@FVerdi Hello again. Not sure what happened with the forum user name. Might help for continuity if we knew what your last account name was but no worries.[quote=“FVerdi, post:1, topic:3200”]
(100% user satisfaction for 143 days on this version now)
[/quote]
Cool and chuffed.
Agreed, that this can’t be good (especially the medium bit).[quote=“FVerdi, post:1, topic:3200”]
I do have an update license, which will probably be voided after swapping the main drive?
[/quote]
The Rockstor code is licenced under GPLv2 plus various js library licences, we are fully open source, but the stable channel updates subscriptions system uses a motherboard UUID so you should be OK on that front. Although if/ when you change motherboards just email a request to get it changed over when need be. Thanks for helping to support Rockstor and it development via this subscription by the way.
Given you are currently on known flaky hardware I would do as you suggest, ie retrieve the current config if you can and do a fresh install on a known good system disk. See our Reinstalling Rockstor section in the official docs. I would suggest that prior to the fresh install you disconnect all data drives while the system is powered down. That way there is no chance of accidentally choosing the wrong drive as the system drive and ending up inadvertently wiping what you didn’t intent.
But we have the matter of you not necessarily having a config backup:[quote=“FVerdi, post:1, topic:3200”]
Should I risk it and hope that my config download was succesful
[/quote]
From our Configuration Backup and Restore section we have:
“All configuration backups are stored in zipped json format in the /opt/rockstor/static/config-backups directory”
So you could try unzipping the file you have downloaded and see if it contains what you expect. It’s essentially a plain text file internally formatted in near json format so it is human readable. You could even check it’s json formatting via an online checker (once unzipped) such as https://jsonlint.com/ although we do currently fail a straight json check (not sure if this is an issue) but it will make the file more readable and if the file turns out not to include your current config you might try and look to the /opt/rockstor/static/config-backups directory in the hope that the python errors you noted were concerning the download rather than the save config bit. Worth a try:
ls -la /opt/rockstor/static/config-backups/
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 64 May 7 10:06 .
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 84 May 7 10:06 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 579 May 7 10:06 backup-2017-05-07-100658.json.gz
and from a linux desktop these could be retrieved into the current directory via something akin to:
scp root@rockdev.local://opt/rockstor/static/config-backups/* .
and changing the system name from rockdev.local to your own machines name or ip.
Once you are assured of having your config in some manner, ie via reading what pages still work or from reading the raw config-backup file or what ever you should be good for a reinstall. I’d do a full install, reboot, first sign in (where you set the admin user) and then let things settle for a bit. Pick the appropriate update channel, apply updates (will take a while) and once they are all in and done I’d reboot and check all is OK before shutting down and attaching your prior data drives . Power up and import you old pools and shares and snapshots (carefully) via the Disk page: ie the Data Import section of the Reinstalling Rockstor doc which in turn points to our recently update Import BTRFS Pool section of the Disks page.
Probably best to read all these links first and ask any questions here if need be first.[quote=“FVerdi, post:1, topic:3200”]
While at it, what are reliable USB3 drives for this task? I know, I could put a cheap SSD in there, but the simple fact is that I do not have any spare Sata ports. (And I don’t think I can boot PCI-Ex cards on this board)
Perhaps a cheap USB powered external SSD?
[/quote]
I have just that situation here, on a number of machines. I have multiple machines, some in production and some as development machines, running from a:
sandisk extreme usb 3.0
with the addition of a “-d sat” as a Disk Custom S.M.A.R.T Options you even get a degree of smart capability. It’s the example device used in that doc as it goes. They are essentially a usb-sata-ssd bridge with a legit wear levelling controller (as in sandisk u100 SSD’s apparently) and all, and pretty fast with it (7-15 seconds from grub to console with ip N3700).
Someone on amazone took their’s appart:
"
… So basically the layout is like this:
NAND <–> U100 Controller <–> USB3 bridge chip <–> USB3 connector
It’s as if you stuck a normal 2.5" SSD in an external USB 3 drive enclosure, but much smaller.
…"
Tons more info in that review by the way. I use the 32 GB version and waiting for the 64 GB to come down in price.
Prices on these devices seem to vary up and down over time so best keep an eye on them.
Hope that helps and let us (the forum) know how you get on.
By the way we have improvements in development on creating a config backup via the command line by forum member @dilli in the following pull request:
to address this issue:
Unfortunately you are a little ahead of at least Rockstor time on this one, still it’s looking like that pr is mostly on the way development wise.
