What are the Best Practices for moving from 4 to current build (6)

Quote from omv_ross

There's a layer of culture that noobs like myself don't see. I come across about 20 questions when attempting to add what this community calls "a signature" (eg. 'ryecoaaron' seems to have an elaborate one including plugins) while 'crashtest' doesn't seem to have one at all, yet is also a member of this community. Does this mean that 'crashtest' only moderates for certain issues, if at all? ... or is 'moderator' an attestation of trustworthiness full-stop. It's actually pretty confusing for those unfamiliar.

A mod can do whatever they want with their sig. No rules. You are reading way too far into things and overthinking things. If you just follow what I have already told you and follow the rpi install guide like I linked and crashtest linked, you shouldn't have issues.

Quote from omv_ross

1) is ARM = 64bit? (honestly gots no clue if it's one or either or both) or is it sufficient to write 'ARM' if I know that is processor in rPi4

2) is raspberry pi 4 model.B with 8Gig RAM sufficient detail or too much detail

3) Is the script received directly after login sufficient as signature? Linux raspberrypi 6.6.31+rpt-rpi-v8 #1 SMP PREEMPT Debian 1:6.6.31-1+rpt1 (2024-05-29) aarch64. ... I mean, why exactly isn't that sufficient?

... the list of questions goes on so if there's an agreed upon structure to the requested "Please put your OMV system details in your signature."...please let me know.

Plus if I could get confirmation as to next step of OMV setup from my previous post, I'd appreciate.

Why are you super worried about these items now? I will answer for educational purposes but these shouldn't be something to worry about if you are trying to recover your system.

1 - arm can be armel (32bit), armhf (32bit), arm64 (64bit).

2 - rpi4 8gb is enough.

3 - that is just the kernel version. most people will not care what kernel you are running on an rpi

4 - rpi4 8gb omv7 is enough for sig.

Confirmation of what? Follow the guide exactly. It works. Many, many hours have been put into it - https://wiki.omv-extras.org/do…omv7:raspberry_pi_install

If your data drives are not connected, you have NOTHING to worry about. You can install many times without worry. So, don't worry about so much.

Quote from omv_ross

Should I connect 14TB drive(s) (with critical data) before or after Install OMV on rPi4 ?

OMV should always be installed with the data disks detached.

Quote from omv_ross

I've already done the ..raw/master/preinstall step WITHOUT drive(s) connected. I just did sudo reboot.

The preinstall script just configures the network adapter name. That's it.

Quote from omv_ross

Is there a way to permanently add signature to my posts (without copy pasting every time?)

In your user's control panel (fifth icon from the right in the top right), there is a "Manage your account" option and on that page, you will see a sig editor.

Quote from omv_ross

I don't think rPi rebooted. Should I consider OMV install complete and successful?

Rebooting isn't absolutely mandatory. You can move on to the next step in the guide.

Quote from omv_ross

is update / upgrade from command line sufficient to keep the whole OMV setup up to date and current?

use omv-update if you want to use the command line.

Quote from omv_ross

Also what is path to maintain 'most stable possible' version of OMV?

By most stable do you mean latest?

Quote from omv_ross

Do I get notified from a mailing list or something?

If you have email notifications enabled, your system will let you know when it has updates. It will install security updates automatically.

Quote from omv_ross

My objective is simple: perform minimum steps possible to keep everything stable

The most stable system happens when an admin actively maintains it. So your goals somewhat conflict.

Quote from omv_ross

I assume it's now ok to plug at least one 14TB spinny drive into rPi, or should I setup / tweak OMV GUI from browser first? I'm anxious to get to my data of course.

It should be ok. I have no idea what you are going to do config-wise though. You had OMV setup before. It hasn't changed really.

omv_ross
The signature is a good way of determining what users have for hardware and plugins without having to ask every time a user posts.

Look at it like this; you could say on an automotive forum "my car is broke". (We get a lot of that around here.)

With a signature that says your car is a 2015 Dodge Charger, V8, Automatic, suddenly the statement "my car is broke" (while still completely inadequate) becomes a LOT more descriptive to a mechanic that supports the forum.

While it was for a different reason, as I stated in my last post, we're attempting to provide better support and assistance. The forum's signature practice is a practical tool that assists forum supporters in helping forum users.

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Where my signature is concerned, there are two considerations :

1. In recent years, I haven't posted a question in the forum. Generally speaking, I can resolve my own server maintenance issues.

2. I have a variety hardware, for documentation and testing purposes, and I'm running different versions of OMV. If I posted all of it, my signature would be long and confusing to the average user.

Quote from omv_ross

by omv-update do you mean the updates that are sometimes available from the browser dashboard of OMV? And if 'YES' then does this mean that my best chance at "set & forget" omv server maintenance is to check for updates every, say, month? And would this preclude ssh into rPi to sudo updates / upgrades? (periodic or otherwise)... it's these kind of details that drive me nuts.

omv-update basically just runs apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade.

this is the same thing the updates tab in the web interface will run.

I would update at least monthly. you can do that via web interface or command line since they do the same thing.

Quote from omv_ross

I honestly don't know if you can't tell me. I guess if this forum exists it's because latest has bugs that are constantly being ironed-out. I mistakenly assumed omv would be like debian linux which has stable and testing versions. I'll always choose the former if possible.... or if you recommend "holding back" from the most recent version release. In fact this is related to omv-update from paragraph above. Will omv-update automatically upgrade to new omv versions? what is 'best practice' in this context?

stable and testing would be overkill. If you have a stable NAS, you aren't making changes very often which means OMV changes mean very little. Most OMV changes are improvements. I would just install updates using omv-update or the Updates tab and not overthink it.

Quote from omv_ross

I'll search for the 'email notifications' in the dashboard (I guess) unless you're kind enough to point out exactly where it is. Does 'email notifications' advise re: stable v. latest?

No offense but have you looked at the web interface? I understand I know it but it would save me plenty of time if you would just look at everything in the web interface. Email notifications are in the notifications tab. No email doesn't advice stable vs latest because there is no classification. I run many OMV production servers and always install all updates at least weekly.

Quote from omv_ross

Please what's the most expedient way mount drive and 'share' (i.e. render accessible) contents already on there? Or point me to a post / article / video that specifically & explicitly assists.

omv7:new_user_guide [omv-extras.org]

With data already present on your external drive (and assuming you've hooked it up):

In the GUI:
Go to Storage, Shared Folders, and hit the Create button.

- On the Name * line, give it a name. (The name should probably match the data folder's name but that's your call.)

- On the next line Select a File System (in your case, there should be one.)
- On the Relative Path * line, on the right side, there's an icon that looks like a directory structure. Click the icon, then navigate to and select one of your existing data folders.
- If you're not sure about the Permissions * line use Everyone Read/Write.
- Create an SMB share, according to -> this, using the shared folder above, in the Shared Folder * line.

Repeat to create network shares for all of your old data folders.

Since I know you have had some exposure to OMV, I don't know what level of detail you were expecting.

I assumed that you wouldn't:
(1) wipe the drive
or
(2) format it.
I assumed that you would:
(3) mount it.

After mounting the drive, the above instructions would have been applicable to finding existing data and sharing it to the network.
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Quote from omv_ross

so then I went to Storage, Shared Folders and added the share name that I recall from before and chose file system (was EXT4)

After selecting the filesystem in the (which should have been availalbe with a pop-down arrow:
Did you do as instructed on the following line?

- On the Relative Path * line, on the right side, there's an icon that looks like a directory structure. Click the icon, then navigate to and select one of your existing data folders.

After you selected your file system:
If you didn't do the above, click on the icon on the right hand side of the Relative path * line (shown below in the red box) and actually navigate to a data directory, you might have created a new (and empty) shared folder.



With a filesystem selected, if you click that icon, you'll get a pop-down menu that will contain the directory structure at the root of the filesystem. You have to navigate to what you want to share and select that directory. (At that point, you could go back to the first line in the above screen, the name field, and name the share appropriately before saving it. Again, your call.)

Then, following the remainder of the instructions above, share this particular shared folder, to the rest of the network using SMB.

Quote from omv_ross

Now all I gotta do is setup the 2nd hard drive (with same capacity as 1st) to act as backup for this first spinny drive.

If you can advise how best do this, I'd be grateful.

In your case, I'd highly recommend using an Rsync mirror. Getting the initial command line right requires attention to detail but, after that, it can be made to work on autopilot. Further, restoring to the backup drive is documented and easy.

The instructions for setting up are -> here.
Better yet, start -> here and read the whole backup section