T0rqueWr3nch

Just kicked off the parity rebuild! I went to new config and preserved the cache and data slots since I was upgrading the parity drive. After that, I made sure my new 10TB drive was selected as the parity drive and added my old parity drive to the data array. I then started the array. My old parity drive was not originally available in the array since it was listed as "Unmountable: No file system". I then remembered I had to format it so I scrolled to the bottom and clicked the "Format" button. After a few minutes, the parity drive appeared as available in the data array. Question: Was it okay to go ahead and format the old parity drive in the data array while I was rebuilding parity with the new drive? I ask because it seems to be out of line with this procedure: Will formatting my old parity drive in the data array harm the data on my other drives or the parity calculation? Or is the suggestion in the linked procedure just so you have a "backup" parity drive in case the new parity rebuild fails? The reason this also bothers me is this claim that unRAID clears the disk prior to allowing it to be formatted so the new disk doesn't affect parity: If this is the case (and it does appear so- the disk looks blank from the GUI navigator), how is unRAID able to do it so quickly when the preclear takes days? Like I said, I think everything went well, these are just questions I had. Thanks again for the help and putting my mind at ease!

I just meant the rebuild parity check box that appears when you are about to start the array. I am not familiar with that config- is that a specific configuration setting or are you just saying that I don't have to go through the steps of physically removing the hard drive and waiting for parity to rebuild? If it's the latter, then can I amend the above steps to: 1. Preclear the new drive. While the new drive is preclearing, also run a parity check. 2. Turn off array auto start. 3. Stop the array. 4. Reassign the parity configuration to the new 10TB drive. 5. Assign old parity drive as a data drive. 6. Start array with rebuild box checked. 7. After parity rebuild, there's apparently an option to reformat the "new" data drive? Do I need to stop the array for this? Is that correct? Can the array still be up during this revised process?

Hi everyone, I know this question has been asked a million times before, but given the risk to data, I would appreciate a review of my planned parity upgrade procedure. Thanks in advance! Goal: Upgrade parity disk from 8TB to 10TB. Add old parity disk to data array. Procedure: 1. Preclear the new drive. While the new drive is preclearing, also run a parity check. 2. Turn off array auto start. 3. Stop the array. 4. Remove old parity drive and insert new 10TB drive in that slot. 5. Select new drive for parity drive. 6. Start array with rebuild box checked. 7. After parity rebuilt, plug in old parity drive. Assign old parity drive to data array. Questions: 1. Is this procedure correct? 2. Now, if I do this, what happens to the data on the old parity drive? How do I clear it (or does it get cleared automatically by virtue of being added to the data array)? 3. During the rebuild (with the steps above), the array should be available, correct? I prefer this method to the parity swap procedure because I'm trying to minimize array downtime. Thanks again for your help, Torquewrench

Looks like the offer is still available on Amazon. I ordered mine yesterday and it already arrived today! New parity drive, here I come!

Hey everyone, Happy Prime Day! Amazon has some good deals on cheap storage: WD 10TB Elements Drive for $159.49 And for those of you who don't want to shuck the drive and want the additional warranty, you can also get an 8TB Red for $156.99: WD Red 8TB Drive for $156.99 Note you may have to click "View Deals" when logged in to your Prime account. Enjoy the new storage!

That's a good point. I also implement a moratorium on updates in general one week prior to departure. I haven't had this problem with unRAID specifically, but I have had it with various virtual environments and my web server; some update somewhere introduces a memory leak and a week later your web server is down. Not worth the risk.

Thanks for the write-up and welcome to Team Red! 😁 Which Ryzen did you end up going with? I'm running the Ryzen 7 2700 myself.

Pinging this again. Any ideas?

OPNsense is a good choice. Are you saying you have a bottleneck with it? If so, what hardware are you running it on?

Great question. See below! Exactly. Just to add to this and where I think some people may get confused, port forwarding to your OpenVPN port isn't the same as, say, port forwarding port 80 (web traffic) to your unRAID/tower page. Now that would be VERY insecure. In that situation, anyone who visited your IP address would be sent straight to your tower admin page. On a high level, OpenVPN in contrast only has the one port forwarded to it and the connection attempt has to use a pre-generated key known only to the server and your workstation where the certificate is installed. This allows you to sit on your network as just another client, no matter where you are in the world, without exposure to the internet. As an extra precaution, my unRAID server sits in a DMZ behind a hardware firewall, isolated from my home network. If you (or anyone else) would be interested in that, I could write up another article on setting up a DMZ and a hardware firewall. It can be done surprisingly well on a very modest budget (<$200). -Torquewrench

Hi everyone, With summer now underway and many of us traveling for vacation, I understand the anxiety that leaving your unRAID server unattended can cause. Especially with so many of us relying on unRAID to keep the kids entertained or looking forward to family movie nights in the evening. What if I lose power? What if my VPN fails? If you have my kind of luck, it’ll happen about two seconds after you set foot out the door and will wear on your mind your whole vacation. I have recently written up a description on my blog of a short checklist that I use whenever I travel to make sure my homelab is ready. The preparedness of the checklist has really helped me have peace of mind when I travel. I hope it helps you too: Preparing Your Server for Vacation – The Unattended Server Access Checklist In the future, I will be adding additional how-to guides for configuring each step. -Torquewrench

Hi everyone, I'm trying to periodically backup my various web servers (running Ubuntu) by having them periodically rsync to a user share I created specifically for that purpose. Each server has its own directory within that backup user share and that share is mounted locally to the server via cifs. Almost everything syncs perfectly with the exception of anything that requires a symbolic link. I constantly get errors with rsync: symlink <symbolic link path here> failed: Operation not supported (95). The error sounds pretty straightforward, except I believe the operation is in fact supported. That and I assume that I'm not the only one in the world using unRAID to rsync backups. I know I've created symlinks in unRAID before. I thought the problem might be with Samba not allowing Unix commands on the unRAID server, so I updated the smb.conf file with "unix extensions = Yes" and restarted samba with "samba restart" but I get the same result. I am running 6.7.1. Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.