I am running unraid 4.7 with no issues.  I would like to support things like SimpleFeatures, Plex, Serviio, and 3TB Drives.  In order to do that, I need to upgrade past 4.7.  I was hoping to wait until 5.0 was out of RC stages (and I could still wait)

 

So, While this may be an unfair question...  Are there any known issues that someone running 4.7 might find objectionable?  I ask because my unraid data is not backed up anywhere.  The array is all I have.

 

Also, I have a bunch of addons that I installed and most are not needed anymore.  I am interested in going back to a clean install of unraid, with no addons.  And then only installing what I need.  What is the cleanest way for me to accomplish that?

 

Last Question - Is there 4TB support yet?

Yes, there is 4TB support.

 

There are a few issues with relatively new hardware, they are all due to performance and there are not a lot. I would backup your flashdrive just to be sure and then upgrade..

Screenshot your current drive configuration.

Image your usb stick or backup ALL files on it.

Wipe the usb stick clean, rerun makebootable.bat from the latest 5.0RC11

Drop your license file on it and proceed to boot up, if it comes up, setup up all that you require (Name, IP, protocols, etc...), reboot again.

Copy over the syslog, if you see anything that you believe is not correct/questionable post it and wait.

 

If all is well, assign the drives exactly how you previously had them. Click on each disk link on the Main page and examine the Partition format field. If you see "MBR: error", or "MBR: unknown" for any disk, do NOT Start the array.

 

Again if all is well, proceed to start the array, no drive(s) should come up BLUE, if one or more do, then STOP. Otherwise you will format them.

 

Once array starts, copy and check your syslog again. If all is well, check out your data, if it is all there visually, don't move anything, etc..., proceed to run new permissions (give it time!).

Once that completes successfully, check your performance under 5.0RC11 now. I would use it as is for at least a day. Make sure its ok overnight, in the morning check that nothing has hung. Drive spin-down, spin-up, stop array, reboot, etc.

 

Once you have confirm all is well. Then proceed to add any plugins you would like, pay attention to the plugin owners directions, if not sure ask 

 

If all is well, enjoy. If you rush through it you'll be backtracking, questioning yourself, and pretty much pulling your hair out.

 

 

 

 

Screenshot your current drive configuration.

Image your usb stick or backup ALL files on it.

  So far, good advice

Wipe the usb stick clean, rerun makebootable.bat from the latest 5.0RC11

Drop your license file on it and proceed to boot up, if it comes up, setup up all that you require (Name, IP, protocols, etc...), reboot again.

Copy over the syslog, if you see anything that you believe is not correct/questionable post it and wait.

BAD Advice.  normally there is no need to wipe the entire drive.  You only need replace the files involved in the upgrade.

If all is well, assign the drives exactly how you previously had them. Click on each disk link on the Main page and examine the Partition format field. If you see "MBR: error", or "MBR: unknown" for any disk, do NOT Start the array.

 

Again if all is well, proceed to start the array, no drive(s) should come up BLUE, if one or more do, then STOP. Otherwise you will format them.

 

Once array starts, copy and check your syslog again. If all is well, check out your data, if it is all there visually, don't move anything, etc..., proceed to run new permissions (give it time!).

Once that completes successfully, check your performance under 5.0RC11 now. I would use it as is for at least a day. Make sure its ok overnight, in the morning check that nothing has hung. Drive spin-down, spin-up, stop array, reboot, etc.

 

Once you have confirm all is well. Then proceed to add any plugins you would like, pay attention to the plugin owners direction, if not sure ask 

 

If all is well, enjoy. If you rush through it you'll be backtracking, questioning yourself, and pretty much pulling your hair out.

I believe if you follow those instructions and do not restore the config directory ALL the drives will be seen as new, and be [glow=blue,2,400]BLUE[/glow], and you will be forced to re-calculate parity. You will also be forced into re-configuring all the user-shares. 

 

Since yours are NOT the official upgrade instructions, you should probably NOT be giving advice that is inaccurate.  I believe your advice will cause more problems than otherwise.

 

I do agree with one point though,  If you see "MBR: error", or "MBR: unknown" for any disk, do NOT Start the array.  That is sound advice.

 

Joe L.

thanks for all the advice.  As for the plugins...  I am running Sabnzb, Sickbeard, and Virtualbox. (on my cache drive)  There are  probably some other plugins that are small that I am missing, like Unmenu, but the only one I have interest in keeping is virtualbox.  Is there a file I should delete to make sure none of these plugins come back?

You might want to read this 'how to' wiki.

 

    http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Migrating_from_unRAID_4.7_to_unRAID_5.0

 

It has a lot of information in it for people who are making the big jump. 

 

While I have never used 4.7, it might be a good idea to run a non-correcting parity check before you even start the upgrade procedure. (I assume that such a test does exist in 4.7)  If it finds any errors, I would want to resolve them before I confused correcting that issue by adding a major upgrade into the mix.

Joe my understanding is he wanted to start with a new CLEAN config (not upgrade, yes upgrade from a 4.7 to a 5.0RC but clean/from scratch for a lack of better words). Yes I did missed stating party would have to be rebuilt. As well as having to re-establish all User-Shares.

 

I have done this before and it didn't trouble me (for me). I knew my drives where sound and trusted parity would be re-built without issue. I took one shortcut and added my previous shares (*.cfg's) after my first boot.

 

If he would like to upgraded his existing 4.7->5.0RC, then yes he should follow the upgrade instructions and should know how to disable/remove his existing add-ons that are running on his 4.7 build.

 

I believe your advice will cause more problems than otherwise.

 

That is a matter of opinion, as I have seen enough posts where removing of previous plugin/go file entries/ customization from 4.7 where not taken into account and  caused unforeseen headaches. Not sure why you feel my are inaccurate (yes I missed a few line items, that is true) but no worries.

 

Either is an option, and neither are as simple as some would want.

 

Wisem2540, mine are unofficial suggestions, you should proceed in the manner you feel is best for YOU and which you feel your comfortable with that will get you to the end result you wish to achieve. Good luck.

thanks for all the advice.  As for the plugins...  I am running Sabnzb, Sickbeard, and Virtualbox. (on my cache drive)  There are  probably some other plugins that are small that I am missing, like Unmenu, but the only one I have interest in keeping is virtualbox.  Is there a file I should delete to make sure none of these plugins come back?

 

Not picking on you wisem2540 here. Joe, see these type of questions are very common, some would think well if you added something you should know how to remove/reverse what you added. But whether it be because a lot of time passed by or something else, many don't know how to bring their configs back to plain vanilla. And backing up their stick and starting from scratch for many is the only way to bypass many mistakes. I agree there are plenty of mistakes one can make from starting from scratch and there by losing data.

 

As obvious to some when something states "will be Formatted, data will be lost" if you proceed, some still click on the button to GO do it.

 

Wisem2540, best thing to do is stop all your plugins even the one you wish to keep until you upgrade and verify everything is working. Then you can work on enabling back the plugin (may or may not need modification to do so).

 

I hope I didn't stress you or make things more complicated, and apologize if I misunderstood how you wish to move from 4.7 to 5.0RC. Again good luck.

 

 

I believe your advice will cause more problems than otherwise.

 

That is a matter of opinion, as I have seen enough posts where removing of previous plugin/go file entries/ customization from 4.7 where not taken into account and  caused unforeseen headaches. Not sure why you feel my are inaccurate (yes I missed a few line items, that is true) but no worries.

I have seen more issues from those who wipe their flash drive and reformat, and then cannot get it to boot than otherwise.  You warned about BLUE indicators being bad, but following your instructions all the drives would have been BLUE...    For that there would have been problems. 

 

There have only been a few cases where replacing the bzroot and bzimage did not allow the flash drive to boot and the upgrade to be successful.  That is the least disruptive way to upgrade.  Granted, this my opinion.  I feel that unless you are taking responsibility for the other user's data, you need to point out the risks, let them know the official upgrade instructions are in the release notes, and let them decide to follow the upgrade instructions in the release notes, or do otherwise. 

 

If a person wants to disable all the add-ons first, great.  But perform that step BEFORE you upgrade, not at the same time, not unless you really know what you are doing.  I understand many people do not know how to un-install something they installed.  It is that much more important to do that step first, before upgrading to a new unRAID release if it is desired, otherwise, the problems compound.    I'm picking on the add-on authors here... as many of them do not include un-install instructions, and some have been known to prevent a reboot of any kind to succeed until uninstalled.

 

My advice, If you wish to revert to a plain vanilla install, do NOT upgrade the unRAID release at the same time.  Perform it as two operations.

 

Joe L.

I believe your advice will cause more problems than otherwise.

 

That is a matter of opinion, as I have seen enough posts where removing of previous plugin/go file entries/ customization from 4.7 where not taken into account and  caused unforeseen headaches. Not sure why you feel my are inaccurate (yes I missed a few line items, that is true) but no worries.

I have seen more issues from those who wipe their flash drive and reformat, and then cannot get it to boot than otherwise.  You warned about BLUE indicators being bad, but following your instructions all the drives would have been BLUE...    For that there would have been problems. 

 

I stand corrected, I checked my notes when I did this, I added one drive at a time, YES they turned BLUE but had to make sure "Format" was not showing up. My understanding was that it detected the signature and reiserFS file system per disk (so no format was required). Also I did not add the parity drive initially, once each data drive was added I checked for any MBR issues. All was well. Added the parity drive last, started up the array and parity started to build. Does this sound inline now?

 

There have only been a few cases where replacing the bzroot and bzimage did not allow the flash drive to boot and the upgrade to be successful.  That is the least disruptive way to upgrade.  Granted, this my opinion.  I feel that unless you are taking responsibility for the other user's data, you need to point out the risks, let them know the official upgrade instructions are in the release notes, and let them decide to follow the upgrade instructions in the release notes, or do otherwise. 

I was not disputing if the official upgrade instruction work or not, again I only commented here as I believe he wished to start from scratch (but not lose his data) and not something that is documented out there on how to do such an install.

 

If a person wants to disable all the add-ons first, great.  But perform that step BEFORE you upgrade, not at the same time, not unless you really know what you are doing.  I understand many people do not know how to un-install something they installed.  It is that much more important to do that step first, before upgrading to a new unRAID release if it is desired, otherwise, the problems compound.    I'm picking on the add-on authors here... as many of them do not include un-install instructions, and some have been known to prevent a reboot of any kind to succeed until uninstalled.

Completely agree, the best bet is to disable all add-on's before performing an in-place upgrade, if all checks-out, one by one they can be re-enabled so as to know which if any cause an issue. In my case from scratch there is no concern for any plugins running and one has a backup of there flash should they need to reference or copy any customization's they would like to add back (if any plugin data was stored on the cache drive it is still there 'dormant' for a lack of better words).

 

I am sure you understand I am not, nor was trying to send someone down some dark gloomy road of uncertainty. It is possible to upgrade to 5.0RC via the official upgrade as well as from scratch with data being retained. As an example, if your USB key died, completely unreadable and you have no backup what so ever, what would one do to bring up a new key (new license provided by Tom) and still retain their data; having to setup unRAID from scratch?

 

The official steps also expect that your running a stock configuration of 4.7 and can't force you or help you get to a stock configuration. There is no script that one runs to PREP 4.7 to upgrade to 5.0.

 

I could script something like that for windows based users once 5.0 is Final. Script would ask for a few simple question (unraid server name, backup location (not unraid flash drive))

ex. Backup current go file, restore stock go file, kill unknown processes to make sure 4.7 reboots properly with no add-ons running, upon successful reboot, backup 4.7 bzroot and bzimage, copy down 5.0 final, backup config dir and current (and last) 4.7 syslog... etc reboot into 5.0 Final. (just quick thoughts)

 

 

If a person wants to disable all the add-ons first, great.  But perform that step BEFORE you upgrade, not at the same time, not unless you really know what you are doing.  I understand many people do not know how to un-install something they installed.  It is that much more important to do that step first, before upgrading to a new unRAID release if it is desired, otherwise, the problems compound.    I'm picking on the add-on authors here... as many of them do not include un-install instructions, and some have been known to prevent a reboot of any kind to succeed until uninstalled.

 

Huh?  I'm really confused.  I read your post several times, and I'm not sure I'm understanding this post.

 

Are you really suggesting it ISN'T safe to (basically) upgrade to a fresh v5?  The official instructions are a little clear on this, but I read them I thought it was encouraged to do that as part of a v5 upgrade.  I thought I should delete the addon folders (unmenu and packages, in my case), and start with a clean go script.

 

I really don't know how to uninstall or disable the plugins, so I figured that was the "safest" way to do it.  Am I really that much better off to do that before I upgrade to v5?

 

Perhaps this is an area where the wiki should be updated.

I think I'm starting to sound like a broken record on this. Maybe I should just put a link to dgaschk's signature in my signature. Removing all addons is not that hard.

 

See dgaschk's signature for instructions to "Revert to stock system"

If a person wants to disable all the add-ons first, great.  But perform that step BEFORE you upgrade, not at the same time, not unless you really know what you are doing.  I understand many people do not know how to un-install something they installed.  It is that much more important to do that step first, before upgrading to a new unRAID release if it is desired, otherwise, the problems compound.    I'm picking on the add-on authors here... as many of them do not include un-install instructions, and some have been known to prevent a reboot of any kind to succeed until uninstalled.

 

Huh?  I'm really confused.  I read your post several times, and I'm not sure I'm understanding this post.

 

Are you really suggesting it ISN'T safe to (basically) upgrade to a fresh v5?  The official instructions are a little clear on this, but I read them I thought it was encouraged to do that as part of a v5 upgrade.  I thought I should delete the addon folders (unmenu and packages, in my case), and start with a clean go script.

 

I really don't know how to uninstall or disable the plugins, so I figured that was the "safest" way to do it.  Am I really that much better off to do that before I upgrade to v5?

 

Perhaps this is an area where the wiki should be updated.

 

NO your understanding is just fine, and it sounds like you know what needs to be done (stock GO file, you don't need to delete the unmenu folder unless you wish to, as it is the lines in your go script that access that folder). What Joe is referring to is OTHER (i will call it) third party plugins that lets just say don't follow standards and cause issues and are not simply removed.

 

I think I'm starting to sound like a broken record on this. Maybe I should just put a link to dgaschk's signature in my signature. Removing all addons is not that hard.

 

That would disable plugins, but its not going to remove them?

 

Plus, when it comes to reverting to stock, does it make more sense to write them in such a way that indicates what to keep?  My plugin directories don't seem to line up with the ones dgaschk had.  From installing unmenu I have unmenu and packages folders.

 

In any event, I'm still confused why this would matter.  I thought the one of the basic premises of unRAID was that it was supposed to work with a clean unRAID flash drive with your config files moved over.  I don't understand why it wouldn't be safe to do that while upgrading.

NO your understanding is just fine, and it sounds like you know what needs to be done (stock GO file, you don't need to delete the unmenu folder unless you wish to, as it is the lines in your go script that access that folder). What Joe is referring to is OTHER (i will call it) third party plugins that lets just say don't follow standards and cause issues and are not simply removed.

 

Thanks for the clarification.  I don't want old stuff laying around on the flash drive for various reasons, so I certainly want to remove it when I upgrade.

 

So, it sounds like I'm safe.  All I have is unmenu (with a few unmenu add-ons, like APC UPS), and the powerdown script.  Is there a good way to identify what plugins aren't safe to merely remove?  I mean, if I had more plugins installed, how would I know what's safe to do?  Can you list an example or two of unsafe plugins like that?

 

 

 

 

@reggie14,

 

Its up to you if you want to wipe eveything off you flash drive less the config (to retain your configuration for the upgrade). If you intend to use unMENU, then maybe you dont want to delete it of the flash drive. Some people are sticking with unmenu other are moving to SimpleFeature, some are keeping both.

 

You would have to ask JoeL, if the version of unMenu your running on 4.7 is the same for 5.0RC, I run plugin free (I originall played with all of them). As for the other plugins you would need to check in the install scripts if they are in memory installs (for a lack of better words) and only place their configuration in the flash drive or do any of them install some files to say the cache drive...

 

What we are stating here is merely its best to disable (remove/delete if you wish) any plugins before upgrading. So if you have any issue(s), you know first and foremost they are not plugin related and easier to get help as to what your problem maybe (and should be posted to the unRAID OS 5.0-rc forum). When you see all is well (thats why I recommeded to run 5.0 in stock fashion for at least 1 day) then you can if you so wish to load plugins, perferable one at a time and test each one out to make sure they are working properly, and if not you at least know which plugin forum to post to with questions, as the problem will not be 5.0RC based.

 

I guess one example would be unMENU has a UPS plugin, but there is an author out there that has created his own utilizing the new package installation format .plg

You would need to see how he is handling his install (where does it install, where are config files stored, etc... is he doing something wonky and creates array shutdown issues, etc...)