I have an old Win7 PC that is used as a dumb file server. Hard disk failed and now restoring 3TB back from my UNRAID hosted UrBackup.
Question - when did Win7 drop out of support for UrBackup, and is there any issue I should be aware of when doing backups and\or this restore?
(Yeah yeah, I know I should have scrapped this Win7 box years ago… its on the round-tuit list)
Second question, as currently my only copy of the data is on that backup, can I just go in and click the ARCHIVE option now while this restore is running? Or would that confuse things? I want to make sure I don’t loose that last backup.
I have managed to temp pause / disable the backup via the GUI so it should not update. If it ran now it would destroy my good and only copy.
Aha - maybe this is just NTFS security settings? I notice I am not yet owner of the files… breathes a little easier for a while… goes and makes another coffee while the last 7% finishes the restore.
Watching progress bars are like watching the kettle boil. They distort time and reality slows down.
Don’t worry if part way through the restore none of your files work. Clearly the NTFS file rights are added at the end.
Patience is key.
I think it took something like 24 hours to run through 3TB from a small UNRAID NAS to a Win7 PC.
Another bit of advice - UPS everywhere. When the thunderstorm kicked in at 98% complete it was a little scary, but knowing that all the computers were on UPS then I didn’t panic. (But made me realise my network switches are not all on UPS)
I’m gonna go find that Donate button later. You guys saved my butt. Again.
At least reading the forum I learnt other tricks. Like when I build my Linux box to replace this Win7 box the first backup will be fast as all the de-dup will just recognise it has the WIn7 files already. Now that is clever.
If you include share_hashes, yes but will also take up significantly more space (but still WAY smaller than having 2 of them).
Also, be mindful if you change the filesystem and then restores the backup to f.ex ext4 instead of ntfs. You talk about credentials, ntfs differs COMPLETELY when it comes to that f.ex so share_hashes might not work as you intended, but not sure, you will have to try.
But a file on ntfs compared to a file on ext4 will never be the same but again, disclaimer, I have not tried this so it might work.
If I were you, and you are changing the filesystem to ext4/btrfs/whatever (witch you SHOULD on linux, ntfs has REALLY wonky functionality on linux, corrupting data etc.), I would download that zip, unpack it to the new partition, change credentials and make a completely new full backup and then continue with incrementals from there NOT using share_hashes.
If you HAVE to have the filesystem readable directly from a windows machine (not through samba f.ex), make the filesystem exFat instead of ntfs, linux works WAY better with it. (microsoft has released the source code for exFat witch is not the case for ntfs)
My migration plan is to build a Linux box, learn which is the “best” file system, then take my hard disks one by one to that Linux box and migrate data from NTFS to the more reliable file system.
This is a media server. Music, video, etc. Media don’t change much, just added to. It will need to then be accessed via SMB from Windows boxes and KODI. So I am happy to rebuild any file rights as needed. Not that complex.
The main plan will be future proofing. Very likely I’ll actually make another UNRAID box as I have liked the data backup it builds in. RAID but not RAID.
The main thing will be leaving the Windows world as this is “only” a file server.
Wherever I go, URBackup will cover it. Best decision I made in many years.
BTW - “download that zip” made me laugh. 3TB of music… that’s a lot of zips as they are only 4GB max . This is why I plan to migrate by introducing the hard disks one at a time, copy to native Linux, backup, wipe NTFS hard disk, format to Linux, repeat with next disk (video, etc)
More or less the exact setup I have but without any raid, I manage my redundancy backups another way.
Rpi 4 8gb version and I have never had any problems with it crashing or anything.
I don’t use kodi, I have a plex server running on it but about the same.
Got urbackup server, urbackup client (that backs up stuff from the samba/file storage and the urbackup database), plex server and a deluge server.
btrfs on the urbackup storage makes wonder to saving space.
Never even close to utilizing the memory fully.
Running rpi os right now, but when the next big update comes, I will take a big thinking session about if I should try to transfer the server to ManjaroARM for that roling release so I never have to worry about reinstalling or upgrading the debian realease.
Oh yeah, forgot about that, but you seem to be on top of it. Copying from the ntfs drive is obv the best way.
I already have Pi’s doing various tasks, and have other plans for them. Currently own four of them and dabbling with home automation. Trouble is there is around 12TB of data on four hard disks at the moment and lack of SATA controller rules the PI out of that. I tend to just re-use an old PC of some form.
I need to retire that old Win7 PC. “Aged” is an understatement. Motherboard is so old the company don’t exist any more (ABit) and a Core 2 Quad is chunking out too much heat for the task it is doing. There is a lot of data, but only two or three people max attached at a time. I need a board with six SATA connectors and a CPU happy to run that.
UNRAID as an OS is not really RAID. It runs a form of parity that means you can have mismatching different sized hard disks in the box. The largest is set aside as a “Parity” disk. The others then act as one large pool of storage. If a disk fails, you swap it out, and the OS can rebuild. I built it specifically to house my URBackup data.
Not sure what you mean, yes, you have to use the usb interface (that is shared with all io anyway) and connect a docking solution, that’s what I do. I only have 6TB+4TB though. Each drive in one hd-docking station connected to one usb3 each, but the transfer speeds are as fast as I would expect for spinning drives.
6TB is in btrfs that stores urbackup stuff, and the 4tb is my samba share in ext4. Been running perfectly for about a year.
I just LOVE the fact that they draw close to no power compared to having a desktop server running 24/7. My guess is my setup draws about 45w.
Are you going to use jbod to store your backups on?
Yeah, jbod (just a bunch of disks). You can do the same with btrfs, just add whatever device you want to a btrfs filesystem and it will be used as a unless instructed otherwise. But again, are you sure you want to use jbod for your backups?!? Not sure about the parity that you describe, that sounds more like a raid5 sollution of sort. If you trust it, go for it. I would NOT trust my backups on a system like that though.
I guess it is just from remembering USB 1.0 that means I don’t really trust putting everything into USB. Just feel comfier finding a low powered board and proper SATA. Already have a large Lian-Li case I would not want to scrap to home it all in.
Dropping power use is important though. Especially the excess heat that Quad Core knocks out.
That current Win7 box is just JBOD. With Samba shares. Running as a poor man’s “file server”
URBackup then goes to a separate box. That’s the one running UNRAID. It is much more than just JBOD. It is Linux custom built for NAS use. Really useful if you want RAID type redundancy but can’t afford to buy all your hard disks at the same time at the same size. Working with different size hard disks means I can just keep adding disks to the pool. What is Unraid? | Unraid Docs
Yes, I trust it. Tried and test for a few years on my own network now, but been around long enough as a product to have a history. I did lots of research to find the best home to put my URBackup files. That combo was highly rated at the time. Was comparing it to ReadyNAS as an option at the time.
It is also useful to me as it is very GUI based. I’m really just a linux dabbler, not had the time to keep up with it all. I’m old enough to have used Minix 1.0, but really spend way more time in Windows.
Similar your setup also scares me. Backup and data in the same device would make me nervous. I’ve seen computer go pop and release all the Magic Smoke… and fry every attached hard disk. Though this is where I expect the USB devices help with their separate PSU bricks.
One of the best parts of computing is there are so many solutions out there meaning we can always find a custom setup for our own needs. Always like hearing of other solutions I can nick ideas from and know I have to read up on btrfs now.
Me too, that is why I have TWO devices with 3 partitions.
One ext4 and 2 btrfs, the backup location and urbackup data that I just symlinked there. I make constant backups of the database file as well because, why not. Since its in btrfs It’s snapshotted so it shouldn’t matter if the backup is running while the backup is being done, I think… xD (never had to use it because the rpi is very stable)
You do you, I feel pretty darn confident 2 spinning drives will never get any trouble other than if the rpi would crash. Last time I rebooted it was 3 months ago, and have been using it for a LONG time without ANY problems what so ever.
If you feel parity drives is your way to go, good for you. I prefer btrfs on solo drives so I can make redundency backups from selected snapshots.
Parity drives sounds good and all that, but in my experience sooner or later disaster strikes and I would NOT want to deal with that.
while the last 7% finishes the restore.
Backup and data in the same device would make me nervous. I’ve seen computer go pop and release all the Magic Smoke… and fry every attached hard disk. Though this is where I expect the USB devices help with their separate PSU bricks.