May 26, 201610 yr Total unraid newb here... I have been testing the trial of 6.2.0-beta21 for a month or so. It has some weird beta behaviours, like eg: using only ~10% cpu on writing to array without cache and using 80%-95% of CPU when reading or copying from the array, which is silly I want to buy the pro version and test the last stable 6.1.9 with maximum allowed drives before deciding if I switch my main home server to unraid. Anyway, what is the proper way to completely reinstall unraid from scratch? [*]I will not be using the same drive for parity. First of all, I was using dual parity in the beta, now I'll use single parity. Second, I will be adding larger disks, so I will need to use another larger disk for parity. Are there any problems I don't know about with this plan? [*]I do not want to loose the data on the data drives (that have been in the array). Are there any specific things/steps I need to do to be able to use old data drives in a new unraid array in the new unraid after reinstall? [*]Can I move the drives around when reinstalling? I mean now I only used 6 drives (trial limit). But I want to use the maximum allowed in the next testing. Now, the drives have been connected to the mobo, but I want to use 2x SGI Rackable SE3016 16 drives SATA SAS Expander Bays and connect them either via LSI SAS 9201-16e HBA or some old SUPERMICRO AOC-SAT2-MV8s. Will the new unraid have any problems using the drives from old array, if they have been moved hardware-wise? [*]Also, someone mentioned that I need to log the drive numbers as they stand now and properly re-assign the same drives to the same numbers in the new unraid. Do I really need to do that if I will not be re-using old parity? If yes, why does unraid care about drives numbering? [*]I'm gonna reinstall the same docker containers for nzbget, sonarr, couchpotato and transmission. I will log and recreate the same settings for all those docker containers. I will recreate the exact same user shares. Will all that work, or will there be any problems, I don't know about? [*]Anything else I need to know, maybe? Thanks in advance for any help.
May 26, 201610 yr Community Expert It appears you want to do a number of things. First thing, I would recommend is to use baby-steps. By the way, I find it unusual that you are seeing such high CPU usage on reading. Are you playing back with Plex or some other Docker? Do check on the GUI Main page and verify that there are not any errors or disks with anything but a green ball in the Device column. If there is a problem or even a question, get help and fix that before doing anything else. Print down the "Main" page of the GUI. Note the serial numbers of those data drives that you want to save the contents of. These drives have a standard Linux file format on them and the contents can be read by any linux system (and even Window systems in some cases). So if you don't do anything with those drives (like format them), you will not lose your data. First thing to do is stop the array ("Main" page, "Array Operation" tab). Now copy the contents of the entire Flash Drive to a safe location on another computer!!!! (This will allow you to restore the server to the present configuration.) Next thing is to get back to 6.1.9. Download and unzip 6.1.9. Copy these two files from this distribution --- bzimage and bzroot --- over the existing files in the root of your flash Drive. This is will save the preserve configuration and settings of 6.2b21 and those settings will also work identically in ver 6.1.9. Then stop the array. Then on the "Main" page, "Array devices" tab, unassign the Parity 2 drive (no device). Restart the array. Everything should still be working except you don't have dual parity. IF this is the case go through the server Shutdown procedure (power off state) and physically remove that drive. Now restart the server and you should be running 6.1.9. And you should be able to access your files with the same settings as you did with 6.2b21! At this point I would print down the "Main" page of the GUI. (You can never have too many copies of your drive configuration and assignments!) Make sure everything is there and working correctly. When you are certain that it is, post back and describe what you want to do next. By the way, I find it unusual that you are seeing such high CPU usage on reading. Are you playing back with Plex or some other Docker?
May 27, 201610 yr Once you're back on 6.1.9, you can swap the drive assignments around, so long as you don't add any or remove any. The array should start up fine, but if you do see (on array start) a check box for 'Parity is already valid', then check it. A parity check once you're done with all changes is always a good idea. Or if you're gong to reorganize everything any way, use the New Config tool (Tools -> New Config) to start over with drive assignments, including a new parity drive. You can change the data drive assignments any way you like. You *will* have to rebuild parity. The only danger is to make absolutely sure you don't assign a data drive to the parity drive slot.
May 28, 201610 yr Author @Frank1940 Thanks for a step by step guide how to downgrade. I thought I'll need to reinstall everything, but if not - that's even better news. You can never have too many copies of your drive configuration and assignments! Why? To make sure that I know which drives are data and which is parity, or something else? By the way, I find it unusual that you are seeing such high CPU usage on reading. Are you playing back with Plex or some other Docker? No, simple reading from array uses insane amount of CPU. It does not matter who does it: if I copy from the array over lan with no dockers or vm running, or let's say transmission is "force checking" the files. I am pretty sure it's a bug in the beta or something. Because writing straight to array without using cache - uses ~10% which I recon is as supposed to be, and reading is using 90%+ which is just wrong @RobJ Thanks for confirming, that drives numbers do not matter and can reassigned if I'm gonna use new config and rebuild parity. It actually sounded abit funky, when I was told, that I must assign the same numbers, even thouhg I was going to redo the array and rebuild parity. Or if you're gong to reorganize everything any way, use the New Config tool (Tools -> New Config) to start over with drive assignments, including a new parity drive. You can change the data drive assignments any way you like. You *will* have to rebuild parity. The only danger is to make absolutely sure you don't assign a data drive to the parity drive slot. Gonna do exactly that. Thanks
May 28, 201610 yr Community Expert By the way, I find it unusual that you are seeing such high CPU usage on reading. Are you playing back with Plex or some other Docker? No, simple reading from array uses insane amount of CPU. It does not matter who does it: if I copy from the array over lan with no dockers or vm running, or let's say transmission is "force checking" the files. I am pretty sure it's a bug in the beta or something. Because writing straight to array without using cache - uses ~10% which I recon is as supposed to be, and reading is using 90%+ which is just wrong Might I suggest that you attach a diagnostics file ('Tools' >> 'Diagnostics') to your next post. That way, someone can have a look to see if they can spot the reason for this situation. I don't think that downgrading to the stable release is going to 'fix' that problem.
May 28, 201610 yr Author I just wanted to verify the Frank1940's step-by-step plan once more before actually doing the downgrading. I have some additional questions (numbered and in bold): Check if everything is OK: check on the GUI Main page and verify that there are not any errors or disks with anything but a green ball in the Device column. Print down the "Main" page of the GUI to have a copy of data drives serial numbers Stop the array ("Main" page, "Array Operation" tab). Now copy the contents of the entire Flash Drive to a safe location on another computer!!!! (This will allow you to restore the server to the present configuration.) 1) Am I really doing this only with a stopped array, but with unRAID still running? I don't need to shutdown the unRAID and copy over the files with the flash drive connected to another computer? [*]Next thing is to get back to 6.1.9. Download and unzip 6.1.9. [*]Copy these two files from this distribution --- bzimage and bzroot --- over the existing files in the root of your flash Drive. 2) Seriously? I am even overwriting unRAID OS files on a running system? Another reason, it feels, like there's a step missing, where unRAID shut have been powered down. [*]Then stop the array. 3) Well, it's already stopped. Yet another reason, it feels like a step is missing. [*]Then on the "Main" page, "Array devices" tab, unassign the Parity 2 drive (no device). [*]Restart the array. Everything should still be working except you don't have dual parity. [*]IF this is the case go through the server Shutdown procedure (power off state) and physically remove that drive. [*]Now restart the server and you should be running 6.1.9. And you should be able to access your files with the same settings as you did with 6.2b21! [*]At this point I would print down the "Main" page of the GUI. (You can never have too many copies of your drive configuration and assignments!) After that is done, I decided to test the trial version some more, before buying, because $130 is not cheap. The main reasons are: need to test a stable version, not beta; single parity; using newer and larger drives; using an SSD as cache. So, a couple of questions about doing that: 4) I am gonna use all new drives, that means new array config and new parity. What would be the best and easiest way to switch the drives and migrate data? Would this be OK, or maybe there's a better way?:After downgrading to 6.1.9, and verifying everything is OK, I stop the array. I unassign both parity drives. Start the array without any parity protection, to check it is working. 5) Is that even possible, using the array without any parity? Stop the array and shutdown the unRAID. Disconnect both parity drives and connect 2 new drives in their place. Turn on the unRAID server. Format those 2 new drives. 6) Now I'm not sure here: could I use some script at this point to "pre-format" the drives before assigning them to the array? I'm sure I remember reading there was one, exactly just for that... Now I want to move the data from the array to those 2 new drives. What would be the best way? 7) Can I use Midnight Commander to copy files from the array to the new disks, that have not been assigned to the array yet? 8.) Can I use MC and copy from user shares on the array straight to the new disks? I think I read someplace, that copying, moving between user shares and disk shares is bad? 9) Or should I add new drives to the array, create user shares that only use those new drives and only then use MD or use something like mover script to move the files? 10) Maybe none of the above, and there's some better way of doing this? After moving files. I would stop the array. Unassign all the remaining drives from the array. 11) Do I need to delete this old array config or something? Shutdown the unRAID. Remove remaining old drives and connect remaining new drives and SSD Start the unRAID server 12) Depends on the answer to question 6. I either pre-format now. Or after starting the array, I guess. Create new array config and assign all the drives to the array: spinners as 1 parity and 4 data, and SSD as cache Start the array. Create parity Go through all the automatically created user shares and edit the settings for each to the same settings I had before. Start the dockers and 13) I assume it should work as if nothing changed? [*]14) Anything I missed or any other suggestions? Thanks in advance for any help.
May 29, 201610 yr You are clearly used to systems very different from unRAID! 2 - unRAID runs entirely from RAM. It loads and extracts bzimage and bzroot to RAM, and generates a brand new Linux OS, tailored to the hardware it then discovers. It only needs the flash drive to provide persistence, load the OS files and settings and user configuration, then saves changes back later for the next boot. 1 - (partly answered by #2 above) the reason you want the array stopped is that unRAID keeps a dirty flag on the flash drive indicating whether the array is started or not. If it finds that flag on at boot, then the array wasn't shut down, and it starts automatic checks for any repairs needed. You want the backup to have the dirty flag set correctly. 3 - yes, this stop is redundant 5 - parity drives aren't needed, no parity protection without them of course 6 - use the Preclear plugin 7 - the drives are formatted for unRAID *after* they have been added to the array. Starting the array provides the format options if unformatted drives are discovered, then automatically mounts all drives, then sets up the shares, both disk and User shares 8 - don't know what MD is, we don't use it; you can always copy/move disk to disk
May 29, 201610 yr Author @RobJ thank you for the answers. That DM was a typo, I meant MC (midnight commander). So, I managed to do these steps, until I hit a problem: verified everything was OK made screenshots stopped the array copied the flash contents from the share on unraid to my main rig as a backup downloaded and unzipped the 6.1.9 copied bzimage and bzroot files to the flash share on unraid, overwriting the existing ones And then, I was about to unassign the second parity drive, when I saw, that it was gone from the drives list! There was only 5 drives in the list in both Dashboard and Main tabs, when it should be 6. The drive, which was assigned as the second parity was completely gone! Also, it seems my unraid trail has expired. Well, then: [*]wtf happened to the second parity drive? [*]I currently use an old 4GB USB 2.0 flash drive [*]on hardware recommendations it says that the flash drive needs to be at least 512MB, but no larger than 32GB in size. So is 4GB drive big enough for sure, or should I use the larger one? I mean does unraid need a large flash drive for something? I will be using docker containers and probably couple of VMs, just fyi [*]all my other flash drives are 3.0, not 2.0, and I could not find the info whats recommended to use, so which is better for unraid OS flash drive - 2.0 or 3.0? [*]If I should use another flash drive (new, bigger or 3.0), can I just copy the files from the current drive to the new one, shutdown the unraid, switch the flash drives, power up unraid, and then buy the unraid licence and proceed with the downgrade? [*]Anything else, that I have missed?
May 29, 201610 yr [*]wtf happened to the second parity drive? [*]I currently use an old 4GB USB 2.0 flash drive [*]on hardware recommendations it says that the flash drive needs to be at least 512MB, but no larger than 32GB in size. So is 4GB drive big enough for sure, or should I use the larger one? I mean does unraid need a large flash drive for something? I will be using docker containers and probably couple of VMs, just fyi [*]all my other flash drives are 3.0, not 2.0, and I could not find the info whats recommended to use, so which is better for unraid OS flash drive - 2.0 or 3.0? [*]If I should use another flash drive (new, bigger or 3.0), can I just copy the files from the current drive to the new one, shutdown the unraid, switch the flash drives, power up unraid, and then buy the unraid licence and proceed with the downgrade? [*]Anything else, that I have missed? 1. You had installed the 6.2 beta, which is the *only* version that has the brand new dual parity. Dual parity is still beta. Going to any other version you'll be back to single parity. You really need to read more about unRAID! 2&3. 4GB is fine, 1GB is all most users need. 4. Doesn't matter, use which ever you want. Faster is wasted though, the only advantage is that it saves a few seconds on boot, not something you do very often. 5. Use any one you want. Once you register it, you're committed to it.
May 29, 201610 yr Author @RobJ thank you once again Actually, I know that dual parity is in 6.2 betas, thats why I chose to test beta version in the first place. I was/am worried about the drive disappearing from the unraid UI, because I haven't restarted the unraid server yet, and it still says at the top of unraid webUI: Server | Tower • 192.168.1.27 Description | Testing on old Gigabyte box Version | 6.2.0-beta21 Uptime | 29 days, 11 hours, 58 minutes Also, I was thinking, why it disappeared completely? It should show up as unassigned or somesuch? Ha, I just purchased the Pro lincence and installed it (via link in the webUI). And the second parity drive showed up in the drives list! So, it seems it was due to the expired trial, weird
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