So i posted something similar awhile back then a move happened, failed drive, etc and anywho, I have my old unraid box up and running again - key word being "old" and I have started to set up a new server box but am not sure how to move everything from the old box to the new box for a few reasons. So, I happen to have an old unraid PLUS license and another PRO license, I am using the PRO at the moment but want to put PRO on the new box. I want to make my old box a backup box and was thinking just to use truescale on the old box (as it would only be backup so speed isn't as important and some of the extra features that unraid has would be better used on the new box - point of saying that is I want to keep my "old box drives" in the old box as the new box is already mostly filled with drives.

So I was thinking maybe something like put PRO on the new machine, and PLUS on the old (which is currently PRO) and then transfter things via the network to the new box - problem is I am not sure if this is possible? can I just create a new unraid plus flash and plug it into the old box and just have it see all the drives (and how how shares are setup, how the drives are configured - that is this 8tb drive is sdc and this other 8tb drive is sdg and... so on).

Edited January 11Jan 11 by Stumpy

Unraid doesn't assign drive by sdc, etc. Serial number is how it identifies which drives are assigned where.

All of your configuration is in the config folder on flash. Your license is also in the config folder on flash. But, each license will only work with a specific flash.

Make a backup copy of both of your licenses, the .key file from the config folder of each licensed flash drive.

If you put your old configuration on your PLUS flash with the PLUS license, it should just work on your old system assuming it isn't over the limits for a PLUS license.

Do a new install for your new server on your PRO flash and put its PRO license in the config folder.

Yeah! Thats great to hear! Thanks for that - I am sure there will be bumps but I'll post if/when they arise.

Cheers

sorry, first (of many likely) follow up question. So to make 100% sure I am clear, I can backup the plus key, put it on the flash that currently has the current/pro config (replacing/removing the pro key) and then use my old box with the PLUS license, correct?

Since both flash drives are pretty ancient I was thinking just to just start "fresh" on the new box but I am only so motivated, if i just write the newest unraid to a new flash and then insert that in the new box, put the pro.key on it, I assume I can then just re-setup shares etc on the new box? I figure my old box config is probably pretty crufty by now (well over a decade of tinkering) and if I still have the old box running, but with a plus key, i can reference it while setting up my new box?

caveat, the usb creator is telling me the newer flash I have is blacklisted?! this "newer" drive isn't super new per se and I guess I could have put unraid on it ... but totally don't remember doing so. its not the end of the world but its 16gb, seems like kind of a waste to use 32+GB flash (of which all my newer flash drives are)

Edited January 11Jan 11 by Stumpy

Just now, Stumpy said:

backup the plus key, put it on the flash that currently has the current/pro config (replacing/removing the pro key) and then use my old box with the PLUS license, correct?

Incorrect. The plus key will not work on the pro flash and the pro key will not work on the plus flash.

2 minutes ago, Stumpy said:

write the newest unraid to a new flash and then insert that in the new box, put the pro.key on it

and the pro key will not work on a new flash unless you transfer the license. If the old pro flash is working I would just go with that.

Backup the config folder from the pro flash. That will contain all of your old configuration and the pro key. This key will only work on that flash.

Backup the plus key from the plus flash. This key will only work on that flash.

Replace all of the config folder on the plus flash with the config folder backup from the pro flash. That will get all of your configuration from the older server onto the plus flash so you can use the plus flash on the old server. But, you must then delete the pro key from that flash and put the plus key back on it since it requires that license.

Make a new install for your new server on the pro flash and put the pro key back on it since it requires that license.

15 minutes ago, Stumpy said:

caveat, the usb creator is telling me the newer flash I have is blacklisted?!

Please read and make sure you completely understand my previous response before proceeding.

Just now, trurl said:

make sure you completely understand my previous response

because you seemed to be proceeding with some wrong ideas

I think I was just getting a bit ahead of myself, continuing with such an old flash (we are talking a decade old 1GB) didn't seem right but I guess i can go ahead with that so long as i have a bkup of the config.

so essentially swap the plus and pro flash configs (not keys, leaving them on the flash drives whose guid they recognize) then put the plus flash with the "updated" config into the old box, and the pro flash with no config (but with a pro.key) into the new box

15 minutes ago, Stumpy said:

old flash (we are talking a decade old 1GB)

1GB may not be enough. What version were you running on that?

yeah thats one of the things I was thinking when i saw the minimum was 4gb - anyway, it is currently 6.12

The Pro install/flash was 16GB, this 1GB flash has about 300mb and change free space left

Edited January 11Jan 11 by Stumpy

So this "old" flash is the unused plus key?

yes. though I think I did use it for a bit but it was (obviously) quite a while ago

What version is on the Pro flash?

unraid v7.2 on the 16bg pro flash drive

Edited January 11Jan 11 by Stumpy

With new drives, many things about your configuration would have to be reworked anyway.

Another approach would be to just move your current working flash to the new system along with the old drives, and then rebuild each of the drives to a new drive, one at a time. Or even 2 at a time if you have dual parity. That would be simpler and maybe even faster than transferring everything over the network.

the new box has more drive slots so I will be able to use some of my smaller drives and still have about the same amount of TB as my old box, and then I plan to use my old box as a strictly back ups box so need to keep those larger TB drives in the smaller/older box.

I do have a bunch of flash drives, most newer than what the unraid plus is on, I just preferred to not use a larger flash as it seems like it would be a waste of space, but all things considered its starting to sound like it might be better to put the unraid plus (currently on the 1GB flash) on a larger/newer 32 or 64GB flash and then toss the old 1GB (or more likely use it as a rescue distro drive)

If you start with empty disks on the new server, what about your configuration are you hoping to preserve?

Might be useful to have your diagnostics to get a better idea of your configuration.

Attach Diagnostics ZIP to your NEXT post in this thread.

can do, though to be clear I've already swapped flash drives so what you are seeing is the 1gb flash drive, with the plus key, with the config from the pro/old box setup

tower-diagnostics-20260111-1619.zip

That seems to be OK so far. Not enough free space on flash to upgrade it in place though.

Start the array and post new diagnostics.

diag with array started attached

tower-diagnostics-20260111-1731.zip

Edited January 12Jan 12 by Stumpy

Still looks good. Running on the Plus key.

4 hours ago, trurl said:

Not enough free space on flash to upgrade it in place though.

Did you have to do a manual upgrade to get it to 6.12.2?

Probably take some manual work to get some of that configuration working on the new server with new drives. Obviously your drive assignments won't work, for example.

If you transfer your user share data to user shares with the same name on your new server, you can use the .cfg files in config/shares to configure the shares. Your shares will exist if the data exists, but unless you make settings (.cfg) they will have default settings.

Getting Dockers/VMs transferred is a little more complicated.

Doesn't look like you have many plugins so those can just be reinstalled.

Don't know how much of this you are interested in doing.

Thanks so much for looking over the diags.

Honestly, I am willing to start over on the new server - i figure there is quite a bit of cruft and tech/config debt on it. Keeping the old server config, on the old server (for now) would have the advantage of a reference point while setting up the new server.

So, unless I am missing something I'm thinking it would be best to switch to a new (larger/newer) flash for my unraid plus, and start fresh with my unraid pro on my new server. I'm actually ok with starting the new server again as i never got to the point that it was a critical part of my work flow - main thing is i don't want to loose that data.

31 minutes ago, Stumpy said:

switch to a new (larger/newer) flash for my unraid plus

20 hours ago, Stumpy said:

the usb creator is telling me the newer flash I have is blacklisted?! this "newer" drive isn't super new per se and I guess I could have put unraid on it ... but totally don't remember doing so.

Unless you transferred the license from that flash to a different one, your usage of it wouldn't be the reason for the blacklist. Assuming you didn't get it "used", the most likely reason for blacklisting is it doesn't have a unique GUID.