Main unRAID disk fails?

[black0ut]

If the unRAID disk fails (either the usb drive or a hard drive if installed over slackware), is the information on the drives in the unRAID recoverable?  Can you make an image of the drive/disk, reimage the drive/disk, and swap it in, and have it work fine?

[SSD]

Yes.  The entire array is parity protected.  That means that if any disk in the array fails, it can be rebuilt using the other drives in concert with a single parity disk.

 

Using unRAID you can protect 15 disks with just one parity disk.  If any one of the 16 (one of the data disks or the parity disk) fails, it can rebuild its contents onto a fresh disk.

 

It is all automatic - no need to "image" disks or anything.

 

I'd suggest you look at the "Best of the Forums" (see link in my sig) and the FAQ (you'll find a link to that on the Best of the Forums page, my sig just got full and there is no room for another link.  :'(

[WeeboTech]

If the unRAID disk fails (either the usb drive or a hard drive if installed over slackware), is the information on the drives in the unRAID recoverable? 

 

Yes, however you may need to recalculate parity.

The data on the drives itself would still exist.   It is suggested to backup the /boot directory to save te unraid configuration and superblock.

 

Can you make an image of the drive/disk, reimage the drive/disk, and swap it in, and have it work fine?

 

You would not need to image the flash drive, you can simply copy or rsync it.

You can swap it in as long as you have a valid key for a licensed flash drive.

This is the reason Limetech sells a multiple license discount of unRAID.

 

If you are using a hard drive for a slackware install, then use whatever normal linux backup procedures that are appropriate.

The license is tied to the flash drive.

[black0ut]

Yes.  The entire array is parity protected.  That means that if any disk in the array fails, it can be rebuilt using the other drives in concert with a single parity disk.

 

Using unRAID you can protect 15 disks with just one parity disk.  If any one of the 16 (one of the data disks or the parity disk) fails, it can rebuild its contents onto a fresh disk.

 

It is all automatic - no need to "image" disks or anything.

 

I'd suggest you look at the "Best of the Forums" (see link in my sig) and the FAQ (you'll find a link to that on the Best of the Forums page, my sig just got full and there is no room for another link.  :'(

 

I meant the usb drive, not one of the disks in the array.

 

If the unRAID disk fails (either the usb drive or a hard drive if installed over slackware), is the information on the drives in the unRAID recoverable? 

 

Yes, however you may need to recalculate parity.

The data on the drives itself would still exist.   It is suggested to backup the /boot directory to save te unraid configuration and superblock.

 

Can you make an image of the drive/disk, reimage the drive/disk, and swap it in, and have it work fine?

 

You would not need to image the flash drive, you can simply copy or rsync it.

You can swap it in as long as you have a valid key for a licensed flash drive.

This is the reason Limetech sells a multiple license discount of unRAID.

 

If you are using a hard drive for a slackware install, then use whatever normal linux backup procedures that are appropriate.

The license is tied to the flash drive.

 

I only suggesting imaging as I'm assuming a complete hard drive failure, so replacement would be easiest with reimaging.

 

So if I install unRAID over slackware, then have that disk die on me, I can be back up and running after I get a new HD, reimage, and recalculate parity?  unRAID would have no problems other than the needing to recalculate parity?

[RobJ]

Imaging is an option, but it seems like overkill.  After a year or more of using unRAID and accumulating a few addons and packages, I still can't even get to 45MB on my flash drive, and almost 42MB of that is just the standard unRAID distribution files, easily recopied.  There's much less than a MB of configuration files that I would want to keep, and if I lost them, I still would not have a problem restoring the array without even rebuilding parity.  Users can move their unRAID array to a new system, by carrying the hard drives of the array plus the unRAID flash drive, and install them in someone else's computer (assuming a compatible computer), and boot their array, possibly perfect on the first boot.  Sometimes they will need to correct drive assignments on the Devices page, then use the Trust My Array procedure, and in minutes the array will be fine.  There is usually no need to recalculate parity.  If you are booting from a hard disk and it failed, you would need to setup another hard disk as bootable, and add the unRAID and Slackware files to it, but should not be much different than that.  If you were to lose the unRAID flash drive, and you have an unRAID license (whether you were booting from it or not), then you would need a replacement for the flash drive AND request a new license key, since the key file is tied to the GUID of the flash drive.

 

As a special and perhaps extreme case, if you had only the basic system, no license, then you don't even need to carry the flash drive.  You would take your 2 or 3 unRAID hard drives with you, install them in a borrowed but compatible computer, borrow and prep a bootable flash drive, download and extract the unRAID software onto the flash, boot and assign the drives and run the Trust My Array procedure, and the array is fully operational with full parity protection, just as it was before you broke it down!

[black0ut]

Imaging is an option, but it seems like overkill.  After a year or more of using unRAID and accumulating a few addons and packages, I still can't even get to 45MB on my flash drive, and almost 42MB of that is just the standard unRAID distribution files, easily recopied.  There's much less than a MB of configuration files that I would want to keep, and if I lost them, I still would not have a problem restoring the array without even rebuilding parity.  Users can move their unRAID array to a new system, by carrying the hard drives of the array plus the unRAID flash drive, and install them in someone else's computer (assuming a compatible computer), and boot their array, possibly perfect on the first boot.  Sometimes they will need to correct drive assignments on the Devices page, then use the Trust My Array procedure, and in minutes the array will be fine.  There is usually no need to recalculate parity.  If you are booting from a hard disk and it failed, you would need to setup another hard disk as bootable, and add the unRAID and Slackware files to it, but should not be much different than that.  If you were to lose the unRAID flash drive, and you have an unRAID license (whether you were booting from it or not), then you would need a replacement for the flash drive AND request a new license key, since the key file is tied to the GUID of the flash drive.

 

As a special and perhaps extreme case, if you had only the basic system, no license, then you don't even need to carry the flash drive.  You would take your 2 or 3 unRAID hard drives with you, install them in a borrowed but compatible computer, borrow and prep a bootable flash drive, download and extract the unRAID software onto the flash, boot and assign the drives and run the Trust My Array procedure, and the array is fully operational with full parity protection, just as it was before you broke it down!

 

Perfect.  Exactly what I wanted to know.

[SSD]

Sorry I misunderstood the question.

 

If you keep a backup of the "config" directory everything else is easily reproducable.  if you don't have that backup, all you need to know is which drive is parity and which drives are in the array, and you can use the "trust my parity" procedure and be back up and running in a few minutes.