Tools
THIS SECTION IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION
The Tools section of the Unraid GUI is used to access a number of Tools to help with managing an Unraid server on a day-to-day basis. The list of tools available is often extended by 3rd party supplied plugins.
Unraid Standard Tools
This section covers tools that are supplied as standard with an Unraid installation. They are grouped into a number of sections for ease of selection.
Unraid OS
Diagnostics
Hardware Profile
New Config
IMPORTANT: This tool is not part of the standard process for recovering from a disk failure. In most cases since the procedure normally invalidates parity it will have the opposite effect and stop you being able to recover the contents of a failed disk intact.
This option is used to put the array back into a state where disk drives can be assigned as wanted and then parity rebuilt to match the new assignments. It exploits the fact that Unraid can recognise drives that have previously been used by Unraid and will leave their contents untouched (as long as the drive is not assigned as a parity drive).
When using this option you are given the option to preserve previous assignments at various levels. It is not important which you use but using one can minimise the amount of re-selecting drives to specific slots (and thus reduce the chance of you making an error) by selecting one of them. After you have run this option you can then return to the Main tab and make any further adjustments you want. The assignments then get committed when you start the array.
The basic process is therefore:
- Select the New Config tool from the Tools tab in the Unraid GUI
- Click the Check box that says you want to proceed to use this tool.
- Set the level of assignments you initially want to keep. In most cases selecting the option to keep all assignments is the best choice as it puts you in a state where you just need make any desired changes from your current assignments.
Press the Apply button to run the tool. After doing this there is no obvious feedback that anything has been done.
- Return to the Main tab and change the drive assignments to how you now want them to be set. This can involve adding new drives, removing drives or changing the slots to which drives are assigned.
- Make sure you have not accidentally assigned a drive containing data to a parity slot as if you do so when you start the array the contents will be destroyed.
- There is a checkbox next to the Start button to allow you to say that parity is already valid. You should not check this box unless advised to do so by a knowledgeable Unraid user as in most cases making changes to the drive assignments will invalidate parity. There are special cases where using this option can be sensible after something has gone wrong with the array but only the more experienced Unraid users will know what these are.
- There is also a checkbox option to start the array in Maintenance mode. You probably only need this if you have been advised to use it as part of a non-standard data recovery action.
- Press the Start button to commit the new drive assignments.
- If you have encrypted file systems the array will not start at this point, but instead change to allow you to enter your encryption details. Enter these and press Start again to start the array.
- If you were starting in normal mode (i.e. not Maintenance mode) then the drives will now be mounted.
- Unraid will now start building new parity based on this current set of assignments.