Moving Drives from Old To New (SOLVED)

[m.b.d]

My current unraid server is going on 12 years old and its time to redo the hardware.  I've been pondering this for well over 2 years and have finally pulled the trigger and ebay some newer hardware.

 

Here's my question.

 

The new server will have NVME, and SSD cache storage arrays.  one array for cache, one for Dockers and VMs.  I'd like to setup my dockers and make sure everything is working as expected before moving my drives (with data) from my old server to the new one.  Once the new server is setup and I'm happy with how its running can I just screen cap my current drive assignments move the physical drives to the new server and assign them in the same order and everything will be peachy or do I need to move over some configuration from my usb drive?  

 

Yes I own two unraid licenses keys.

Also the drive array is encrypted 

Edited August 29, 2021 by m.b.d

[Sulprax]

Hello,

 

First of all I am no expert, but i can tell you i built my server with an old motherboard, cpu and ddr3 memory. I set up my dockers and vms then when i had some spare change i swapped all the hardware and used the same usb, hard drives and ssds. when i booted it all up it was all there and working well.

 

so as long as its the same usb all should be ok.

I hope this helps you with your question.

[m.b.d]

22 hours ago, Sulprax said:

Hello,

 

First of all I am no expert, but i can tell you i built my server with an old motherboard, cpu and ddr3 memory. I set up my dockers and vms then when i had some spare change i swapped all the hardware and used the same usb, hard drives and ssds. when i booted it all up it was all there and working well.

 

so as long as its the same usb all should be ok.

I hope this helps you with your question.

Thanks for the advice.  Your move sounds a bit different than mine.  I'm moving drives from one server to another server that has a new unraid OS on a new USB.

[trurl]

On 8/28/2021 at 9:42 AM, m.b.d said:

NVME, and SSD cache storage arrays.  one array for cache, one for Dockers and VMs.

Better to refer to these as "pools". "Array" is those disks protected by parity.

 

Many of us have replaced some or all of our hardware and just kept the data drives.

 

Why do you want a new install on a new USB? Probably simpler to just boot up the new server with the old install on the old USB, then configure your new pools. If you want to continue to use the old server it would make more sense to do that old server with a different USB since it won't have any of the disks from your configuration anyway.

[JonathanM]

On 8/28/2021 at 9:42 AM, m.b.d said:

My current unraid server is going on 12 years old

 

On 8/28/2021 at 9:42 AM, m.b.d said:

move the physical drives to the new server

Maybe I missed it, but are you still running any of the original 12 year old drives?

 

What file format and capacities are your current array drives?

 

Working with encrypted drives is much riskier, any slip ups and you are likely to lose data. Do you already have full backups physically separate?

[m.b.d]

4 hours ago, trurl said:

Better to refer to these as "pools". "Array" is those disks protected by parity.

 

Many of us have replaced some or all of our hardware and just kept the data drives.

 

Why do you want a new install on a new USB? Probably simpler to just boot up the new server with the old install on the old USB, then configure your new pools. If you want to continue to use the old server it would make more sense to do that old server with a different USB since it won't have any of the disks from your configuration anyway.

 

Yes Pools is a much better way to refer to them.

 

The main reason I want to use a new usb is I'd like to change how some of my dockers work and put them on new vlans and I'd like to accomplish this with out my wife or son asking why Plex isnt working and force me into rushing the migration.

 

 

4 hours ago, JonathanM said:

 

Maybe I missed it, but are you still running any of the original 12 year old drives?

 

What file format and capacities are your current array drives?

 

Working with encrypted drives is much riskier, any slip ups and you are likely to lose data. Do you already have full backups physically separate?

 

No one of the drives are 12 year old drives.  

Currently I have

Parity - 8TB Seagate ST8000VN004

Disk 1 - 8TB Seagate ST8000VN004

Disk 2 - 8TB Seagate ST8000VN004

Disk 3 - 3TB Seagate ST3000VN000

Disk 4 - 3TB Seagate ST3000VN000

Disk 5 - 3TB Seagate ST3000VN000

All XFS fire format

 

Cache - 1TB SSD Samsung

VM Drive - 1TB SSD Samsung

All btrfs file format

 

Yes I have a full backup as of 2 days ago.  I try to backup the server by share every few weeks.  They are UBS Drives that I plug into my desktop and set to sync the shares overnight (it happens more "when I think about it").

 

[trurl]

In addition to however you setup your pools on the new server, Unraid requires at least one data disk in the array to start the server.

 

How will you setup your dockers (plex) without the data from the disks still in use on your old server?

 

Your configuration is all on the flash drive. It includes your license .key file. It includes all settings you have made in the webUI. Disk assignments. Settings you have made on the Settings page. Settings you have made for any user share. Settings you have made for any disk. Your plugins. Your docker templates (the filled in form for each container on the Add / Edit Container page). Whatever is in the webUI.

 

These are the sorts of things I can tell you about, the way things work, so you can consider them in your migration plan. You may have to figure out the details yourself since we don't know exactly what would work for you.

 

[m.b.d]

Well from reading all the responses and looking at documentation it appears setting up a new server, then moving drives and getting them working correctly is highly unadvisable.  So I'm going to just move my storage drives, and USB to the new server and work to get everything reconfigured from there.