Upgrade MB and OS from 4.7 to 6 questions

Hi all,

I have a question on upgrading both hardware and software.  Just want to make sure I have the process down and if there's anything I should be made aware of, tips etc

I'm currently running version 4.7.  I just ordered the ASRock C2550D4I Mini ITx mb and was thinking I would simply disconnect the drives from my old MB, I have 10 drives at the moment, remove it, and pop in the new ASRock.  Hopefully I can fit in an ITx mb in my Lian Li PC-P50 which indicates it supports Micro ATX and ATX motherboards.  As far as I know the mb pins should line up...I'm hoping...anyone know for sure?

Once I connect all the drives, is it just a matter of booting up with my existing usb?  As far as I know, nothing needs to be modified on the usb.  Should I boot up with only 2 or 3 drives connected at first or is it safe to boot up with all of them connected?

Obviously I'll be upgrading the bios for the MB and apparently there's a firmware update for the Marvell controller.  For the Marvell controller I thought I read you have to make a bootable DOS usb.  It's been so long I'm not even sure how that's done.  Can that be done from a Windows 8.1 machine?

After that, I understand I need to upgrade to ver 5 first, then 6.  I guess I can't go straight to 6. 

That's it in a nutshell I guess.  Am I missing anything?

I don't have a PC-P50 to check (I've built a couple systems using that excellent case, but they were for others), but I looked at the manual, and it LOOKS like there are standoff holes that you can use for a mini-ITX board already in place.    Worst case is you might have to drill a bit 

As for just "booting with your current USB" ==> I suspect that won't work ... not because that's not a good process (it works fine IF Linux recognizes the chipset, NIC, etc.) ... but because I doubt v4.7 will recognize the Avoton based chipset on that board.

So ... be SURE you have a copy of your current drive configuration [save a copy of the Web GUI screen that shows the drive assignments by serial #].    Then copy your entire current flash drive "just in case".

Now load your flash drive with a fresh copy of v6 RC4 (no need to go to v5 first);  add your Pro key to the drive (it goes in the Config folder on v6); and then boot with that.

I'd assign all of your data drives, but NOT your parity drive or (if you have one) cache drive.    Then Start the array and confirm all is well [if any drive shows as unformatted do NOT let UnRAID format it ... post the details here].    Assuming you can see all your data okay, you can then assign the parity drive and let it do a parity sync [You could probably do a New Config and "Trust Parity" (i.e. check the "Parity is Valid" box) ... but it's best to just let it do a new sync].

If you encounter any issues with the controller not "seeing" the drives, you'll likely need to reflash the board with updated firmware for the Marvell controller.    Look at the threads for this board to get the details on how to do that -- it's fairly simple, but just to be safe, I'd disconnect your drives while you're doing the update.

Thanks for the info.  One other question.  I think I would like to upgrade my flash drive as my current one is about 6yrs old.  What's the process to replacing an old USB?

I haven't upgraded since the new process was put in place; but that's now an automated process.

I'd do the upgrade to v6 first; then you can upgrade your flash online through the Web GUI.  You can read the details on flash upgrades here:  http://lime-technology.com/replace-key/

I was just reading the replacement procedure.  I do have one question on it, perhaps you know the answer...

Restore a complete backup of your previous flash device to the new device or download and install unRAID Server OS 6, then boot up.

Does that mean I can take out my current usb flash and pop it into windows and just do a straight copy of the contents from it to the new usb? 

I was just reading the replacement procedure.  I do have one question on it, perhaps you know the answer...

 

Restore a complete backup of your previous flash device to the new device or download and install unRAID Server OS 6, then boot up.

 

Does that mean I can take out my current usb flash and pop it into windows and just do a straight copy of the contents from it to the new usb?

Yes => you basically just clone your old USB to a new one;  then use the automated procedure to update your key to the new drive.

Does that mean I can take out my current usb flash and pop it into windows and just do a straight copy of the contents from it to the new usb?

I haven't researched this myself, but I'm rather sure you would also have to run make_bootable one time, to make the new usb bootable.  I believe syslinux creates the appropriate (and possibly customized?) ldlinux.sys files and modifies the MBR to boot that ldlinux code.  I don't see how it could boot without that.

Does that mean I can take out my current usb flash and pop it into windows and just do a straight copy of the contents from it to the new usb?

 

I haven't researched this myself, but I'm rather sure you would also have to run make_bootable one time, to make the new usb bootable.  I believe syslinux creates the appropriate (and possibly customized?) ldlinux.sys files and modifies the MBR to boot that ldlinux code.  I don't see how it could boot without that.

That's probably true => not sure if the "bootable" files are simply hidden system files (which would be copied if you cloned the drive) or an actual boot record that's not part of the file system.    In any event, it certainly wouldn't hurt to do the "make bootable" process before copying all the data.

Okay, thanks!

My initial plan was to upgrade the new mb then upgrade from 4.7 to 6.  However, I think I'll just upgrade to 6 first with my current config.

If I want to upgrade from 4.7 to 6 what is the best way?  Should I first upgrade to 5 or can I just copy 6 over to the usb and then copy over my disk.cfg and that's it?

Any info would be appreciated!

I believe you have to upgrade to 5 first and then go to 6.  The following link is what I used when I upgraded..

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Upgrading_to_UnRAID_v6

THanks.  I am reading that now.

I seem to have a problem with the command to find out if my cpu supports 64bit.  I ran "grep --color lm /proc/cpuinfo" but it just sits there at the command prompt.  Does it take awhile to return results?  Also is there a space between IM and /proc?

THanks.  I am reading that now.

 

I seem to have a problem with the command to find out if my cpu supports 64bit.  I ran "grep --color lm /proc/cpuinfo" but it just sits there at the command prompt.  Does it take awhile to return results?  Also is there a space between IM and /proc?

In looking at the above, Garycase said "Now load your flash drive with a fresh copy of v6 RC4 (no need to go to v5 first);  add your Pro key to the drive (it goes in the Config folder on v6); and then boot with that."

So I'm wondering if I should indeed go to 5 first or can I just go to 6?

Ok, got it.  So I'm covered for 64bit

So I'm wondering if I should indeed go to 5 first or can I just go to 6?

I'd like to discuss this question, because it's coming up more and more, justifiably.  What LimeTech recommends is to upgrade early v4 versions to v4.7, make any corrections necessary, then upgrade to v5.0.6, make sure it all works fine, then upgrade to v6 latest.  Doing it that way avoids any surprises.  But there is increasing pressure to skip the v5 upgrade, so this post is an attempt to examine the possibility of safely skipping v5.

There have been a LOT of v5 betas and official releases, plus a LOT of v6 betas, and unfortunately it's hard to remember all of the changes along the way.  They aren't all in the Release Notes, but they should be in the individual Release Announcements, a rather numerous collection to go back through.  I hope to in the next week or 2.

What I'm sure of is there were at least several changes and required steps that still have to be accounted for.  Somewhere in the v5 betas, you had to delete and recreate all your users and passwords, and you also had to run the New Permissions tool, to correct all file and folder permissions.  I strongly suspect there may be other steps too.

There are 2 ways to skip v5, to go directly from v4.7 or earlier to the current v6 release -

* Essentially start over, as if you are installing unRAID v6 as your first ever unRAID server, BUT with the idea you just happen to have a set of unRAID prepared drives, probably with a valid unRAID prepared parity drive.  Use the Upgrading to UnRAID v6 guide - backup your current flash, re-format it with the latest v6 release, and boot your system.  You will have some extra very important steps though, because you have no configuration AT ALL, and your files and folders do not have the right permissions.  Unless you don't care about your current parity drive, you cannot just start assigning the drives.  You will have to use the New Config tool, assign them, then set parity as valid.  Then you should run a parity check to verify it all.  While it's running, you can configure your users, passwords, User Shares, and other settings.  Once the parity check is done (not before, unless you don't care how long it all takes!), you will need to run the New Permissions tool, which takes quite awhile.  We don't yet have anyone that's done this and reported back, so I do think there may be additional steps necessary, as yet undiscovered.  But I don't know of any reason (at the moment) why this should not work.

* Do it as a true upgrade from v4.7 to v6 latest, except add a couple of steps.  Once we are sure what those steps are, this should be a viable method, but I'm not confident we know completely, and I'll try to research those Release Announcements to see what we may be missing.  You will use the Upgrading to UnRAID v6 guide - backup your current flash, re-format it with the latest v6 release, and boot your system.  You will have some extra steps though, because users and password systems have changed, and your files and folders do not have the right permissions.  I *think* that the recommended v6 upgrade method, reformatting and limited restoration of config files, results in deletion of users and passwords.  You will need to configure your users, passwords, and other settings.  Then you will need to run the New Permissions tool, which takes quite awhile.  We don't yet have anyone that's done this and reported back, so I do think there could be additional steps necessary, as yet undiscovered.  But I don't know of any reason (at the moment) why this should not work.

If you are upgrading from an earlier v4 release, before v4.7, then you may have additional issues to deal with.  I would upgrade to v4.7 first, but you will have to email LimeTech for a copy of v4.7.  Once v4.7 is running correctly, you don't have to do anything else there, and you can then proceed to upgrade further.

* HPA on parity drive - you have to make sure you don't have one.  If you do, there are ways to fix it, but the best and easiest solution is to unassign it, and add a new parity drive once you have fully upgraded to v6.  Maybe it's time for a new drive?  With v6, you will have new options for that old parity drive.

* Drive identifiers - the way drive models were identified changed somewhere back then, and when you update to v4.7, you may discover some drives dropped, because they are identified differently.  That usually has to get fixed in v4.7, by you.  However, you may want to consider the first method above, jumping to v6 as a brand new system.

Corrections happily accepted, I may have missed steps, or mis-remembered how they're done.

My view is that the potential number of "gotchas" along the way in upgrading from a pre-v4.7 release to 4.7, then v5, and then to v6 makes it a far better choice to just "start over" and install v6 directly ... adding the data drives from the old version along with a "new" parity drive [This can truly be new ... if the user wants a > 2TB drive ... or the same drive previously used for parity, but with a new parity sync done by v6].

Clearly the downside of that is that all plug-ins and customizations will have to be redone; but in a jump from v4 to v6 that's likely going to be needed anyway.

Many of the issues that had to be resolved in the v4 updates -- HPAs in particular -- are irrelevant, since an HPA doesn't really "hurt" anything ... it just costs a few bytes of storage.

But from a pure NAS perspective, I can't think of any reason not to just go straight to v6.

I'm moving toward agreeing with you, want to agree with you, but I'm not yet comfortable with that.  I remember Tom being somewhat emphatic about the course of action, not skipping v4.7 or v5.0, so I want to better research it, and feel more confident we understand all of the potential gotchas.  But I am moving that way.  Once I'm confident, I'll add text based on the above to the upgrade guide.

I've learned to be very careful what I recommend, as I feel somewhat responsible for other people's data, and I REALLY REALLY don't want to make a mistake.