Upgrade from v6 to v9

[glenner]

I have finally made the plunge to get off of my rock stable SageTV 6.6.2 setup I've been running for years, and am starting to setup a new machine with SageTV 9. I decided to just do a clean install on a new box. I'm not clear how the upgrade process would work from v6.6.2 but it sounds like a minefield I'm better off avoiding. I'm fine redoing all my v6 preferences, settings, and plugins in v9, though I wish there was an easy way to migrate my favorite v6 recordings accumulated over years to my new v9 environment... So far v9 setup has been easy.

Thanks Glenner!
__________________
Old Setup:
Server:IBM ThinkCenter M50 (Pentium 4! circa 2000), Win XP, 4GB RAM, 40GB IDE HDD, 6 x SATA HDD (8TB total), HDHR Dual Tuner (HDHR-US), CM 4221/7778
Software: SageTV v6.6.2, SageMC/Foofaraw theme (high WAF)
Clients: 3 x HD300
New Setup:
Server: Lenovo M910 Tiny (i5-7500T), Win10Pro, 32GB RAM, 512 SSD, 6 HDD (8TB total), SageMC/Foofaraw theme (high WAF), HDHR Dual Tuner (HDHR-US), HDHR Extend (HDTC-2US), CM 4221/7778
Software: SageTV v9.1.2.662, SageMC/Foofaraw theme (high WAF), SD EPG
Clients: 3 x HD300

[graywolf]

First off, if you do clean, you will lose the MPEG decoder that came with SageTV V6/V7. So either need to get another source for the MPEG Decoder or go thru the upgrade process.

It really wasn't that painful. You can review what I did. Lots of "extra" steps for WAF that you may or may not do. https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64190

Longest part was the V7 upgrade since it had to go to each recording to insert the metadata. This would depend upon how many recordings you have.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by glenner

I decided to just do a clean install on a new box. I'm not clear how the upgrade process would work from v6.6.2 but it sounds like a minefield I'm better off avoiding. I'm fine redoing all my v6 preferences, settings, and plugins in v9, though I wish there was an easy way to migrate my favorite v6 recordings accumulated over years to my new v9 environment... So far v9 setup has been easy.

There's no reason to lose your old recordings.
You should be able to run the last v7 installer to upgrade from v6. Then run the v9 installer to upgrade from v7.

Even if you chose to do a clean install, you should be able to just copy your old wiz.bin file from the v6 install to the v9 install and it should have all your favorites, watched history, metadata, etc.

[graywolf]

Originally Posted by Tiki

There's no reason to lose your old recordings.
You should be able to run the last v7 installer to upgrade from v6. Then run the v9 installer to upgrade from v7.

Even if you chose to do a clean install, you should be able to just copy your old wiz.bin file from the v6 install to the v9 install and it should have all your favorites, watched history, metadata, etc.

But what about the wiz.bin conversion and insertion of metadata into the recordings?

Can it go directly from V6 to V9? Or would it need to make a "stop" at V7 first?

I have mine at V9 now but would be informative for others still on V6
I did the V6 => V7 (starting it and waiting for metadata insertion) => V9 route

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by graywolf

But what about the wiz.bin conversion and insertion of metadata into the recordings?

Can it go directly from V6 to V9? Or would it need to make a "stop" at V7 first?

I have mine at V9 now but would be informative for others still on V6
I did the V6 => V7 (starting it and waiting for metadata insertion) => V9 route

It should be able to update the database from v6 to v9 (it, in theory, should be able to update all the way back from v4 I believe).

I do agree with doing a clean install, if for nothing else, than it will clean up all the non-plugin mods that might have been running on your v6 system, and you can start from scratch with the new UI, and the new plugin system going forward.

I recommend setting up the new system completely from scratch, getting tuners, channels, and locations all set up. Once that is done, you can shut it down, move your recordings/imported items over to the new server, and copy over the wiz.bin file. Then when you restart sage, it will upgrade the database, and look the new server's folder locations for the files, attaching them to the database entries. You'll end up with a new clean system, with all entries pointing to files in the new locations, and not have an legacy baggage hanging about.

What was mentioned above about the SageTV MPEG Decoders is correct - they will not be included in v9. You can either install v7 first to get them, or just use a different set of decoders (LAV is very good, and free). The only reason I can think of to use the SageTV MPEG Decoders is they seem to better support Closed Captioning - if you use it. Of course, that said, if you don't use any windows clients or use the server UI (just use extenders/miniclients/placeshifter) then the decoder doesn't matter.

A plug I'll put in here, if you're starting from scratch on a new machine... unRAID... It is an excellent headless server OS, and sagetv works remarkably well on it.

[graywolf]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

It should be able to update the database from v6 to v9 (it, in theory, should be able to update all the way back from v4 I believe).

What was mentioned above about the SageTV MPEG Decoders is correct - they will not be included in v9. You can either install v7 first to get them, or just use a different set of decoders (LAV is very good, and free). The only reason I can think of to use the SageTV MPEG Decoders is they seem to better support Closed Captioning - if you use it. Of course, that said, if you don't use any windows clients or use the server UI (just use extenders/miniclients/placeshifter) then the decoder doesn't matter.

Thanks for that info.

Didn't know about the decoder not mattering if just using extenders and that V9 should handle the wizbin conversion from V6. I may have done my game plan differently (just fresh install, then adding paths & wizbin afterwards)

[glenner]

Thanks graywolf, fuzzy... you guys are going to save me a bunch of weekends on setup for sure. But so quite a bit of info here to digest here... Let me see if I got it straight:

1. I agree I like the clean v9 install. It's still spring time, and it just seems like a nice idea to get a fresh start on some new hardware.
2. On a clean v9 install, I'll just install a few plugins I need...
3. I have a "test system" clean v9 install up and running on an extra laptop I have... My "new setup" production server hardware (Lenovo M910 Tiny) I have not actually bought yet... probably this weekend I'll get buy it online.
   I still debatting between the "tiny" and the SFF, but I like the IBM/Lenovo hardware.
4. I wanted to make sure v9 would work for me first in a test env. So I did a clean install on a laptop, setup a trial SD EPG, recorded a few shows, and confirmed my extenders will work with the new server. I did not try migrating anything from v6. But I think my successful test means I'm good to go.
5. My current production server is as shown this old WinXP box running SageTV 6. So I'm doing a software and hardware upgrade to V9... Ideally, I can keep the v6 system up and running while I setup the new v9 box (a few weekends involved). That helps with WAF by a whole pile. I'm not even sure v9 installs on XP? So another reason for a clean install: it allows for me to get the new system up while the v6 is still running...
6. When I move my external HDDs with recordings to my v9 box, they may get different drive letters. I will add all the media/sagetv folders in the V9 setup, then shutdown, replace v9 wiz.bin with my v6 wiz.bin file, and restart? And then it should find all my recording and remap their locations/drive letters as required?
7. My SageTV server itself sits in the basement furnace room where my network is. I won't run a Sage client on it except to setup config. I don't usually have a monitor connected to it... I will remote desktop to it when needed to admin. The server itself is really just to run SageTV server, file serve, run Plex and some other HTPC software... So I don't need the SageTV v6 mpeg decoder there? I sometimes run the SageTV windows client on my primary laptop... So you are saying if I install the SageTV 9 windows client on a laptop, I won't have the mpeg decoder? But if I install say VLC on the same laptop, I'm good to go?
8. If so, then yeah I don't see any real good reason why most everybody would not just do a clean V9 install, instead up upgrading at this point: a) v6/v7 mpeg decoder may not really be needed or can be replaced. b) v6/v7 licence keys don't matter in v9. c) v9 EPG needs to be resetup with SD in v9 anyway. d) v6/v7 recordings can be separately migrated to v9 by simply moving over wiz.bin. The only thing you may be losing then is some UI plugin config (ie. menus, rss feeds, UI defaults, etc.) which I'm happy to just redo.
9. I'll need to google unRaid. No idea what that is? Why do I need that and what does it do? :-)

Thanks! -glenner.

__________________
Old Setup:
Server:IBM ThinkCenter M50 (Pentium 4! circa 2000), WinXP, 4GB RAM, 40GB IDE HDD, 6 x SATA HDD (8TB total), HDHR Dual Tuner (HDHR-US), CM 4221/7778
Software: SageTV v6.6.2, SageMC/Foofaraw theme (high WAF)
Clients: 3 x HD300
New Setup:
Server: Lenovo M910 Tiny (i5-7500T), Win10Pro, 32GB RAM, 512 SSD, 6 HDD (8TB total), HDHR Dual Tuner (HDHR-US), HDHR Extend (HDTC-2US), CM 4221/7778
Software: SageTV v9.1.2.662, SageMC/Foofaraw theme (high WAF), SD EPG
Clients: 3 x HD300

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by glenner

Thanks graywolf, fuzzy... you guys are going to save me a bunch of weekends on setup for sure. But so quite a bit of info here to digest here... Let me see if I got it straight:

7. My SageTV server itself sits in the basement furnace room where my network is. I won't run a Sage client on it except to setup config. I don't usually have a monitor connected to it... I will remote desktop to it when needed to admin. The server itself is really just to run SageTV server, file serve, run Plex and some other HTPC software... So I don't need the SageTV v6 mpeg decoder there? I sometimes run the SageTV windows client on my primary laptop... So you are saying if I install the SageTV 9 windows client on a laptop, I won't have the mpeg decoder? But if I install say VLC on the same laptop, I'm good to go?
8. If so, then yeah I don't see any real good reason why most everybody would not just do a clean V9 install, instead up upgrading at this point: a) v6/v7 mpeg decoder may not really be needed or can be replaced. b) v6/v7 licence keys don't matter in v9. c) v9 EPG needs to be resetup with SD in v9 anyway. d) v6/v7 recordings can be separately migrated to v9 by simply moving over wiz.bin. The only thing you may be losing then is some UI plugin config (ie. menus, rss feeds, UI defaults, etc.) which I'm happy to just redo.
9. I'll need to google unRaid. No idea what that is? Why do I need that and what does it do? :-)

Thanks! -glenner.

__________________
Old Setup:
Server:IBM ThinkCenter M50 (Pentium 4! circa 2000), WinXP, 4GB RAM, 40GB IDE HDD, 6 x SATA HDD (8TB total), HDHR Dual Tuner (HDHR-US), CM 4221/7778
Software: SageTV v6.6.2, SageMC/Foofaraw theme (high WAF)
Clients: 3 x HD300
New Setup:
Server: Lenovo M910 Tiny (i5-7500T), Win10Pro, 32GB RAM, 512 SSD, 6 HDD (8TB total), HDHR Dual Tuner (HDHR-US), HDHR Extend (HDTC-2US), CM 4221/7778
Software: SageTV v9.1.2.662, SageMC/Foofaraw theme (high WAF), SD EPG
Clients: 3 x HD300

Honestly, you likely should look into unRAID. Short of it:

It is a linux OS, designed to operate primarily as a NAS (network attached storage), but it also has some great virtualization, and semi-virtualization systems on it that enable it to serve a LOT of functions. It has 'dockers', apps that can be downloaded installed, uninstalled, etc as easy as downloading something from an app store, SageTV v9, Plex Media Server, and many other included. It also provides a very versatile system of parity protected storage that the whole system is built upon. It boots off a thumbdrive, and is completely managed remotely via web (and occasionally via telnet for a command prompt when desired).

Direct for Sage usage, the benefit is that since it runs the Linux version of SageTV v9, it can run in a 64-bit JVM, which means a lot more memory for sage to work in - a performance and stability benefit for graphic heavy UI's.

Once you have it up and running - you will, like most users - continue to find more and more uses for it, and each one is a simple docker install to get up and running.

At $59-129 (depending on the number of storage devices), it's cheaper than a win10 pro license you were looking to buy, and will be a more appropriate system for the headless use your system will have.

The actual transition process will end up being a bit slower than the above discusses task list, but only because it will take some slow steps to transfer all your recordings off of NTFS formatted drives to the parity protected array of XFS formatted drives. Not tedious work, just a slow process, depending on the drives and the amount of content to move.

[Fuzzy]

Additionally, is there a particular reason for going with such a small case for something that ultimately is a box of hard drives?

[glenner]

Fuzzy, you make a compelling case for unRAID... Do you have a position in this company? :-)

I've spent a couple of hours looking into this platform a bit over the weekend... and am interested... but at this point likely have more questions than answers. One thing is for sure, if I go the unRAID route, I'll likely need to be "buying Fuzzy a beer".

1. But so I'm OK with Linux and can generally find my way around.. but my house is a "windows shop" right now... minus the various iOS mobile devices lying around. Do you need to an expert level linux sysadmin to manage this unRAID setup?
2. One thing I liked about the "remote headless Windows XP setup" I have now is that I can just network map to all the XP drives and easily access any file on the remote machine. Or I can remote desktop and fully admin it. With unRAID and dockers, etc... how do I manage say Sage config files? ie. For example, what is the process to move my v6 based wiz.bin file over there? How do I edit the sage.properties file manually if I want to?
3. Can I map all the file systems in unRAID over to windows on my laptop?
4. Interestingly, you seem to have all the same software I do.. Sage, Logitech Media Server, and Plex. I have all 3 of those running on my WinXP box. I'd need to move all 3 over to unRAID. I also have bitTorrent, PIA openvpn, etc. Not sure if those run in dockers too...
5. The WinXP solution lasted more than a decade... I never had to upgrade the OS. SageTV ran happily for years with minimal downtime. I was fortunate enough to never lose a drive, or even a PSU. The one time the hardware crashed I literally had to replace a few leaking capacitors on the 15 year old mother board. My current backup process consists of just copying important data directories (ie. family pictures, etc.) around, either manual or automated. I also use Norton Ghost to make backup system images. I never backed up large movies collections, since the internet backs those up for me :-).
6. It does sound nice to have parity protected storage... Though I think I'd still want to keep copies of stuff lying around...
7. But so I wonder if unRAID would have the same longevity, and minimal maintenance overhead I've been used to. What happens if my hardware crashes or becomes obsolete as mine has been for some time, and I need to upgrade my server. Is the whole unRAID array portable such that I can easily move it to another server?
8. Lenovo includes Windows10 generally... there doesn't seem you can opt out of it. But unRAID is a USB boot... so I guess I can have Win10 on the internal SSD and the box would support dual boot (unRAID or Win10).
9. As far as the transition process goes, would it not be easier to prime the unRAID system with say 3 new clean drives (parity + 2 data drives), and then somehow copy my existing NTFS based data over to them? Then add the NTFS drives to the RAID and reformat them?

As I said, lots to think about. But I get the sense you are right... I should look at this option before deciding on my upgrade path.

Thanks! -Glenner.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Honestly, you likely should look into unRAID. Short of it:

It is a linux OS, designed to operate primarily as a NAS (network attached storage), but it also has some great virtualization, and semi-virtualization systems on it that enable it to serve a LOT of functions. It has 'dockers', apps that can be downloaded installed, uninstalled, etc as easy as downloading something from an app store, SageTV v9, Plex Media Server, and many other included. It also provides a very versatile system of parity protected storage that the whole system is built upon. It boots off a thumbdrive, and is completely managed remotely via web (and occasionally via telnet for a command prompt when desired).

Direct for Sage usage, the benefit is that since it runs the Linux version of SageTV v9, it can run in a 64-bit JVM, which means a lot more memory for sage to work in - a performance and stability benefit for graphic heavy UI's.

Once you have it up and running - you will, like most users - continue to find more and more uses for it, and each one is a simple docker install to get up and running.

At $59-129 (depending on the number of storage devices), it's cheaper than a win10 pro license you were looking to buy, and will be a more appropriate system for the headless use your system will have.

The actual transition process will end up being a bit slower than the above discusses task list, but only because it will take some slow steps to transfer all your recordings off of NTFS formatted drives to the parity protected array of XFS formatted drives. Not tedious work, just a slow process, depending on the drives and the amount of content to move.

[glenner]

Good question. My current WinXP Sage v6 setup looks like this:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-8...ew?usp=sharing

So it's a big IBM ThinkCenter M50 indestructible 24/87 "workhorse" box on the floor... and a whole pile of external USB SATA3 drives plugged in.

So my plan was to replace this old box with a smaller more powerful box that has lots of USB ports. The Lenovo tiny M910 is new, powerful, external 65W laptop power supply (easily replaceable), a single fan (only 1 moving part), no old style leaky capacitors, etc. In short, not much can fail on it. So I think it might run 24/7 with minimal issues for 10+ years. At least that's my bet.

But so I guess this hardware is not ideal for an unRAID setup? What kind of specific hardware would you recommend instead? I need a tower box of some kind with trays where I can easily plug drives in and out? I want to avoid external USB drives like I'm currently using? I can reuse my SATA drives, and I might need to add some SSD drives for cache?

I could really use some advice on proper hardware config if I'm going to do unRAID instead. I'm happy to procure whatever is required for an optimal setup. ...since this is 10+ year plan.

Thanks! -glenner.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Additionally, is there a particular reason for going with such a small case for something that ultimately is a box of hard drives?

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by glenner

But so I'm OK with Linux and can generally find my way around.. but my house is a "windows shop" right now... minus the various iOS mobile devices lying around. Do you need to an expert level linux sysadmin to manage this unRAID setup?

No, unRAID administration is made for people who don't care to know their way around Linux.

Originally Posted by glenner

One thing I liked about the "remote headless Windows XP setup" I have now is that I can just network map to all the XP drives and easily access any file on the remote machine. Or I can remote desktop and fully admin it. With unRAID and dockers, etc... how do I manage say Sage config files? ie. For example, what is the process to move my v6 based wiz.bin file over there? How do I edit the sage.properties file manually if I want to?

The files are put in an area that can be exported, so you can map to a drive on your Windows box or network browse to it. Or you can log into a Linux shell prompt on the unRAID machine. I think there are things like a file browser docker that let you browse things through HTTP, but I haven't used those.

Originally Posted by glenner

Can I map all the file systems in unRAID over to windows on my laptop?

I don't see a way offhand to export the USB flash drive, but seems like I read somewhere you could. But otherwise, yes.

Originally Posted by glenner

Interestingly, you seem to have all the same software I do.. Sage, Logitech Media Server, and Plex. I have all 3 of those running on my WinXP box. I'd need to move all 3 over to unRAID. I also have bitTorrent, PIA openvpn, etc. Not sure if those run in dockers too...

There is an OpenVPN docker and while I don't use them tons of Bittorrent type dockers.

Originally Posted by glenner

It does sound nice to have parity protected storage... Though I think I'd still want to keep copies of stuff lying around...

Parity storage isn't backup for sure. There is a Crashplan docker (which I don't currently use), which I hear works well, (either for free to back things up on your own equipment that can also run Crashplan, or to the cloud for a fee).

Originally Posted by glenner

But so I wonder if unRAID would have the same longevity, and minimal maintenance overhead I've been used to. What happens if my hardware crashes or becomes obsolete as mine has been for some time, and I need to upgrade my server. Is the whole unRAID array portable such that I can easily move it to another server?

Yes, you can move the USB flash and disks to another MB. There may be some things you have to do to make sure the arrays are set properly, but it's not like you have to reinstall things. Also, the disks in the pool use file systems that most Linux OSs should be able to read.

Originally Posted by glenner

As far as the transition process goes, would it not be easier to prime the unRAID system with say 3 new clean drives (parity + 2 data drives), and then somehow copy my existing NTFS based data over to them? Then add the NTFS drives to the RAID and reformat them?

This is probably best and what I'm planning to do when I finally move SageTV to unRAID. Search the forums for "unassigned devices" for some other threads on this (you can mount an NTFS drive or network share in unRAID and copy to the pool from it).

You might also want to consider adding an SSD as a cache drive.

[Fuzzy]

Karyl did a pretty good job answering those questions. When I moved my system from windows to unRAID, I only purchased one new drive, but I was able to do some housecleaning ahead of time so i had a bit of empty space on my various windows volumes to begin with. I built the system with all drives installed, but only assigned the 'new' drive to the array, with no parity drive. I then used the 'unassigned devices' plugin, which allows the unRAID system to access drives NOT in the array, to mount the old NTFS drives. I set up the SageTV docker, as well as OpenDCT, which allowed the system to come back online as my sagetv server, and added all the old drives to it as import folders, and the recordings to the array (which is the default). This allowed my sage system to be up and alive relatively quickly after taking the windows one down.

I then had the time to patiently move files from the NTFS volumes to the appropriate folder on the array (recordings or import). As they were moved, and the old drives emptied, I reformatted them and added them to the array. The last to empty was an older 3TB I had, and once emptied, I set it as the parity volume, and started a parity rebuild - which took about half a day I think, but the system was up and running, acting as the server, recording, serving and such the whole time.

As far as moving to a different system, the only hardware your unRAID license is tied to is the serial number of the thumbdrive. Replacing this with a different thumbdrive takes a process with the company, but it isn't supposed to take long.

There is a plugin that backs up your 'appdata' and 'boot' folders (appdata is where the docker configs and such reside, boot is the thumbdrive, which contains the basic configuration for unRAID itself).

[MacDaddy]

I will dog pile on the unRaid dogpile. I've used unRaid for about 8 years. However the vast majority of that time it was just a parity protected file server. The recent evolution to the docker/VM application support and the quantum leap in the web based user interface make it a game changer. The Sage and OpenDCT dockers are incredibly easy to deploy. I second everything Fuzzy and Karyl said. I'll tag on to some of Karyl's earlier comments.

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

The files are put in an area that can be exported, so you can map to a drive on your Windows box or network browse to it. Or you can log into a Linux shell prompt on the unRAID machine. I think there are things like a file browser docker that let you browse things through HTTP, but I haven't used those.

The docker provides an APPDATA share with all of your old favorites in it. If I browse to \\TOWER\appdata\sagetv\server, I can see all the sagetv_?.txt files (TOWER is the default server name for unRaid). If you are not intimidated by the Linux world, then you can use something like PuTTY to log in to TOWER and use Midnight Commander (mc) for very powerful bare metal file management.

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

I don't see a way offhand to export the USB flash drive, but seems like I read somewhere you could. But otherwise, yes.

For security reasons the flash is not exported by default. However you can go to the Settings tab and Global Share Settings. Toggle the Enable Disk Share option to yes and you will see FLASH exported.

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

There is an OpenVPN docker and while I don't use them tons of Bittorrent type dockers.

I use the OpenVPN and LMS docker. There is also a very active element of the community that are Plex enthusiasts with all of the associated media scavenger routines (couchpotato, sonaar, sickbeard). I really like the Community Applications approach which brings an almost "app store" experience to using the various dockers/plugins. It takes a lot of the complexity away.

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

Parity storage isn't backup for sure. There is a Crashplan docker (which I don't currently use), which I hear works well, (either for free to back things up on your own equipment that can also run Crashplan, or to the cloud for a fee).

+1 for Crashplan

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

Yes, you can move the USB flash and disks to another MB. There may be some things you have to do to make sure the arrays are set properly, but it's not like you have to reinstall things. Also, the disks in the pool use file systems that most Linux OSs should be able to read.

Cheap insurance is making sure that once your array is set up, make sure you document which disks are assigned to which devices. unRaid boots from a flash drive so moving it to another MB is relatively easy. The biggest thing is to make sure you maintain the dev-disk relationship on a new box to avoid startup problems.

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

You might also want to consider adding an SSD as a cache drive.

+1 for a healthy sized SSD as cache drive. You also want your APPDATA share to live here. Would also make a great home for any fanart you collect to have snappy response.

[graywolf]

unRaid has a Server Layout plugin (think that is the name) which makes it handy to see what drives are where and the disk assignment
Really handy for my 24 drive bay server

[glenner]

Thanks a lot for the info folks! After reading a bunch of threads, including this one, and seeing there is a large repository of youtube videos, including a bunch by this chap who is clearly British... I've decided I need an unRAID setup to support my SageTV migration to v9. It just looks like there is lots of stuff I will end up using in unRAID (Sage, Plex, Logitech Media Center, Deluge /w PIA, Windows VMs, etc. This is all stuff I use now)... ...and hopefully the solution will be stable, low maintenance, reliable, protected, and last a decade+.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Karyl did a pretty good job answering those questions. When I moved my system from windows to unRAID, I only purchased one new drive, but I was able to do some housecleaning ahead of time so i had a bit of empty space on my various windows volumes to begin with. I built the system with all drives installed, but only assigned the 'new' drive to the array, with no parity drive. I then used the 'unassigned devices' plugin, which allows the unRAID system to access drives NOT in the array, to mount the old NTFS drives.
back online as my sagetv server, and added all the old drives to it as import folders, and the recordings to the array (which is the default). This allowed my sage system to be up and alive relatively quickly after taking the windows one down.

I'm trying to imagine how I will setup unRAID when I finally get my unRAID box (which I have not built yet). I think in my case, I will just get a new box, with 4 new 4TB drives (parity + 3 data drives), and an SSD cache drive. So it will be a fresh unRAID box ready to be loaded. I'll just need to copy over all my existing data from my older smaller winXP based drives to unRAID. I'll then re-purpose my older XP drives for other projects.

I would imagine my setup steps will be something like this:

1. boot up and configure unRAID on new box.
2. setup connectivity / shares to my windows laptop
3. install SageTV 9 docker app
4. configure unRAID SageTV v9 using v9 client app running from windows laptop. setup tuners, recording/import directories, etc. Is this how you config unRAID SageTV?
5. setup SD EPG
6. start up and basic function test SageTV v9
7. shut down SageTV
8. network copy over existing recordings from NTFS SageTV v6 drives to unRAID
9. network copy over all existing media (pictures/music/video) from NTFS winXP drives to unRAID.
10. network copy over existing v6 wiz.bin from NTFS SageTV v6 drive to unRAID
11. start up SageTV v9. Sage will migrate wiz.bin to v9. Sage will reimport all media.

Does this sound about right?

Do I need to setup OpenDCT? Why do I need OpenDCT? I found a 100+ page thread on OpenDCT in this forum (that I have not really had time to read yet)! Is this a "nice to have"? Can I set this up later as part of "phase 2"? This is a big enough hardware and software migration as it is... and so if I can phase stuff in later that helps me and the WAF since I can be up and running sooner.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I then had the time to patiently move files from the NTFS volumes to the appropriate folder on the array (recordings or import). As they were moved, and the old drives emptied, I reformatted them and added them to the array. The last to empty was an older 3TB I had, and once emptied, I set it as the parity volume, and started a parity rebuild - which took about half a day I think, but the system was up and running, acting as the server, recording, serving and such the whole time.

But how are you moving old recording files from NTFS to the SageTV recordings folder. I thought that does not work on its own, as you need to move your old wiz.bin folder over first in order for Sage to pick up those recordings and update their paths? I think I'm confused on the exact sequence of steps in this migration in terms of when you move your v6 wiz.bin over vs. the actual v6 recordings.

[glenner]

Originally Posted by MacDaddy

I will dog pile on the unRaid dogpile. I've used unRaid for about 8 years. However the vast majority of that time it was just a parity protected file server. The recent evolution to the docker/VM application support and the quantum leap in the web based user interface make it a game changer. The Sage and OpenDCT dockers are incredibly easy to deploy. I second everything Fuzzy and Karyl said. I'll tag on to some of Karyl's earlier comments.

....

MacDaddy, thanks for you insight... I've taken careful note of your comments... But so OpenDCT is "easy to deploy". It sounds like I should just bite the bullet and set this up at the same time? I really feel like my plate is going to be full as it is :-)

More importantly, I'm curious about your hardware... As trying to figure out how to spec and build an unRAID box is not really clear to me. I want to spec out an ideal box for unRAID to suit my purposes. A lot of folks seem to get some kind of mid tower or full tower server with 4-8 internal drives. I like the SuperMicro servers and so am looking at those. I think I would be fine with 4 x 4TB drivers + 512 SSD. Xeon or i7 CPU. 16GB+ RAM.

For your "frankentivo", I looked up your components:

Frankentivo: iStar D-380HB, SuperMicro X107-F-O, Xeon 1270v3 CPU, Kingston 8 GB 1600MHz DDRR3L x 4

But so... that iStar black compact rackmount 8 hot swap looks awesome. I want that! But I'm not really familiar with rackmount setups and have never owned one. Is this the whole unRAID server in that iStar? Do just the drives go in there? Or the MB too? Do you actually mount this on a rack? Or does it sit on a shelf/desk/floor? Can you please provide some pictures or your setup? I provided some of my measly WinXP setup for comparison purpose.
I want to migrate to your setup :-)

[graywolf]

I would imagine my setup steps will be something like this:

boot up and configure unRAID on new box.
setup connectivity / shares to my windows laptop
install SageTV 9 docker app
configure unRAID SageTV v9 using v9 client app running from windows laptop. setup tuners, recording/import directories, etc. Is this how you config unRAID SageTV?
setup SD EPG
start up and basic function test SageTV v9
shut down SageTV
network copy over existing recordings from NTFS SageTV v6 drives to unRAID
network copy over all existing media (pictures/music/video) from NTFS winXP drives to unRAID.
network copy over existing v6 wiz.bin from NTFS SageTV v6 drive to unRAID
start up SageTV v9. Sage will migrate wiz.bin to v9. Sage will reimport all media.

1 thing to note, for faster transfers, do not assign the parity drive at first. Do all your copies to the data array drives, then once done, assign the parity drive and it will then build the parity.

On unRaid create your User Share and make it Public. Then from your Windows Machine you should be able to access it from the Network and just copy/move your files to the User Share.

Setup unRaid SageTV to use you unRaid User Shares then shut it down.

You can have your existing SageTV running, and once you have all your recordings copied to unRaid, shut down the Windows SageTV, move your tuners (if needed), configure unRaid SageTV with the tuners, shutdown unRaid SageTV, copy your Windows wiz.bin to unRaid SageTV, start up unRaid SageTV.

Above is just quick (off top of my head) plan of action. But might give you some ideas.

I don't run SageTV on unRaid but do use unRaid for my NAS and move recordings to it.

[Tiki]

OpenDCT is software that allows you to use certain capture devices with Sage. It was written specify to support cable card tuners that Sage didn't support natively, such as HDHomerun Prime, but also supports some additional devices. You don't need this unless you are using one of those tuners.

OpenDCT was not written specifically to work with UnRaid or Docker, but there is a container available now that makes it easy to do so.

[glenner]

Originally Posted by Tiki

OpenDCT is software that allows you to use certain capture devices with Sage. It was written specify to support cable card tuners that Sage didn't support natively, such as HDHomerun Prime, but also supports some additional devices. You don't need this unless you are using one of those tuners.

OpenDCT was not written specifically to work with UnRaid or Docker, but there is a container available now that makes it easy to do so.

Hmm... But I've recently installed a test version of Sage v9 on spare laptop I have. I set it up with a brand new HDHR Extend I bought to eventually give me 4 tuners alongside my old HDHR dual tuner currently running on my main setup. Sage v9 seems to be recording shows fine with the HDHR Extend and I have not installed OpenDCT. Is that normal?

I guess I may not need OpenDCT is what it sounds like... But strange that OpenDCT would be needed for HDHR Prime, while not needed for Extend?