Long time gone - need upgrade advice

[VampyreGTX]

I"m currently running unraid 4.7..., been running find for over 6 years in all (not sure which version I started with, but was 3.x I think).  I've finally started to look into moving up to the newest version and actually making use of unraids other features, including making it a plex server, among other options. Here's my current (old) build:

 

GIGABYTE GA-MA785G-UD3H

AMD Semprom 140 (unlocking 2nd core was unsuccessful )

G-Skill 2x1gb DDR2 1066  PC2 8500

CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W PSU 

 

Drives:

Parity: Hitachi 2TB 7200RPM

Data: 1x Seagate 2TB LP; 1x 1.5TB Seagate LP, 3x Maxtor 1TB

 

So yeah, the tech is a bit ancient, but was curious if it would still suffice with simply upgrading the drives to newer ones with larger capacties. 

 

Also, what do I need to know in terms of going from 4.7 to the newest 6.x build?

 

Thanks!

[VampyreGTX]

To add, I currently use it solely as a storage server for movies and my iTunes library. 

 

I plan on possibly looking into VMs and transcoding with Plex, however, I may use my gaming PC for the transcoding aspect, not quite sure how to run that whole setup yet. 

[VampyreGTX]

Is my current setup that bad there's no help!? LOL

[Vr2Io]

Depends on what your need, simple as backup old system and then try on new OS, new GUI, no cost.

Or change age HDD to bigest and faster to increase access speed, add some RAM for running lightweight application etc.

[Hoopster]

On 9/22/2018 at 4:22 PM, VampyreGTX said:

Also, what do I need to know in terms of going from 4.7 to the newest 6.x build?

Read these two threads for upgrading

 

Upgrade from 4.7 to 6:

 

https://wiki.unraid.net/index.php/Upgrading_to_UnRAID_v6

 

 

Upgrade from early versions of unRAID 6 to 6.5.x/6/6/x

 

Your Sempron may be OK for just a fileserver/NAS, but, it will certainly not handle Plex transcoding, VMs, most dockers, etc.

 

For Plex transcoding, you need to think about simultaneous stream transcoding needs, media formats and resolutions, etc.

 

You want at least 8GB RAM to even think about running a few dockers/Plex; even more if you want VMs. For VMs, if you are sticking with AMD, you need a processor that supports AMD-V (not sure if your Sempron does as only a few do).

 

It is hard to give you more solid recommendations without knowing more about how you want to use your upgraded server.

 

You can upgrade to 6.6.x on your current hardware and see what unRAID 6 offers (a lot), but, beyond just media storage and access, your current hardware won't allow you to use much of what 6.6.x offers. 2GB RAM is really going to limit you.

 

Make sure you have signatures enabled in your account settings as many users put their hardware specs in their sigs and it will give you a good idea what others are running and what they do with it.

 

 

Edited September 30, 2018 by Hoopster

[VampyreGTX]

I currently run plex server on my high-end gaming PC, so transcoding is no issue with the specs on that. It just pulls from the unRaid as the storage. I just was hoping to simplify the setup, since I now need the server running, the gaming PC, and then whatever I'm streaming to, be it Roku, the XB1, etc. 

 

So I'll probably start with the new oS, can I jump directly from 4.7 to a clean install of 6.6.1 .

 

I'll start budgeting to upgrade the Mobo and CPU(s) then, and memory. 

 

[Hoopster]

5 minutes ago, VampyreGTX said:

So I'll probably start with the new oS, can I jump directly from 4.7 to a clean install of 6.6.1 .

Read the upgrade wiki I linked.

 

I run 12 dockers, 2 VMs and Plex hardware transcoding on my main server with a 4 core/8 thread CPU with 32GB RAM.  I support three other households which stream content from my Plex server. 

 

The VMs are not always active, but, when they are, I need those extra cores and RAM.  For just running a few dockers and Plex hardware transcoding, 16GB RAM would be plenty and I could likely still do it with 8GB unless everything was active at once.

[VampyreGTX]

Wow, that's impressive. Not sure I'd ever need to support other households, but that would be kind of cool. 

 

I'll read through those link for sure, and I'll be honest that I've never played around with VMs but I've always been interested. 

 

To support the other 'households', what type of internet connection do you have and what's the u/l speeds? The more I'm reading up, the more I realize the unRaid has come a LONG way since I was really into it back then. Shouldn't have slipped away and stopped keeping up. 

[Hoopster]

8 minutes ago, VampyreGTX said:

To support the other 'households', what type of internet connection do you have and what's the u/l speeds?

 

I can get 100/100, 250/250, 1 Gig/1 Gig and, now, even 10 Gig/10 Gig is available to our home.  I am cheap, so, I am only paying for 100/100 Mbps (not really, but, that's all I need). The other households to which I stream have even lower bandwidth.  100/100 is plenty as I have set a limit on remote Plex streaming of 4 Mbps 720p (Plex transcodes anything higher to this resolution).  In my home, all content is streamed in original media resolution and format.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Hoopster

[VampyreGTX]

And of course, attempted the upgrade, and can't boot up my USB drive. Get hung up on the DMI Pool Data hangup, when I manually select the USB to boot to, the system crashes and resets right at that point, doesn't matter if it's 4.7 or 6.6.x now. Sigh.... 

[Vr2Io]

2 hours ago, VampyreGTX said:

Get hung up on the DMI Pool Data hangup

You mean USB boot ok, but just booting hangup in some step, pls provide screen shoot and try review on BIOS DMI/ACPI setting.

[VampyreGTX]

10 hours ago, Benson said:

You mean USB boot ok, but just booting hangup in some step, pls provide screen shoot and try review on BIOS DMI/ACPI setting.

I'll take screenshots later tonight. The USB is no longer booting up. (stops after displaying the HDDs present during the early startup, and then hangs on the Verifying DMI Pool Data. 

 

If I manually select the USB to boot up from the F12 boot menu, the system just reboots when it gets to that same point rather than hanging. 

 

I have a gigabyte mobo, which is known to have USB boot issues, but I've been running this for 6+ years without a problem. 

 

I'll probably start a new thread focusing specifically on this problem later when I have a chance. 

[Hoopster]

4 hours ago, VampyreGTX said:

I'll take screenshots later tonight. The USB is no longer booting up. (stops after displaying the HDDs present during the early startup, and then hangs on the Verifying DMI Pool Data. 

 

If I manually select the USB to boot up from the F12 boot menu, the system just reboots when it gets to that same point rather than hanging. 

 

I have a gigabyte mobo, which is known to have USB boot issues, but I've been running this for 6+ years without a problem. 

 

I'll probably start a new thread focusing specifically on this problem later when I have a chance. 

 

Just out of curiosity, is your flash drive in a USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 port?  USB 2.0 is more reliable and there have been many reports of boot issues when the flash drive is in a USB 3.0 port because, depending on the motherboard/BIOS, they can be dropped in mid-boot.

 

Also, there have been many, many changes in Linux kernel, drivers, etc since unRAID 4.7 and there is the possibility that some change there is now causing problems with something that worked fine with unRAID 4.7.

 

Is your BIOS updated to the latest BIOS available for your motherboard?