Can i safely update?

Roon Software Discussion QNAP/Synology NAS
1

I have Roon core on an QNAP and read about issues with recent Roon updates. I run Roon Core build 831 and want to update to the latest version. Can i safely update by now?

2

I have not had any issue with updates on a NUC/ROCK but not familiar with QNAP.

If you’ve been reading up you are probably aware Roon has implemented changes to the database and added corruption detection for backups. If there is any undetected corruption in your 831 database then its possible you could run into issues. Other than that you should be ok.

You might want to wait for a reply from others using QNAP.

3

Thanks for the reply. Until now the database is running fine.

4

Only if you have a way to revert to the current state. This is the one and only honest answer to that question I can think of. Updates always contain the risk of breaking something.

That being said, while some of us did not experience any difficulties or issues updating, others still miss their Roon installation dearly:

5

So here’s my advice / what I’d do personally if I was in your shoes.

If you possibly can, do the following:

  1. Do a complete manual backup (eg, hit backup now). Save this manual backup in multiple safe places.
  2. Shut down your existing core. We’ll call this “CORE”.
  3. Start a brand new core on a different machine with the latest version. It can be a mac or Win laptop that you’d never consider running your core on long term. Just so you have a different machine that’s running the new version of the core. We’ll call this “NEW CORE”
  4. Restore the manual backup you made in step 1 onto “NEW CORE”. Ideally, if you’re able, go into the storage portion of settings on “NEW CORE” and point it to the storage location(s) where your library is (the path should have changed, so the old storage location should be missing and there should be a link that says something like “location is missing, edit location”)
  5. Once you’ve got the backup restored onto NEW CORE, try to do a manual backup of NEW CORE. You’re going to throw this away, but performing the backup guarantees that there is no data corruption.
  6. Assuming this all goes as planned (no errors thrown during backup or library addition), shut down NEW CORE. You’re ideally never going to use it again.
  7. Start CORE back up, and go through the upgrade process.

If at some point you got into a bad data situation (it won’t restore, or it won’t back up), you are in a tough situation. Your data is already corrupted, and AFAIK there’s nothing you can do about it. You can ask Roon support at that point what to do, but I don’t know if there’s a path besides rebuilding if you want to get on the new version. Once you’ve upgraded, you’ll be warned about corruption much earlier and so you’ll never get into this state again.

Or you could just hold your nose and hope. That’s what I did originally (I upgraded right when it came out before there were reports of things going horribly awry). 99%+ of folks seem to have had no data corruption problems (they may not like everything, but they didn’t have issues that made their systems unusable). I’m in the camp that doesn’t care too much if I have to rebuild. If you’re in the part where the idea of rebuilding from scratch gives you a conniption, then go through steps I outlined above.

Good luck, let us know how it goes!

5 Likes
6

I purchased a QNAP NAS specifically for my Roon Core and library. The core and library have been on my QNAP TVS-672XT (i3, 100% SSD, 1TB cache, 8GB RAM, 4TB storage) for two years and I have never experienced any of the QNAP issues that I see in this forum. It has run smoothly since day one.
I am currently running build 898 with no issues.

7

Don’t update.

For me Roon had been stable for month (usi Ifi Stream and Tooping S90) and since the latest core update I get plenty of hiccups and interruptions. Bummer.

8

Hey @Ruben

Thank you for checking in with us, it’s been a while. Good to see you!

Eventually you’re going to need/want to update your Core to the latest build to take advantage of new features in Roon and simply because you’re going to begin to experience performance problems if you don’t. You’re just as likely to have no issues at all with the update.

If you’re still hesitant to do it the precautionary update process that @Johnny_Ooooops recommended here is exceptionally well thought out and would completely insulate you from problems. I’d at least give that a try.

As always we wish you smooth sailing, if you ever need help we’re right over in the support channel.

10

I have 2 NUCs that run ROCK, so that one will be always a version behind, to ensure I can return back to that earlier version.
Same with an older iPad Mini 2 for the Remote app version.
Roon Core Backups are made onto a NAS.

That way I can stage each new Roon release

1 Like
11

Wow. That’s next level.

12

That’s a nice setup but i don’t going to buy a second NAS :slightly_smiling_face:

13

Hoi Johhny, thanks for the whole recipe!

Besides the QNAP with the Core on it i only have an iMac. That’s where i run the Roon desktop app on. Having the desktop app i also have the core features on the iMac already.

Is this the good way?:

  1. Manual backup of the core

  2. Turn off core software

  3. Update Roon on iMac (install the new version over the old version? (drag to applications))

  4. Run roon and make the iMac the new core

  5. … rest of your steps, and then:

  6. Remove Roon from iMac (is this enough or can i just point Roon to another Core).

  7. Install Roon again an point to the Core on the QNAP.

I’m running MacOS 10.13.6 and on the system requirements page i see that Roon needs 10.14+. Does the newest build really needs 10.14+? My Mac can’t run 10.14 and Apple hasn’t released an 27" M1 iMac yet :frowning:

14

Yes, but these were former developer’s machines (from work), normally used with Dual-Head displays, running Mint Linux accessing production and development servers - when we moved to local Docker environments, the NUC5i3 machines were a little out of raw horsepower for this task, and limited to 16GB RAM and m.SATA port (no PCIe NVMe support).
We still use a number for monitoring, headless testbed etc.
But some had to find new homes :smiley:

But fine as a wired headless ROCK server - they don’t come with WiFi or Bluetooth which aren’t needed - 8GB is fine for a Roon Core with a library less than 200k tracks, there are 4 cores (but I only have 2 zones in reality - 1 Chromecast Group (with 4 Chromecast devices) and 1 with the SonoreUPnP Bridge to my Naim NDS Network Player. They are still 15W TDP, so there is no fan usage from the i3 processor .
When I did have to rebuild my complete Library after the disaster of the B880 release, it took a few days to import the library of 7k albums and a few more to analyse the 97k tracks, but however that’s won’t have to happen again (the previous time was Roon 1.0 B30 and that was pre-ROCK and I was running Roon on a Laptop, with no Playback path).