I just got a Dell R820 and it uses 2.5" disks. I currently have an R710 and want to move the setup over without needing to start over.

is there a way to keep all my stuff as it is, like maybe use a USB to external HD connector and copy to a new parity drive (the newly installed 2.5")?

If that works how would I recover the others? can I copy each 1 as it goes or is there some HD cloning software I can use?

(I know I would need to know the serial # UNraid thinks is drive 1, 2 etc..)

 

(Or maybe the 2.5" drives in the USB and have it recover 1 drive at a time?)

Edited March 4, 20206 yr by Notso

Parity contains no data so copying it doesn't make sense, at least for your scenario. 

 

I'm not entirely clear on what your scenario is though. Are you wanting to get your data on other disks? 

 

What specifically are you hoping to preserve from your current setup? 

I want all my settings and shares etc to be as they are. Just as if I moved the existing drives to a new machine.

I really don't want to copy 8TB of stuff over PLUS remake all my shares and VMs. (I know I can back up or copy out the VM images) and also all the docker stuff. Just figure there has to be an easier way. 

If you want to get your data from 3.5" to 2.5" that seems simpler than the questions you ask, so that is why I am having trouble understanding.

 

I would say just make a new array and copy the data to it, either over the network from the old system,  or using Unassigned Devices to mount each disk outside the array. 

Your shares are simply the top level folders on all disks. Any Settings you have made for each share is in config/shares on Flash.

 

All of your other Settings are on Flash also

Sorry if it confused you.

 Yes, I just want all the info from each 3.5" to a corresponding 2.5" drive. Letting Parity rebuild is fine, I just want to know how to copy them so UNraid will see them as if nothing has changed.

However I would like all my shares to still be set up etc. (My Cache is 2.5" already so not change needed there).

I can network copy everything over but that would require still remaking all my shares and setting up the VMs again though right? (I know the images ar there, but still have to tell it to use that one). 

If I took out drive 1 from my 3.5" as if it failed. use an adapter to put the 2.5" in, let it recover the failed drive, would that work? Then put the 3.5" back in and just do the same process for the others? 1 at a time?

I think you are overthinking this. 

 

What do you plan to do with the original system? 

Sold it. Wipe it.

I guess you could use the original system to rebuild each disk, one at a time, to 2.5" disks, then move them all to the new system. You would end up with all of the 2.5" disks in the original system, no putting the 3.5" disks back as you were suggesting.

 

But rebuilding each disk involves reading all the other disks to calculate the data for the rebuilt disk, so in the end just copying the data to the new system is going to be less wear and tear on the disks than any sort of rebuilding scenario.

 

 

Possibly I am. 

If I set up a 2nd server to copy over, how do I do that with 1 license? 

Use a free one to copy stuff over then once done just move the licensed thumb over?

1 minute ago, Notso said:

Possibly I am. 

If I set up a 2nd server to copy over, how do I do that with 1 license? 

Use a free one to copy stuff over then once done just move the licensed thumb over?

You could do that. You would have to New Config with the licensed flash drive to get the new disks assigned.

 

Or you could just use the Unassigned Devices plugin to mount each disk outside the array on the new system and copy its data that way, no other server involved.

OK, sounds simple but would I have to redo the VMs (go in and point it to the correct image) or will they already be set up but give me an error until I copy the files over?

Also would I have to copy disk 1 to disk 1 kind of thing? (old server first disk to new server first disk etc..)

58 minutes ago, Notso said:

Also would I have to copy disk 1 to disk 1 kind of thing? (old server first disk to new server first disk etc..)

If you only use user shares and don't have any settings that use specific array disks then it shouldn't matter.

 

If you are using hardware passthru for any of your VMs then likely that would change with new hardware. Don't enable docker or VM until you have all the files in place.

Gotcha, so set the old server to NOT autostart any VMs or Dockers, and disable them then power off, move over, copy everything then enable them.

 

Disable the Docker and VM services in Settings - Docker and Settings - VM Manager. Disabling individual dockers or VMs isn't enough because the services will expect docker and libvirt images to be present. And if you disable the services there is no need to disable individual Dockers or VMs.