So it has been quite some time since I upgraded Unraid.  I am now at a point to do so.  I am following the guide here:

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Upgrading_to_UnRAID_v6 (v5.0-rc9 through v5.0.6 ....... -> 'upgrade install')

 

My current setup is 5x3TB drives (1 parity, 4 data).  I am running no plugins, have no cache drive, etc.  My server has a 64 bit processor (Intel Atom D525 running on SuperMicro MBD-X7SPE-HF-D525-O with 4G RAM), so I think hardware specs are OK.

 

Questions:

1) Can I upgrade with thumb drive in place without reformatting, from a remote machine (Runnign Windows10, telnet available)?

2) I will backup the contents of the thumb drive with the array stopped (as I believe that is what needs to be done)

3) I will take screenshots of all necessary configuration pages on web interface

4) I recently replaced a failing drive, and rebuilt the data on it.  No errors were shown after the rebuild was complete.  But the Array Status page is showing "Parity has not been checked yet."   Should I run a Parity check before I upgrade?  If so, should the "Correct any Parity-Check errors by writing the Parity disk with corrected parity" box be checked?

 

Thank you!

 

1 hour ago, WannaTheater said:

Questions:

1) Can I upgrade with thumb drive in place without reformatting, from a remote machine (Runnign Windows10, telnet available)?

 

I've never done it, and I haven't read of others doing it, so you're on your own here!  

 

But LimeTech has added Linux support to the flash preparation tool make_bootable.  You don't need to format the drive, but you should still clean it off completely just as if you were formatting it, making sure though that you preserve the volume label of UNRAID.  Then extract the 6.3.2 distro onto it, with its folders.  Then in a console session (like SSH or Telnet), change into the /boot directory and run make_bootable_linux.  That should make it bootable with the latest syslinux.  You can then restore your config folder and files to it, using the instructions.

 

I'll be interested to see how it works.  Let us know of any quirks, and modifications needed to any instructions.

Considering parity has not yet been checked, should I run parity check before attempting the upgrade?  If so, should the "Correct any Parity-Check errors by writing the Parity disk with corrected parity" box be checked?

23 minutes ago, WannaTheater said:

Considering parity has not yet been checked, should I run parity check before attempting the upgrade?  If so, should the "Correct any Parity-Check errors by writing the Parity disk with corrected parity" box be checked?

When did you last check parity?

I rebuilt a replacement drive last week.  Parity is showing as never been checkd (see original post)

At this point, parity is going to be good, because whatever state it was in, it's been 'written' into the rebuilt drive.  In a way, rebuilding a drive 'corrects' parity, because the drive *has* to be written consistent with whatever parity is.  You can check it again after the update.  In general, it's always good to know everything is fine before starting anything major, so normally we would probably recommend doing a parity check first.  But I don't think there is any point now, unless you know of any issues that have occurred in the last week, since the rebuild.

Successfully upgraded to v6.3.2  I did it the full way, with reformatting the flash drive, etc.  No shortcuts taken

 

Thank you for your help!