Server Upgrade + Data Migration = Workflow Questions

[Pedro85]

Hey everyone!

 

I recently purchased a Pro license for unRaid and currently have it running on some older hardware I had lying around the office.  I almost have enough money set aside for building the system that will ultimately be the "final" unraid box.  Here is the current hardware:

 

MOBO:  Rampage IV Extreme

CPU:  i7-3930k

RAM:  32gb DDR3

ARRAY DRIVES:

Parity 1 & 2:  Seagate 3TB SATA

Drives 1-3:  WD 2TB Black (xfs)

CACHE DRIVES:

2 x OCZ Agility 240gb SSD

 

The server has been running for a couple of months now.  I started messing with this pre-COVID outbreak but haven't done much during all this mess.  There is some data on the server, roughly 1.67 TB total. 

 

I plan on building a rackmount system, most likely with a Ryzen 3xxx processor (suggestions welcome).  I also plan to completely change out all of the drives to new ones [[ which is the basis of my following questions ]].  I am thinking of using something like Seagate IronWolf (maybe Pro's) in the ~10TB range.  For cache I am considering twin 1TB sandisk SSDs...maybe 2TB drives but maybe not.  Also a 10gb NIC card from Aquantia that I already have but the current system does not recognize (mobo issue I believe).

 

So the quandry I will be facing is:  How can I correctly/successfully migrate both data and my license key over to new hardware without losing either or both?

 

My current theory is to build the new system and drop a "demo" install of unraid onto the new hardware.  Get that new system configured with the new drives and just robocopy data from Old_System_Shares to New_System_Shares.  Once the data has been transferred, then theoretically I could either (A) figure out how to transfer my current license to the new system, or (B) swap flash drives between the systems.  However in thinking it through I don't think Option B would work because the newer flash drive would have the new server config...and messing with that would result in data loss -- I believe...

 

So yeah...that is kind of where I am stuck.  I have looked through the documentation and tried a few searches on this board but I haven't found a direct answer yet.  I am going to keep looking and may I will find a topic that sort of covers a similar situation like what I am describing. 

 

Thanks in advance all!

[Energen]

The license is tied to the USB flash drive, not any of the hardware, so as long as you use the same flash drive then you can just install a fresh copy of unraid on that drive and put your key on it.

 

Since you don't have a lot of a data to transfer I don't think it's really going to be a big problem for you.  Here's what I would do...

 

On the existing system, use Unbalance to move all of your data onto 1 drive only, and verify that there's nothing left on the other drives.

 

Shutdown existing Unraid server, get the flash drive ready for the new server, and at the same time take your 1 drive from the old system with all your data on it and install it (temporarily) into the new server (or sata to usb connector, external drive case, etc)

 

Start up the new server and once you get it up and running, mount that old drive with your data in unassigned devices.

 

then copy all the old data onto the new array however you want it.

 

Shutdown and remove the old drive and call it a day.

 

I don't think you'd have any problems with doing it this way.