Seems like many of the user in the forum are knowledgeable, so i thought I'd ask a couple questions:

 

I setup a test array a few days ago (3x 20GB ATA drives).  I wanted to start adding my larger disks, but i'm not too sure how to approach the task. 

 

1. The disks i want to add have data on them. Can i add these drives to the array without losing the data or do i have to first move the data to another drive?

 

2. If i change my hardware (ie. mb, nic, cpu...), will my array startup as if nothing was changed... no rebuilding or anything like that? Assume that all the hardware is compatible with unRAID.  Basicly... im testing the software out on some old hardware; but i would like to get new hardware down the line and move the drives.

 

Thanks in advance.

Dan

What F/S are the larger data disks? If it's Reiser F/S then the data might be safe however I'd be pretty careful.

 

As for the upgrading, yes you can upgrade. I'd try to keep the disks in the same order otherwise you'll need to redo parity, that is no biggie. Upgrading drive sizes needs to be done one at a time with a drive expansion each time. I've not ever tried swapping M/Bs but I did move a data disk from one NAS to another I've just built and the data was recognized fine.

 

Hope that helps!

What F/S are the larger data disks? If it's Reiser F/S then the data might be safe however I'd be pretty careful.

 

As for the upgrading, yes you can upgrade. I'd try to keep the disks in the same order otherwise you'll need to redo parity, that is no biggie. Upgrading drive sizes needs to be done one at a time with a drive expansion each time. I've not ever tried swapping M/Bs but I did move a data disk from one NAS to another I've just built and the data was recognized fine.

 

Hope that helps!

 

Nah, it's NTFS... i figured i couldn't do it, but i thought i'd ask.  After rereading my post, i should have added a little more to second question.  So once you use the USB flash on one machine, can it not be used on another without reloading the original unRAID software?  Do drivers and settings get loaded each boot up or is that stored on the flash?

What F/S are the larger data disks? If it's Reiser F/S then the data might be safe however I'd be pretty careful.

 

As for the upgrading, yes you can upgrade. I'd try to keep the disks in the same order otherwise you'll need to redo parity, that is no biggie. Upgrading drive sizes needs to be done one at a time with a drive expansion each time. I've not ever tried swapping M/Bs but I did move a data disk from one NAS to another I've just built and the data was recognized fine.

 

Hope that helps!

 

Nah, it's NTFS... i figured i couldn't do it, but i thought i'd ask.  After rereading my post, i should have added a little more to second question.  So once you use the USB flash on one machine, can it not be used on another without reloading the original unRAID software?  Do drivers and settings get loaded each boot up or is that stored on the flash?

If you can deal with the Linux command line you can more easily deal with your NTFS files.

When you install your NTFS formatted drive in the unRaid server it does not automatically get added to the array.  It will show up in the list of drives possible to assign to a drive slot on the "Drives" tab on the management array.

 

If you did assign it to a slot, it would appear as "Unformatted" since it does not have an Reiser File System on it. You could then re-format it (and lose your data).  Since you probably want to migrate the data first, don't do that.

 

Instead of using the management utility to assign the drive to a slot, you can log in via telnet, mount the drive as NTFS on a spare mount point (any empty directory) and then use the "cp" (copy) command to copy the files to an unraid drive that has been configured in your array.

 

Once the data is moved, you can then unmount the NTFS drive, stop the array, assign the old NTFS drive to the unRaid array, start the array, allow it to clear and format it, and then go through the same steps for the next NTFS drive in turn.

 

For most people, it is easier to keep the NTFS drive in a windows based machine and simply use file-explorer in windows to copy the files to the unRaid server.  It is slower (because it is over the LAN) but lots less Linux command knowledge is involved.

 

You cannot unplug the flash drive when the unRaid server has finished booting.  Config files are actively used on it regarding the disk status.

 

Joe L.

To elaborate on the flash - it's what the machine boots from, it's where config files are stored, it isn't updated often by the software (it doesn't get much wear), but it should always be left plugged in. The compressed software on the flash media is read at bootup into a RAM disk and that's where disk operations take place for the most part. The software purchased from Tom is tied to the USB key and not the hardware that it's subsequently booted from - swapping motherboards and whatnot will not be an issue, this isn't Vista. ;-) You should be able to use the trial software to get used to the interface etc., move to the purchased software, and build however big a NAS you want up to 16 drives without issue even if it means totally different hardware (other than the flash) from what you originally trialed it on.

 

Hope that's helpful.

What F/S are the larger data disks? If it's Reiser F/S then the data might be safe however I'd be pretty careful.

 

As for the upgrading, yes you can upgrade. I'd try to keep the disks in the same order otherwise you'll need to redo parity, that is no biggie. Upgrading drive sizes needs to be done one at a time with a drive expansion each time. I've not ever tried swapping M/Bs but I did move a data disk from one NAS to another I've just built and the data was recognized fine.

 

Hope that helps!

 

Nah, it's NTFS... i figured i couldn't do it, but i thought i'd ask.  After rereading my post, i should have added a little more to second question.  So once you use the USB flash on one machine, can it not be used on another without reloading the original unRAID software?  Do drivers and settings get loaded each boot up or is that stored on the flash?

If you can deal with the Linux command line you can more easily deal with your NTFS files.

When you install your NTFS formatted drive in the unRaid server it does not automatically get added to the array.  It will show up in the list of drives possible to assign to a drive slot on the "Drives" tab on the management array.

 

If you did assign it to a slot, it would appear as "Unformatted" since it does not have an Reiser File System on it. You could then re-format it (and lose your data).  Since you probably want to migrate the data first, don't do that.

 

Instead of using the management utility to assign the drive to a slot, you can log in via telnet, mount the drive as NTFS on a spare mount point (any empty directory) and then use the "cp" (copy) command to copy the files to an unraid drive that has been configured in your array.

 

Once the data is moved, you can then unmount the NTFS drive, stop the array, assign the old NTFS drive to the unRaid array, start the array, allow it to clear and format it, and then go through the same steps for the next NTFS drive in turn.

 

For most people, it is easier to keep the NTFS drive in a windows based machine and simply use file-explorer in windows to copy the files to the unRaid server.  It is slower (because it is over the LAN) but lots less Linux command knowledge is involved.

 

You cannot unplug the flash drive when the unRaid server has finished booting.  Config files are actively used on it regarding the disk status.

 

Joe L.

 

Great idea with the copying. I'm very familiar with Linux. Thanks.

 

To elaborate on the flash - it's what the machine boots from, it's where config files are stored, it isn't updated often by the software (it doesn't get much wear), but it should always be left plugged in. The compressed software on the flash media is read at bootup into a RAM disk and that's where disk operations take place for the most part. The software purchased from Tom is tied to the USB key and not the hardware that it's subsequently booted from - swapping motherboards and whatnot will not be an issue, this isn't Vista. ;-) You should be able to use the trial software to get used to the interface etc., move to the purchased software, and build however big a NAS you want up to 16 drives without issue even if it means totally different hardware (other than the flash) from what you originally trialed it on.

 

Hope that's helpful.

 

Yes, that answers my question. I would just hate to setup a basic system and not be able to upgrade it to new hardware with ease. Thank you.

Only one more comment, if you do your file copying in Linux, the default "umask" of 0022 will result in the files as seen by "samba" to be identified as hidden and system files.  You will probably want to set it to something that samba does not use to emulate windows permissions. ("umask 0000" would probably work)

 

Joe L.

The current umask has no effect when using the copy command (cp).  You have to mount the NTFS partition with the option for umask.

 

mount  -t ntfs /dev/xxxx  /mnt/old_data -o nls=utf8,umask=000

 

It is also complicated by the fact that the NTFS partition will be read-only, so even with a umask option specified as 000, the files will be read-only, but readable by everyone (which is probably the best you can get).