So, out of the blue, my USB drive just died this week and Unraid web interface with it (dockers were still running in memory). I restarted the server just thinking that I had a fluke but then the USB drive wouldn't detect in the BIOS or another computer. So, it was dead, and you know, I don't have any backup of the config (even though I preach this at work).

 

I now have a new USB drive and currently running in trial mode (array is NOT on and drives aren't assigned yet), but have a couple of questions:

 

1. My registration key is from 2020 and won't automatically transfer to this new key drive. I'm assuming over the GUID? I've sent Unraid support an email for assistance but wondering how fast are they typically on resolving these issues? In the ticket, I supplied the order number, date, etc.
2. I honestly thought the dockers were stored in a /mnt in the array but I'm reading this might not be the case. Can someone confirm? I do have a cache drive as well. I would think VMs were saved in the array or the cache drive?
3. Is it also safe to assume all Unraid settings are lost?
4. I was able to find a screenshot of the array whenever it was first configured (the parity drive has NOT changed). But do the other drives need to be listed on the array in that order? Because I added several drives since then without a screenshot.
5. What's the average time for a USB drive life? I guess mine did ok for 3.5 years but I would have hoped for longer. Also, I should have been backing up settings to my Dropbox account (lesson learned).

 

So, I have some work ahead of me, mostly concerned about the license key retrieval ant not losing all the data on the array.

1 hour ago, cosmickatamari said:

I've sent Unraid support an email for assistance but wondering how fast are they typically on resolving these issues?

Did you get an auto reply? If not try sending again.

1 hour ago, cosmickatamari said:

the dockers were stored in a /mnt in the array

Generally containers put their executables and other common program parts inside the docker.img file, and their customizable parts live in ./appdata/* and the templates are on the flash drive. Do you have any backups of the flash drive?

1 hour ago, cosmickatamari said:

(the parity drive has NOT changed). But do the other drives need to be listed on the array in that order?

If you only had a single parity drive in Parity1, then data drive order doesn't matter. If for some reason you had that parity drive in Parity2, then order does matter. The two parity slots use different calculations.

 

9 hours ago, cosmickatamari said:

What's the average time for a USB drive life? I guess mine did ok for 3.5 years but I would have hoped for longer. Also, I should have been backing up settings to my Dropbox account (lesson learned).

This is one of those things that seem to be highly variable.   Some seem to to get failure in months, while others get many years - 10 years being reported.

 

What does seem to help is getting USB2 drives (I suspect because they typically run cooler than USB3 ones) if you can find them nowadays.  Also ones with metal casings can help with heat dissipation.   Having said that I have some nano form factor ones that I have been using for years and they are too small to have much cooling.

 

Sounds as if you definitely want to get an automated backup of the flash drive in place going forward.   The two standard ways of achieving this are:

• via the appdata backup plugin which includes an options for the flash drive as part of scheduled backups.
• Via Unraid connect which supports automated backups to the cloud (on Limetech servers).

There is still the manual backup method of clicking on the boot drive on the Main tab and selecting the backup option from there.