Questions about multiple license keys and OS/configuration redundancy


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Hello all,

I've done quite a bit of reading on the Wiki and forums over the past week or so and I'm pretty sold on using UNraid as my home server OS. My apologies if my questions have been answered elsewhere.

 

Basically I'm wondering if I purchase two keys and plug two USB drives into my server can I mirror the OS and config in case of failure of one of the drives?  I know that it is possible to email Tom and get a new key if my drive ever fails, but I would prefer to basically have a hot standby that I can boot from in the case of emergency.  This is just the admin in me coming out.  I like to prepare for the worst.  ;)

 

Am I correct in assuming that my configuration,plugins, etc. will be stored on the USB drive itself or am I barking up the wrong tree?

 

 

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Is it possible to mirror my main flash drive to a second flash drive or do I just need to setup a cron job or some other means of copying the data myself? Is there a recommended procedure for setting up a dedicated hot spare somewhere that I have not yet found?

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There is no widely used hot spare option. Anything like that would need to be set up yourself. The whole point of the current set up is that writes to the USB drive are few and far between, so regular backups are a better option than a hot mirror. If something screws up the USB, you would be better off with the last known good backup instead of mirroring whatever corruption occurred to screw up the USB.

 

Unraid the OS runs pretty much entirely from RAM, and is "reinstalled" fresh every boot anyway. Any customizations will need to be configured to be redone at boot, typically called from the go file.

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As jonathanm says probably better to do a manual backup of a known good configuration. A cron job would not take care of everything anyway because:

  • .key file is tied to a specific flash drive so mirroring that is pointless. You could just have a second .key on the other drive though.
     
     
  • super.dat has the current state of the array so if you copy that while the array is started and then boot using that copy unRAID will think it had an unclean shutdown and will start a parity check.
     
     
  • The flash volume unRAID boots from must be named UNRAID, so if you had two flash drives one of these would have to have a different name and would have to be renamed before it could be used. Not a big deal but something to be aware of if you try to have two of these installed at the same time.
     
     

Simplest is just to copy the flash to another computer anytime you make any changes. You can do this with the array still running if you share the flash drive. Just be aware of that point I made above about super.dat.

 

You don't need to copy super.dat unless you actually make some change to the array, such as adding, changing, or removing a disk. I think you can still get to the flash share if you stop the array, so maybe just stop the array after you get the "new" array configuration fully working again, and copy super.dat then.

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So it sounds like my best bet is to buy two licenses but perform a manual backup job whenever I want since I would need to stop the array to get a good super.dat. Correct? 

 

Will a backup super.dat still be usable if the data on the array changes as long as the disk configuration stays the same? Will I need to boot off my second USB disk at least once to install the key or can I just copy a .key file to it after I make my purchase?

 

Sorry if I'm being tedious. I like to have a good DR plan in place.

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When planning your DR solution consider this.... dont use your backup key. This means set it up, ensure it works then physically remove it from the machine. USB keys a finite life when used and there no necessity to save the backup to the key itself. There are a world of options to store this trivial amount of date 100% securely for instance online.

 

 

I say this as it seemed you wanted to have your key plugged in somewhere slowly failing at much the same rate as your primary for no real reason.

 

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As NAS said, not even necessary to have your "backup" on a flash drive at all. Just copy all files somewhere, then when needed they can be put on a new flash along with its key and make it bootable. I have a spare key so I can minimize downtime, or to try something new like the latest beta, but I keep my "backup" in my Dropbox folder on my PC, which means I also have a copy offsite.

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The way I do it, is I copy /boot/* to a dropbox folder when I make major changes - this way it gets sync'd, and if I have a prob, I have the files avail to my windows desktop when I am fixing and flash drive problems.

 

I have not gotten around to it yet, but was considering make a bash script that checks like every 30 secs if the array is down and checks the last access to the dropbox folder, if it has not updated it that day, update, if updated that day skip

 

this way I dont have to remember to update the backup

 

Myk

 

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I'd go ahead and install UnRAID on both drives (you have to install it to determine the GUID, which is needed to get your license).    Then get  your two licenses, and add them to the appropriate keys.

 

You now have two flash drives that will boot UnRAID.

 

Now set the 2nd drive aside in a safe location ... and configure your UnRAID server with your primary key.

 

Set up a routine backup to copy the complete flash drive EXCEPT the key file (Pro.key or Plus.key) to a folder on one of your PC's.    You can have this auto-update as frequently as you wish (Mine does it every night).

 

Then ... if something goes awry with your key, you simply copy the backup folder to your 2nd flash drive; insert it in your UnRAID server, and boot  :)

 

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Thanks for all the replies everyone. I'll go ahead and purchase two keys and establish a backup routine based on the feedback in this thread.

 

Welcome knalbone! Sounds like you'll bring some administrative discipline to this knarly bunch!

 

I did want to say, that loosing your flashdrive is not catastrophic. If you had no backup, and one day snapped the stick in half as you walked by, you could reconstruct it and have unRaid running (assuming you had another USB with valid key) in about 30 minutes. (Addons might be more complex, but hey it's your data you are most worried about).

 

So go ahead and set it up for backup, it's a good idea. But although you might want to rush into a burning building to rescue your array, don't run in a second time to retrieve the USB stick! :)

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Thanks for all the replies everyone. I'll go ahead and purchase two keys and establish a backup routine based on the feedback in this thread.

 

Welcome knalbone! Sounds like you'll bring some administrative discipline to this knarly bunch!

 

I did want to say, that loosing your flashdrive is not catastrophic. If you had no backup, and one day snapped the stick in half as you walked by, you could reconstruct it and have unRaid running (assuming you had another USB with valid key) in about 30 minutes. (Addons might be more complex, but hey it's your data you are most worried about).

 

So go ahead and set it up for backup, it's a good idea. But although you might want to rush into a burning building to rescue your array, don't run in a second time to retrieve the USB stick! :)

 

Thank you, yes I am a network administrator by occupation.  Storage and backup management are among the many hats that I wear.  I am used to enterprise hardware and software of course, but I will be applying many of the same principles that I use at work to my home environment. I'm sure I'll be bending many an ear over the next few weeks as I complete my setup.

 

No need to worry about me running into any burning buildings.  My backup USB drive should be safe inside a fireproof box.  :)

 

 

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  • 8 years later...

Read through this thread, and wanted to see if there was a solution to:

Enable plugged-in hot spare USB on-board the server.

 

From a business continuity perspective, I'm responsible for minimizing my response time objectives[RTO], and defense in layers (hot/offsite/cloud)  so my solution needs are:

 

Layers:

  1. offsite and cloud [yes]
  2. hot [no]

For "Hot":

"Hot" Thumb-drive.

Selectable in EFI like 'USB2" whatever

Selectable from gui reboot screen

Restarts / and can* start array as from a "clean shutdown" (*if configured):

On 4/3/2014 at 1:22 PM, trurl said:

super.dat has the current state of the array so if you copy that while the array is started and then boot using that copy unRAID will think it had an unclean shutdown and will start a parity check.

 

 

 

 

 

On 4/4/2014 at 6:46 AM, SSD said:

I did want to say, that loosing your flashdrive is not catastrophic. If you had no backup, and one day snapped the stick in half as you walked by, you could reconstruct it and have unRaid running (assuming you had another USB with valid key) in about 30 minutes. (Addons might be more complex, but hey it's your data you are most worried about).

 

I agree, if "opps I dwerped off my USB" - about 30 minutes recovery time.  My concern is my drive fails when I am not at the server.  I need to facter in the average time it will take for me to get there, or to talk someont through it.  Again, all cool, just factoring in the time.

 

Hot-Spare to keep recovery time down as close to time to do regular restart.

 

On 4/4/2014 at 2:37 AM, garycase said:

Now set the 2nd drive aside in a safe location ... and configure your UnRAID server with your primary key.

 

Agreed, as part of the depth of the solution.  I'd state it as "2nd [3rd,..] drive aside in a safe location

 

On 4/4/2014 at 4:45 AM, knalbone said:

two keys and establish a backup routine

 

tl;dr, looking for HOT PLUGGED IN USB, aka:  a 2 keys 1 cron

 

 

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A 'hot spare' is achievable if you are prepared to have to select at the BIOS level the backup flash drive.   You can take advantage of the fact that it is possible to use a label other than UNRAID for the label of the flash drive if you add to the syslinux.cfg file an entry of the following style to the relevant boot entries:

 label Unraid OS
    menu default
    kernel /bzimage
    append unraidlabel=UNRAID-SPARE initrd=/bzroot

and amend the label of the hot spare to match.   You then need to schedule copying across periodically the contents of the 'config' folder (ideally minus the  key file) from the live drive to the hot spare.

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