Questions around setting up a second unraid server


grither

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I am a fairly longtime unraid user.  i have a 24 bay server which is almost full!  I have bought a second server, that i intend to install unraid on.  I had a couple of questions for those that have two servers up and running:

 

1.  I intend to follow the setup guide, but this is likely oriented towards having only one server up and running.  Is there anything particular I need to do when setting up a second?  for example, I will give a different IP address, different name, but wondering if there is anything else i should be worried about?

2.  If i preclear drives on one server, can they be used on the other?  also, the new server will be unraid 6, and the existing one is unraid 5, does this make a difference for the preclear question?

3.  Is there a way to physically move one drive from the existing server/array, into the new, while preserving data on the drive?  For example, my existing array has about 20 drives of media, and 4 drives of non-media (various backups, etc).  i want to move the non-media drives into the new server.  anything i should be wary of?

 

Any thoughts anyone has are appreciated!

 

 

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I am a fairly longtime unraid user.  i have a 24 bay server which is almost full!  I have bought a second server, that i intend to install unraid on.  I had a couple of questions for those that have two servers up and running:

 

1.  I intend to follow the setup guide, but this is likely oriented towards having only one server up and running.  Is there anything particular I need to do when setting up a second?  for example, I will give a different IP address, different name, but wondering if there is anything else i should be worried about?

I always use DHCP and have my router reserve IP by MAC address, but however you get there, different IP and name for each.

2.  If i preclear drives on one server, can they be used on the other?  also, the new server will be unraid 6, and the existing one is unraid 5, does this make a difference for the preclear question?

As long as you use the latest preclear script on both.

3.  Is there a way to physically move one drive from the existing server/array, into the new, while preserving data on the drive?  For example, my existing array has about 20 drives of media, and 4 drives of non-media (various backups, etc).  i want to move the non-media drives into the new server.  anything i should be wary of?

If you add a drive to a parity protected array unRAID will want to clear it so parity will remain valid. If you do New Config, you can add as many drives as you want and unRAID will rebuild parity instead of clearing them. Of course, you will also have to New Config and rebuild parity on the server you remove drives from as well.

 

Any thoughts anyone has are appreciated!

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As trurl noted, as long as you do a New Config there won't be any need for UnRAID to clear a drive, so you can easily (a) remove your non-media drives from the old server by doing a New Config on it and NOT assigning the non-media drives to the config; and (b) add the non-media drives from the old server to the new one by being sure they are included in the initial configuration (or by doing a New Config to include them) BEFORE you do a parity sync.

 

Note that once you do a New Config on the old server, it will be unprotected until a new parity sync is done ... so be SURE all is well before you start.    i.e. do a parity check, and if any errors are corrected in the process, repeat it to ensure the next one is completely clean.

 

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Thanks to both for the quick and great feedback!  I will ensure I follow your advice.

 

if i choose to do some copying from old server to new server (ie not transfer the physical drives), is there a good way to do this?  should I use my windows machine to copy between share on old server to share on new server?  or is there a way to do this without using my windows machine?

 

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Thanks to both for the quick and great feedback!  I will ensure I follow your advice.

 

if i choose to do some copying from old server to new server (ie not transfer the physical drives), is there a good way to do this?  should I use my windows machine to copy between share on old server to share on new server?  or is there a way to do this without using my windows machine?

Unassigned Devices plugin will let you mount shares from other machines and then you could use mc (Midnight Commander) or the command line to do the copy between the 2 servers and leave the Windows machine out of it.

 

It is also possible to user that same plugin to mount drives outside the array, so you could just temporarily attach the drives from the other server by USB or SATA and copy from them that way.

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Thanks to both for the quick and great feedback!  I will ensure I follow your advice.

 

if i choose to do some copying from old server to new server (ie not transfer the physical drives), is there a good way to do this?  should I use my windows machine to copy between share on old server to share on new server?  or is there a way to do this without using my windows machine?

Unassigned Devices plugin will let you mount shares from other machines and then you could use mc (Midnight Commander) or the command line to do the copy between the 2 servers and leave the Windows machine out of it.

 

It is also possible to user that same plugin to mount drives outside the array, so you could just temporarily attach the drives from the other server by USB or SATA and copy from them that way.

 

ok thanks... I'm not totally sure i understand the above, but i'll research it further!  thanks

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Personally, I prefer to simply use my main system (Windows) to do transfers between my servers.

 

There's really no performance issue, since the Gb network can easily provide data as fast (or faster) than UnRAID can write it ... and I prefer the convenience of just using Windows Explorer or TeraCopy to do the copies.

 

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ok thanks everyone.  I've been reading about the new config command but I haven't found too much documentation on it, perhaps because its straightforward.

 

As per the above, i will have to do this twice, once when I remove drives from the old server, and again when i put the drives in the new server.

 

is this the process?

 

existing server:

1.  make note of drive arrangement, and note which drives are to be removed

2.  stop array

3.  shut down server

4.  remove noted drives

5.  start server

6.  guessing main gui will show 'drives missing' or 'unable to start array' or something, so i assume i will choose 'new config' under the menu options

7.  under new config, set my current drive as parity, set my cache drive, and just put all other drives in whichever slot

8.  start array, at which time, parity rebuild will occur?

 

new server:

1.  ensure unraid installed, server boots, and key is purchased

2.  physically install drives into new server, some of which have data on them (ie I am bringing over say 6 drives from previous server, about 3 will have data on them, and 3 will be 'empty')

3.  there will be no array defined for this new server, so i assume i will go to new config

4.  setup parity drive by using the largest drive.  the parity drive is actually NOT from the previous server, but it is a precleared drive i have 'on the shelf' that i intended to use as a backup in case of emergency.

5.  No cache drive to setup, I don't think i'll be using cache on this server

6.  assign all other drives to whichever slots

7.  start array, initial parity begins building

8.  shares- on this new server, no shares will be setup however there will be top level folders exist on many of the drives.  i believe my reading indicates that the top level folders on the drives will be automatically setup as shares? 

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Basically your outline is correct.  I'd do the New Config on the old server before shutting it down so you'll never have any "missing" drives.    You don't have to Start it after setting the config (which will do the parity sync) ... you can just shut it down, and then when you reboot later (after physically removing the drives) it will do a parity sync when you start the array.

 

On the new server, you won't have to go to New Config ... since there's no configuration defined, it will simply be ready for you to assign the drives.

 

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Thanks Gary.  on the new server, i agree there won't be any previous config, so it seems odd to do a new one.  however, i was a bit worried as some drives will have data on them- if i just assign a parity drive, and the data drives, then when i start the array, it won't try to preclear or anything?  it will just recognize that these drives have data, and auto create shares?

 

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Thanks Gary.  on the new server, i agree there won't be any previous config, so it seems odd to do a new one.  however, i was a bit worried as some drives will have data on them- if i just assign a parity drive, and the data drives, then when i start the array, it won't try to preclear or anything?  it will just recognize that these drives have data, and auto create shares?

So don't assign a parity drive right away. Only assign data drives, start the array and make sure all your data is there, and set any custom share properties. Then you can stop the array, assign a parity drive, and it will calculate parity.
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Thanks Gary.  on the new server, i agree there won't be any previous config, so it seems odd to do a new one.  however, i was a bit worried as some drives will have data on them- if i just assign a parity drive, and the data drives, then when i start the array, it won't try to preclear or anything?  it will just recognize that these drives have data, and auto create shares?

So don't assign a parity drive right away. Only assign data drives, start the array and make sure all your data is there, and set any custom share properties. Then you can stop the array, assign a parity drive, and it will calculate parity.

 

okay sounds reasonable, thanks.  if i start the array with data drives assigned, but no parity, do you think that shares will be created?  I though i read this but wondering if anyone has gone through it.  if shares are not created, i'm not exactly sure what to do, since some of the drives will have folders representing shares from my old server... will i have to recreate them?  i doubt its hard, I just don't want to create a new share when there is existing data, and accidentally overwrite something!  maybe i'm worrying for nothing, but just want to understand what to expect

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Thanks Gary.  on the new server, i agree there won't be any previous config, so it seems odd to do a new one.  however, i was a bit worried as some drives will have data on them- if i just assign a parity drive, and the data drives, then when i start the array, it won't try to preclear or anything?  it will just recognize that these drives have data, and auto create shares?

So don't assign a parity drive right away. Only assign data drives, start the array and make sure all your data is there, and set any custom share properties. Then you can stop the array, assign a parity drive, and it will calculate parity.

 

okay sounds reasonable, thanks.  if i start the array with data drives assigned, but no parity, do you think that shares will be created?  I though i read this but wondering if anyone has gone through it.  if shares are not created, i'm not exactly sure what to do, since some of the drives will have folders representing shares from my old server... will i have to recreate them?  i doubt its hard, I just don't want to create a new share when there is existing data, and accidentally overwrite something!  maybe i'm worrying for nothing, but just want to understand what to expect

unRAID will automatically create a share from any top level folders on cache or array, but those automatically created shares will have default settings, so you may need to configure them if you need that.
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Thanks Gary.  on the new server, i agree there won't be any previous config, so it seems odd to do a new one.  however, i was a bit worried as some drives will have data on them- if i just assign a parity drive, and the data drives, then when i start the array, it won't try to preclear or anything?  it will just recognize that these drives have data, and auto create shares?

So don't assign a parity drive right away. Only assign data drives, start the array and make sure all your data is there, and set any custom share properties. Then you can stop the array, assign a parity drive, and it will calculate parity.

 

okay sounds reasonable, thanks.  if i start the array with data drives assigned, but no parity, do you think that shares will be created?  I though i read this but wondering if anyone has gone through it.  if shares are not created, i'm not exactly sure what to do, since some of the drives will have folders representing shares from my old server... will i have to recreate them?  i doubt its hard, I just don't want to create a new share when there is existing data, and accidentally overwrite something!  maybe i'm worrying for nothing, but just want to understand what to expect

unRAID will automatically create a share from any top level folders on cache or array, but those automatically created shares will have default settings, so you may need to configure them if you need that.

 

perfect thanks!

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Actually, it only creates shares from top-level folders IF user shares are enabled.  [i believe they ARE enabled by default in v6, so yes, they should be automatically created with default settings]

 

Also, there's no reason to not assign a parity drive when you create your initial configuration => no drives will be "cleared" ... they'll simply be part of the initial configuration.    The only time a drive needs to be cleared is if you're ADDING it to an EXISTING parity-protected array.    When you first create the configuration ... whether the initial configuration or after a "New Config" ... all of the data drives are simply used as is.

 

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Also, there's no reason to not assign a parity drive when you create your initial configuration => no drives will be "cleared" ... they'll simply be part of the initial configuration. 
That is true except if you aren't 1000% sure which drive is supposed to be parity. If you are scared, it's better to not assign a drive to the parity slot until you are sure, that way no accidents can happen. The parity generation will take the same amount of time either way, so the only thing that changes is being able to verify that your data drives are in the slots you want them before you start the parity process. I've seen too many people think they had it correct and biff the assignment only to wipe out data. Just yesterday somebody tried to wipe out a data drive that way and was saved by HPA. (Never thought I'd see HPA be a good thing with unraid)
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Also, there's no reason to not assign a parity drive when you create your initial configuration => no drives will be "cleared" ... they'll simply be part of the initial configuration. 
That is true except if you aren't 1000% sure which drive is supposed to be parity. If you are scared, it's better to not assign a drive to the parity slot until you are sure, that way no accidents can happen. The parity generation will take the same amount of time either way, so the only thing that changes is being able to verify that your data drives are in the slots you want them before you start the parity process. I've seen too many people think they had it correct and biff the assignment only to wipe out data. Just yesterday somebody tried to wipe out a data drive that way and was saved by HPA. (Never thought I'd see HPA be a good thing with unraid)

I remember that thread! ;D
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Agree -- if there's ANY doubt about which drives have data and which were the parity/cache units, simply assigning everything as data will make that crystal clear and eliminate any chance of starting a parity sync that's going to overwrite your data.

 

In this case, the OP clearly has a list of the drive #'s, and is in fact using a new drive for parity ... so he clearly knows which drive to assign ... but it's certainly true that in general if there's ANY doubt, it's best to be safe and not assign the parity drive until you've confirmed that all your data drives are correctly assigned.

 

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