Okay, I'm ready to upgrade from 4.7 to 5.0 .. Couch Potato is not pretty much not working at all so I'm hoping an upgrade will get that working. Also I'd love to be able to use torrents through the unraid server.

 

How exactly do I upgrade? I've read a few threads but I'm looking for very simple instructions. I have a basic rig with 6 Harddrives (1 cache, 1 parity, 4 2TB for storage).

 

 

How long will the process take?

Do I need my liscence key or is everything on the USB? (i can barely remember how I setup unraid, its been so long).

 

Also I do NOT have a monitor attached to the server. Is this a problem or not? (last time I remember needing to type stuff in to setup the IP address and internet).

 

 

 

I need to:

 

1. Upgrade

2. Install/Reinstall:

-Sabnzbd

-Couch Potato

-Sickbeard

-Transmission

-Headphones

 

Is this all possible without a monitor to the server? (i.e. I have to depend on being able to SSH into the server from my windows desktop). 

This is FAR simpler if you have a monitor and keyboard on your server.    If you don't want to move things around to allow that, perhaps you could use a VGA switch [ http://www.cablewholesale.com/products/computer-products/switch-boxes/product-40h1-03602.php ]

 

... and a long VGA cable (I use a 50' cable) so you can switch to your server's display whenever you need to.    I simply plug a USB keyboard into the server and switch to that display whenever I need to do something from the console.

 

Monoprice has long VGA cables at very reasonable prices ...

 

50'  http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=102&cp_id=10201&cs_id=1020101&p_id=3572&seq=1&format=2

 

100"  http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=102&cp_id=10201&cs_id=1020101&p_id=3574&seq=1&format=2

 

 

But a monitor isn't absolutely necessary -- as long as everything goes well, you won't need it.

 

As for your other questions -- #1, ABSOLUTELY save your license key to one of your PC's  [it's stored in the Config folder on the flash drive]

 

Next, do a parity check and confirm that your server is completely healthy -- no sync errors and no disk errors.    If any sync errors are corrected, run it again to confirm it's now all clear.

 

In addition, print out a picture of the Web GUI so you know ALL of your drive serial numbers and what they're assigned to.

 

Now you're ready to do the upgrade.  The simplest way to be certain everything is done correctly is to reformat the flash drive and do a completely clean install of v5.0.5.    That ensures you don't have any residual "stuff" on the drive that won't work ... but it does, of course, also mean you'll need to reload your plugins, UnMenu, etc.    If you do that, be sure you also run MakeBootable so the flash drive will boot; and copy your key file (the one I told you to save above)  to the new Config folder.

 

Now you should be able to boot to the flash drive.    If you aren't using a monitor on the server, just wait a couple minutes; then see if you can access the Web GUI.  As long as you can, then all is well -- nothing else to do on the server (so you won't need a display).

 

Once you're at the Web GUI, assign all of your DATA drives (but not the cache and parity);  then Start the array and confirm everything looks good.  If ANY drive shows as unformatted, do NOT proceed -- you do NOT want UnRAID to format it.  (this should not be the case ... but if it is, post back for help)

 

Assuming your data all looks okay; you can Stop the array; assign the parity drive; and then Start it and let it do the initial parity sync.    When it's done, do a parity check to confirm all went well.  Then Stop it one last time and add the cache drive.

 

Done :-)    You're now ready to add your customizations ... and if you need console access you can simply Telnet to the server (or use Screen).