Hey Everyone!

Unraid 7.3.0-beta.2 is live.

This build adds dedicated boot pool support and cleans up a range of regressions reported in beta.1.

• Dedicated Boot Pool support — a proper dedicated boot-pool option, separate from split boot pools.

• Boot-pool fixes — better handling for New Config, pool removal, and related boot-pool workflows.

• XFS fixes — resolves sector-size issues affecting some 4Kn and 512e/HBA setups.

• Encrypted pool fix — luks:zfs and luks:btrfs pools now report status correctly instead of showing UNKNOWN.

• Docker + WebGUI fixes — more cleanup for regressions reported in beta.1.

• Ongoing polish — onboarding, device configuration, and system behavior continue to get tightened up.

This build also carries forward the broader 7.3 work, including internal boot, TPM-based licensing, and the new onboarding flow introduced in beta.1.

Known issues are listed in the release notes, so read those before upgrading.

Test it, break it, report it here: https://product.unraid.net/b/unraid-os-prerelease-bugs-feedback

Release notes: https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/release-notes/7.3.0/

Dedicated Boot Pool support — a proper dedicated boot-pool option, separate from split boot pools.

What exactly does that mean? You can make a pool that takes the entire disk that can’t be split into another pool?

41 minutes ago, Intrepid00 said:

Dedicated Boot Pool support — a proper dedicated boot-pool option, separate from split boot pools.

What exactly does that mean? You can make a pool that takes the entire disk that can’t be split into another pool?

You can now either have dedicated boot drive(s), or boot drive(s) where you can also use extra space in a separate partition as a pool.

So if you have a 2TB SSD, you would want to used the original implementation which allowed you to use both boot and pool data on one drive.
But if you picked up for example a small optane drive e.g. 16GB, you can dedicate it completely to being a boot drive... I'm assuming this also means it won't count as a disk device for licencing purposes also.

1 hour ago, tjb_altf4 said:

I'm assuming this also means it won't count as a disk device for licencing purposes also.

I would not assume that. Certainly worth clarification from those in the know.

1 hour ago, Veah said:

I would not assume that. Certainly worth clarification from those in the know.

which is why I left it open for correction from someone who knows the answer rather than leaving it unsaid

Edited April 2Apr 2 by tjb_altf4

4 hours ago, tjb_altf4 said:

I'm assuming this also means it won't count as a disk device for licencing purposes also.

Dedicated boot devices still count for licensing, so better to take that into account. AFAIK there are no plans to change that, but LT can still decide to change it later.

Good option for unlimited users then, maybe not so much 6 device users... thanks!

1 hour ago, JorgeB said:

Dedicated boot devices still count for licensing, so better to take that into account. AFAIK there are no plans to change that, but LT can still decide to change it later.

With the dedicated boot pool option in beta.2 eliminating the forced data partition — does the 16GB minimum size requirement still apply to USB drives and DOMs used as dedicated boot pool members, or can smaller drives now be used?

Edited April 2Apr 2 by Lolight

1 minute ago, Lolight said:

does the 16GB minimum size requirement still apply to USB drives used as dedicated boot pool members, or can smaller drives now be used?

8GB or larger drives can be used for dedicated boot.

But if you picked up for example a small optane drive e.g. 16GB, you can dedicate it completely to being a boot drive...

So how does one migrate from the forced partition pool (beta 1) to a dedicated pool (offered in beta 2)?

I have a small drive, and want the entire thing used as the boot drive.

54 minutes ago, busytone said:

So how does one migrate from the forced partition pool (beta 1) to a dedicated pool (offered in beta 2)?

Presently there's no automatic migration; you could boot with the flash drive and recreate the boot pool. (Of course, if any files on /boot have been changed compared with the flash drive, you need to copy them back first).

Hello,

Is "Unraid Connect" supported with 7.3.0-beta2 ?

I have just performed a clean installation of 7.3.0-beta1 (yesterday) and then upgraded to 7.3.0-beta2 today (without issue).

I then installed "Unraid Connect" but the 'Unraid Connect' icon was not present in the top-right hand corner of the unRAID GUI.

After rebooting the Server, the 'Unraid Connect' icon appeared as expected, I then attempted to configure and followed the prompts to 'Sign In with unraid.net Account' (see attached screen shot).

After successfully logging in with my unraid.net account, "Unraid Connect" still presents the same prompts and does not display the 'new' Server within my Unraid Connect Dashboard (my existing/registered Servers are displayed).

Are there additional steps I need to follow to register my 'new' Server with Unraid Connect?

Thanks.

I might have missed it somewhere in the changelog notes, but, does update 7.3 also come with the refined boot menu?

I haven't installed 7.3 yet (since I don't have a non-production machine), and the current issue (Unraid 7.2 and before) with the boot menu is, that on a 4K display, the blue boot menu is showing out of display.

1 hour ago, Cheater said:

does update 7.3 also come with the refined boot menu?

Flash drive boot will still use the same UEFI boot loader, internal boot will use a new one from Grub.

If you have issues with the stock UEFI loader, you may want to try Limine one:

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/196349-black-screen-after-usb-boot-msi-x870e-carbon-ryzen-9950x-rtx-4070-ti-super/?do=findComment&comment=1607672

IPv6 macvlan docker network seems broken after upgrading from 7.2.4. Anyone else experiencing this or aware of any breaking changes in the latest version?

1 minute ago, pkoci said:

Anyone else experiencing this or aware of any breaking changes in the latest version?

Haven't seen any other reports, and AFAIK nothing should have changed regarding that.

4 hours ago, PPH said:

Hello,

Is "Unraid Connect" supported with 7.3.0-beta2 ?

I have just performed a clean installation of 7.3.0-beta1 (yesterday) and then upgraded to 7.3.0-beta2 today (without issue).

I then installed "Unraid Connect" but the 'Unraid Connect' icon was not present in the top-right hand corner of the unRAID GUI.

After rebooting the Server, the 'Unraid Connect' icon appeared as expected, I then attempted to configure and followed the prompts to 'Sign In with unraid.net Account' (see attached screen shot).

After successfully logging in with my unraid.net account, "Unraid Connect" still presents the same prompts and does not display the 'new' Server within my Unraid Connect Dashboard (my existing/registered Servers are displayed).

Are there additional steps I need to follow to register my 'new' Server with Unraid Connect?

Thanks.

Self "fixed":

1. Click on the "Unraid Connect" icon -> Sign In with Unraid.net Account

2. Once logged into the "Manage Server" web page, click on the "Register your server for Unraid Connect"

3. Then click on the "Register" button

4. Job done!

Question to pioneers who went down new internal boot route:

Does the boot pool partition contain the fully expanded root file system, or the same squashfs files bzroot/bzfirmware/bzmodules?

Just now, MedBox said:

Question to pioneers who went down new internal boot route:

Does the boot pool partition contain the fully expanded root file system, or the same squashfs files bzroot/bzfirmware/bzmodules?

Same as the flash

8 minutes ago, SimonF said:

Same as the flash

That's interesting. If the Unraid system is still loaded from squashfs files, using ZFS to host them sounds overkill to me. Using an SSD/HDD to boot could speed up loading of larger plugins (Nvidia driver for example) but since everything runs from RAM after boot, FAT32/EXT4 should serve the purpose well enough, or at least give user the option to pick what FS they see fit.

32 minutes ago, MedBox said:

That's interesting. If the Unraid system is still loaded from squashfs files, using ZFS to host them sounds overkill to me. Using an SSD/HDD to boot could speed up loading of larger plugins (Nvidia driver for example) but since everything runs from RAM after boot, FAT32/EXT4 should serve the purpose well enough, or at least give user the option to pick what FS they see fit.

You can run a mirrored pair of drives, hence zfs.

21 hours ago, JorgeB said:

Presently there's no automatic migration; you could boot with the flash drive and recreate the boot pool. (Of course, if any files on /boot have been changed compared with the flash drive, you need to copy them back first).

Do we know if this is a planned feature? I have also moved to internal boot on a larger drive but picked up some 16gb optane drives and would like to migrate over but much has changed on my server since moving to internal boot.

1 hour ago, hogan.christopher said:

Do we know if this is a planned feature? I have also moved to internal boot on a larger drive but picked up some 16gb optane drives and would like to migrate over but much has changed on my server since moving to internal boot.

Replace the config folder on the USB with the one from the internal boot pool, then it'll have all your changes.

Gotta understand and be ready to mess with that kind of stuff when running unfinished betas.

Edited April 3Apr 3 by Kilrah

14 hours ago, MedBox said:

FAT32/EXT4 should serve the purpose well enough

Those don't support RAID, being able to have mirrored boot drives was kind of a primary feature.

1 hour ago, hogan.christopher said:

Do we know if this is a planned feature?

Not sure, but I believe there were plans to implement that for a future release.