active again because I needed to upgrade from 2 to 4TB drives. This necessitated upgrading to 6. I wasn't looking forward to it. 6 years ago this forum was not a very friendly place for those of us who were stuck with Windows because of our jobs and needed our hand held every step of the way to setup unRaid. Once it was set up it worked flawlessly. I was functionally illiterate about setting up a Linux based system but I have built several dozen DOS and Windows machines. Frankly, preclearing drives was pretty intimidating the first time around. What I have found in this forum and with all the improvements on unRaid has virtually blown my mind!!! (pun intended) What I am suggesting is to have a series of tutorials for people who are functionally illiterate with Linux and unRaid. The purpose is to offload the bulk of the mundane questions asked on the forum and make it easy for new users to come on board, learn the basics, and become productive members of the community. There is a ton of stuff on all the new and exciting bells and whistles that you have added. My choice of unRaid after months of research 7 years ago makes me feel like the the guy who bought 1,000 shares of apple back in the early 80's and forgot that he owned them until today. It's better than hitting the lottery. My comments are not negative but I want to encourage addressing the needs of people who are acquainted with Linux. I am certainly willing to help because I will get to learn everything I need to know. Besides who likes to ask dumb questions?

gridrunner: Love your tutorials. Gives me the immediate confidence to "just do it". When you are new you tend to tread carefully because you don't want to screw up. I am a newbie (6.5 yrs with 4.7) once it was set up it ran flawlessly. I didn't need to do anything except add new disks. As they say, "if it ain't broke don't fix it". Just upgraded to 6 (today) to go to larger drives and I am enjoying all the bells and whistles. I would like to toss out a suggestion. Perhaps you could assemble your videos in a logical sequence addressing: Why unRaid vs all other choices Building an unRaid server with some urls to let people see different systems and hardware. Loading unRaid software and setting up the server (basic NAS) Advanced uses