Howdy folks,

 

This has probably been asked a million times, but none of the answers matched my questions to what I was looking for, so please bare with me. I am building a new Unraid server with all new drives. I have already taken one CPU and half my ram from the old server and put it into the new one, so I have both machines running side by side (both can ping each other); one is my pro license, and one is a temp license.

The problem is that the old server is a hardware Raid, and the new one will use a Software raid inside Unraid. I need to move all the data from the old server to the new one, and I want to keep my flash drive as the current one for my license. I think I can create the setup for the software raids on the new drive/system, copy the data over (keeping the original copies of data as a backup until I am fully up and running) then copy everything on the trial flash drive over to the current licenses flash drive? That way the license would remain on the old USB, but be transferred to the new system.

My general use case is a handful of docker apps (Jellyfin, couple of games, cyberchef, nothing crazy), and two virtual machines which I am just fine setting back up if needed if its a hassle to copy them over. Outside of that, not much besides cloudflared.

Let me know your thoughts, and if I can provide any further info, or you can provide any tips for how to best setup a full SSD raid system, that'd be awesome! 😘

Hey Raiever,

 

Hope all is well! I'm a little confused (It's the end of week), are you asking basically if you can use your old USB which holds your PRO license in the new setup once you get all of your data moved over? If this is the case, yes.

 

I know you said your old server will be up until you get the new one up and stable. So this new server will essentially replace your old server, correct? If this is the case, you could copy your .key file to from your PRO drive to your trial drive once it's up and all data is moved over. Sorry if this wasn't the answer you were looking for, like I said it's the end of the week so I'm a bit brain-dead anyways lol.

 

Also, check this out.. is this essentially what you're asking?

 

-DD

Edited July 14, 20232 yr by DirtyDarrell

Howdy Darrell!

 

56 minutes ago, DirtyDarrell said:

Hope all is well! I'm a little confused (It's the end of week), are you asking basically if you can use your old USB which holds your PRO license in the new setup once you get all of your data moved over? If this is the case, yes.

No worries at all, trust me I know (already a few ciders deep lol!). I know I can use the old USB which holds the current license. But I want to keep the *new* configuration, on the *old* usb once I set the system up. As in, I want to turn on both machines, software raid the new box, copy the data over.. then pop the contents of the new systems usb (excluding the license) to the old usb, so that all the configs, drive allocations, etc. are on the old usb, now being used on the new one. If that..... makes sense. lmao

 

1 hour ago, DirtyDarrell said:

I know you said your old server will be up until you get the new one up and stable. So this new server will essentially replace your old server, correct? If this is the case, you could copy your .key file to from your PRO drive to your trial drive once it's up and all data is moved over. Sorry if this wasn't the answer you were looking for, like I said it's the end of the week so I'm a bit brain-dead anyways lol.

 The plan:
1. Turn on both servers. Setup the raid array in Unraid on the new server with its new empty SSDs.
2. Copy the data from the old server, to the new one (Virual machines, Docker settings, data files, IP settings, everything) OR only setup the software RAID and copy the data, then move that portion of the settings over to the old USB (Whichever is easier)
3. Plug the old USB into the new system, which will load Unraid with the new RAID + all the data + the new raid array settings etc.)
4. Get rid of the old server cause that son of a gun is loud. 😂

 
Hopefully this helps explain what I meant. If not let me know, ill get chatGPT to explain it for me 😉

Bump! Hoping someone has the answer to this. ❤️

Hello Raiever,

 

I am no expert on unraid, but unless you highly customized your USB, the only thing I think you would need to copy between the USB sticks is /boot/config/.

 

Maybe for peace of mind you could build the new system with the old USB? To do this just copy the /boot/config/ files to the new USB on the old system before running it. Then your old system should start up as normal with the the new USB, the new system will start but need a new configuration which sets you up to transfer things over. Now you do not have to worry about a USB switch after your files, dockers, and VM's are moved over and running. 

 

Best of luck on your new server,

On 7/14/2023 at 7:11 PM, Raiever said:

4. Get rid of the old server cause that son of a gun is loud. 😂

 
Hopefully this helps explain what I meant. If not let me know, ill get chatGPT to explain it for me 😉

😂😂 I'm deceased!

Sorry for getting back to you so late, this last week or so has been wild with school coming to an end. To answer your question, yes (I'm pretty sure anyways). Once you get the new server up and get everything moved over, you should be able to just plug n play the old USB to the new server. But going off what Cynix said, If this is the route you are going copy the config folder (minus the License) from your new USB to the old USB before using it with the new server and it everything should work fine under the old License and new configuration.

 

I'm now sober and this is still confusing. 🤯

Wishing you the best and following,

-Darrell

On 7/19/2023 at 6:36 PM, DirtyDarrell said:

I'm now sober and this is still confusing. 🤯

Sounds like me every Monday morning. lol

 

On 7/19/2023 at 6:01 PM, cYnIx said:

Maybe for peace of mind you could build the new system with the old USB? To do this just copy the /boot/config/ files to the new USB on the old system before running it. Then your old system should start up as normal with the the new USB, the new system will start but need a new configuration which sets you up to transfer things over. Now you do not have to worry about a USB switch after your files, dockers, and VM's are moved over and running. 

This makes sense, I don't know why I didn't think to just copy everything but the license back over..... All of the VM data, etc. is all stored on the drives themselves.

Now I am curious if I can ust plugin the new USB, get the arrays/shares setup, copy all the current data to the new arrays/shares, then then overwrite the share settings *only* on the old drive.. That way the VMs, Docker containers, system modifications, etc. all remain intact. That might need someone with more knowledge of the file structure to answer though.

I too am having a bit of a hard time following you. The method I described should keep your dockers and containers running on the old server while the new one is getting the data moved over. When the copy is complete on the new server, if the apps are not already there then you would go to community apps and install the containers and plugins you want, with the appdata already being copied over the containers and VM's should have everything they need when the app is installed and configured, now you should be able to stop the array on the old server and with the appdata and apps installed and configured you start the containers on the new server with minimal downtime.  

 

To clarify this process:

1) install unraid on new usb. From your everyday computer.

2) copy /boot/config (and /boot/custom if you used it) to new usb. Either over the network or on the old server.

3) Install new usb to old server and old usb to new server.

4) On the NEW server go to Tools > New Config (this get the old Hard Drive hardware out of the config and new HD's in), 4b) there may be some other things to reset like network depending on your previous config but shares and everything else should be there. Verify that the Old server is running on the new usb as it was on the old usb. 

5) Copy over your files. I would use rsync.

6) Setup containers and plugins with CA. 6b) Verify containers run and have copied configurations from the appdata share.

7) Stop old containers, 7b) Change any port forwarding, 7c) Start New containers, 7d) Verify operation.

 

I hope the process above helps explain that the shares should be copied over with the usb move as they are in /boot/config/shares.cfg and would have been copied to the new usb, installed in the old server, running the exact same config and settings as the old usb. 

3 hours ago, cYnIx said:

I hope the process above helps explain that the shares should be copied over with the usb move as they are in /boot/config/shares.cfg and would have been copied to the new usb, installed in the old server, running the exact same config and settings as the old usb. 

It does, and apologies; I am thinking and typing simultaneously while also experimenting, lol! I believe we are technically on the same page in two different ways. It looks like the structure of /boot/config contains all the informational portions of the OS, and if I want to set up my shares + drive assignments on the new USB, then only transfer those .cfg files to the old USB and then move the old usb to the new system, I should, in theory, be able to:

1. Setup the new USB with Unraid + Start a trial key
2. Assign my drives and shares on the new system
3. RClone data from the old system to the new system
4. Shut down the old system, remove the USB, and copy only the shares/drive data from new to old
5. Plug the old USB into the new system; assign the old static IP to the new system
6. Boot!

This would let me leave everything alone, except for the shares/drive assignments and my data, which means no dockers/applications/plugins/VMs configuring. This would mean transferring data + transferring 4-5 .cfg files from new to old + assigning static IP, and everything is ready.