Hi I am currently on unRAID 4.2 Server Plus and want to upgrade to unRAID Server Plus 4.3, but how do I do that ?

 

I have looked at the instructions on the lime-technology.com website, but that includes buying a new USB flash drive, if I understand correctly ?

 

Is there no other way then buying a new USB stick and will my 6tb unRAID server work as it does now / will I lose data, after upgrading ?

 

Hope some of you can help answer my questions 

It is very easy to upgrade, just download and unzip the new unRAID release on your PC.

 

The first step in upgrading is to make note fo the current disk drives positions in your array.  Easiest way to do this is to go to the devices page on the web-management page for the unRAID server and use the "print" button on the browser to print a copy of the page.  The reason for this is that sometimes a newer version of Linux will scan your hardware in a different order and assign the disks to different devices.  What used to be /dev/sda might end up on /dev/sdh.

 

When you first boot up on the newer release, if all the drives are assigned the same slots, the array will automatically start.  If they are not, the array will not start until you confirm the drive assignment.  Usually, you will need to use the "Devices" page to put the physical drives back in their correct logical slots.  Most critical is the parity drive.  If you accidentally assign what used to be a data drive to the parity slot in the array, any data on that data drive will be gone forever.  If you have the correct parity drive and assign the other drives to a different order, the biggest issue is that the files used to be on /mnt/disk1 might now be on /mnt/disk3.  With all this in mind, print out the existing drive assignment before going on to the next step.

 

Second step: Using the management page of the unRAID server, export your flash drive as read/write.  As an alternative, you can stop your array, shut down your unRAID server, physically move the flash drive to your PC and proceed to rename and copy the files as described in the next few steps. 

 

Step three: The actual upgrade involves replacing two files... it is that simple. None of the other files in the new release of unRAID are needed for you to upgrade from 4.2 to 4.3.  You do not want to re-format your flash drive as you already did that step, same with loading syslinux, it is already done.  You only need to replace two files on the flash drive with those in the new release to upgrade.

 

Using windows file-explorer, navigate to \\tower\flash and then rename the existing bzroot to bzroot42 and the existing bzimage to bzimage42.  This will allow you to rename then to their original names if you want to be able to revert to the older release for some reason.

 

Download the new release of unRAID to a folder on your PC and unzip it so you can get to its individual files.

 

Using file-explorer, copy two files bzroot and bzimage from the unzipped download folder on your PC to your flash drive.  (Basically, replace those you just renamed on your flash drive.) 

 

Then, reboot the unRAID server after using its management page to stop its array.

 

You do not need to reformat the flash drive, or reload syslinux, or change the volume label... those steps you did already when you configured your flash drive.  All of your settings will remain as they were if you only replace the two files mentioned.

 

If all your hardware was detected in the same order, your unRAID array will start when you reboot.  If the hardware is detected in a different order, use the devices page to put them back the way they were before you upgraded, then go back to the main page and check the little checkbox next to "Start" and press "Start" to bring your array back online.

 

Joe L.

THANXS a lot mate 

 

That much easier than the way described on the lime-technology.com website, will test during the weekend 

Added to the FAQ (with link back to here), here.  Feel free to edit.

In my case it's a bit different:

 

Running the free version of the OS (4.4.3) on an old Sandisk USB drive (128 MB). I want to purchase the upgrade key with the new Lime-sourced USB flash drive.  I have two data and one parity disks running, and wanted to ensure that if I switch over to the new flash stick, what files I would need to copy over from my legacy (Sandisk) drive to ensure my array is intact?

 

Once I get the existing array intact, I would update to a larger parity drive and add more data drives, all of which I was able to follow from the wiki and this forum.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

- Michael

See the FAQ, "How do I upgrade my unRAID flash drive to a larger size drive?"

See the FAQ, "How do I upgrade my unRAID flash drive to a larger size drive?"

The new key you purchase from Tom will have a config folder.  You want to replace the files in it with the corresponding files from your current USB drive's config folder.

 

The one file your existing config folder does not have is the "pro.key" file (It might be named something else, but it is a .key suffix)

That one file must remain on the new USB drive.  do not remove it.  All the other  files can be overwritten by the contents of your config folder.

 

What I would do is on the NEW USB drive, is rename the config folder to config-old.  Then copy the whole config folder from your old flash drive to the new.  At that point, it will be exactly like your old flash drive, but because the config folder does not yet have a registration key file in it, you would still be limited to three drives.

 

The next step, of course, would be to copy the .key file from the config-old folder to the config folder. 

 

Now, the configuration files are all from your original drive, the .key from the files Tom supplied, and you should be good to go.  (Having the config-old folder around will not hurt anything... at some point, it can be deleted if you are really that short of space, but it is not much memory, so I'd just leave it.

 

Joe L.