Exporting and Importing pool with different HBA - Anything to be aware of?

[HarambeLives]

I'll be exporting a 12 disk RAIDZ2 pool and importing it to another system. Really as easy as going to the UI and exporting, and then importing on the other system?

Its encrypted, so I assume I should get a copy of the encryption key

Looking for any words of wisdom or gotchas!

 

[socra]

@HarambeLives
I think you can export the keys:
https://www.truenas.com/docs/core/coretutorials/storage/pools/storageencryption/ (look under the Key Files section)

Also curious about your NAS02. Have you made the transition to TrueNAS core 13 yet?, if so how did you manage (please check thread below)

TrueNAS will not boot after upgrade to 13

Upgraded from 12U8.1. Everything worked to begin with. But now TrueNAS 13 has shut itself down and will not boot. Hanging on "Doorbell handshake failed".

www.truenas.com

 

[HarambeLives]

Thanks, I hoped to report back how the import went by now, but the HBA I had planned to use for this is the wrong one. Its a damaged one I held onto for some reason! Ordered a new one, should come soon

Yep I went to 13, zero issues. Just upgraded as usual

Is it a common issue for people on ESXi to be having problems like that thread?

 

[socra]

Thanks, I hoped to report back how the import went by now, but the HBA I had planned to use for this is the wrong one. Its a damaged one I held onto for some reason! Ordered a new one, should come soon

Yep I went to 13, zero issues. Just upgraded as usual

Is it a common issue for people on ESXi to be having problems like that thread?

Well seeing the amount of views I'd say people are having issues. (I've never had issues upgrading until I went from 12.8 to 13)
Seems to be affecting multiple card types and ESXi versions

Does your NAS02 run 24-7?
What specific version of ESXi are you running?
Anything you can share on the way you upgraded (did you take a snapshot beforehand, rebooted you esxi host afterwards etc)

 

[HarambeLives]

Well seeing the amount of views I'd say people are having issues. (I've never had issues upgrading until I went from 12.8 to 13)
Seems to be affecting multiple card types and ESXi versions

Does your NAS02 run 24-7?
What specific version of ESXi are you running?
Anything you can share on the way you upgraded (did you take a snapshot beforehand, rebooted you esxi host afterwards etc)

Very weird, I never even thought to check the forums, I just went for it!

* LSI 9207-8i IT Mode with hardware passthrough to the VM
* ESXi 7.0.2 I THINK when I did the upgrade, may have been 7.0.1. Now I'm on 7.0.3
* I shut down the VM, did a snapshot (Because no live snaps with passthrough), booted, upgraded and then deleted the snapshot
* Never rebooted ESXi

If rebooting ESXi fixes it, I suspect these people have some weird host issues

 

[socra]

Same here, I also just "went" for it. I did not delete the snapshot immediately that is why it was easy to revert back. (my VM crashed after a couple of minutes)

Reading the comments people have had issues even with 7.0.2 :

265383 – FreeBSD 13.1 causes shutdown after upgrade ESXi VM TrueNAS CORE 12U8.1 to 13 - and then unable reboot

bugs.freebsd.org

Could be a combination of FreeBSD 13, the ESXi version with the card used..

 

[HarambeLives]

Wow, that is really odd!

Is your boot drive passed through too or just on a datastore?

 

[socra]

Wow, that is really odd!

Is your boot drive passed through too or just on a datastore?

For my setup it's a VM with the bootdisk on a SSD ESXi Datastore attached to the SuperMicro motherboard with some SATA disks used as mirrors passed through (attached to an IBM M1015 flashed to IT-mode).

Since the bug has been open for some time I'm starting to worry..

 

[HarambeLives]

For my setup it's a VM with the bootdisk on a SSD ESXi Datastore attached to the SuperMicro motherboard with some SATA disks used as mirrors passed through (attached to an IBM M1015 flashed to IT-mode).

Since the bug has been open for some time I'm starting to worry..

So you have the disks passed through, and not the entire HBA?

 

[socra]

So you have the disks passed through, and not the entire HBA?

no no, the HBA is passed-trough to the VM. TrueNAS has direct access to the HBA & the disks (sorry for the confusion)

 

[HarambeLives]

I guess another option is to build a new VM and import the pool, really odd though. What virtual NIC are you using? VMXNET3 I assume? I recall there was some issue with E1000E a while ago

 

[socra]

I guess another option is to build a new VM and import the pool, really odd though. What virtual NIC are you using? VMXNET3 I assume? I recall there was some issue with E1000E a while ago

I created a new VM with version 13 and imported my config so far it has stayed up (but I didn't attach the HBA yet, afraid of what might happen :) )
Yes everything I have uses VMXNet3