Switching to OMV from unRaid

  • I posted this on Reddit, but not getting any replies.


    Let me paint the picture so that everyone can see my use case and get a proper advice from the community.I'm currently using two unRaid servers both of them are on version 6.5.3 - the current latest version is 6.6.7. I have the primary unRaid with 36TB (mixed of 8TB and 4TB) total and the backup unRaid with 16TB is off-site at parents house.


    I'm using these servers to store data backup from family laptops and mobile devices - e.g. documents, videos, and pictures. This is done via some docker containers. I backed up the primary unRaid to the backup unRaid via Syncthing (media) and Duplicati (files and documents for archiving). My parents and siblings use my backup unRaid for media use via the Jellyfin container (this is why I don't use Duplicati to archive the media). I backup my backup unRaid via Duplicati (these are the appdata, flash drive, system). The active services on my backup unRaid server are pihole (local DNS), duckdns (update public IP), Jellyfin (media service), Duplicati and Syncthing. All major services are done on my primary server.


    I'm using the following Docker containers and their associated IP address:Beets - bridge
    binhex-airsonic - 10.0.7.24
    binhex-delugevpn - bridge
    binhex-emby - 10.0.7.10
    binhex-krusader - bridge
    binhex-pycharm - 10.0.7.17
    Bitwarden - docker create network proxy (accessible from the Internet via Letsencrypt)
    Booksonic - 10.0.7.14
    CalibreWeb - bridge
    DuckDNS 10.0.7.19
    Duplicati - bridge
    Filebot - bridge
    Letsencrypt - docker create network proxy
    mariadb-photos - bridge
    mariadb-nextcloud - bridge
    Nextcloud - docker create network proxy (accessible from the Internet via Letsencrypt)
    Pihole - 10.0.20.10 (dmz)
    Piwigo - bridge
    RDP-calibre - bridge
    Syncthing - bridge
    unifi-controller - 10.0.7.11
    youtube-dl-server - bridge


    I also have a Windows VM that I use as my NVR with the following specs : Windows 10 Pro with 4 vCPU, 4GB RAM and 50 GB vHDD. This VM saves the captured videos to a SMB share that I have on my unRaid server.


    I got some plugins that I use "CA Backup/Restore Appdata" that backups my appdata, flash drive and libvirt.img. I also have all my HDD and cache (SSD) disks encrypted except for parity. I have my drives to spin down if they have been idle for 15 minutes. All the writes happen to my cache drive first and the data/files get moved to the array every 8 hours.


    I use CyberpowerPC as my UPS. This works our of the box with unRaid. All I have to do is plug the provided USB cable and my server knows that there is an backup battery. The only thing I need to do is set when to shutdown the system when it hits the last 15 minutes of the battery power.


    The reason I'm looking for a replacement for my unRaid servers is that I could not, for the life of me, get my servers working anything newer than 6.5.3. I have tried what was suggested at unraid forums and r/unraid, but nothing work. It got to the point that I need to find an alternative to unRaid.


    I am thinking to switch to OMV if I get OMV to work that way I have my unRaid servers. Based on what I have gathered so far, it seems like it can replace the unRaid and OMV seems to be a more flexible server than unRaid.Here is what I have put together that I think could address the basic of the things I have on my primary unRaid.

    • Use snapRaid to assign my biggest drive as the parity drive and set the rest of the drives as data/content.
    • Use UnionFS (MergeFS) to spread out the files/data across the member of the array/filesystem instead of creating a directory on each disk
    • Use Virtualbox to virtualized my Windows 10 as an NVR
    • The NUT plug-in will be used for my UPS setup
    • Use Duplicati to backup/compress my appdata and VM to a local share
    • The remotemount share plug-in would allow me to mount a remote SMB share from off-site backup server
    • Duplicati will archive the "step 5" to my off-site server via remote SMB share

    I believe there is a retention option for Duplicati. I can't remember if this is true. I want to write to the cache first then moved the data to the array at a specific interval.

    • I know I mentioned the flash drive several times. For those who are not familiar, this is a way of backing up the entire system. Would you recommend to install OMV on a flash drive with flash plugin?
    • If I install the OMV on a flash drive, can I switch to a different server?
    • If yes on #2, what issues would I get or reinstall OMV is the answer?
    • How hard would it be to upgrade OMV to a newer version?
    • Do I still have to "apt update && apt upgrade" or all updates are done in webUI > Update Management?
    • Can I use the appdata that I have from unRaid and put it on OMV instead of recreating every container that I have from scratch?
    • OMV supports multiple disk format. What disk format would you recommend for SnapRaid with MergeFS?
    • If I were to change my motherboard, what do I need to do with the drives installed (with unRaid I just need to place the drives to their designated slots to prevent data loss - https://ipsassets.unraid.net/u…910b9c2b8fd812fc7c058.PNG)?
    • For encrypting the drives, I would assume this is done via the LUKS plugin, correct?
    • Since I am going to encrypt my drives, do I need to encrypt the parity drive?
    • I noticed that I can do 8 keys for encrypting the disk. What is the purpose of this?
    • Can I import my Windows 10 VM from unRaid (KVM) to OMV (Virtualbox)?
    • How do you update your Docker containers?
    • Is there an automatic Docker container updater?
    • How do you backup your system?
    • If you are using the backup plugin, what method do you use and why?
    • Any plugins that you would recommend and why?



    Thanks

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    Damn that's a lot of questions. I'll answer what I can...


    Not a huge an of mergerFS/snapraid.. so someone else will have to help there.


    Updates can be done via Command Line or via the webUI.


    The flashmemory plugin works well. I use it, even though I use an SSD since they they are similar technologies.. I think you'll probably find many here use the flash memory plugin to prevent wear on some of the cheaper SSD's.


    I've never put OMV on a flash drive.. but somehow I think moving it to a new server (if you've added data drives, shares, etc..) while it would boot.. would probably be a headache. If it's just a vanilla install w/ no shares, storage drive filesystems, etc.. then I don't see where it would be an issue.


    Your appdata folders... I would think you could import those and your containers.. you'd probably have to make some adjustments to your folder locations, etc.. in the container settings, but part of the beauty of docker is its portability.


    Updating Dockers, I use Watchtower. Updates them automatically. If you don't use the --cleanup feature, you'll have a bunch of dormant images and containers that are no longer being used. --cleanup deletes old images and containers after an update is done.


    Backing up your system drive... I think you'll find most use Clonezilla and make an image of their drive and save it somewhere. Personally, I don't bother.


    Don't use the backup plugin.. I just use rsync to sync my drives locally, then another rsync job to sync to an offsite location. It works well for me

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    The reason I'm looking for a replacement for my unRaid servers is that I could not, for the life of me, get my servers working anything newer than 6.5.3. I have tried what was suggested at unraid forums and r/unraid, but nothing work. It got to the point that I need to find an alternative to unRaid.

    If I were you, this would concern me. Since you didn't mention hardware, if you're running old hardware (CPU's), perhaps it's no longer supported by the Linux kernel. (Unraid is based on Slackware.) Since the kernel is the core of what is shared among Linux distro's, I'd look into this first. If your CPU or other hardware has been depreciated, there would be no point in trying to switch.
    _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________


    Note that I'm not running anywhere near the number of Dockers or Plugin's you may be using (if you switch), but I'll answer the following in-line based on my scenario.

    • I know I mentioned the flash drive several times. For those who are not familiar, this is a way of backing up the entire system. Would you recommend to install OMV on a flash drive with flash plugin? I use USB thumbdrives exclusively, because they're on the outside of the case and they're dirt simple to clone. OMV runs fine from thumbdrives.
    • If I install the OMV on a flash drive, can I switch to a different server? I'm not sure what you're asking here, but you could potentially have several servers on individual thumbdrives. Or, if using the boot menu, boot onto an OMV thumbdrive install while leaving another hard drive installed OS intact.
    • If yes on #2, what issues would I get or reinstall OMV is the answer? (???)
    • How hard would it be to upgrade OMV to a newer version? It depends on the version. Going from 3 to 4 was painless. I'm not sure what the future holds in upgrading from OMV4 to OMV5.
    • Do I still have to "apt update && apt upgrade" or all updates are done in webUI > Update Management? This is done in the GUI, where you can individually pick which packages you want to upgrade. But it can be also done on the CLI if that's your preference.
    • Can I use the appdata that I have from unRaid and put it on OMV instead of recreating every container that I have from scratch? This sounds like two different questions. If "data" is on a Linux formatted drive, you should be able to import it.
      When you say "container", that sounds like Docker containers. Since this is a type of virtual machine that's not exportable (at least I don't know how to "export" a configured container), I believe the easiest route would be to recreate and configure them in OMV's Docker plugin.
    • OMV supports multiple disk format. What disk format would you recommend for SnapRaid with MergeFS? Since volume management and file/folder/drive/bit-rot protection are taken care of by SNAPRAID and MergerFS, I'd go with EXT4. XFS would be my 2nd choice.
    • If I were to change my motherboard, what do I need to do with the drives installed (with unRaid I just need to place the drives to their designated slots to prevent data loss - ipsassets.unraid.net/uploads/m…910b9c2b8fd812fc7c058.PNG)? There are way too many variables here to be certain. (BIOS, drive controllers, etc.) For the most part, however, OMV is largely plug and play. I've built a USB thumbdrive on one machine (X64), then transferred it to another (X64), and it worked.
    • For encrypting the drives, I would assume this is done via the LUKS plugin, correct? I have no experience with drive encryption on Linux. Others are using LUKS. Perhaps someone will chime in.
    • Since I am going to encrypt my drives, do I need to encrypt the parity drive? I don't know. Again, while I have no experience with Linux encryption, this is an interesting question from a SNAPRAID perspective. Much of SNAPRAID functionality is based on "the content file" which would require unencrypted SNAPRAID access to files and folders. For doing the "odd/even" parity calculation, encryption shouldn't matter.
    • I noticed that I can do 8 keys for encrypting the disk. What is the purpose of this? Don't know.
    • Can I import my Windows 10 VM from unRaid (KVM) to OMV (Virtualbox)? It may be possible, but I doubt it. They're two different hypervisors.
      (If recreating a Win10 VM, be sure to store the files for the Win10 VM on a data drive - not on a boot thumbdrive. That is, if you decide to use thumbdrives to boot).
    • How do you update your Docker containers? I do it the conservative way, manually. That means "if" or "when" an updated is needed - not just because there's a new monthly release.
    • Is there an automatic Docker container updater? Yes. Watchtower - which is also a Docker. For the reasons stated in 13, I don't use it.
    • How do you backup your system? By cloning the boot thumbdrive after a significant change to the function of the NAS. Also, I'll update the boot drive clone after verifying that security and package updates have no ill effects. (I wait a couple weeks to be sure.) For the data store, I replicate the main server to backup platforms with Rsync.
    • If you are using the backup plugin, what method do you use and why? N/A I use Win32Diskimager to clone boot thumbdrives.
    • Any plugins that you would recommend and why? This is use case dependent. I use OMVextra's, the ZFS plugin, Docker, Nut, Flash Memory, SNAPRAID, UnionFS (it's actually MergerFS), UrBackup, Disk stat's, in various combinations on different machines.

    _______________________________________________________


    Hope that helps.

  • The reason I'm looking for a replacement for my unRaid servers is that I could not, for the life of me, get my servers working anything newer than 6.5.3. I have tried what was suggested at unraid forums and r/unraid, but nothing work. It got to the point that I need to find an alternative to unRaid.


    I am thinking to switch to OMV if I get OMV to work that way I have my unRaid servers.

    Honestly, I suspect that something is wrong with your hardware and/or that your current unRAID installation is botched. If it's your hardware, then switching to OMV (or any other platform) won't fix the issues at hand. If it's your software configuration, performing a fresh install might make the problems go away. You can always import the folders in appdata one by one to determine where the problems really are located.

  • Honestly, I suspect that something is wrong with your hardware and/or that your current unRAID installation is botched. If it's your hardware, then switching to OMV (or any other platform) won't fix the issues at hand. If it's your software configuration, performing a fresh install might make the problems go away. You can always import the folders in appdata one by one to determine where the problems really are located.

    The hardware that I have is a Supermicro A2SDi-8C+-HLN4F and AsRock C2750D4I.


    I posted my BIOS settings at unRaid forum and no said anything about it very old or not supported.


    Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk

  • Honestly, I suspect that something is wrong with your hardware and/or that your current unRAID installation is botched. If it's your hardware, then switching to OMV (or any other platform) won't fix the issues at hand. If it's your software configuration, performing a fresh install might make the problems go away. You can always import the folders in appdata one by one to determine where the problems really are located.

    The hardware that I have is a Supermicro A2SDi-8C+-HLN4F and AsRock C2750D4I.


    I posted my BIOS settings at unRaid forum and no said anything about it very old or not supported.


    Edit:
    The issue with my unRaid is that I can upgrade, but when I started the docker process or the VM manager, it got stuck into "Stating services" then my CPU cores gets to 100%.



    If I double post/reply, I kept getting an error stating that I couldn't post or something like that.



    Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk

  • The hardware that I have is a Supermicro A2SDi-8C+-HLN4F and AsRock C2750D4I.
    The RAM sticks are ECC, but can't remember the models. Each server has 16GB RAM.


    I posted my BIOS info at unRaid forum and no one said anything about it very old or not supported.


    About the questions:


    #2 and #3 - I meant if I installed OMV on a flash drive for OMV1 server box, can I plug this same flash drive to OMV2 box?
    In unRaid, this can be done as long as the drives are in order based on the slot assignment. Otherwise, the data on the 2nd box will be lost unless resetting the disk order assignment. The flash drive is not tied to the box or system. This is useful when changing motherboards or whole server itself.


    #6 - my appdata is on BTRFS format cache disk.


    #8 - I always use an SoC motherboards and preferred not to use a controller cards. Assuming that I have OMV on a flash drive. If my mobo need to be replaced, I just need to use the same flash drive and connect all my disks to the mobo data ports and boot it up?
    No need to re-assign disks, reformat, etc?


    #10 - if I remember it correctly, I didn't have an option to encrypt my parity disk in unRaid. I'm not sure if this also applies to OMV SnapRaid.


    #12 - I could probably use qemu convert to convert KVM to Virtual box.


    #13 - do you get some kind of notification when a stable release is available for any docker containers?






    Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk

  • I'm thinking to use a flash drive for OMV vanilla install.


    With rsync, what would be the source to make your system backup?
    Also, does rsync have a retention function like Duplicati?



    Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    I'm thinking to use a flash drive for OMV vanilla install.
    With rsync, what would be the source to make your system backup?
    Also, does rsync have a retention function like Duplicati?



    Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk


    I don't back up my system drive.... Frankly it's easy enough to do from scratch ( can be done in about 30min or so).. it just doesn't seem to be worth the time for me. You have a much more extensive set up, so I'd probably do so in your scenario. I use rsync to backup my data drives.


    To answer your question though, to back up your system drive I believe the recommended fashion is to use Clonezilla to make an image of the OS drive.


  • I don't back up my system drive.... Frankly it's easy enough to do from scratch ( can be done in about 30min or so).. it just doesn't seem to be worth the time for me. You have a much more extensive set up, so I'd probably do so in your scenario. I use rsync to backup my data drives.


    To answer your question though, to back up your system drive I believe the recommended fashion is to use Clonezilla to make an image of the OS drive.

    I was googling clonezilla and OMV and found a guide about clonezilla. However, the guide uses the backup plugin. I checked the backup plugin and don't see a clonezilla option. The only option I see is dd, fsarchiver and rsync.


    Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    If I double post/reply, I kept getting an error stating that I couldn't post or something like that.

    Read Problem #4 - https://forum.openmediavault.o…tions-to-common-problems/

    omv 7.0-32 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0 | kvm 7.0.9 | compose 7.0.9 | cputemp 7.0 | mergerfs 7.0.3


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github


    Please try ctrl-shift-R and read this before posting a question.

    Please put your OMV system details in your signature.
    Please don't PM for support... Too many PMs!

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    I was googling clonezilla and OMV and found a guide about clonezilla.

    If you install omv-extras you will find clonezilla in omv-extras | kernel. There you can download the ISO file and configure grub to boot one time into clonezilla instead of OMV.
    I think some time ago it was located in the backup plugin.

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    I believe your hardware is fine. It actually seems to be fairly recent. But, with the way it was described in the first post, the problem is a bit misleading. It appeared as if unRaid newer than 6.5.3 didn't work. (I took that to mean, it wouldn't boot.)


    Edit:
    The issue with my unRaid is that I can upgrade, but when I started the docker process or the VM manager, it got stuck into "Stating services" then my CPU cores gets to 100%.

    This (the above) is another matter altogether. Obviously, I can't tell you why a newer version of unRaid won't work with Docker or KVM VM's but it's possible that the issue may not have anything to do with hardware.
    ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    #2 and #3 - I meant if I installed OMV on a flash drive for OMV1 server box, can I plug this same flash drive to OMV2 box?

    and

    #8 - I always use an SoC motherboards and preferred not to use a controller cards. Assuming that I have OMV on a flash drive. If my mobo need to be replaced, I just need to use the same flash drive and connect all my disks to the mobo data ports and boot it up?
    No need to re-assign disks, reformat, etc?

    I believe you could if, as you say, the same physical drives are moved and hooked up in the same SATA port sequence. SATA0 to SATA0, 1 to 1, etc. But, without identical MOBO's, there would be some risk in it. There's no guarantee that different versions of MOBO and BIOS will work the same way. With that said, other users on this forum have moved their boot drive and data disks to another hardware platform (upgrading) and booted up just fine.


    In any case, you may be worrying over a long shot event. SuperMicro mobo's are very reliable and with 100% backup, you'll always have a recovery path.


    #10 - if I remember it correctly, I didn't have an option to encrypt my parity disk in unRaid. I'm not sure if this also applies to OMV SnapRaid.
    #12 - I could probably use qemu convert to convert KVM to Virtual box.

    I have no experience in either of these cases.


    #13 - do you get some kind of notification when a stable release is available for any docker containers?

    With the two Dockers I've used long term, no. When using a Docker, the app itself generally advises when an upgrade available. At that point, my preference is to look on Docker Hub to see if the upgrade is "significant".
    Again, Watchtower will automate pulling and running new images but that can lead to a container that doesn't function. In a case where pi-hole is involved, a DNS proxy, it's not worth the risk (IMHO).

  • I really think the issue is related to the software, but I'm not getting enough help with unRaid.


    unRaid disk arrangement is basically depends on the config. As long as I got the settings correct (SATA location doesn't matter or the board itself), every data will still there. I don't know how OMV or would deal with let's say changing the motherboard especially with a different model.


    Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    I don't know how OMV or would deal with let's say changing the motherboard especially with a different model.

    OMV doesn't care about changing the motherboard (other than possibly the network settings due to different mac address) because it doesn't mount drives by drive letter.

    omv 7.0-32 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0 | kvm 7.0.9 | compose 7.0.9 | cputemp 7.0 | mergerfs 7.0.3


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github


    Please try ctrl-shift-R and read this before posting a question.

    Please put your OMV system details in your signature.
    Please don't PM for support... Too many PMs!

  • OMV doesn't care about changing the motherboard (other than possibly the network settings due to different mac address) because it doesn't mount drives by drive letter.

    I think I'm getting a tunnel vision regarding this changing hardware and not lose data.


    I do know that I will be using SnapRaid with unionfs plug-ins. I have a spare HP microserver N54L, but I don't have spare hard drives to move my data from unRaid to OMV. This is what taking me so long to migrate system.


    My approach now is once I get the hard drives that I can use for N54L, I would install OMV with SnapRaid, unionfs, docker, etc on my N54L then move all my data from unRaid to this N54L OMV server.


    It seems like I can clone the N54L flash drive to another flash drive then load the cloned flash drive to the primary OMV(previous unRaid) box and fix the network part. Then rsync the entire folder structure from N54L to the new primary OMV. After the rsync completed, make the N54L an on-site backup OMV server.
    Does this sound right?


    Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    Does this sound right?

    Yep.

    omv 7.0-32 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0 | kvm 7.0.9 | compose 7.0.9 | cputemp 7.0 | mergerfs 7.0.3


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github


    Please try ctrl-shift-R and read this before posting a question.

    Please put your OMV system details in your signature.
    Please don't PM for support... Too many PMs!

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    Is there a huge performance hit booting from a flash drive with the flash memory plugin?

    No.

    omv 7.0-32 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0 | kvm 7.0.9 | compose 7.0.9 | cputemp 7.0 | mergerfs 7.0.3


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github


    Please try ctrl-shift-R and read this before posting a question.

    Please put your OMV system details in your signature.
    Please don't PM for support... Too many PMs!

Jetzt mitmachen!

Sie haben noch kein Benutzerkonto auf unserer Seite? Registrieren Sie sich kostenlos und nehmen Sie an unserer Community teil!