I am about to upgrade the motherboard, RAM and CPU in my unRAID box.  I am just wondering if there are any precautions or pre-upgrade tasks I should perform prior to powering down and swapping out the hardware?

 

I assume the disks will all need to be re-assigned so would it make sense to unassign them all before I power down the array to do the upgrade?

 

Will I lose any other configuration and will all of the extra packages I have installed through unMenu still work after the upgrade?

 

Thanks!

I don't know about anything lower than 5.0b12 (as that's when I started using unRAID), but my experience has been that as long as you're using the same usb drive, and unRAID can see all your drives on the new motherboard/hardware, it will simply work.  I've used 3 different motherboards, and used ESXi, and every time unRAID has started and brought the array up properly without me needing to change anything.

As noted above, v5 "knows" the relative position of all the drives; and as long as it can "see" all of the drives, it will simply boot.

 

Nevertheless, you should definitely print out a copy of the Web GUI display so you know all the drive assignments -- just in case !!

 

If you're still using v4.7, it's  different story.  You'll need to re-initialize the configuration, so be sure you know all of the drive assignments (especially parity, as if you get that one wrong you'll definitely lose data).

 

Regardless of which version you're using, BEFORE you shut down to replace your motherboard, do a parity check to confirm all is well;  and if there are any sync errors corrected, repeat it to ensure you have an error-free system before you move it.

 

Thanks for all of the advice... I am still on 4.7 so after the parity check is validated OK and I have captured a screenshot of the drive assignments, do I just power down and do the swap at that point or should I un-assign the drives first or...?

 

I won't lose any other configuration (i.e. my user shares will still be ok) and I won't have to set up the extra packages I've installed through unMenu right?

Thanks for all of the advice... I am still on 4.7 so after the parity check is validated OK and I have captured a screenshot of the drive assignments, do I just power down and do the swap at that point or should I un-assign the drives first or...?

 

I won't lose any other configuration (i.e. my user shares will still be ok) and I won't have to set up the extra packages I've installed through unMenu right?

DO NOT unassign the drives.

 

Simply shut down cleanly, swap the MB, and when you reboot the array will let you re-assign the disks it cannot figure out on its own.  It will even assist giving you the serial number of the disk to be assigned to the slot.  You just need to use the disk assignment page, assign all as needed, and then start the array.

 

You might want to make note of each drive if it is partitioned to start on sector 63, or sector 64... just in case you need to recover.

 

To do that, type

fdisk  -lu  /dev/sdX

or

fdisk  -lu /dev/hdX

(if you have any IDE devices)

 

and capture the output. (replacing the "X" in the above commands with the actual device names)

Thanks Joe....

 

Would it be better for me to upgrade to version 5 before I do the swap?  It sounds like it is a lot easier/safer with that version?  I have been holding off on v5 since it still is not an official stable release yet (I don't usually jump on the beta/RC bandwagons!) but it has been out for so long now and so many people are using it, I'm wondering if that would be a smart thing to do before the hardware upgrade?

Would it be better for me to upgrade to version 5 before I do the swap?

 

I'd definitely suggest that.    Do a parity check to confirm all is well;  then upgrade to v5;  and THEN do your swap.    As noted already, v5 is much more tolerant of drives being in different slots.    In fact, after you swap the motherboard, etc., the system should simply boot -- nothing else to do !!

 

Ok I will do that then...

 

I guess I should be posting this question in a new thread then but for the upgrade to v5, I see in the release notes the following:

 

"Disable or un-install all non-stock unRAID add-ons. Only use add-ons that have been verified to work properly with this release by the add-on author."

 

I currently run 4.7 with unmenu installed and I have installed the following packages:

apcupsd - A daemon for controlling APC UPS devices

"C" compiler & development tools

mail and ssmtp - Configure unRAID to be able to send e-mail notifications via the "mail" command.

unRAID Status Alert sent hourly by e-mail

Monthly Parity Check

pci utils (pci utilities)

unRAID Power-Down on disk overtemp

Clean Powerdown

 

Do I really need to uninstall them before the upgrade?  I would hate to have to go through and re-configure/test them all again...  if I leave them as-is, will they remain installed and run with their current configs?

Ok I will do that then...

 

I guess I should be posting this question in a new thread then but for the upgrade to v5, I see in the release notes the following:

 

"Disable or un-install all non-stock unRAID add-ons. Only use add-ons that have been verified to work properly with this release by the add-on author."

 

I currently run 4.7 with unmenu installed and I have installed the following packages:

apcupsd - A daemon for controlling APC UPS devices

"C" compiler & development tools

mail and ssmtp - Configure unRAID to be able to send e-mail notifications via the "mail" command.

unRAID Status Alert sent hourly by e-mail

Monthly Parity Check

pci utils (pci utilities)

unRAID Power-Down on disk overtemp

Clean Powerdown

 

Do I really need to uninstall them before the upgrade?  I would hate to have to go through and re-configure/test them all again...  if I leave them as-is, will they remain installed and run with their current configs?

you should be fine leaving them as is.

Thank you again!

i use mostly the same addons from 4.7 -> 5.0 and they worked without intervention.

Thanks so much guys... you've taken a lot of the worry out of this upgrade for me.  Just running the parity check now and will hopefully get to the upgrade tomorrow night.