USB flash drive failed, really old backup, how best to proceed?

[nerdbot]

I shutdown my Unraid server today to do some unrelated electrical work in the room - I decided it was "better" to do a shutdown than feel pressured by the UPS it was connected to while I worked on the electrical - and when I tried to boot the system back up it wouldn't boot.  Turns out the flash drive (32GB SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.1 flash drive) is dead.  In addition to my Unraid server, I can't get my Chromebook, Macbook, or PC to detect the flash drive.  Of course, now I see a reddit post that says stay away from the USB 3.1 models because they have a tendency to overheat and fail early.  🤦‍♂️  I have another identical 32GB SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.1 flash drive, but I think I'm going to avoid using it and order the Sandisk Cruzer Fit USB 2.0 recommended by the Unraid wiki.

 

I do have 1 backup of my Unraid config, but it's dated December 2018 (Unraid 6.6.5), and contains my trial license.  I didn't buy the Pro key until January 2019.  I also know for sure my disk configuration changed a bit since December.  I upgraded a couple drives from 2TB to 8TB, including my parity drive, and I think I moved some disks around from the original setup. I did install the CA Appdata Backup / Restore plugin, and I'm pretty sure I was making regular backups of my USB drive via a CA app, however they're on my unraid server that I can't currently access.  Also,  I am currently on the latest stable version (6.7.2). 

 

While I wait for my new USB flash drive to arrive, I'd like to make sure I get the next steps right so I can avoid using up all my recovery chances and avoid the hassle of contacting support to recover my key again.  What would be the best way to proceed?  Thanks in advance!

[Frank1940]

Check for the confirmation  E-mail that you should have received with your purchase of your key.  It should either have the .key file attached or a download link.

 

[JonathanM]

1 hour ago, nerdbot said:

I'm pretty sure I was making regular backups of my USB drive via a CA app, however they're on my unraid server that I can't currently access.

Since unraid uses standard linux formatting, you could boot with pretty much any live linux USB stick and mount the drives to look for your backup. I recommend mounting read only, that way you should be able to get back up and running with a minimal amount of maintenance.

 

The CA backup renames the super.dat file so as to keep from causing havoc if you accidentally try to use a backup that has the wrong disks assigned, as that could cause irreversible data loss.

[nerdbot]

Sorry, to clarify - I'm not concerned about recovering the key, I have that file in my email still.  My concern is that I don't have a recent backup of my disk configuration and the wiki says that to prevent data loss, I'll need to assign my disks in the exact same configuration, and if I don't know which disks are assigned where, to post in the forums.

 

I just used a live CD, as jonathanm suggested, to take a look at my disks and unfortunately, it looks like I wasn't making regular backups of my USB disk after all.  I only have app data backups.  I was able to determine which disk is my parity disk (the only one that didn't mount), and which disk is my cache disk (SSD), but that still leaves 5 other disks I'm not sure what to do with.

[JonathanM]

Just now, nerdbot said:

I was able to determine which disk is my parity disk (the only one that didn't mount), and which disk is my cache disk (SSD), but that still leaves 5 other disks I'm not sure what to do with.

Since you are running single parity, as long as that parity disk wasn't assigned to the parity2 slot, the rest of the data disks order doesn't matter for parity integrity. The only consideration is if you specifically forced certain content to a specific data disk, in which case you would need to recreate that to keep the data where you wanted it going forward.

 

Just assign all disks as you describe, parity to parity1, data disks in whatever order feels logical, and the cache disk to the cache slot, and you should be good to go. A parity check would be a good idea, just to make sure things are still in sync, if you mounted the disks r/w instead of read only, you should do a correcting check to get parity back in sync with whatever changes happened during the mounting process.

[nerdbot]

8 minutes ago, jonathanm said:

The only consideration is if you specifically forced certain content to a specific data disk, in which case you would need to recreate that to keep the data where you wanted it going forward.

I did force some data to a specific disk.  So if I understand you correctly, the process would be:

 

1.) Install the latest unraid on my new flash drives

2.) Boot to it and migrate my key

3.) Assign disks as you mentioned (parity to parity1, cache to cache slot, the rest of the data disks however I want)

4.) Run a parity correcting check (I started with the live CD before I saw your post, so I didn't mount read-only)

5.) Recreate whatever setup I have that forced data to specific disks

 

Does that sound about right?

[Frank1940]

If worst comes to worst, you should be able to figure out which drive was your cache drive.  (Most people usually use a SSD so this makes it easy or they use the the smallest size disk.)  If I remember correctly when  CA makes a backup of the flash drive, it creates a text file of the disk assignments.  If you can find the backup file for the flash drive, you can use the following to do the job.  

 

Once that is done, you can use this procedure to get the remaining disks reassigned to the array.  

 

 

 

[JonathanM]

8 hours ago, nerdbot said:

Does that sound about right?

Perfect.

[nerdbot]

Ok, I really shouldn't be surprised since I'm a tech guy by day and I understand the concepts - nearly everything is stored on disk, very little is on the flash drive and in memory - but to actually go from dead to back up and running with all my data and docker containers auto-starting in less than 20 minutes is still pretty damn impressive.  And yes, I've already created and downloaded a flash backup.

 

Thanks for the help everyone!