How to move a array to a new drive

[Tedstonegenious]

I am planning on replacing the raidcard in my Unraid server with a proper HBA. (LSI IBM SAS 9200-8i IT Mode) but, in case I accidentally break the array doing so, I want to move all the files to a drive on my computer while I'm upgrading. how would I go about this. They are sas drives, so I can't just plop it into my computer and image it. 

[Dutch_Master]

You don't have to: it's about the data on them. Copy everything to a separate (external?) drive (make sure it's big enough!) then replace the card and re-purpose the array. Mind, you couldn't copy/image the raid-drives anyway, due to the way the raid-card stores data on the disks. This also means you'd have to build a new RAID with the OS in charge instead of the (missing) raid-card. This essentially wipes the re-used drives from the array. Copy your data back and you're done.

[Tedstonegenious]

Some of my parent's work files are on the drive. So there is some shares that I don't have access towards (intentional, their companies policy) Would I have to get temporary permission?

[Dutch_Master]

You should notify them (preferably in writing!) that they need to secure their data off the device as you're going to upgrade it and the process will destroy their data. It's then their responsibility these files are saved before you commence the upgrade. Give them a reasonable time-frame, like a week or perhaps 2, but emphasize the upgrade cannot be delayed.

[Jarsky]

create a 'root' share to /mnt/user and just mount the whole thing, then you can copy all the shares

[StDragon]

8 hours ago, Dutch_Master said:

Mind, you couldn't copy/image the raid-drives anyway, due to the way the raid-card stores data on the disks. This also means you'd have to build a new RAID with the OS in charge instead of the (missing) raid-card. 

 

Depends.

 

Most HBA and hardware RAID controllers these days adhere to the Common RAID Disk Data Format (DDF). Obviously back up the data first if not already, but assuming that's all done, it should be a simple matter of replacing the RAID controller for another and import the existing volume as a foreign RAID container. Pretty easy actually.

 

[Jarsky]

6 hours ago, StDragon said:

 

Depends.

 

Most HBA and hardware RAID controllers these days adhere to the Common RAID Disk Data Format (DDF). Obviously back up the data first if not already, but assuming that's all done, it should be a simple matter of replacing the RAID controller for another and import the existing volume as a foreign RAID container. Pretty easy actually.

 

 

It's not hardware RAID its UnRAID, which by default I believe uses the mounted device names (e.g /dev/sdaX) rather than the UUID for mounting into the UnRAID array. 

OP is best to note down (take a screenshot) of which drive is which (Disk position & Serial number) so they can all be added back to the array in the proper placement in UnRAID..they may have a different device name (sda sdb sdc etc...) when mounted on the HBA. 

 

As far as HBA IT mode (JBOD), theres no configuration to import, that's just for RAID. 

[StDragon]

13 hours ago, Jarsky said:

 

It's not hardware RAID its UnRAID, which by default I believe uses the mounted device names (e.g /dev/sdaX) rather than the UUID for mounting into the UnRAID array. 

OP is best to note down (take a screenshot) of which drive is which (Disk position & Serial number) so they can all be added back to the array in the proper placement in UnRAID..they may have a different device name (sda sdb sdc etc...) when mounted on the HBA. 

 

As far as HBA IT mode (JBOD), theres no configuration to import, that's just for RAID. 

Ahh ok, yes you are correct then. OP mentioned a RAID card. But effectively it's just an HBA with the disks in JBOD mode whereas the actual RAID array is in software if I'm understanding you correctly.

 

Thanks for clarifying. 

 

 

[Tedstonegenious]

 

On 4/5/2020 at 1:39 PM, StDragon said:

Ahh ok, yes you are correct then. OP mentioned a RAID card. But effectively it's just an HBA with the disks in JBOD mode whereas the actual RAID array is in software if I'm understanding you correctly.

 

Thanks for clarifying. 

 

 

Actually, the railcard is handling the array. It is a simple raid 1. And I want to get rid of it in favor of a HBA so I can get proper drive reporting. 

On 4/4/2020 at 2:49 PM, Jarsky said:

create a 'root' share to /mnt/user and just mount the whole thing, then you can copy all the shares

How can I create a root share? There is a tutorial from spaceINvador1, but it seems to be for a old version of unraid and I can't see the config file he's editing. 

[Jarsky]

29 minutes ago, Tedstonegenious said:

Actually, the railcard is handling the array. It is a simple raid 1. And I want to get rid of it in favor of a HBA so I can get proper drive reporting. 

In that case you need to destroy the array and recreate it, so you must copy all your data off the drives. It's not simple unplug/replug. 

 If you're using UnRAIDs array feature then you need to pre-clear the disks as well.

 

A popular choice is also to add just a single disk to the UnRAID array to initialize UnRAID, installs the ZFS plugin/utils from Community Apps, and then create a ZFS array in the terminal shell with all your storage drives...this does mean sacrificing some sort of disk though.  

 

 

Quote

How can I create a root share? There is a tutorial from spaceINvador1, but it seems to be for a old version of unraid and I can't see the config file he's editing. 

 

You just go into Settings > SMB and use the SMB Extra's to define your root share config. Something like this, would allow all users read-only access to \\tower\root which would contain all your shares  (/mnt/user is where all shares minus the cache are mounted  /mnt/user0 is including the cache)

 

[root]
    comment = Root Share
    path = /mnt/user/
    browsable = yes
    public = yes
    writeable = no
    vfs objects =

 

 

[Tedstonegenious]

10 minutes ago, Jarsky said:

 

[root]
    comment = Root Share
    path = /mnt/user/
    browsable = yes
    public = yes
    writeable = no
    vfs objects =

So I copy and paste this into this thing

 

 

 

[Jarsky]

1 minute ago, Tedstonegenious said:

 

 

Yes, you'll need to stop the array first, copy/paste the config, and start the array back up. 

[Tedstonegenious]

So it created the share, but it's empty.

[Tedstonegenious]

Nevermind, I forgot I created a share named root the generic way and that was what it was showing