Need some guidance

[Kouklo]

Hi all! 

I could use a little help looking in the right direction. 

Right now I'm running a windows server with 5x16tb, 2x18tb and 1x10tb. They all go through stablebit drivepool. 

I want to switch over to unraid for the power savings and to be able to have a parity drive for backup (something stablebit doesn't offer). 

So my issues are, can I do JBOD and have one of my 18tb be a parity backup drive? Also what ideas does everyone have about transferring all the content? From all the drives I listed above I have 1 18tb, 1 10tb and 1 for sure but possibly 2 16tb drives that are empty. 

 

[trurl]

Parity is not a substitute for backup and contains no data, whether Unraid or some more traditional RAID. 

 

Parity just has parity bits that allows a failed disk to be rebuilt from all the other disks. Parity by itself can recover nothing. 

https://wiki.unraid.net/Manual/Overview#Parity-Protected_Array

[Kouklo]

4 hours ago, trurl said:

Parity is not a substitute for backup and contains no data, whether Unraid or some more traditional RAID. 

 

Parity just has parity bits that allows a failed disk to be rebuilt from all the other disks. Parity by itself can recover nothing. 

https://wiki.unraid.net/Manual/Overview#Parity-Protected_Array

Oh yeah I know that. I have no room left in the case for more drives and I don't really want to spend more money on other bigger drives. I know it's not perfect but it's obviously better than nothing. I just want that one 18tb to do its job in case another drive decides to bite the bullet. 

[Kouklo]

So I had an idea for the transfer. Unraid runs off of a USB right? I unplug all of the drives except for the 3 empty ones I have and I mount them to unraid. I then boot back into windows and I find some sort of app that allows me to see/use the unraid drives in Windows. I start moving as much as I can from each drive and with the new empty drives I switch over and mount them to unraid. 

Does that make sense? Is there a app that will let me do that? Am I crazy?...... Ok maybe don't answer that last one. Lol 

[JonathanM]

1 hour ago, Kouklo said:

find some sort of app that allows me to see/use the unraid drives in Windows.

That's going to be an issue. I'm not aware of a windows method of mounting XFS or BTRFS for writing.

 

Theoretically, as in I've not tried it, you should be able to mount the individual windows drives as Unassigned Devices in Unraid.

 

So, it's possible you could build out the Unraid array with your empty drives and do your migration in Unraid instead of in windows. Wouldn't hurt to see if you can read the windows drives in Unraid.

[Frank1940]

Google    xfs driver windows 10     and look at the results.  You may find a solution.  (I did not read the individual results so some solutions may required payment...)

[Kouklo]

11 hours ago, JonathanM said:

That's going to be an issue. I'm not aware of a windows method of mounting XFS or BTRFS for writing.

 

Theoretically, as in I've not tried it, you should be able to mount the individual windows drives as Unassigned Devices in Unraid.

 

So, it's possible you could build out the Unraid array with your empty drives and do your migration in Unraid instead of in windows. Wouldn't hurt to see if you can read the windows drives in Unraid.

The problem with that idea is I use stablebit drivepool. Even if your idea works, without stablebit unraid won't really know what it's reading on the drives. 

[Kouklo]

1 hour ago, Frank1940 said:

Google    xfs driver windows 10     and look at the results.  You may find a solution.  (I did not read the individual results so some solutions may required payment...)

Fingers crossed! There has to be something out there right? 

[Kouklo]

I just had an idea (the coffee is doing it's job). 

What about a VM? In unraid I run a windows VM and install stablebit drivepool on it. Can I then transfer all the files that way? 

[Frank1940]

Another thing to consider is that I understand that Windows can run a VM.  You might want to explore if you could setup Unraid as a VM running as a simple NAS under Windows.  

 

While i was thinking, you wrote:

2 minutes ago, Kouklo said:

I just had an idea (the coffee is doing it's job). 

What about a VM? In unraid I run a windows VM and install stablebit drivepool on it. Can I then transfer all the files that way? 

Good idea.  I have never played around with VM's but it should be possible.

 

Another wild thought is to purchase/scrounge an old PC and install Unraid on it.  You probably would do this without a installing a parity as the write speed on Unraid would be about doubled.   When you had copied your files over, you could then transfer the Array disks from this temporary server to the new Unraid setup using your present hardware.  (Unraid will have no problem using those disks (and their data) in a new setup as Unraid is hardware agnostic in its basic configuration---  VM's have a habit of screwing this up.)  You can even move the Unraid boot/flash drive over and then install whatever Dockers and VM's you need using the new hardware.  

[Kouklo]

3 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

Another thing to consider is that I understand that Windows can run a VM.  You might want to explore if you could setup Unraid as a VM running as a simple NAS under Windows.  

 

While i was thinking, you wrote:

Good idea.  I have never played around with VM's but it should be possible.

 

Another wild thought is to purchase/scrounge an old PC and install Unraid on it.  You probably would do this without a installing a parity as the write speed on Unraid would be about doubled.   When you had copied your files over, you could then transfer the Array disks from this temporary server to the new Unraid setup using your present hardware.  (Unraid will have no problem using those disks (and their data) in a new setup as Unraid is hardware agnostic in its basic configuration---  VM's have a habit of screwing this up.)  You can even move the Unraid boot/flash drive over and then install whatever Dockers and VM's you need using the new hardware.  

It looks like you may have had a good cup of coffee as well! Ha. It looks like I may have one or two options. 

Before I mark anything as a solution I want to try it first and report back. This way if anyone in the future sees this they will know for sure if it works or not. 

Edited November 12, 2022 by Kouklo