FreeNAS Corral 10.0.2 reinstall to FreeNAS XX or TrueNAS

[krys allen]

Hello all, first I understand there is not upgrade path to get current, the only thing I care about from my current Corral install is my data particularly a 15tb RaidZ Pool. What is the safest way to get current on either FreeNAS or TrueNAS? Can I just do an install and the new OS will recognize my raid? is there any danger of my data being corrupted or wiped out? FWIW I have read on the topic, I am more looking for reassurance of my specific case.

Thanks in advance.

 

[artlessknave]

danger of my data being corrupted or wiped out

there is always a danger of this, unless you make sure it can't happen by having verified backups (RAID(z) is not a backup). any upgrade has the potential for complications, and getting off corral is more than just an upgrade. it should not, however, be particularly risky.

OS will recognize my raid

it should just import as normal afaik, but I never went to corral, and so haven't actually tried it. it should just be standard zfs, although an older version.
there isnt' really much point going to freenas instead of truenas, you have to abandon your config anyway, might as well go for stable release.
the safest way, and usually the recomended way to migrate anything in zfs, is to have a new server, with the correct versions, with new pool, and replicate the data over.

 

[krys allen]

there is always a danger of this, unless you make sure it can't happen by having verified backups (RAID(z) is not a backup). any upgrade has the potential for complications, and getting off corral is more than just an upgrade. it should not, however, be particularly risky.

it should just import as normal afaik, but I never went to corral, and so haven't actually tried it. it should just be standard zfs, although an older version.
there isnt' really much point going to freenas instead of truenas, you have to abandon your config anyway, might as well go for stable release.
the safest way, and usually the recomended way to migrate anything in zfs, is to have a new server, with the correct versions, with new pool, and replicate the data over.

Thanks for the reply, I dont see myself spending the money to have a new server and replicate. So I guess my next question would be, if I go with the new install of TrueNas and for some reason cannot import the zfs pool, I should be able to just plug my old Corral usb stick in and revert back to corral correct?

Do you think the size of the pool makes it any more or less complicated? Should I try to clean some data off and shrink it or anything like that?

Thanks in advance,
-Krys

 

[artlessknave]

Do you think the size of the pool makes it any more or less complicated? Should I try to clean some data off and shrink it or anything like that?

generally not relevant, unless you have so little RAM it cannot process the pool, but I'm fairly sure pool size wouldn't affect that, it's usually when something is really borked and ZFS is trying to reconstruct something.

I should be able to just plug my old Corral usb stick in and revert back to corral correct?

generally, yes, but since I don't see your build info, it's difficult to say much more (forum rules!).
USB is not recommended, as they die *a lot*, due to poor or non existent wear leveling and other reasons. I don't remember if corral was using ZFS yet, but since the boot was put on ZFS, USB has been not recommended.

I dont see myself spending the money to have a new server and replicate.

it's your data, if you don't value it enough for backups...eh. YOLO. upgrade it and see what happens.

 

[danb35]

I don't remember if corral was using ZFS yet

FreeNAS started using ZFS for the boot device in 9.3, and "Corral" (which I always thought was a stupid name) was supposed to be the 10.0 release--so yes, it was using ZFS.

Can I just do an install and the new OS will recognize my raid?

In all likelihood, yes. "Corral" was still using OpenZFS; there's nothing about its use that should have made importing a pool problematic, and if you did have problems, most likely you could just put the old USB back into your system and boot from it. There's always a chance of a device failure, but there's nothing about this plan that makes that any more likely than it would be at any other time.

 

[artlessknave]

(which I always thought was a stupid name)

the name itself wasn't noteworthy to me, what put floating questions marks above my head was "Why does it suddenly need a name?" in the first place.

 

[Ericloewe]

Here we are four and a half years later, time to dust off this old resource: https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/faq-migrating-from-freenas-corral-to-freenas-9-10-11.36/

The most relevant point for you is going to be "How do I get rid of Corral's weird ACL mode?"