Best practices for a reinstallation

Installation
1

For several reasons I plan to reinstall Rockstor (using a new disk for the O/S).
Of course, want to keep all my data on the other disks (BTRFS).
What is the best way to do this?
-Should I disconnect the data disks, then install Suse/Rockstor on the new disk, and then reconnect the data disks, and let Rockstor find them.
or
-Install on the new disk, keeping the data disks connected (and let the installation see them). I don’t want the installation to wipe out the existing data (duh).

2

@bhp you can start by taking a look at this article:

https://rockstor.com/docs/howtos/reinstall.html

First of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you that you should still do a backup of your data drives :slight_smile:
Also you can perform a backup of your settings:
https://rockstor.com/docs/interface/system/config_backup.html#config-backup

  • If you want to be safe, disconnect the data drives (after your shutdown), install your new blank OS disk and install Rockstor on that.
  • After your next shutdown you can reconnect your data drives again.
  • Rockstor will recognize and allow you to reimport the btrfs pool(s).
  • Depending on whether you created the Rockon Root on your OS drive or on your data drives, you might have to recreate that one before you run the configuration restore you save earlier. This would go for any shares that you created on the original OS disk (I did this in the past e.g. for the Rockon Root and a transcoding directory, because the OS disk is a fast SSD (though that’s typically not recommended unless you can afford to lose any data there)
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3

Thanks. I was looking for a page like that (but couldn’t find it).
Wish me luck!

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4

@Hooverdan and @bhp

Not directly relevant but we do have some generic advice in our older v3 to v4 migration howto: Migrating from Legacy V3 to V4 “Built on openSUSE”

I.e. starting from say: Migrating from Legacy V3 to V4 “Built on openSUSE” — Rockstor documentation

Which also covers some of what @Hooverdan has already mentioned re shares on system disk etc.

But going from one v4 to another via re-install is not nearly as tricky. But does share many elements addressed in that migration doc. I.e. such as not having more than one system disk (of any version) simultaneously attached/plugged-in.

Hope that helps.

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5

It all went well. Quick and painless.
Thanks everyone.
-Bruce

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