For fun I just tried booting an old Qnap NAS I have laying around off an unRAID usb flash drive, everything looked to be going well until I got a message that unRAID doesn't support ATOM cpu's which this NAS has. I guess there is nothing I can do? Is there an older version of unRAID that supported ATOM cpu's?

unRAID supports Atoms, as long as they are 64bit.

Ah well that would explain it, this is an old Qnap NAS with a 32bit ATOM CPU, oh well.

Does unRAID support ARM CPU's?

Does unRAID support ARM CPU's?

 

No, it would need to be compiled for ARM not x64

You can run UnRAID v5 on your 32-bit Atom.  v4 and v5 were 32-bit;  v6 is 64-bit.  Your problem wasn't the Atom CPU ... it was the fact it's a 32-bit processor.

 

... Note that although the v5 download isn't available on the Download page, there's an e-mail link on that page you can use to request any previous version you want to install.  v5.0.6 should run just fine on your 32-bit Atom.

 

Is 5.0.6 available for purchase or would I have to downgrade an existing 6.x license?

You don't need to buy it if you're not going to use more than 3 disks -- the "Trial" version was introduced with v6.  Previous versions don't require a license for up to 3 disks.    And if you need more than 3 disks, you can use your existing key if you already have one -- the key is tied to a specific USB flash drive, NOT to a specific version of UnRAID.  i.e. if you have a Pro key for a particular flash drive, you can load that flash drive with v4.7, v5.0.6, v6.2.2, or any other version of UnRAID.

 

So lets say I want to use a 6 drive NAS and I have an existing pro key for 6.x. How would I load it with unRAID 5.0.6 so that it would use the 6.x pro license?

So lets say I want to use a 6 drive NAS and I have an existing pro key for 6.x. How would I load it with unRAID 5.0.6 so that it would use the 6.x pro license?

 

As I noted earlier, it is NOT a "6.x pro license" ==> it's a Pro license that can be used with ANY version of UnRAID.  It is NOT tied to any specific version of UnRAID ... it IS tied to a specific flash drive (so you can't use it on a different flash drive).

 

To redo your flash drive with another version:

 

(1)  SAVE your license key (Pro.key) to a "safe" location (e.g. a folder on your PC)

 

(2)  If you want to "go back" to your v6 configuration at some point, copy the entire contents of the flash drive to a "safe" location (e.g. a folder on your PC)

 

(3)  Format the flash drive -- format should be FAT32, label needs to be "UNRAID"

 

(4)  UnZip the v5.0.6 download; then copy the entire contents to the flash drive

 

(5)  Run Makebootable on the flash drive with admin privileges.

 

(6)  Copy your Pro.key file to the Config folder on the flash drive

 

You can now boot from that flash drive on any computer and it will be running UnRAID v5 Pro

 

Thanks very much.

 

Were there any limitations with unRAID 5.x with respect to supported drive sizes or volume sizes? I remember my Qnap had a 16TB volume size limitation due to the 32bit CPU, did unRAID 5.x have the same limitation?

No limits => earlier versions (e.g. v4.7) were restricted to 2TB drive sizes (but no array size limits other than the max # of drives).  v5 provided support for larger drives -- and there's no practical limit on those with current drive sizes.  I believe Reiser has a 16TB limit on partitions, so that's effectively the largest drive you could use ... but since the largest drive you can currently buy is 10TB, I think you're safe 

 

... So you could build a 230TB server with your Pro key on v5 using 10TB drives    [v5 supports a max of 24 drives - parity plus 23 data drives]

 

 

 

... One other thing to note:  v5 only supports Reiser, so you won't be able to use existing drives with data in an array you create under v5 unless the file system is already RFS.    If you have drives formatted with XFS, those will be reformatted in v5, so you'll lose all of the existing data.

 

Hmm V5 only supports ReiserFS, that's not great, but I guess its not the end of the world.

 

Thanks for the info.

Reiser is actually a very reliable file system -- and the Reiserfsck utility does an amazing job of recovering from file corruption issues => if you search through this forum, you'll find a lot of stories where data that certainly seemed long gone was recovered after folks had done things that certainly seemed unrecoverable.

 

The issue with Reiser is that since the creator of it is in jail, there's no active maintenance of the file system, so it's not being improved.    The only real performance issue is that write performance slows significantly on very full disks.    No problem with read performance -- in fact I still have a lot of media on full RFS disks that I see no reason to switch to XFS, although I do use XFS for all new disks.

 

Thanks good to know, I was aware that the creator is incarcerated and that is it is a very reliable file system, the lack of ongoing development is a concern, but in this case I think its something I can live with.

Thanks good to know, I was aware that the creator is incarcerated and that is it is a very reliable file system, the lack of ongoing development is a concern, but in this case I think its something I can live with.

since unRAID V5 is no longer being maintained (it is End-of-Life) or updated that is unlikely to be an issue.  It is only really kept available for those that have very old hardware that is incapable of running v6.  V5 is far less capable than v6 but it still works fine as a basic NAS.

v5 works perfectly as a basic NAS.    The only NAS feature of significance that v6 adds is dual parity.  UPS support and notifications are easily added to v5 with UnMenu, which also adds a few features that aren't available in v6 (e.g. the very nice "MyMain").

 

And as I noted earlier, the CPU demands of v5 are appreciably lower than v6, so older hardware performs far better with v5 than with v6.  [and in the case of 32-bit CPUs, there's no choice -- v5 works; v6 doesn't]

 

 

So Gary, could I buy a basic key today, and then use that license for 5.0.6? I only want to use 6 drives anyway, or do I have to buy a pro key?

There wasn't a basic key for v5 ... only Plus and Pro.    So you'd need to buy a Plus key.

 

 

... by the way, the drive limits in v5 were different than in v6.  IIRC a Plus key supports 8 drives in v5 (which is plenty, since you just plan to use 6).    Note that if you ever upgraded that system to v6 the limit would automatically jump to the v6 value (12 drives).

 

Sorry to dig up this thread, but I am thinking seriously about buying a plus key to run on this NAS, problem is I can't buy it from the v5 GUI, that I can see, so how can I get a key to use with this v5 I am running?

Good question -- I just noticed that the "Buy It" link [ https://lime-technology.com/buy-it/ ] doesn't actually offer to send you a key anymore ... they expect you to buy it via the Web GUI after you've installed UnRAID.

 

So ... just configure a flash drive with v6;  boot on any PC that allows you to boot it (i.e. not your 32-bit Atom);  then buy a Plus key.  Remember -- this is tied to the flash drive, NOT the PC.

 

Now look in the Config folder of the flash drive and copy the Plus.key file to a safe place.    Assuming you already have the v5 download, you can now reformat the flash drive (don't forget to label it "UNRAID" and to use FAT32);  then copy the v5 files and run MakeBootable; and finally copy your key file to the config folder.

 

You now have a v5 Plus system on the flash drive.

 

Note:  If you don't already have the v5 download, just ask for the v5.0.6 download using the link at the bottom of the downloads page [ https://lime-technology.com/download/ ].