Yup, you heard me.  My flash drive is corrupt / broken, I have not made a backup, UNRAID is still running (sort of) and I want to make sure I do not lose anything.  What do I do?

 

To be clear - when I look on the flash drive from the Main tab, it shows no files / content whatsoever.  When I try to make a backup from that, it starts to download, and then shows "ERROR: 1".

 

My understanding is that the configuration is read from the flash drive at boot and is stored in memory.  I feel that logically, as UNRAID is currently still running, I ought to be able to backup the configuration from memory.  Is this possible?

 

Or, if I take a fresh USB drive and reboot, input my key - will it recognise all the content (e.g. array, containers, VM's)?

 

Thanks in advance for any support you provide!

 

clunk-diagnostics-20240901-1555.zip

1--  Get screenshots of the MAIN tab, SHARES tab, PLUGINS tab, DOCKERS tab.  (I would also get screenshots of the 'Edit' tab for all the Docker containers where you have made changes to the default settings.) 

 

2--  Try to copy the    /config   directory off the boot/flash drive before you try to shut it down.  If that does not work, after you do shut the server, plug the drive into your PC and try to do the copy.  IF that works, try to copy the entire drive off onto your PC. 

 

3-- When you do shut the server down, stop the Array, the Docker process, and any VM's.  Make notes if any didn't stop.  You (99% of the time) are going to have an unclean shutdown regardless of what you try to do to prevent one.  So if you have to, push the server power switch for about five seconds to force a shutdown of the server.

 

You are now at a fork in the road depending on your successes or failures, so post back for direction.  (I operate when dealing with these situations using Mr. Murphy's Laws...)

Hi Frank,

 

Thanks for your quick input!

 

Unfortunately, I cannot do everything you suggest because UNRAID has turned off some features.  I cannot access any of the Docker containers or VM's; the tabs are gone.  They are still running (if they were running when this happened), but I cannot stop them or edit their settings.

 

I am still wondering what would happen if I was to remove the flash drive with the server running.  As I mentioned, the flash drive appears completely empty.  In other words, if I remove the drive while the server's running, it can't get any worse (for the server).  It's still going to think that the license key is missing.  Perhaps my USB port has failed and the content is still there and this would allow me to check the drive elsewhere (as you suggest) before shutting down.

 

I'm getting the impression I'm going to have to reconstruct my entire server.  I truly hope that it is possible to reconnect the array without any loss of data.

https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/manual/changing-the-flash-device/#what-to-do-if-you-have-no-backup-and-do-not-know-your-disk-assignments

I make a list of things that I would attempt to do if I were faced with this type of situation.  I am sorry if you thought everything I suggested was going to work.  These were lists of actions that would recover as much information of the configuration of your server before you committed to the ultimate action of shutting (or powering) the server down.  (About pulling the boot drive out... I never personally like the idea of pulling something out of a running computer.  But I started out playing with home PC's back in 1981! You probably stand very little chance of losing any data on that drive by pulling it but you can never plug it back in and expect that Unraid will recognize it as its boot drive!) 

 

If you got the screenshots, you can easily get the drives reassigned back into the array.  @trurl suggested a way to get the data drives reassigned if you don't.  By looking the SMART data on your drives, it looks like you have several pools drives.

 

If the failed flash drive is the only problem, I would be surprised if you lost any data.  In fact, the Array data drives can be read on any computer running a recent version of Linux!  You may have lost the configuration settings (Static IP addresses, Server name, Share Access user names and passwords, root password, ect) but all of that can be replaced or recovered from other sources. 

 

You diagnostics file has a lot of information in it.

 

Hopefully you still have a record of you License purchase and Customer support will help you get a new one if necessary.

 

Hopes this helps!

 

Edited September 1, 20241 yr by Frank1940

Thanks Trurl & Frank for your input.

 

Due to it being Sunday and the work week is starting tomorrow, I am contemplating pushing off any drastic measure until I have more time later this week.  Moreover, I need to go out and get myself another USB drive - just in case!

 

Do either of you (or anyone else reading this) know whether UNRAID will eventually simply shut itself down as it considers the server to be illegitimate?  I have no intention of shutting it down until I've taken appropriate measures.

 

I've certainly learned my lesson - no more skimping on backups!

1 hour ago, drewgreg said:

Do either of you (or anyone else reading this) know whether UNRAID will eventually simply shut itself down as it considers the server to be illegitimate? 

 

Not as an intention part of normal software operation.  That is not to say that a hardware failure or software glitch might not lock things up completely or even cause a shutdown or reboot.  (We see all kinds of weird things happen to servers on a almost weekly basis...) 

Phew! 😅

 

I finally bit the bullet and pulled the flash drive...

 

It's readable!

 

Now that I've made a backup of it, I can simply reboot the server with the same (potentially faulty) flash drive and see if that works - right?

 

If it doesn't, at least I now have a backup of it.

If it does, then I have my array back, plus some time to do a proper swap out of the flash drive (maybe even use UNRAID Connect).

 

If nothing else thanks to @Frank1940 & @trurl for your quick (and hopefully unnecessary) feedback!

 

PS - finding a suitable USB drive which the USB creator accepts is impossible.  Nothing around the house works and the 2 different drives I bought this evening also rejected.  One of them was even on Spaceinvader One's test.  This is the main reason for not wanting to replace my potentially faulty drive - I'd like to find a "quality USB flash drive" - if that's even possible now.

 

Thanks again!

I never bother with the USB Creator tool - I find the Manual Install method far more reliable.

 

2 hours ago, drewgreg said:

If it does, then I have my array back, plus some time to do a proper swap out of the flash drive (maybe even use UNRAID Connect).

 

 

Before you do a lot of qork on replacing that old drive do one thing.  Run chkdsk on it.  IF that does not find any problems.  Plug it in a SMB2 port on your server and reboot the server and and see if boots up properly.   If it does run it until you have another problem.  (Some MB's, USB3 ports and Unraid don't seem to be compatible.)