December 18, 201510 yr I have my system right where I want it and it works great. Now a friend of mine wants to buy a server. I'm trying to think through how I could easily duplicate my system. I know I can copy the files over, I'm assuming that I'd just replay the Pro.key file, change the config. Wondering about Plex, how to have it 'start over' without having to reinstall... Perhaps easier just to start over, but thought it would be handy if its easier this way... Thoughts wizen'd ones?
December 18, 201510 yr Community Expert Without more details about what exactly you want to duplicate, I will just suggest you explore your flash drive. Most of the files there are text and you can see what's in them and probably figure out what they do and where in the webUI they come from. All of the settings are in the config folder or subfolders of config, including plugins and their settings, and docker settings. The main things that you can't duplicate are config/super.dat, and config/*.key . super.dat has the disk serial numbers and of course the key file will be different on different flash drives.
December 18, 201510 yr Author The main purpose is to have a 'blank' system that has all of the apps/configs installed, so I can easily create a new system. I'm playing around with the idea of building and selling systems. So your point about key and dat files are important. I'm sure there are similar issues with Plex, etc.
December 18, 201510 yr Community Expert The main purpose is to have a 'blank' system that has all of the apps/configs installed, so I can easily create a new system. I'm playing around with the idea of building and selling systems. So your point about key and dat files are important. I'm sure there are similar issues with Plex, etc. Well, the problem with duplicating apps exactly is they need to already have disks and possibly content before they are started. In the case of dockers, they need to have the virtual disk (docker.img) already available before they can be created and started. It might be possible to copy some of this but it is probably just as easy to set it up from scratch using a few notes unless you are really going for some sort of production line approach. You could definitely copy the docker templates so you wouldn't have to enter all of that for each docker again. Are you familiar with the templates and other things stored on your flash?
December 18, 201510 yr Author No, I've not heard of templates. Sounds like exactly what I want. And yes, I'm thinking 'production', small scale and mostly thinking of convenience - i.e. the fastest way to build a system with minimal errors so staff could do the builds... I grew up working for a large PC Reseller and we built massive amounts of systems using 'templates' of sorts... back in the early days, so no sophisticated disk images as today, but the concept is the same... Get one image working, then easily and error free creation of new system, change a few configs or whatever...
December 18, 201510 yr Community Expert No, I've not heard of templates. Sounds like exactly what I want... Well, docker templates are exactly what you already have. The settings for each docker you have installed is stored in a template (XML) file on your flash drive under config/plugins/dockerMan/templates-user. On the Docker page, you can select one of these "my-docker" templates and it will be loaded up with the settings from the template and then you push the button and the docker gets downloaded from docker hub and when it runs it will use the volume mappings and other settings you had stored in the template.
December 18, 201510 yr All of the settings are in the config folder or subfolders of config, including plugins and their settings, and docker settings. The main things that you can't duplicate are config/super.dat, and config/*.key . super.dat has the disk serial numbers and of course the key file will be different on different flash drives. Those are important, but there are others too, many of which would need to be customized for each installation. For example, you would probably want to customize ident.cfg, and network.cfg would need the right local settings. And share.cfg cannot really be set up, until the drives are installed and the share folders created (can't have shares if no drives, and can't have drives without new serial numbers). I think what I would do is create a step by step on paper, and then keep refining it as ideas come in. Here's a possible list to start with - * Build the system, all hardware installed (all drives Precleared?) * Memtest, and any other checkout testing * Prepare clean flash drive with new and clean unRAID system (copy your prepared unRAID flash image, then run make_bootable) * Boot unRAID * Configure basic identity info, timezone, etc * Check the network settings, change to static whatever the router has assigned [optional] * Assign data and Cache drives (not the parity drive), and let them format * Enable User Shares, create share folders (by script?) on the drives (don't configure them) * Install your selected set of plugins, with limited or no configuration * Enable Dockers, and install your selected set of containers, with only limited configuration * Shut system down * Edit flash (by script or batch file?), replacing config files with your pre-configured ones, for the base unRAID system and the plugins and the containers * Restart system, and do further configuration if needed * Assign Parity drive, and let it build parity (the one really long step, but you can walk away while it works over-night) Later, you may discover where you can cheat/shortcut, e.g. where you can copy whole plugin folders and configs to the flash without manually installing them, etc.
December 18, 201510 yr Author Great list thanks for this. I'm installing a new system right now and have run into a problem that preclear can't run because there is no disk.cfg. How does that get created? I've looked through the forum, but no-one seems to discuss this issue. Perhaps disk.cfg gets created after I've started the array the first time? But I don't want to start the array until I've precleared the disks...so stuck until I figure how to create disk.cfg... I looked through the startup videos and it does not even mention preclear, which I'm surprised given the significant discussion on the importance of that process for long-term stability of a system...
December 18, 201510 yr Great list thanks for this. I'm installing a new system right now and have run into a problem that preclear can't run because there is no disk.cfg. How does that get created? I've looked through the forum, but no-one seems to discuss this issue. Perhaps disk.cfg gets created after I've started the array the first time? But I don't want to start the array until I've precleared the disks...so stuck until I figure how to create disk.cfg... I looked through the startup videos and it does not even mention preclear, which I'm surprised given the significant discussion on the importance of that process for long-term stability of a system... Yeah, that was an oversight on gfjardim's part with the plugin. Plugin doesn't work correctly if there are no disks assigned to the array. Reason why none of LT's videos mention preclear is because preclear is not part of unRaid, but rather a third party add-on
December 18, 201510 yr Author I found this as the answer... So start the array with the disk to be precleared so it builds "disk.cfg", stop the array, remove the drive from array, build "new config", then preclear_disk.sh should work? But I like your answer better, means I wouldn't have had to go through the gyration of starting and stopping the array... Preclears in progress!
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