Hi I have some old parts laying around since I built a new PC, so I thought it would make sense to recycle these parts and upgrade the mobo / cpu of my super old unraid server.

 

My current unraid server

1. Unraid (5.0-4)
2. CPU -  AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 4400e @ 2.7 GHz
3. Mobo - ASUSTeK Computer INC. - M4A785-M
4. Memory 2GB

    5. Array config is 6 drives including a parity and cache drive

 

Recycled Parts

1. Motherboard (GIGABYTE GA-Z77-DS3H) - https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813128547
2. CPU (i5-3570K) - (https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Core-i5-3570K-Quad-Core-Processor/dp/B007SZ0E1Kl)
3. Memory - 8gb

 

I had a question in terms of which sata expansion card to use since the mobo I have in the recycled parts do not have enough ports. In fact one of them is broken so only 4 available on the mobo itself.

 

The next question I had was what would be the safest way of upgrading without the loss of share config / or data? My initial thought was upgrading my current unraid server to 6.0. Once this is done I would then move the data drives to the new hardware and use the flash drive with the update unraid 6.0 and everything should boot properly with the data drives and shares configured?

 

Thanks for the help

 

 

Edited November 6, 20205 yr by Tbtf

1 hour ago, Tbtf said:

upgrading my current unraid server to 6.0

Current Unraid stable is 6.8.3, and I doubt 6.0 is available anywhere. In any case you should go to 6.8.3. The upgrade wiki:

 

https://wiki.unraid.net/Upgrading_to_UnRAID_v6

 

Note that eventually you need to reformat your data drives to one of the new filesystems, so will need some space somewhere for the data for each as you reformat, but we can get into those details later.

 

1 hour ago, Tbtf said:

which sata expansion card

Here is a fairly recent thread with good info:

 

I had the exact same system as you did, but I kept upgrading to the latest version of unraid.  I highly recommend you upgrade everything before changing hardware.  I would also suggest a "LSI IBM SAS 9200-8i IT Mode" type sata expansion card - I bought one from ebay already setup for unraid (IT mode enabled), I plugged into the videocard slot and had no issues with it. That AMD Athlon is a little powerhouse (mine was actually a cheapo single core Sempron that the asus motherboard auto-upgrade to a dual core athlon)

 

You may also want to pick up a blackfriday external usb drive - this will allow you to upgrade from reiserfs to xfs/btrfs

 

 

 

thanks for the input, looks like i have some more reading to do, mainly with the sata expansion cards.

 

I have a spare brand new 3TB hard drive that i was going to replace out for a 500GB drive i have in the array. Could I use this drive to start converting reiserfs to xfs / btrfs? 

 

Also from reading the upgrade guide to 6.8.3, it sounds like once i upgrade the reiserfs drives should still work with 6.8.3 and i can start formatting and converting the drives to the new file system overtime?

 

Thanks again for all the help

25 minutes ago, Tbtf said:

Also from reading the upgrade guide to 6.8.3, it sounds like once i upgrade the reiserfs drives should still work with 6.8.3 and i can start formatting and converting the drives to the new file system overtime?

Yes the old filesystem still works but is not recommended going forward. Formatting to the new filesystem IS converting it, but of course format makes it empty, so as mentioned you will need room for the data elsewhere for each as you convert. Such as

38 minutes ago, rilles said:

You may also want to pick up a blackfriday external usb drive - this will allow you to upgrade from reiserfs to xfs/btrfs

 

The Unassigned Devices plugin makes it easier to work with disks outside the array.

51 minutes ago, trurl said:

Yes the old filesystem still works but is not recommended going forward. Formatting to the new filesystem IS converting it, but of course format makes it empty, so as mentioned you will need room for the data elsewhere for each as you convert. Such as

 

The Unassigned Devices plugin makes it easier to work with disks outside the array.

 

Ahh ok just to be sure i understand correctly i should do the following

 

1. Upgrade to unraid 6.8.3

2. Boot into new unraid version, run permission checker and assign drives

3. Make sure shares and everything are working properly

 

Start converting drives to XFS Filesystem by doing the following

1. Select largest drive and copy all the data to a destination drive (using unassigned devices plugin)

2. Format the drive which was copied to XFS Filesystem(This will wipe the data on the drive being formatted)

3. Copy the data back to the newly XFS formatted drive

 

I would keep repeating the steps until all the drives get converted to XFS.

 

Once this is all done then i would worry about upgrading the mobo and CPU and moving the unraid data drives to the new case?
 

As for the sata expansion for the new hardware, this is a card that is recommended?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/LSI-SAS9200-8i-IBM-46C8937-9200-8i-IT-Mode-SAS-6Gb-PCIe-Raid-Controller/132641819007?epid=7033716617&hash=item1ee211897f:g:s6AAAOSwa9FbDW1B

Edited November 6, 20205 yr by Tbtf

That all sounds good. If you want you could wait and do the filesystem conversion after your planned hardware changes. In any case you should change the controller before trying to work with all the data.

 

I'm not familiar with that specific controller and not really an expert in that area. Hopefully @JorgeB or someone will comment.

Should be fine assuming it's a genuine LSI HBA.

4 hours ago, JorgeB said:

Should be fine assuming it's a genuine LSI HBA.

hi @JorgeB, do you you know the difference between these two cards, and if they will work with unraid it seems they both would but want to make sure.

 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-LSI-6Gbps-SAS-HBA-LSI-9200-8i-IT-Mode-P20-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID-US/192732265809?epid=27026248101&hash=item2cdfbcfd51:g:xBIAAOSwNepb9YhA

and the other listing

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-LSI-6Gbps-SAS-HBA-LSI-9211-8i-9201-8i-P20-IT-Mode-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID/163846248833?hash=item2625ff5981:g:shEAAOSwPKZdbst~

 

Also thanks for all the help everyone :). I plan on doing the upgrade to unraid 6.8.3 this week, wish me luck

Edited November 8, 20205 yr by Tbtf

Both should work, but the 9200-8i is not a standard retail model, could be OEM, should be fine if it's genuine.

Thank you @JorgeB and @trurl,

 

I finally upgraded to unraid 6.8.3 and everything is running smoothly. I had a quick question as my array is nearly full and I am wondering what you all would do? I can only think of two ways to expand my array and start the conversion process to xfs. 

 

The options I see are as follows

1. Copy of the contents of a 500gb drive in the array then copy it to an external HD. Once that is done replace the drive with a 3tb one i have and format it to xfs. Then copy the 500gb contents to the newly formatted drive

2. Using the new SAS card connect the 3tb drive and preclear the drive, and format it to xfs. Expand the array and move data around formatting each drive to xfs until all are done.

 

I think option 2 makes the most sense? unless there is another option i am missing?

 

Also in terms of testing unraid on the new core hardware i plan to move it to, is it possible to test with another flash drive just to make sure everything is working properly before moving over my data disks? If so how would I do that?

 

Thanks for the help again

29 minutes ago, Tbtf said:

Using the new SAS card connect the 3tb drive and preclear the drive, and format it to xfs. Expand the array and move data around formatting each drive to xfs until all are done.

Preclear if you want to test it, but you must assign the new disk to a new slot in the array THEN let Unraid format it. If you preclear, format, then assign, Unraid will just clear it again to maintain parity since a formatted disk isn't clear.

@trurl @JorgeB,

 

I installed the SAS card on my old motherboard however i noticed i didn't have enough SATA power cables on my old PSU. I booted up with the SAS card connected but no drives and everything booted up fine. Next in order to test if the SAS card worked i used the SATA from my breakout cable to an existing HD in the array.  After this i was unable to get the server to boot up. Once i switched the cables back basically putting the harddrive sata cable to the mobo i was able to boot up once. I then reseated the card tried everything again and after this i am unable to get unraid to boot anymore.

 

any ideas? should i just remove the card to make sure its not causing any problems? thanks

 

UPDATES:

removed the SAS card and still cannot get unraid to boot. just see a black screen on my monitor now when i start up

 

I removed the unraid flash drive and was able to see the BIOS POST. Once i put my usb thumbdrive back in the screen just stays black, and i cant tell if unraid is booting up or not

 

Used the unraid thumbdrive to boot up with the hardware i want to migrate all the datadrives to and everything booted up properly and quickly. Should i just move all the data drives over?

 

UPDATE 2: WORKING NOW

 

I am up and running the old mobo i have was having trouble with the new monitor i have so couldnt see that the mobo was POSTing everytime. when i connected motherboard to a diff monitor i was able to see that the motherboard wasnt using the unraid drive to boot anymore.

 

 

Edited November 14, 20205 yr by Tbtf