I don't really understand how to upgrade from 4.7 to 5.0.5.

 

Following these instructions I backed up my flash drive then deleted config/passwd & config/smbpasswd, config/shadow wasn't present. I then restarted my server and it was up and running I didn't get "Stopped. Configuration valid."

 

At what point do I download the new version and use it. Cause it seems like a do a lot of stuff that will ultimately end up being wiped when as instructed at the bottom of the page, I format my USB stick so why am I doing this if it'll be deleted, what am I missing?

Not sure what you're asking here.  It sounds like the upgrade went just fine & you're now up and running ... is that correct?    The "Stopped - Configuration Valid" message is only if the system is not set for auto-start.  Otherwise, it simply starts up.

 

As for reformatting and creating a new configuration from scratch -- that will also work fine; but, as you've already noted, it will also not have any of your customizations in it ... so if you're already running v5.0.5 from a successful upgrade, there's no reason to do that.    Typically, it's a good way to ensure there are no "residual pieces" from an earlier installation; but if you aren't having any issues, it's not at all necessary.

 

No I'm still on 4.7 and want to upgrade. I assumed the instructions were a step by step process of how you move from 4.7 or other earlier versions to the latest stable release but I'm confused cause it makes you do a load of stuff and then at the bottom of the page which I would have thought would be the final step it makes you format your USB thus surely undoing everything you just did.

 

Maybe it's just cause I'm tired but that's a bit confusing.

You must have misunderstood. Here is the portion from that link that applies to your situation:

• Version 4.7
  

[*] Prepare the flash: either shutdown your server and plug the flash into your PC or Stop the array and perform the following actions referencing the flash share on your network:

• Copy the files

  bzimage

  and

  bzroot

  from the zip file to the root of your flash device, overwriting the same-named files already there.
   
  

• If present, delete these files from the flash (sorry, you will have to re-enter all your users after booting this release):
  

  • config/passwd

    
     
    

  • config/shadow

    
     
    

  • config/smbpasswd

    
     
    

   

 

[*] Reboot your server.  Once boot-up has completed, you should see "Stopped. Configuration valid." array status with all disks assigned correctly except for the Cache disk. If you previously had a Cache disk assigned, you will need to re-assign it manually and re-apply any unique configuration settings for it.

 

[*] Carefully examine the Identification strings for each disk. If you see "MBR: error", or "MBR: unknown" for any disk, do not Start the array; instead post your finding in the Forum announcement thread for this release.  If everything looks ok, click Start to bring the array on-line.  Note: there is a new configuration setting on the Disk Settings page called "Enable auto start".  If you set this to "Yes", then upon next server boot, if the array is valid, then it will be automatically Started (this is the old behavior).

 

[*] Go to Utils/New Permissions and execute that utility to change file ownership and permission settings.  This is necessary for proper operation of the 5.0 security model.

 

[*] Go to Users page and re-enter all of your users.  If you plan on using SMB and/or AFP with either Secure or Private security mode, you must enter at least one user because the 'root' user name is no longer permitted for network share authentication.

 

You don't continue beyond this point, as those instructions are for upgrading from a different version than 4.7.

 

After you have completed the instruction that I have colored blue above in step 1, you have replaced the old version with the new version and the reboot at the beginning of step 2 should be booting into the new version.

 

There is the official guide to upgrading which is here:

 

      http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=UnRAID_Server_Version_5.0-beta_Release_Notes

 

And a upgrade guide that discusses potential problems and their solutions which was prepared by a knowledgeable user (and updated as more issues were found by others)

 

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

 

I personally would print both of them out, then read both of them and have them available for reference as you upgrade.  The other thing I would do it is connect a monitor and keyboard to the server if I had any issues.  When you see the login prompt, you will know that ver 5.05 has installed and running.  (The install might still have issues but it did boot and install.)

 

You MUST also run the 'New Permissions' utility under the 'Utils' Tab to gain full access to the shares.  (Step 4 of the LimeTech's upgrade instructions.  I point this out because a lot of people have missed doing this step for some reason.)  This utility can take a long time to run as it has to change the owner and permissions on every file in the shares, so be sure to wait until it finishes!

 

Hope this helps...

You must have misunderstood. Here is the portion from that link that applies to your situation:

Copy the files

bzimage

and

bzroot

from the zip file to the root of your flash device, overwriting the same-named files already there.

 

Thank you, I knew it'd be simple and of course I'm an idiot and missed an important bit lol.

 

Cheers.

 

The other thing I would do it is connect a monitor and keyboard to the server if I had any issues.

 

Yeah good point. A while a back I bought a keyboard, PCi-graphics card and leave it connected to my Monitor just to occasionally make sure everything is OK.

Anyone know what's gone on here, why are these two drives wrong now?

 

 

I always think I'm pretty OK with computers but I always find Unraid a bit confusing. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong again here but what this time?

Not enough detail shown to know (need serial #'s and sizes).

 

But do NOT Start the array at this point.

 

Do you KNOW for certain what the disk assignments were in v4.7?  [by serial #]

 

The best way to do this upgrade is a "clean install" of v5.0.5, but only after you've confirmed you have a clean array in v4.7 (no sync or disk errors on a parity check).

 

Do you have a backup of your v4.7 flash drive configuration, so you can revert to that before proceeding?

 

Not enough detail shown to know (need serial #'s and sizes).

 

But do NOT Start the array at this point.

 

Do you KNOW for certain what the disk assignments were in v4.7?  [by serial #]

 

The best way to do this upgrade is a "clean install" of v5.0.5, but only after you've confirmed you have a clean array in v4.7 (no sync or disk errors on a parity check).

 

Do you have a backup of your v4.7 flash drive configuration, so you can revert to that before proceeding?

 

Yeah I have a clean backup and am using it now, everything is Ok in 4.7 but when I start 5.0.5 even though they're in the same order 2 disks are wrong for some reason? anyway I need to move some files so I'll do a parity check overnight and try this again a bit later.

If you can verify that the data is good on those drives you can always do a New Config in 5.0.5 where it will re-create parity for you, however you want to make sure you are 100% sure the drives are good/valid.

 

You may also want to run a SMART report on those drives prior to upgrading to see if there are any disk related issues that may not be showing up in 4.7 for some reason, but are getting flagged in 5.0.5.

 

Theoretically if the disks have the same assignments, and the same parity disk they should be treated the same between 4.7 and 5.0.5.

 

I would do the parity check under 4.7 as you suggested you were going to, and run SMART reports on each of the drives to look for any issues.

As I noted above, you haven't shown enough detail to show why it might be thinking the drives are wrong.    But if you are CERTAIN that you have good parity, and the drives are error free;  then I'd just do a New Config with v5.0.5.

 

You can easily test this in a manner that will allow you to revert to v4.7:

 

(1)  BACKUP the complete flash drive contents, so you can re-set it to v4.7 if needed.

 

(2)  NOTE the drive assignments for all of your drives (the only one that's critical is parity).

 

(3)  Reformat the flash drive and put a fresh copy of v5.0.5 on it.

 

(4)  Boot to v5;  assign ONLY the data drives (NOT your parity drive); confirm no drives show as "Unformatted"; and Start the array.    Do NOT write to the array, but you can read all you want.  Browse your data and confirm you're seeing everything okay.

 

... as long as all is okay, you can Stop the array;  assign the parity drive;  and then Start the array and let it do the parity sync.    When it's done, run a parity check to confirm all went well.

 

Done      You're now running v5.0.5    It's now time to add any customizations you had (addins, plugins, etc.)

 

Thanks for the advice chaps, will try out your suggestions later tonight. Anyway I did the parity check and it's fine and to begin with tried 5.0.5 again but same problem.

 

See here

Great now it won't boot from the USB at all.

 

I knew I'd regret starting this.

Great now it won't boot from the USB at all.

 

I knew I'd regret starting this.

 

Not a great attitude, dude. We'd all still be running MS DOS at that rate.

 

I am going to guess you still have backup of your 4.7 config, so worst case scenario is you re-format your USB, copy the 4.7 backup onto it, run make_bootable, and you should be back to where you started.

 

However, since you are down and out, I would suggest you reformat the USB, copy over 5.0.5, run make bootable and see if it boots. Then try and attach all your data disks (NOT your parity) and see if the array starts. If it does, add the parity disk and you should be fine.

 

Your problem is very simple:  Both disk and disk4 have HPA's (host protected areas).  That's apparent from the size of the drives [recall earlier I said we need additional info  ].  A standard 1.5TB drive will have 1,465,138,552 blocks;  yours has slight less;  ditto your 1TB drive, which would natively have 976,762,552 blocks without the HPA.    The problem is that v4.7 and v5 "see" the HPA slightly differently -- so there's a 4 block difference.  Not worth the hassle to fix ... the amount of "missing" space is trivial -- so just do a new config with v5 and all will be well.

 

Without going into a bunch of unnecessary detail, the simplest "fix" is to just do as I suggested earlier (and bkastner just suggested as well) ==> simply create a new v5 bootable USB and forget about "upgrading" ... just add these disks to a "new" array you create with v5.

 

Simply assign your 4 data disks to the array, and confirm everything looks okay;  then Stop the array, add the parity disk; and let it do the parity sync.

 

By the way, if the disks didn't have this issue the upgrade would be very simple -- v5 would have simply started up just fine.

 

I am going to guess you still have backup of your 4.7 config, so worst case scenario is you re-format your USB, copy the 4.7 backup onto it, run make_bootable, and you should be back to where you started.

 

The worst case scenario kinda happened. I tried the new config 5.0.5 install and that wouldn't boot so I thought fine I give up let me just go back to 4.7 but now that won't boot either. Tried the USB drive in my main PC & it works fine so god knows what's happening. Disk Boot failure is displayed now whatever I do. Working for bloody years and now because I dared to try an upgrade it's gone to crap.

Okay, so you've done a complete reformat of the USB drive, copied the 5.0.5 files over and run make_bootable?

 

Have you confirmed in your BIOS that nothing has changed and that it's trying to boot off of the USB drive? As long as it sees the USB drive as first boot device, and you've done the make_bootable there isn't any reason you shouldn't get it to start to boot up.

 

Disk boot failure is potentially due to it not seeing your USB drive as first boot device in BIOS and it's trying to boot off of one of your hard drives (which obviously don't have an OS to boot).

 

Okay, so you've done a complete reformat of the USB drive, copied the 5.0.5 files over and run make_bootable?

 

Have you confirmed in your BIOS that nothing has changed and that it's trying to boot off of the USB drive? As long as it sees the USB drive as first boot device, and you've done the make_bootable there isn't any reason you shouldn't get it to start to boot up.

 

Disk boot failure is potentially due to it not seeing your USB drive as first boot device in BIOS and it's trying to boot off of one of your hard drives (which obviously don't have an OS to boot).

 

Yup I've done all that and it just doesn't like the USB anymore. Just tried it again in my main PC and it happily goes into unraid, tried my Windows USB in the unraid PC and that works too. I'm incandescent with rage right now, I knew there was a good chance I'd mess it up but for the bloomin' hardware to just randomly decide not to work together is just gutting. It's probably gonna take me hours and cost me money just to get back to where I started now, why did I bother.

 

Chances are it's something fairly simple and not overly costly.

 

You mentioned you have another USB drive which you tried in UnRAID. Does that mean this new USB drive booted UnRAID successfully? If so, then all you need to do is provide the new GUID to Tom and he will generate a new UnRAID key for you against that USB drive (or whatever one you want to move to).

 

 

Well I've spent some time playing about with it and I don't know what's happened. I had a 16GB Windows 7 USB drive and that works in the Unraid Server so I thought let me format that put Unraid on it and see if it'll boot and yeah it does work.

 

So I then took the original drive that now keeps getting a boot error and tried it a few more times with Unraid my 4.7 backup & the new 5.0.5 with no joy. I don't know what the hell happened there but it just won't work. I then tried the same drive with Memtest - Auto-installer for USB Keys and I didn't think that'd work but it does. So here I have a usb drive that seems to work perfectly but my Unraid server will not read it if it has Unraid on it.

You need to lower the stress level a bit.

 

Follow the exact same process you did with your 16GB flash drive that DOES boot okay with your original USB flash drive.  Be sure you reformat it;  then copy the entire v5 UnRAID distribution to it; and run MakeBootable.

 

Once you have it booting to UnRAID on your server, do NOT assign any drives to it.  Go to \\Tower\Flash and copy your UnRAID key file to the Config folder.    Then reboot ... and THEN add your data drives to the configuration.    After you've added your data drives, Start the array -- and then confirm you can see them okay over the network.  Then Stop the array; add the parity drive (your Hitachi drive with S/N ML0220F30SL74D); and then Start it again and let the parity sync complete.

 

If you don't have a keyboard and monitor attached to your server, do so.  You need to be able to confirm it's actually booting from the USB flash drive.  Given all the changes you've tried lately, that could easily not be the case ... which would explain why you're getting "boot errors".    Watch the initial boot process ... if it's not booting to the USB flash unit, then you need to reset the BIOS so it's first on the boot list.

 

 

You need to lower the stress level a bit.

 

Sorry but was very annoyed.

 

Follow the exact same process you did with your 16GB flash drive that DOES boot okay with your original USB flash drive.  Be sure you reformat it;  then copy the entire v5 UnRAID distribution to it; and run MakeBootable.

 

As mentioned I've done that several times now. Even tried normal format instead of Quick one, tried Fat instead of FAT32 nothing worked.

 

If you don't have a keyboard and monitor attached to your server, do so.

They're permanently connected.

 

Watch the initial boot process ... if it's not booting to the USB flash unit, then you need to reset the BIOS so it's first on the boot list.

 

I double checked the BIOS & just to make sure it's booting from the correct drive I'm manually selecting it from the boot menu.

 

 

I double checked the BIOS & just to make sure it's booting from the correct drive I'm manually selecting it from the boot menu.

 

Does it boot to the same flash drive if you've configured it as a bootable MemTest flash drive?

(Following exactly the same process to select it as the first boot device)