Migrating arrays

[CasanovaFly]

Hello all,

 

I have a question regarding migrating arrays. Here's the hypothetical: I want to build a server, but don't want to commit to the full cost just yet. I have enough spare parts kicking around to get one going with minimal investment, but I want to know how easy that will be to change in the future.

 

Here are the parts I've got to hypothetically throw together:

- LGA775 nForce 790i Ultra + Q9550 + RAM

- plenty of HDDs (would be buying three new 4TB Reds as well)

- Antec 900 case

- old GPU (no on-chip video on Q9550)

 

I would hook all the HDDs up via the motherboard's SATA ports.

 

How easy would that be to migrate to a Norco 4224 and run off of SAS cards?

[bkasten]

The short answer: Yup!   

 

The longer answer: This is just how unRAID works. Try it out on hardware on-hand, and once you are convinced, build the monster! Or at least a better unit, with parts that are more server-centric.

 

At least that was my view.

 

As far as moving to new hardware? No problem. unRAID doesn't really care about motherboards (as long as it recognizes the chipsets, NIC's etc.). Just unplug the USB-drive (vers. 5 +) from the old unit, and plug it into the new unit, with all the hard drives installed, and you should be good to go.

 

So far, I have migrated 4 times, and I am planning my next migration now.

 

bkasten

[garycase]

As bkasten noted, it's trivial to migrate ... that's one of the really nice things about UnRAID.

 

The ONLY issue is whether or not the underlying Linux "knows" about the hardware on the new system -- and it's VERY likely that it does.    Occasionally a new system will have an unsupported NIC, but even that's very easy to resolve ... Tom is very good at adding drivers for new NICs when requested; or you can simply buy an add-in card with a supported NIC; or you can just ask on the forum and one of the Linux gurus will likely tell you exactly which driver to add.    There have also been a few incompatibilities with SATA controllers ... but if you simply buy cards that you know folks are using with UnRAID that won't be an issue either.

 

But for the vast majority of cases, with UnRAID v5 or later it's simply a matter of moving the disks to the new system (plug them into any SATA controllers on that system); plugging in the flash drive; and booting 

[CasanovaFly]

The short answer: Yup!   

 

The longer answer: This is just how unRAID works. Try it out on hardware on-hand, and once you are convinced, build the monster! Or at least a better unit, with parts that are more server-centric.

 

At least that was my view.

 

As far as moving to new hardware? No problem. unRAID doesn't really care about motherboards (as long as it recognizes the chipsets, NIC's etc.). Just unplug the USB-drive (vers. 5 +) from the old unit, and plug it into the new unit, with all the hard drives installed, and you should be good to go.

 

So far, I have migrated 4 times, and I am planning my next migration now.

 

bkasten

 

No s***. That's phenomenal.

 

What kind of migrations have you made? Have you gone from SATA to SAS?

 

As bkasten noted, it's trivial to migrate ... that's one of the really nice things about UnRAID.

 

The ONLY issue is whether or not the underlying Linux "knows" about the hardware on the new system -- and it's VERY likely that it does.    Occasionally a new system will have an unsupported NIC, but even that's very easy to resolve ... Tom is very good at adding drivers for new NICs when requested; or you can simply buy an add-in card with a supported NIC; or you can just ask on the forum and one of the Linux gurus will likely tell you exactly which driver to add.    There have also been a few incompatibilities with SATA controllers ... but if you simply buy cards that you know folks are using with UnRAID that won't be an issue either.

 

But for the vast majority of cases, with UnRAID v5 or later it's simply a matter of moving the disks to the new system (plug them into any SATA controllers on that system); plugging in the flash drive; and booting 

 

So it sounds like the only thing that may damn a migration is NIC or SATA incompatibility. And since I'm going to make this my new server home, I'll run anything by everyone here to see what's good. I assume the only incompatibility issue will be migrating TO an incompatible NIC/SATA, rather than from?

 

My biggest question right now is whether going from onboard SATA LGA755 to SAS cards on LGA1150 will be an issue. Anything after that is gravy. Second question: what about going onboard SATA LGA1150 to SAS cards LGA1150?

[garycase]

So it sounds like the only thing that may damn a migration is NIC or SATA incompatibility. And since I'm going to make this my new server home, I'll run anything by everyone here to see what's good.

 

Good plan -- that will certainly eliminate any chance of incompatibility.

 

 

I assume the only incompatibility issue will be migrating TO an incompatible NIC/SATA, rather than from?

 

    If you had an incompatible NIC/SATA port on your old system, it wouldn't work    ... so you'd hardly be migrating from it !!

 

 

My biggest question right now is whether going from onboard SATA LGA755 to SAS cards on LGA1150 will be an issue.

 

No problem at all (as long as the cards are supported).

 

 

Second question: what about going onboard SATA LGA1150 to SAS cards LGA1150?

 

Ditto ... as long as the ports you're using are supported by UnRAID, you can freely move drives around to whatever port you want.

 

[bkasten]

The short answer: Yup!   

 

The longer answer: This is just how unRAID works. Try it out on hardware on-hand, and once you are convinced, build the monster! Or at least a better unit, with parts that are more server-centric.

 

At least that was my view.

 

As far as moving to new hardware? No problem. unRAID doesn't really care about motherboards (as long as it recognizes the chipsets, NIC's etc.). Just unplug the USB-drive (vers. 5 +) from the old unit, and plug it into the new unit, with all the hard drives installed, and you should be good to go.

 

So far, I have migrated 4 times, and I am planning my next migration now.

 

bkasten

 

No s***. That's phenomenal.

 

What kind of migrations have you made? Have you gone from SATA to SAS?

 

As bkasten noted, it's trivial to migrate ... that's one of the really nice things about UnRAID.

 

The ONLY issue is whether or not the underlying Linux "knows" about the hardware on the new system -- and it's VERY likely that it does.    Occasionally a new system will have an unsupported NIC, but even that's very easy to resolve ... Tom is very good at adding drivers for new NICs when requested; or you can simply buy an add-in card with a supported NIC; or you can just ask on the forum and one of the Linux gurus will likely tell you exactly which driver to add.    There have also been a few incompatibilities with SATA controllers ... but if you simply buy cards that you know folks are using with UnRAID that won't be an issue either.

 

But for the vast majority of cases, with UnRAID v5 or later it's simply a matter of moving the disks to the new system (plug them into any SATA controllers on that system); plugging in the flash drive; and booting 

 

So it sounds like the only thing that may damn a migration is NIC or SATA incompatibility. And since I'm going to make this my new server home, I'll run anything by everyone here to see what's good. I assume the only incompatibility issue will be migrating TO an incompatible NIC/SATA, rather than from?

 

My biggest question right now is whether going from onboard SATA LGA755 to SAS cards on LGA1150 will be an issue. Anything after that is gravy. Second question: what about going onboard SATA LGA1150 to SAS cards LGA1150?

 

To answer your question about the type of migrations I have made:

 

When I started with unRAID, I had no old equipment around.

 

That meant I had to buy new. So I bought cheap where I felt at the time I could. That means motherboard/memory/proc. This was my first computer build ever. It worked well for 2 years, but as I ran out of sata ports, and slots, it started to get a bit slow for the monthly parity checks.

 

So I bought a more current consumer grade motherboard, with more memory and a current, low-end proc. This worked well for a while.

 

My next big idea was to split the unit into two. At the time, hard drives were VERY expensive, and still relatively small. So now I have two separate unRAIDs. This has been working VERY well for me.

 

But now there have released/announced some very large HDDs. That and I have caught the virtualization bug.

 

That has me thinking again...

 

I stood up a "test" server for ESXi 5.5. That made me very happy      Happy to the point that now I am re-thinking my whole server needs.

 

The current plan is to purchase all new (except the case) with an eye towards a HUGE (well, huge for home use) ESXi machine, tons of memory, etc. Re-combine the two unRAIDs down to one, Run unRAID as a VM, plus all the other vm-servers I have been collecting, and reduce my footprint down to one server (production) in the house.

 

Hopefully, this will free up some hardware for my other test machines I like to have around.

 

Part of the plan will be to compile a list of parts, and submit that list to the board for others to comment on. (That means you garycase, BobPhoenix  and others). There is just too much expertise available here to pass up. I think even a seasoned unRAID builder can profit from others.

[CasanovaFly]

To answer your question about the type of migrations I have made:

 

When I started with unRAID, I had no old equipment around.

 

That meant I had to buy new. So I bought cheap where I felt at the time I could. That means motherboard/memory/proc. This was my first computer build ever. It worked well for 2 years, but as I ran out of sata ports, and slots, it started to get a bit slow for the monthly parity checks.

 

So I bought a more current consumer grade motherboard, with more memory and a current, low-end proc. This worked well for a while.

 

My next big idea was to split the unit into two. At the time, hard drives were VERY expensive, and still relatively small. So now I have two separate unRAIDs. This has been working VERY well for me.

 

But now there have released/announced some very large HDDs. That and I have caught the virtualization bug.

 

That has me thinking again...

 

I stood up a "test" server for ESXi 5.5. That made me very happy      Happy to the point that now I am re-thinking my whole server needs.

 

The current plan is to purchase all new (except the case) with an eye towards a HUGE (well, huge for home use) ESXi machine, tons of memory, etc. Re-combine the two unRAIDs down to one, Run unRAID as a VM, plus all the other vm-servers I have been collecting, and reduce my footprint down to one server (production) in the house.

 

Hopefully, this will free up some hardware for my other test machines I like to have around.

 

Part of the plan will be to compile a list of parts, and submit that list to the board for others to comment on. (That means you garycase, BobPhoenix  and others). There is just too much expertise available here to pass up. I think even a seasoned unRAID builder can profit from others.

 

Thank you. That's confidence-inducing. Looking forward to working with unRAID!