Transferring Array to ESXI v7.0 -- Advice?

[bmilcs]

Hello!

 

I began my journey with UnRaid 3-4 years ago, with a crappy old AMD desktop and zero working knowledge of networking, storage or virtualization. Aside from the obvious, this OS opened my eyes and fueled an ever-expanding homelab and desire to learn... while slowly draining my bank account :).

 

Here's where I am:

 

- R730XD LFF, running Dell's custom ESXI 7.0 iso

- Crossflashed H330 Mini to HBA330 Mini

- Unraid VM configured & tested with:

      - HBA330 Mini direct passthrough

      - Unraid Trial > USB Flash Drive direct passthrough

      - Unraid WebGUI works great, added Unassigned Drives(+) Plugin

      - Successfully added a 850 Evo 250gb & a 2.5" 10k SAS Drive 

      - Formatted / mounted one as unassigned drive

      - Created a 1 drive array w/ other, formatted and mounted it

      - SMB Shares are working swimmingly and all seems to be well

 

How can I "safely" dismount my existing & nearly full 20tb array from an older rig and transfer it into this virtualized state?

 

Are there any other things I need to check within Unraid to ensure I have a successful move? Am I missing anything???

 

All and any feedback welcome!

 

Thanks

-bmilcs

 

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by bmilcs

[doron]

Assuming the HBA330 will accommodate all your array (and cache?) drives, it should be fairly straightforward and painless.

 

I suppose I would use the VM you already created, with your existing (production, licensed) USB drive:

 

0. Make sure you allocated sufficient resources (CPU, RAM) to the Unraid machine.

1. Take a snapshot of the drive locations in the old array (SNs), just in case.

2. Configure the production Unraid to not auto-start the array. Properly shut down the old machine.

3. Move your array drives, cache drive(s) and boot USB drive to the R730 (via the HBA330). 

4. Start the R730. Assign the USB drive to the Unraid VM, instead of the trial one.

5. Configure the Unraid machine to boot from the USB (hey, it's ESXi 7).

6. Boot the Unraid VM.

 

If all worked well, Unraid should boot and you should see an un-started array with all your drives in their places. Make sure they are all indeed in their correct slots, and then you can start the array.

Up to here this should all be reversible, in case of failure.

 

Remember none of your plugin installations on the trial USB drive are carried over. You have basically imported your entire existing Unraid system.

 

 

One potential gotcha might be that for some reason the drives will get a slightly different name. In that case you will need to go through one more step - "new config" with carefully assigning drives into positions - but I doubt this would happen.

 

Good luck!

 

[bmilcs]

Thanks man.

 

Is there an easy way to keep my old array with a new copy of the installer? I'd ideally like a fresh clean start, without losing my data. I can't even remember all of the customizations and tweaks I've tried over the years and forgot about. 

[doron]

9 minutes ago, bmilcs said:

Is there an easy way to keep my old array with a new copy of the installer? I'd ideally like a fresh clean start, without losing my data. I can't even remember all of the customizations and tweaks I've tried over the years and forgot about. 

You could, for some value of "easy". 

 

Note that your current license is tied to the current USB stick. For a fresh start, you'll need to either (a) get a new license or (b) ask Limetech to move your existing license to a new USB stick, or (c) back up your existing USB stick, put a fresh install of Unraid on it and then copy the license files (only) from the backup back to the USB stick.

 

Then, you will want to do a "new config", assign each drive to its exact location from the old array (make triple sure!!), mark "parity is already valid" and sail away. You will of course need to re-configure all user shares, plugins, dockers etc. etc.

 

[bmilcs]

Alright. So, my unraid server finally stayed up long enough to do a full parity check with zero errors. I turned off autostart, took some screenshots of it's current configuration, and am taking it down now for the transplant! Wish me luck.

[doron]

1 hour ago, bmilcs said:

Alright. So, my unraid server finally stayed up long enough to do a full parity check with zero errors. I turned off autostart, took some screenshots of it's current configuration, and am taking it down now for the transplant! Wish me luck.

Go @bmilcs! Report results... 🙂

[bmilcs]

@doron 

 

 

So scared! Booting for the first time w/ production USB & drives installed.

 

Sorry for the lack of responses. I've been mounting plywood & 6u network rack in my closet, running 2 lines of CAT6a to each room of my house, with an epic cable management tray in my attic & over-the-top sch40 6" PVC leftovers through the ceiling :). 

 

DOH. I don't have my ESXI's vlan setup properly on my R730XD. 

 

Edit: Patch Panel fail.

Edited April 20, 2020 by bmilcs

[bmilcs]

 

[bmilcs]

Life can be beautiful sometimes. Time to move my servers into the basement  -- this R730xd IS LOUDDD with 5 drives in it.

[doron]

Woohoo! Nice going. Well done.

[bmilcs]

Quick update: All is well :). Finally went through a full parity check and UnRaid is running better than it ever has.

 

It goes to show any 'old hardware' does not beat a decommissioned enterprise level server. Of course it I'm such a dummy.

Edited May 3, 2020 by bmilcs

[Adam64]

Would you please share how you have the VM set up?  I tried this over the weekend with ESXi 7 and couldn't get the VM to boot from the USB stick.

[bmilcs]

 

9 minutes ago, Adam64 said:

Would you please share how you have the VM set up?  I tried this over the weekend with ESXi 7 and couldn't get the VM to boot from the USB stick.

 

 

https://www.ostricher.com/2012/09/setting-up-unraid-vm/

 

This is the guideline I used to get it going.

 

What issues are you facing?

[Adam64]

1 minute ago, bmilcs said:

 

 

 

https://www.ostricher.com/2012/09/setting-up-unraid-vm/

 

This is the guideline I used to get it going.

 

What issues are you facing?

I was never able to get the VM to see the USB stick.  Neither native nor with plopexec.

[bmilcs]

10 minutes ago, Adam64 said:

I was never able to get the VM to see the USB stick.  Neither native nor with plopexec.

ESXI is fussy with what USB drives you use. I failed to install it twice with older drives.

 

Try adding it this way if you haven't already.

 

Here's what you want to pick up:

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077Y149DL/ref=twister_B078VKF48F?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Edited June 1, 2020 by bmilcs

[Adam64]

13 minutes ago, bmilcs said:

ESXI is fussy with what USB drives you use. I failed to install it twice with older drives.

 

Try adding it this way if you haven't already.

 

Here's what you want to pick up:

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077Y149DL/ref=twister_B078VKF48F?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

Thanks!  I bought a few of those new USB sticks.  What is your USB controller 1 setting?

[bmilcs]

I love these USB sticks. Dirt cheap, USB 3.0 and reliable as far as I can tell.

 

 

[Adam64]

2 minutes ago, bmilcs said:

I love these USB sticks. Dirt cheap, USB 3.0 and reliable as far as I can tell.

 

 

 

Thanks.  Someone in another thread said he'd fixed his boot from USB issues by changing his USB controller to 3.0.

[StevenD]

I have passed thru my USB, and boot directly from it.  You do need to enable EFI boot to do that.

 

Edited June 1, 2020 by StevenD

[bmilcs]

 

@StevenD Your storage hardware makes me smile.