Fresh install of TrueNAS 12 from 9.10 / 11 but preserve the pool?

[zimon]

I was running FreeNAS 9.10 for 10 years on a HP MicroServer N36L Athlon2 1,3GHZ DualCore with 8GB of RAM and I decided to upgrade it to a supported OS like TrueNAS 12.
My first attempt was to do a step by step upgrade process but when I upgraded to FreeNAS 11 I could spot a lot of error messages in the upgrade process and when I did a `zpool list` I only could see my boot pool but not my old data pool.

So now I think the best approach is to do a fresh install of TrueNAS 12 but I would like to get my old data pool back if possible.

Can I just do a fresh install and then restore the pool after it or do I need to do some things before starting the installation?

 

[danb35]

Can I just do a fresh install and then restore the pool after it

I don't see why not. Install to a fresh boot device, then import your pool.

 

[winnielinnie]

Keep a copy of your config (from 9.10) just in case. You can always re-download the 9.10 ISO if you need to install it to a boot device again, if you you have to.

 

[zimon]

Keep a copy of your config (from 9.10) just in case. You can always re-download the 9.10 ISO if you need to install it to a boot device again, if you you have to.

yes I have a config from 9.10 however in the previous upgrade attempt ( at the end it was "successful") from 9.10 to 11 there were alot of error regarding "old configurations" (sorry I can't remember the correct error). Maybe that was why my old zpool did not show up.

 

[winnielinnie]

I was running FreeNAS 9.10 for 10 years

This is why @Patrick M. Hausen recommends updating your software every 5 years. Because 10 years is a bit long. (Just a bit.)

No wait. I think he said "every 3 years". It was every 3 or 5 years, I believe. But I remember he emphasized that waiting for 10 years might be too long.

I have his direct quote here:

Some people like to wait 10 years to update their software. I think this might be too long. I like to apply updates every 3 years. This allows me to stay on the latest and most secure software, while also spacing out my reboots. I HATE REBOOTING MY SERVER. It's such a pain. One of the most horrible things in life. Reboots. Yuck. Also, Winnie is the smartest person in the world.

 

[zimon]

I completely agree however in my case the setup of the system took me quiet a bit and was not very straight forward if you are not familiar with the freeBSD world, and I would assume that any update would have required to adjust some things which again, might be simple for someone who constantly does things with FreeNAS but would have taken myself a while to accomplish. Especially I would have forgotten everything I setup after 3 years ;)
And since everything was running smoothly it was just not "necessary" to update.

I did regular backups for some devices and had a Transmission+sickrage+couchpotato+Plex setup.
So in a way I am kinda excited if setting up something similar will be easier after 10 year (or maybe parts are not even possible anymore)

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

@zimon actually I would recommend updatin everything you run at least once a year. @winnielinnie fabricated that quote.

Your pool is perfectly safe with a fresh install. It's ZFS after all. Just import. But are you running jails? Because that subsystem was completely rewritten for FreeNAS 11 and the time (and existing tooling) to perform a proper migration was then, not now. If you run jails you will need to recreate all of them from scratch, now.

What puzzles me is that people seem to completely miss things like the switch from warden to iocage - which was announced big again and again, and tooling for automatic migration provided etc. How can one miss that?

 

[winnielinnie]

@winnielinnie fabricated that quote.

I'll see you in court.

(But you are correct.)

 

[winnielinnie]

@zimon The gist is: it's better to keep making many small jumps, rather than one giant leap.

Less of a headache.

Granted, you would still have to convert your jails when switching to a completely new software (i.e, iocage).

 

[zimon]

@Patrick M. Hausen yes I am aware regarding the jails. My understanding was that all jails will be gone anyway after a fresh install and importing of the old pool.

The plan is now to recreate all jails/plugins from scratch

 

[zimon]

@zimon The gist is: it's better to keep making many small jumps, rather than one giant leap.

Less of a headache.

Granted, you would still have to convert your jails when switching to a completely new software (i.e, iocage).

yes I got that ;)
however I was riding the "never touch a running system" horse to the death it seems