Upgrading very old FreeNAS (v9.2.16) + feature request

[ChillyD]

Is it safe to upgrade FreeNas from 9.2.16 to 11.3?

I've read the preferred upgrade path is 9.2.16 to 9.2.19, 9.3.1, 9.10 but I can't seem to find these firmware files.

 

[Spearfoot]

Once upon a time you could download all versions of FreeNAS here:

https://download.freenas.org/

But now the available downloads only go back to 11.1

@Tigersharke : do you think iXsystems could be convinced to restore older versions for use when upgrading, as in @ChillyD 's case?

 

[johnnyspo]

The FreeNAS archive is located at https://archive.freenas.org/. However, the “archived” subdirectory appears to not be working. This must be a recent change as two weeks ago I upgraded from 9.2 to 11.2 U8 following the path 9.2 -> 9.2.1.9 -> 9.3 -> 9.10.2 U6 -> 11.2 U1 -> 11.2 U8. This is where I accessed all of the archived releases.

@sretalla posted the following regarding a torrent where you can access legacy FreeNAS: https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/where-to-download-9-10.83378/post-576697

 

[Spearfoot]

Good information, @johnnyspo -- And I agree that 11.2U8 is the best release to use at this time. I run it on 3 servers here at home, and 5 servers at work.

 

[Tigersharke]

What would be at least as helpful is if FreeNAS had a bootstrap.

FreeBSD itself offers access to a considerable range of older install media. If FreeNAS had a bootstrap, it would be possible to incrementally update as ordinary FreeBSD until reaching the most recent usable version, and then the bootstrap would be used. Alternatively, what is actually different between FreeNAS and vanilla FreeBSD? The main concern being the kernel config, if it is significantly custom then updating from FreeBSD release to FreeBSD release versions of GENERIC may not cut it.

OPNsense had a bootstrap system at least up until it switched to use HardenedBSD as its base. This is how I am somewhat familiar with the concept. With regard to FreeNAS, it may alleviate some small bit of upkeep as well as storage (not that that is an issue), because they could hand-off a chunk to FreeBSD, and a relatively simple script (bootstrap) would handle the real effort as needed especially for such a special case as described in the initial post of this thread.

The versioning for FreeNAS is quite a bit different it seems, so I cannot be sure if this would be possible, though I strongly believe it should be investigated. @Kris Moore may know how possible this would be.

 

[ChillyD]

Is it safe to upgrade FreeNas from 9.2.16 to 11.3?

I've read the preferred upgrade path is 9.2.16 to 9.2.19, 9.3.1, 9.10 but I can't seem to find these firmware files.

Thanks, everyone, but in the end, I gave up on trying to locate the files and had to blow the server away and start from scratch.

 

[Tigersharke]

Thanks, everyone, but in the end, I gave up on trying to locate the files and had to blow the server away and start from scratch.

Yeah, sometimes forgetting to update really makes the entire step-by-step incremental upgrade process no longer worth the effort. I once tried to update a rather old (early) windows, which even then required Explorer to succeed in some way, and needless to say, all the software was so hopelessly out of date that URLs failed and any of the various bits for any of the steps were no longer available. On FreeBSD, the process is still not especially kind (due to being so tedious with the incremental upgrades) but an old box here also struggled with not enough HDD space.. I plan to salvage whatever possibly useful data is on it, then skip ahead after improving storage.

If we choose to leave a box as backup connectivity, we need to periodically update it and put it back in storage. Same thing goes for keeping an emergency usbstick for any rescue, be sure to keep one but also keep the iso in fairly close sync with the current one in use on your primary box.. it sucks bigtime to be forced to use lesser capability to gain a more proper tool (rescue iso/stick) later.

I still think a bootstrap is a good idea, so I hope devs will look into it.

I made a feature request ticket, no idea how base systems compare but gave the OPNsense bootstrap script as an example.

 

[ChillyD]

I ended up with a clean install of FreeNAS-11.3-U1

 

[Tigersharke]

HMMM..

IMHO, the system should become ever more "in your face" with warnings about the necessity to update as it gets closer to 6 months since the last update. This of course would not solve the problem of any box that is left in storage and the owner's expectation to easily use it anytime-- which aside from any "call the mothership" needs or chosen updates, would not be an issue.