Ok I've read and searched but couldn't see a direct answer to put my mind 100% at rest - but hopefully it's a quick/easy question!

 

My servers motherboard died and so I've got new replacement MB+CPU etc - however the issue is the new MB (MSI H61MA-E35) has the Realtek 8111E so from what I read I will need to use the latest V5 RC - however the USB (old set-up) has 4.5.6 .

 

So can I simply do the following...

 

1. Backup USB (just in-case)

2. Format USB & install a fresh V5 build

3. Plug USB into the new hardware build

4. Boot up and assign all the data & parity drives as per old setup

 

Couple of bits of info..

 

1. I have a screen-grab of the old HD drive setup

2. The last parity check on them was all fine.

3. 5 (4 data, 1 parity drive) setup

4. Licences version (4.5.6) of unRaid

 

I guess my question is as the old HW is dead I can't perform an upgrade to v5 on it - so can I just do a fresh v5 install and set-up all the drives as per before? And it all work fine!

 

(The only other option I can think of would be to but a PCI network card in and use that to initially perform the upgrade to v5 - but I don't really want to buy a card for 5mins use!)

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

Jason

Yes. That will work.

I thought the official migration was to 4.7 first?  Read the wiki as it provides instructions.

I thought the official migration was to 4.7 first?  Read the wiki as it provides instructions.

Yes, it is.  And there is a good reason too...

 

Also, make sure to note how your existing disks are partitioned.

If not sure, run the following command and save the output for each disk.

 

fdisk -lu /dev/sdX

and if you have any IDE disks, or disks on a controller presenting them as IDE devices

fdisk -lu /dev/hdX

 

Save a copy of your config folder too, with the system stopped, before you make ANY changes.  (That way it is far easier to revert)

 

Joe L.

 

I didn't know you could partition your disks with unraid, its the whole HD added as a data drive isn't it (or am I been dense here?) Also I can't run those commands or upgrade on the old hardware as it's dead - or is it fine to do them on the new HW?

 

So should I build the new HW boot from the 4.5.6 USB and then upgrade 4.5.6 > 4.7 > 5RC2 on the new hardware then - bearing in mind it WILL have a Realtek 8111E controller will this cause any issues during the process etc?

 

I thought from reading a few posts (and the 2nd msg above) if I just installed a totally fresh 5RC, told it which where the data drives it would be fine. The only downside been it would have to re-build the parity drive? 

 

But then that's why I was checking as in the wiki there's nothing (from what I could see) about HW AND SW upgrades at the same time etc!

i think that only works it you go 4.7 -> 5.0.  Just guessing but i bet the filesystem is different prior to 4.7.

I thought from reading a few posts (and the 2nd msg above) if I just installed a totally fresh 5RC, told it which where the data drives it would be fine. The only downside been it would have to re-build the parity drive? 

Yes, that will probably work, BUT, make sure you know how your disks are partitioned.  Several users have run into issues when setting a new disk configuration on a new flash drive in the 4.7 version.  Don't know if the same will occur on the newest rc6-test2.    (basically, unRAID re-writes the MBR based on the setup default chosen, and that might not be how existing data was partitioned.)  If ANY existing data drive shows as un-formatted,  DO NOT PRESS THE FORMAT BUTTON

 

I thought from reading a few posts (and the 2nd msg above) if I just installed a totally fresh 5RC, told it which where the data drives it would be fine. The only downside been it would have to re-build the parity drive? 

Yes, that will probably work, BUT, make sure you know how your disks are partitioned.  Several users have run into issues when setting a new disk configuration on a new flash drive in the 4.7 version.  Don't know if the same will occur on the newest rc6-test2.    (basically, unRAID re-writes the MBR based on the setup default chosen, and that might not be how existing data was partitioned.)  If ANY existing data drive shows as un-formatted,  DO NOT PRESS THE FORMAT BUTTON

 

Not sure I like the 'probably work' bit!

 

Ok I ran fdisk (output below (the old system boots for about 5mins before dying so I could do this)) - I'll move HD & new a v5 USB install over to new HW and hopefully no HD shows as unformatted!

 

Disk /dev/sda: 1500.3 GB, 1500301910016 bytes
1 heads, 63 sectors/track, 46512336 cylinders, total 2930277168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1              63  2930277167  1465138552+  83  Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
root@Tower:~# fdisk -lu /dev/sdb

Disk /dev/sdb: 2000.3 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
1 heads, 63 sectors/track, 62016336 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1              63  3907029167  1953514552+  83  Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
root@Tower:~# fdisk -lu /dev/sdc

Disk /dev/sdc: 2000.3 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
1 heads, 63 sectors/track, 62016336 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1              63  3907029167  1953514552+  83  Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
root@Tower:~# fdisk -lu /dev/sdd

Disk /dev/sdd: 2000.3 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
1 heads, 63 sectors/track, 62016336 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdd1              63  3907029167  1953514552+  83  Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Before assigning any drives I would set the "default" partitioning to MBR-unaligned

(That is how all your existing disks are partitioned.)

Once you get them installed and running you can set the default to anything you prefer before adding additional new drives to the array.

Before assigning any drives I would set the "default" partitioning to MBR-unaligned

(That is how all your existing disks are partitioned.)

Once you get them installed and running you can set the default to anything you prefer before adding additional new drives to the array.

 

Yes saw that mentioned in the 4.7 upgrade notes - will make sure I do - thanks for the advice!

Thanks for everyone's help with this - especially yours Joe.

 

For anyone trying to do anything similar - the process I went through from 4.5.6 > 5.0-rc5 was as follows and it worked fine... obviously your mileage may vary!

 

1. Screenshot or notes of your unRaid HD drive set-up

2. Attached a monitor and ran  "fdisk -lu /dev/sdX"  (as per Joe's posts) on each of the drives

2. Backup of USB

3. Reformatted USB and installed a totally fresh v5 RC5

4. Copy across unRaid licence to USB  (This was the only file copied across)

5. Booted up - checked  "Default partition format" in  'Settings > Disk Settings' to match the output from Step #2 (mine was MBR-unaligned which was what was showed as default anyway.)

6. Assigned all the drives as per screen-shot in #1

7. Started the array

8. At this stage I checked that all the Shares were there & also browsed through all the disks for 5 mins or so to generally see if it all looked good and the expected data was all there etc! (I did this via the new 'Browse' icons next to the drives!)

9. Ran a parity re-build overnight

10. Ran "Utils > New Permissions " (Until this was ran there was NO access to the files via Samba.. the main Shares could be seen over the network but they gave file permission errors.)

11. Ran parity check

 

Thanks again for everyone's help.