nodl OG SSD upgrade

Applies to:

nodl OG

Video tutorial

This video tutorial (opens new window) is hosted on Youtube

Why Upgrade

Upgrading OG nodl from 500 GB to 1 TB is needed because the blockchain is getting larger than the current SSD can handle and thus will need a larger memory to store it.

Before you start

Video (0:18 - 01:17) (opens new window)

What you need:

• The original nodl OG 500 GB.

To check the current memory size first you ssh into the device as root ssh root@nodl-name.local or ssh root@IP-address if for some reason the DNS name cannot be resolved.

Once in, run df -h then find /dev/sda3 the size of which should be around 400G.

• Philips Screwdriver (any reasonably sized one should do).

• A new SSD 1T or more (Samsung 860 EVO is recommended)

• USB to SATA adapter

• Swiss army knife (or any cutter) to open the box

Step 1: Plug in the new SSD to your nodl

Video (01:17 - 02:05) (opens new window)

Plug the new ssd into the USB to SATA adapter and one USB port on the back of the device (you dont have to shutdown the device).

Step 2: Stop all services in the UI so that no data gets written

Video (02:05 - 03:23) (opens new window)

• Log in the UI as admin and stop all services until all tiles show "Inactive"

• SSH into your nodl as root ssh root@nodl-name.local then run service mysql stop when you are in.

Step 3: Identify the new drive

Video (03:23 - 04:17) (opens new window)

• Run ls /dev/sd* to list all the devices starting with sd

depending whether you have a backup drive or not the new drive will be either named sdb (if there is no backup drive) or sdc (if you have a backup drive plugged in).

• To verify we have the correct name, run:

fdisk -l /dev/sdc

or

fdisk -l /dev/sdb

The correct drive should have above 900 GiB.

NOTE: The rest of the instuctions will assume you have a backup drive plugged in and will use sdc for the new drive. If the new drive for your nodl is named sdb you should replace sdc with sdb.

Step 4: Remount the data partition in read-only mode

Video (04:17 - 04:34) (opens new window)

• mount -o remount,ro /dev/sda3

• mount -o remount,ro /dev/sda1

Step 5: Copy the data from the old drive to the new one

Video (04:34 - 06:58) (opens new window)

• apt-get update

• apt-get -y install screen pv

• screen (this will help resume the ssh session if it gets closed)

• dd if=/dev/sda bs=1M | pv | dd of=/dev/sdc bs=1M

The copying will take about 4 hours. Once copied, the prompt should come back. The SSH session could terminate but since you are running screen you can return to the session.

Step 6: Repair and resize the new partition

Video (06:58 - 11:20) (opens new window)

• In case your ssh session was closed, SSH back in then run screen -dr, this will show the active sessions, the one you want to return to should be the one with the larger number.

• partprobe

if you get an error, run apt-get -y parted first

• ls /dev/sd*

• there should be 3 new items sdc1, sdc2 and sdc3, we want to resize sdc3.

• e2fsck -f /dev/sdc3

type yes for all prompts.

• fdisk /dev/sdc

Command (m for help): p

Here you verify that you are working on the new drive, it should show the correct size after Disk /dev/sdc.

You need repartition the last partition sdc3 so that it ends at the end of the drive. To do that you need to repartition the sdc3 partition. Write down the number under Start for the sdc3 parition.

Command (m for help): d

Parition number: 3

Command: n

Select (default p): p

Partion number: 3

First sector: (the number under Start for /dev/sdc3 that you wrote down)

Last sector: (press Enter for the default value)

Do you want to remove the signature?: N (never answer yes here!)

Command (m for help): (q if you want to quit without enforcing any of the changes, p to print, w if you are ready to write the changes): w

• partprobe

• resize2fs /dev/sdc3 (or /dev/sdb3)

• halt -p (to safely shutdown the device)

Step 7: Swap the drive

Video (11:20 - END) (opens new window)