Reinstalling unRaid from scratch - how to back up and restore what i need

[Lynxphp]

Hello,

 

I want to do a fresh install of unraid on my server this weekend. When i installed unraid about a year ago, I was a bit too enthusiastic about tweaking it and ended up doing changes i can't remember and that probably weren't the wisest (but i had fun). Amongst my issues I have had orphan docker images popup, some instability (i think due to the cache drives being sollicited too much by my VM) and my drives being constantly spun up (probably because of some plugins I installed).

 

My current setup:

Unraid 6.3.5

Asrock mini-ITX C236 WSI

2 x 8GB of 2133Mhz ECC RAM

Xeon e3-1245v6

Cache: 2x Samsung 850 PRO 256GB

Parity: WD red 8TB

Array: 2x WD red 3tb

Unused drive: WD red 8tb

 

I currently run a VM on the cache drives. After the new install, I will do a fresh install of that on a separate SSD mounted with UD.

 

I just want to check if i am about to do this correctly and would very much appreciate if someone more knowledgeable than me could verify it before i go ahead. What i really want to keep: 3 dockers, my shares and ideally the possibility to restore everything if something goes wrong

 

1. Backup appdata, USB flashdrive (including the .key) and libvirt with CA Backup and restore

2. Backup all my shares (including the one with the Backups from CA Backup and restore) to my main PC (just by copying them over the network)

3. Take a screenshot of the array's drive assignements

3. Power down, install unraid 6.4.1 on my USB stick including my Plus.key

4. Power up, go into the BIOS and finally enabling hyperthreading for my Xeon e3-1245v6 (as my motherboard didn't get a microcode update for the BIOS, but if I read correctly the microcode is included in unraid 6.4)

5. Assign the drives to the array in the correct fashion

6. Format my cache drives

7. Restore the 3 dockers I want to restore: influxdb, grafana, telegraf

8. Do a fresh install of my plugins and dockers

9. Do a fresh install of the plex docker (going from the official docker to binhexs') and point it to my media share (I realise I will loose my settings, my users, the read/unread information, the plugins settings and my librairies settings)

10. Do a fresh install of my nextcloud docker (along with duckdns and letsencrypt which both are displayed as orphaned images in my Docker tab)

11.  If everything went without an issue: enjoy my fresh install

 

Thanks in advance!

[Frank1940]

There are a couple of Wiki's that that should be of help to you.  While you are not doing a straight upgrade, the guides will give a good understanding of which files you are going to have copy onto the new Flash Drive.  These guides will help you select the files for restoration which will bring up the server with the basic settings that you want to keep.  

 

          https://lime-technology.com/wiki/Files_on_v6_boot_drive

and

         http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Upgrading_to_UnRAID_v6

 

Note the link at the top of the second Wiki to "short and sweet instructions" as that gives the quick explanation of what you are trying to do.  If you do things correctly, the Drives that were previous installed will be assigned to the same slots as they were before.  You should also review the upgrade Notes for both 6.4.0 and 6.4.1 as well as reading through this thread:

 

       https://lime-technology.com/forums/topic/66327-unraid-os-version-641-stable-release-update-notes/

 

One more thing, before you do the last shutdown with 6.3.5, go to   Settings    >>>>   Disk Settings    in the the 'Disk Settings' portion, set the 'Enable auto start:'  to "No".  That will give the opportunity to do the final check and tweaking before you start the array.  

[Lynxphp]

Hi Frank1940,

 

Thanks a lot for your answer. I read the guides and spent the weekend tyding up my server and am not finished yet.

 

I don't think that I will manage to install 6.4.1 for another 10 days, but I will report back here when I have.

 

Have a nice evening!

Regards,

 

EDIT:

Oh and I forgot: A huge thanks to limetech for 6.4.1. It looks really good and I am very much looking forward to try it!