How to copy LOTS of data from one system to another

[rharvey]

I'm about to replace my older unRaid tower with a new unit and plan to re-tire the old system.  Today however the old system has about 700 movies on 11 drives which I need to copy over to the new system.  I have been comfortable using UNIX commands to copy or move files on the same machine but is there a simple and fast way to move the files from the old unRaid to the new one.

 

Thanks in advance....

[jzawacki]

You might get better suggestions, and I'm hoping to read them as well, but I personally would use a cross-over cable and directly connect the two machines using static IP addresses.  Then, from the new server, mount the shares of the old server  then just do a 'cp -R *' from each disk to the new server.  A quick dirty example would be:

 

on the new server:

 

# mkdir /mnt/olddisk1

# mount -t cifs //oldserverIP/disk1 /mnt/olddisk1

 

Now, if you 'cd /mnt/olddisk1' and do a 'ls' you should see all the files on the old server.

 

# cp -R /mnt/olddisk1/* /mnt/disk1

 

Rinse and repeat for each disk.

 

EDIT: This just came to me.. maybe an unRaid GURU can give more insite.

 

Since, each drive is recoverable using standard ReiserFS, would it be possible to pull a drive out of the old system, stick it into the new system, manually mount the drive, and manually copy the data?  This would dramatically reduce the length of time it takes to copy files.

[RobJ]

Since, each drive is recoverable using standard ReiserFS, would it be possible to pull a drive out of the old system, stick it into the new system, manually mount the drive, and manually copy the data?  This would dramatically reduce the length of time it takes to copy files.

 

Certainly, especially if the new system has an eSATA port.  You won't even have to open up the new system, but you would still have to open up the old system, to pull the drives (unless maybe if you have a LONG eSATA cable, and connect to the drives in place, with systems side-by-side.  Use UnMENU to mount them, and mc to copy.

[rharvey]

Keep in mind that ALL the old drives are ATA not SATA

[SSD]

Not sure how much disk space you're talking about with 700 movies.  At 4G per movie, that is about 3T.  I also don't know the sizes of the drives you will use in the new system.  Assuming you are using 1T or 1.5T drives, you will need 2-4 of them.

 

You said you have 12 drives in the old system.  In order to move those drives - one at a time - from the old system to the new one seems labor intensive and potentially a little dangerous.  (There's always a small risk of a mistake, especially when creating a temporary setup like this).  With one or two disks this seems like a good idea, but 12?  Personally, I'd not go that route.

 

The inverse seems more plausible (taking one of the new disks and putting it in the old system).  You could fill it up and then put in another one.  2 or 3 disks would likely get the bulk of it.  Not sure if you have an available SATA port over there.  That would nix this concept.

 

I (personally) would likely do neither.  I'd suggest you set up the new box and NOT assign parity.  You can then mount the disks remotely as described by jzawacki  and copy the data over the network.  You should get upwards of 40MB/sec copying speed.

 

At that speed, copying 3T of data would take about 20 hours if my math is right.  (In contrast, with parity enabled on the new server, you'd be looking at 3x that time).

 

Then you can establish parity on the new system (an overnight operation).  You should keep the old system intact (powered down is fine) for at least a month or so, and run multiple parity checks on the new system to make sure all is well before scrapping the old one and re-purposing the old drives.