I have totally loved setting up unraid and getting it working for me. Thanks very much for such an awesome product. Exactly what I was looking for to manage 'myNet'.

 

I was wondering if I could get some pointers on doing a migration. I've got a totally different system (going from intel to amd - better virtualization and utilization of my other system) and I want to essentially 'reinstall' unraid on the amd setup. How can I go about transferring this?

 

1. Can I use the trial version to setup my new system, and then transfer my existing license key to the new one? If so, how?

 

2. What is the best way of transferring the data from the existing array to a new array (new WD Reds) with a bigger parity and total size?

I'm thinking setting up new shares on new system and using krusader to move them over the network? Is there a more efficient way? Perhaps image the smaller hdd's and then expand the file system?

 

Thoughts and suggestions?

First point -----    Have you consider using that old server as a backup server for all of the stuff that you can never recover--- personal files like financial records, documents and photographs.  (Remember no RAID system is a a replacement for a backup and one copy of anything is not  a backup!)   You need (or want) to use that old server as a true backup, purchase a second license. 

 

How much data do you have to move to the new server?  The more data, the more time you will need to do it and the more effort you might want to put into planning the move. (With 5TB or less, I would probably copy it using a windows machine in the middle and copy between shares.)

 

You might have a look at at getting a USB3 external disk housing and use the Unassigned Devices plugin.  (That would move the data as fast as mounting the drives physically inside of the server.)

 

You could also move the drives themselves to the new server.  Then use the  'Tools'  >>>  'New Config'  tool.  You would have to a parity resync after adding any drive(s) using this method.  You can then replace each of the old drives as the demand for additional storage comes up-- or the drives themselves failed.  (This spread your drive purchases over a period of time which could save you from buying into a lot of drives with high failure rates due to manufacturing defects.) 

 

Transfer of key.  Read this from LimeTech:

       https://lime-technology.com/replace-key/

 

EDIT:  In any case get that new server working using a Trial key.  You sound like you want a fairly complex setup and it might require some real tinkering to get running the way you want it.  Are you in a situation where you can have the server on-and-off line without creating family issues?

Edited August 21, 20178 yr by Frank1940

Here's my advice.

 

You want to make sure you set up the new server and preclear your new disks. Hopefully you have hot-swap style drive cages, as without them cabling problems are common.

 

You have a couple of basic questions to answer regarding the data transfer based largely on how much data you have to move and how much time it will take.

 

Copying 1T of data over the network will take roughly 4 hours.  Copying 1T of data locally will take roughly 2 hours. So if you have, say 20T of data, the copy over the network will take 80 hours, vs 40 if you can do a local copy. If you have 80T of data, you are looking at 160 hours over the net (about a week of constant copying) vs 80 hours.

 

General I'd say copying over the net is preferred. It gives your server the opportunity to work as a unit and burn in. You want to assemble the server and enable parity. Turn on reconstruct writes (a.k.a. turbo write). And copy with Krusader or rsync. (If you don't enable turbo write, your speed will be cut in half or even less!) Once all the transferring is complete, you probably want to go back to normal unRaid write mode.

 

If you are going to be moving disks back and forth, the logistics are tougher. You need to partition and format the disks using unRaid (not using unassigned devices!). Install an unRaid prepared disk in the old server, and mount it with unassigned devices. And then copy the data. When complete, move that disk back to the new server and install the next unRaid prepared disk. As @Frank1940 mentioned, a usb3 caddie can help. Just make sure the drive is well cooled in the caddie. Once all the disks are in the new server, define the array and build parity.

 

Good luck! 

17 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

First point -----    Have you consider using that old server as a backup server for all of the stuff that you can never recover--- personal files like financial records, documents and photographs.  (Remember no RAID system is a a replacement for a backup and one copy of anything is not  a backup!)   You need (or want) to use that old server as a true backup, purchase a second license. 

 

How much data do you have to move to the new server?  The more data, the more time you will need to do it and the more effort you might want to put into planning the move. (With 5TB or less, I would probably copy it using a windows machine in the middle and copy between shares.)

 

You might have a look at at getting a USB3 external disk housing and use the Unassigned Devices plugin.  (That would move the data as fast as mounting the drives physically inside of the server.)

 

You could also move the drives themselves to the new server.  Then use the  'Tools'  >>>  'New Config'  tool.  You would have to a parity resync after adding any drive(s) using this method.  You can then replace each of the old drives as the demand for additional storage comes up-- or the drives themselves failed.  (This spread your drive purchases over a period of time which could save you from buying into a lot of drives with high failure rates due to manufacturing defects.) 

 

Transfer of key.  Read this from LimeTech:

       https://lime-technology.com/replace-key/

 

EDIT:  In any case get that new server working using a Trial key.  You sound like you want a fairly complex setup and it might require some real tinkering to get running the way you want it.  Are you in a situation where you can have the server on-and-off line without creating family issues?

 

Thanks for this. It helps out a lot. I'm looking at moving about 4TB from my 'alpha' build. So I like the idea of your burn in approach. I've got a bunch of 2TBs laying around from other projects, and was looking to setup the new server on a previous system I built. That system uses an FX-9570 and I was thinking the number of cores would really help out with increasing my virtualization operations. Ultimately the goal is to move to a new system and increase the storage to two 4TB WD Reds and five 2TB drives to net 14TB (with one 4TB parity drive).

 

The other system (the one unraid is currently on) was originally built to be a sleek gaming system, but it was empty when I stumbled on unraid, so I decided to initially build it there. I'd like to get that system back to bare metal to do what it was built for. Hence the need to migrate it now.

 

I do have some backup redundancy and can use a secondary system to get by for a bit if I need to take the main off line - so yes that is possible.

 

Any insight on moving VM's? I'm not sure if that's an easy/intermediate task, or if it would just be easier to reinstall once the new one is up and running.

16 hours ago, bjp999 said:

Here's my advice.

 

You want to make sure you set up the new server and preclear your new disks. Hopefully you have hot-swap style drive cages, as without them cabling problems are common.

 

You have a couple of basic questions to answer regarding the data transfer based largely on how much data you have to move and how much time it will take.

 

Copying 1T of data over the network will take roughly 4 hours.  Copying 1T of data locally will take roughly 2 hours. So if you have, say 20T of data, the copy over the network will take 80 hours, vs 40 if you can do a local copy. If you have 80T of data, you are looking at 160 hours over the net (about a week of constant copying) vs 80 hours.

 

General I'd say copying over the net is preferred. It gives your server the opportunity to work as a unit and burn in. You want to assemble the server and enable parity. Turn on reconstruct writes (a.k.a. turbo write). And copy with Krusader or rsync. (If you don't enable turbo write, your speed will be cut in half or even less!) Once all the transferring is complete, you probably want to go back to normal unRaid write mode.

 

If you are going to be moving disks back and forth, the logistics are tougher. You need to partition and format the disks using unRaid (not using unassigned devices!). Install an unRaid prepared disk in the old server, and mount it with unassigned devices. And then copy the data. When complete, move that disk back to the new server and install the next unRaid prepared disk. As @Frank1940 mentioned, a usb3 caddie can help. Just make sure the drive is well cooled in the caddie. Once all the disks are in the new server, define the array and build parity.

 

Good luck! 

Thanks for this as well. I appreciate the detail and help - good call on the turbo write. Noob question, is that a krusader option or an unraid option?

UnRaid option. Normally unRaid will use a write mode where only parity and the disk being written are involved. By reading each before any write occurs, and then examining the data to be written, unRaid has enough info to compute the updated parity, leaving all the other disks alone and typically spun down. However, this 'pre-read' requires an extra full rotation to perform each write, which equates in practice to a stiff performance impact.

 

In turbo write, no preread occurs. Instead, each disk except the disk being written and parity are read, and combined with the write buffer, unRaid can compute parity, and then write the data to the parity and the data disk. No extra rotation. Much faster write.

 

For normal unRaid use I discourage it unless you have a specific situation where you have a lot of data to write. Because otherwise, all your disks are, more or less, constantly spinning, adding wear and tear and increasing energy usage, but also accesses to the other disks for activities unrelated to the write are affected. So if the wife is watching a 4K movie, or you have a file integrity check happening in the background, they are not slowed by the write operation.

 

Hope that makes sense.

 

Good luck!