Best way to upgrade/reinstall from Corral?

[chbla]

Hi there,

I finally have time to upgrade or reinstall my FreeNAS installation. I was one of those who changed to Corral and never had problems with it.
But I'd like to upgrade to the main branch again.

I'm a bit scared to lose my data and disks setup - can anyone tell me how I can safely upgrade?
Where to get started, etc?

Thanks a lot,
Christoph

 

[MrToddsFriends]

Where to get started, etc?

Start by reading this resource (if you didn't already do so):
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ng-from-freenas-corral-to-freenas-9-10-11.36/

I never used Corral myself so that's possibly all I can say about it.

 

[mjt5282]

plan to redo all your Docker instances as plex jails and/or VM's. make sure you have backups of all your datasets. Both of my Corral to VM 11 upgrades encountered serious zpool import issues. I worked around them, but would have freaked out if I didn't have full backups.

 

[chbla]

That's exactly why I'm asking.
The upgrade page linked above states:

How do I move to FreeNAS 11?
If you have a previous 9.10 boot environment, boot that up and switch trains to the FreeNAS-11-Release train. You will receive an update to the latest version.
If not or if your 9.10 environment is acting up, just install the latest version from ISO. It is available at http://download.freenas.org/11/

and also that the database config format is different.

I have absolutely no idea how to interpret this. Do I simply switch to 11 or reinstall and the configure my topology to be the same as before and it will work?
I'm aware that there is no similar docker support, but this is no problem as I know how to recreate the exact images.

I'm only concerned about my data (2x2 disks mirrored). And reading that you had problems worries me.
It's a bit of a dilemma if I need to backup the complete installation as this (obviously) IS my backup system.

This would mean that I have to get another freenas server with 6TB in total (probably mirrored) only to fix my freenas installation

 

[mjt5282]

any "train" upgrades to FN from Corral are disabled, that's why you are recommended to downgrade to 9.10.X before upgrading to 11. Because it's been so long, you might not still have a 9.10.X boot environment available. Obviously your data is the most important/valuable. Still, Corral introduced a new approach to "hyper-convergent" systems, with simple Docker-compatible options. I would recommend making single-vdev cold storage copies of your mirrors before you upgrade. Zpool export them from your system. Also, purchase alternate boot environments (USB or other SSD-type devices) to start over again with a FN11-1.1 ISO.
My problems (other than Docker not being support and having to recreate 3 jails and 1 VM in a new bhyve wrapper) were that on my primary and backup system, my main pool would not import with a SLOG (SSD in one system and NVME in another). I expected zero support from this forum due to the age of the Corral install. I don't remember how i fixed the import of the main pool (raidz2, my SSD mirror migrated fine). The second pool (raidz2) I had to "zpool import -Y" which is not documented on the fn site but allowed me to import the pool and then delete the SLOG.
Basically, plan for worst case scenario with plenty of time to resolve and have plenty of spare backups and media. I have over 30TB of data and ultimately was able to get back on the supported "train".

 

[chbla]

/rantmode
I can't tell you how upset and angry I am about this Corral mess.
It's beyond my understanding how they could drive this into such an incredible chaos and not care about their users.

I will get new harddisks and back up all of my data - not mentioning this costs a lot of unnecessary money.
It seems I still have 9.10 in the boot menu, so I will try to upgrade it - or do a fresh install on a new USB drive.

I'm unsure how to go about it though; if I should just re-create the structure and it imports the data, or how that works.
I don't want it to re-format or clean any of the disks if I add a mirror, etc - unfortunately, I can't find any clear information about
how that process would work.

 

[MrToddsFriends]

If there are shortcomings in the cited resource FAQ: Migrating from FreeNAS Corral to FreeNAS 9.10 / 11 please make sure to report them in the associated Discussion thread so future changers may benefit from your findings. Thanks.