So I'm migrating from a Dell T630 to a T640.
I've swapped my hardware, and the flash drive from the T630 to the T640.
When I boot the T640, I get the image below.
I think the machine is trying to boot from the USB, or at least it says it is, but it says there's no OS detected.
What step did I miss?

Try another port

Also make sure flash drive will still boot original server

24 minutes ago, trurl said:

Also make sure flash drive will still boot original server

That would be a mess, since I'd have to swap back over all the old hardware, right?

51 minutes ago, trurl said:

Try another port

Booting with flash drive in other ports (tried 2) makes no difference, it still fails with the same error.

I swapped the flash back to the old server, and it booted to the GUI/Launch screen. I stopped it there, since none of the other hardware was present.
What else can I try? The new server (T640) is set to UEFI boot, is that correct? I can't recall what the old one is set to, and it's a major hassle to check.

Try creating a new flash drive with the USB tool and see if it boots, you can use a stock install without a key just for testing.

5 hours ago, JorgeB said:

Try creating a new flash drive with the USB tool and see if it boots, you can use a stock install without a key just for testing.

I know it boots with a different flash drive, because I was running a trial on it (the new server) previously, until I decided to just swap everything over from the old one and go that route.

EDIT: Confirmed. I just put the "testing" flash drive (trial license) back into the new server, and it boots fine. There's something about the config of the flash drive from the old server that isn't playing nice on the new server. This isn't supposed to be a thing, since unRAID claims to be 'hardware agnostic', and says it will run on almost anything. Now, the first time I try to do a (seemingly) simple migration, it crashes and burns. :/
I'm a bit frustrated, and the wife is getting impatient about the server being down. I find this ironic, since she didn't want the thing to begin with... lol

Edited January 2Jan 2 by Elmojo

Do you have a current flash backup?

27 minutes ago, trurl said:

Do you have a current flash backup?

Yes, I do.
I sort of fixed it. I changed the boot type on the new server from UEFI to BIOS, and now the system boots normally into unRAID.
This seems to be what it wanted, so I'm not complaining. :) I asked that earlier, but I guess no one saw it.
At this point, I'm not sure what to do...
I have the old array available, and a bunch of new, larger disks that show up as unassigned. I was planning to replace the old drives with these newer ones, but my plan of moving all the data to the new drives (already done), then using them to build a new array on the old config isn't working. At this point, if I can just add the new disks to the existing array, and wipe all that redundant data, I'll be happy.
Any suggestions on the best way to do that? I have an option to [mount] 4 of the 5 new drives, but one is grayed out for some reason. Is that indicating a problem with that drive?
I can't seem to find the instructions for adding drives to an existing array. My brain is addled after the day I've had. :( I'd also like to designate one of the new drives as an additional parity.

Instead of copying, why didn't you just rebuild each existing array disk to a larger drive, one at a time? Or did you really want to have that many disks?

If you just want to add those new disks to the array without all that copied data, and keep the existing disks with their data, just add them to the array and Unraid will clear them so parity remains valid.

Or you could New Config whichever disks you want into the array and rebuild parity (and parity2 at the same time).

So I found the documentation for adding drives to an existing array.
It says that my parity disk(s) must be equal or larger than my largest data disk. Does that mean I need to use my larger disks as parity? Can I have mixed-size parity disks? For example, right now I have 2x 4TB parity drives. Can I add 1x 6TB drive, or do all the parity disks need to be the same size?

Just now, trurl said:

why didn't you just rebuild each existing array disk to a larger drive, one at a time?

Because my original plan was to keep the original array (and entire server) in service as a parallel backup. That has since gone out the window for...reasons.

Just now, trurl said:

Or you could New Config whichever disks you want into the array and rebuild parity (and parity2 at the same time).

You're speaking way over my head right now. Can you dumb that down for someone who's had a really rough week, and also barely understands any of this on a good day? lol

Each parity disk must be at least as large as the largest single data disk, but parity disks don't have to be the same size.

https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/using-unraid-to/manage-storage/array/array-health-and-maintenance/#reset-the-array-configuration

Do you think that reset is a better approach than just doing a parity swap to one of the larger drives, then after that finishes its rebuild, adding the new larger drives to the array?
I'm thinking about just leaving the older drives in place for now. I have an 18-bay chassis, might as well use it. ;)

25 minutes ago, Elmojo said:

my plan of moving all the data to the new drives (already done)

Did you already copy your array data to larger unassigned disks? Or did you actually move your array data off the array and onto larger unassigned disks?

I don't see how parity swap comes into this at all. You would just replace parity with a larger disk and rebuild it

What is currently on the array disks and how many and what size? What is currently on the larger unassigned disks and how many and what size?

5 minutes ago, trurl said:

What is currently on the array disks and how many and what size? What is currently on the larger unassigned disks and how many and what size?

I'm not asking for details about the data, I just want to know the details of what storage you have to work with.

20 minutes ago, Elmojo said:

I'm thinking about just leaving the older drives in place for now. I have an 18-bay chassis, might as well use it. ;)

I always say each additional disk is an additional point of failure. I usually recommend only adding as many disks as you need for capacity.

And if you only expand the array one disk at a time, you can gain confidence in that disk before needing to add another.

I think your idea of a backup server consisting of the original disks was a good one. What happened?

18 minutes ago, trurl said:

Did you already copy your array data to larger unassigned disks?

yes, copied

18 minutes ago, trurl said:

I don't see how parity swap comes into this at all. You would just replace parity with a larger disk and rebuild it

Sorry, I must have used the wrong term. That's what I meant, replacing partity1 (4TB) with a larger drive, so it will then let me expand the array with the other 6TB drives.

10 minutes ago, trurl said:

What is currently on the array disks and how many and what size? What is currently on the larger unassigned disks and how many and what size?

The current (old) array is 6x4TB data drives + 2x4TB parity. The contents is...everything. lol It's media, work projects, photos, containers, etc...
The new array was planned to be 4x6TB data drives + 2x 6TB parity.
At the moment, I've dropped 1 of the 6TB drives into parity slot 1, and it's rebuilding. When that is done, I'll add the other 5x 6TB drives to the array. That will result in... a mess. lol

9 minutes ago, trurl said:

I think your idea of a backup server consisting of the original disks was a good one. What happened?

I got overwhelmed. I asked for help, and got a bunch of jargon I didn't understand. I read a bunch of articles and watched a few videos and basically confused myself more. I finally said, screw this, I can at least copy over my data and start fresh. However, I underestimated what a huge pain in the butt it is to set up a server from scratch, when you've already spent the better part of 3 years getting one tuned just right. So I figured, hey, this thing is supposed to run on any hardware, so let's jist swap it over to the new T640... and here we are. :/

1 minute ago, Elmojo said:

yes, copied

1 minute ago, Elmojo said:

1 of the 6TB drives into parity slot 1, and it's rebuilding. When that is done, I'll add the other 5x 6TB drives to the array. That will result in...

That will result in Unraid clearing each of the new disks so parity remains valid.

Just now, trurl said:

That will result in Unraid clearing each of the new disks so parity remains valid.

The alternative I suggested was to New Config whatever you wanted into the array and then rebuild parity

1 minute ago, trurl said:

That will result in Unraid clearing each of the new disks so parity remains valid.

Understood. That's fine at this point. All my data is on the old array, so I'll just take the loss of those many hours I spent duplicating that data. ;)

Just now, trurl said:

The alternative I suggested was to New Config whatever you wanted into the array and then rebuild parity

I don't understand what that means... There's nothing on the new (6TB) drives that doesn't already exist on the old (4TB) drives.
Can you explain how that New Config process would help me?

Since all the data is already on the larger drives, you could just New Config them into the array and leave out the original smaller disks. The only question is whether you need one (or two) of those larger disks for parity, or if you have additional larger disks for that purpose.