Moving to UnRaid - What procedure will save exisi 9 Reiserfs Linux HDDs?

[Suse User]

My USB Boot Key has been shipped, I've ordered a couple of big drives (one of which for parity) and I'm really looking forward to finally getting this up & running.

 

What I'm really wanting to know is what procedure I can follow that would enable my existing 9 Reiserfs partitioned drives (all primary single partition) to be adopted by UnRaid?

 

Should I add them all at once?  or Introduce them individually?

 

Any advice please?

 

Thanks

 

 

[dschur]

As I understand it, if ALL of the drives in the Array are NEW and you reset the array configuration, UnRaid will not reformat/clear any of them, and will use the existing filesystems and recalculate parity.

 

This is a special case, only when ALL drives are NEW.

 

If it were me, I would add 1 drive at a time, clearing the array (which makes all drives new) each time and allowing it to recalculate parity. I suppose you could throw them all in at once and cross your fingers, but I'd recommend 1 at a time, at least until your comfortable with the process. However if you mess up and start the array when rebooting with a new drive - BAM, unraid will clear it (just the new drive). Make sure you reset the array.

 

I'd also backup each drive as it's added if the data is important/irreplaceable.

 

Take your time, read the online directions closely. Someone chime in if I haven't explained this right.

[dschur]

From the online Management Tutorial (http://www.lime-technology.com/management.htm)

 

>Initialize, what's that?

This is an option on the Tools page to let you zero-out the array configuration data. The system will think it's brand new with all new hard drives. When you start the array, the system will start a background process to generate the parity information. Note: in the special case where all the hard drives are new, the format operation will not clear the data areas; it simply generates parity.

[TCIII]

dschur,

 

I had no problem starting up with a full array on my second unRaid server, but I only had eight drives on my first unRaid server and then added four more later.

 

Starting up with all 12 drives installed made sure that my case power supplies could handle the load as I do a monthly parity check that spins up all of the drives at once.

 

Also, I never store anything on the unRaid servers that I cannot replace such as MP3 music files and pictures that can be easily stored on a DVD.

 

Regards,

TCIII

[dschur]

TC, I'm sure the unraid can handle the number of drives (I have 9 in mine now), I'd just excercise a little caution putting them all in, fully loaded with data, at once. It'll probably work just fine.

 

Also, I forgot to thank you for the help with the faceplates. Thanks a bunch, it really helped me (and a buddy) out in a pinch!

[Suse User]

Thanks for the replies...

 

My current conguration under Suse has 12 Drives, all spinning at the same time and my PSU (650W) seems quite happy at that.  2 of my drives are Sata and won't be used in this array due to the spin-down problems currently apparant in Linux/UnRaid.  A 3rd Drive is my current modest boot Linux Boot HDD.  That leaves 9 to go into the new system along with a Parity drive which I take it will be in postion hda1.

 

Can I just clarify 100% here...

As I understand it, if ALL of the drives in the Array are NEW and you reset the array configuration, UnRaid will not reformat/clear any of them, and will use the existing filesystems and recalculate parity.

All the Drives means every drive including the new parity drive?.  Will I put this new parity drive in in unformatted/unpartitioned?

 

I have no real way to back up these drives.  I have a lot of lossless music (in ape) and so far around half my DVD collection on there.  Allthough I have all the original CDs & DVDs the time taken to re-load them would be prohibitive, as would backing up each one to a spare HDD prior to loading on the UnRaid.  It's a gamble I'm going to have to take, I just want to give myself the best chance of coming through this intact.

 

Thanks!

 

[limetech]

Suse User -

When you add new disk(s) which already have a ReiserFS partition on them, they will be recognized by the UnRaid OS provided:

• the disk has a "normal" partition layout
  
• the ReiserFS filesystem is in partition 1
  

 

A "normal" partition layout means that partition 1 starts in the second physical track of the disk.

 

What happens is that UnRaid OS will write a new partition table which puts all available storage in partition 1, and starts partition 1 on the second track.

 

If you used standard linux utility to originally partition the disk, then it should be OK.  If you want, you can use fdisk to dump the contents of your partition table, send to me, and I can tell you if it looks OK.