I've decided that I want to migrate my existing server to Unraid, and could use some advice on recommended best practices. I'll start by describing my current system, and then ask my migration questions below.

 

My current system

 

Hardware

 

• Intel Core i7 6700K
• 16GB RAM
• SSD for OS and various apps/VMs
• Adaptec 71605E entry-level SAS/SATA 6Gb/s PCIe Gen3 RAID, 16 native internal ports, RAID 0, 1, 1E, 1
• 4 * ICY BOX (IB-565SSK) 5-Bay Tray Less Dual Channel SATA/SAS Back Plane
• 18 * HDDs of various size, totaling 80TB of capacity (capacity for 20 drives)

 

Software

 

• Windows Server 2016
• Drive Bender for drive pooling (This software copies all data to a separate physical drive, in case of failure. It has served me well over the years, but it's very inefficient compared to Unraid, so I think it's time to move)
• Plex and various related apps (Sonarr, Ombi etc, all served through nginx)

 

VMs

 

 

• One for Pihole
• One for using a VPN for various downloading tasks

 

The way I see it, I have two main areas that I need to migrate - 

 

1) Migration of Server Software

 

Ideally, I'd like to get my new Unraid server all set up, while still running my existing server in parallel. I'd really like to avoid as much downtime as possible. This includes setting up Unraid itself, as well as any additional software like Plex, Sonarr, Radarr, etc. My plan here is to get a new SSD and use that as my cache drive, then set up all the software I need on it in a completely different PC. Once I have everything installed and set up, I was planning on transferring the SSD and Unraid USB to my server. I suppose my main question here is, will this approach work? Can I set up Unraid on a system with a different CPU/motherboard then just transfer the SSD and USB and expect it to still have everything I set up? Can I set up all my apps on a cache drive alone, without any array disks?

 

2) Migration of Data

 

This is the trickier one, and I'll admit, I'll probably have to incur some downtime here. My current plan looks like this - 

 

1. Turn folder duplication off in Drive Bender. This is the slightly scary part, but this will give me a bit wiggle room. This will leave me with X drives that still have data, and Y drives that are empty.
2. Remove the X drives with data, and place them aside. Leave the empty Y drives in the server.
3. Boot up with Unraid, and add those empty drives to the array, and set up my shares.
4. Insert one of the data drives, and move its contents into the array. Once it is empty, I can then add the drive itself to the array. Rinse and repeat until all drives are processed like this, making sure to leave my biggest 2 drives until last, and set them to the parity drives.
5.  

Of course, I still have to tackle migrating app data (Plex, Sonarr etc), but I might post any questions I have about that in a more relevant forum, and leave this post about the Unraid specifics. Does the above migration plan seem feasible? Is there anything I should modify for a smoother migration?

1- yes, but you need at least 1 disk for the array

2- yes, it's exactly how I moved from WHS 2011 (which I still have running now in a VM on my Unraid server, still great for backing up Windows clients)

11 hours ago, Michael_P said:

1- yes, but you need at least 1 disk for the array

Ok, can I just use a second USB drive for this? Then once I have Unraid all set up, I can start migrating my drives, and remove the USB drive from the array after the first drive is added?

Yes, you can use a random usb key as an array drive in your situation.