Home user - should I upgrade my ancient version (9.3)?

[perfopt]

Hi

I installed FreeNAS 9.3 stable on a home machine with 6TB. It was configured with RAID and encryption. I have a backup copy of the encryption keys.

The machine is working fine except for some minor issues.

1. The plexmedia server that I installed in a jail is no longer working. A line in the console says the following:
"An error occurred while unserializing from http://192.168.2.103/plugins/plexmediaserver/1/_s/treemenu: No JSON object could be decoded"

2. I see some messages that look like errors on the console. I would like to fix errors, if any, so that the console is "clean". (console output below)

I would greatly appreciate suggestions to fix the above problems (console output below). Other than the two above I have no problems using 9.3-stable. It works fine.

My question is - should I upgrade?

If yes, what version should I upgrade to. I am a home user and I dont need more features than what 9.3-stable provides. On the one hand, I fear if I dont upgrade now I may not have an upgrade path to future versions. On the other hand, I read that FreeNAS went through a few releases with poor stability (the 10s?). Stability of my set up is very important to me. So, if I should upgrade, what version should I upgrade to?

Thank you,
Hrishi

Code:

Dec 27 07:46:00 freenas smbd[83818]:   STATUS=daemon 'smbd' finished starting up and ready to serve connectionsmatchname: host name/name mismatch: 192.168.2.111 != (NULL)
Dec 27 07:46:00 freenas smbd[83818]: [2017/12/27 07:46:00.528339,  0] ../source3/lib/util_sock.c:1199(get_remote_hostname)
Dec 27 07:46:00 freenas smbd[83818]:   matchname failed on 192.168.2.111
Dec 27 07:46:33 freenas smbd[83841]:   STATUS=daemon 'smbd' finished starting up and ready to serve connectionsmatchname: host name/name mismatch: 192.168.2.111 != (NULL)
Dec 27 07:46:33 freenas smbd[83841]: [2017/12/27 07:46:33.806675,  0] ../source3/lib/util_sock.c:1199(get_remote_hostname)
Dec 27 07:46:33 freenas smbd[83841]:   matchname failed on 192.168.2.111
Dec 27 07:46:33 freenas smbd[83842]:   STATUS=daemon 'smbd' finished starting up and ready to serve connectionsmatchname: host name/name mismatch: 192.168.2.111 != (NULL)
Dec 27 07:46:33 freenas smbd[83842]: [2017/12/27 07:46:33.807567,  0] ../source3/lib/util_sock.c:1199(get_remote_hostname)
Dec 27 07:46:33 freenas smbd[83842]:   matchname failed on 192.168.2.111
Dec 27 07:46:36 freenas smbd[83843]:   STATUS=daemon 'smbd' finished starting up and ready to serve connectionsmatchname: host name/name mismatch: 192.168.2.111 != (NULL)
Dec 27 07:46:36 freenas smbd[83843]: [2017/12/27 07:46:36.114195,  0] ../source3/lib/util_sock.c:1199(get_remote_hostname)
Dec 27 07:46:36 freenas smbd[83843]:   matchname failed on 192.168.2.111
Dec 27 07:46:36 freenas smbd[83844]:   STATUS=daemon 'smbd' finished starting up and ready to serve connectionsmatchname: host name/name mismatch: 192.168.2.111 != (NULL)
Dec 27 07:46:36 freenas smbd[83844]: [2017/12/27 07:46:36.115730,  0] ../source3/lib/util_sock.c:1199(get_remote_hostname)
Dec 27 07:46:36 freenas smbd[83844]:   matchname failed on 192.168.2.111
Dec 27 07:46:48 freenas smbd[83845]:   STATUS=daemon 'smbd' finished starting up and ready to serve connectionsmatchname: host name/name mismatch: 192.168.2.111 != (NULL)
Dec 27 07:46:48 freenas smbd[83845]: [2017/12/27 07:46:48.590411,  0] ../source3/lib/util_sock.c:1199(get_remote_hostname)
Dec 27 07:46:48 freenas smbd[83845]:   matchname failed on 192.168.2.111
Dec 27 07:46:48 freenas smbd[83846]:   STATUS=daemon 'smbd' finished starting up and ready to serve connectionsmatchname: host name/name mismatch: 192.168.2.111 != (NULL)
Dec 27 07:46:48 freenas smbd[83846]: [2017/12/27 07:46:48.591108,  0] ../source3/lib/util_sock.c:1199(get_remote_hostname)
Dec 27 07:46:48 freenas smbd[83846]:   matchname failed on 192.168.2.111
Dec 27 07:47:20 freenas smbd[83869]:   STATUS=daemon 'smbd' finished starting up and ready to serve connectionsmatchname: host name/name mismatch: 192.168.2.111 != (NULL)
Dec 27 07:47:20 freenas smbd[83869]: [2017/12/27 07:47:20.751171,  0] ../source3/lib/util_sock.c:1199(get_remote_hostname)
Dec 27 07:47:20 freenas smbd[83869]:   matchname failed on 192.168.2.111
Dec 27 07:47:20 freenas smbd[83870]:   STATUS=daemon 'smbd' finished starting up and ready to serve connectionsmatchname: host name/name mismatch: 192.168.2.111 != (NULL)
Dec 27 07:47:20 freenas smbd[83870]: [2017/12/27 07:47:20.779601,  0] ../source3/lib/util_sock.c:1199(get_remote_hostname)
Dec 27 07:47:20 freenas smbd[83870]:   matchname failed on 192.168.2.111
Dec 27 07:47:23 freenas smbd[83871]:   STATUS=daemon 'smbd' finished starting up and ready to serve connectionsmatchname: host name/name mismatch: 192.168.2.111 != (NULL)
Dec 27 07:47:23 freenas smbd[83871]: [2017/12/27 07:47:23.323270,  0] ../source3/lib/util_sock.c:1199(get_remote_hostname)
Dec 27 07:47:23 freenas smbd[83871]:   matchname failed on 192.168.2.111
Dec 27 07:47:23 freenas smbd[83872]:   STATUS=daemon 'smbd' finished starting up and ready to serve connectionsmatchname: host name/name mismatch: 192.168.2.111 != (NULL)
Dec 27 07:47:23 freenas smbd[83872]: [2017/12/27 07:47:23.324473,  0] ../source3/lib/util_sock.c:1199(get_remote_hostname)
Dec 27 07:47:23 freenas smbd[83872]:   matchname failed on 192.168.2.111
Dec 27 07:47:35 freenas smbd[83873]:   STATUS=daemon 'smbd' finished starting up and ready to serve connectionsmatchname: host name/name mismatch: 192.168.2.111 != (NULL)
Dec 27 07:47:35 freenas smbd[83873]: [2017/12/27 07:47:35.984420,  0] ../source3/lib/util_sock.c:1199(get_remote_hostname)
Dec 27 07:47:35 freenas smbd[83873]:   matchname failed on 192.168.2.111
Dec 27 07:47:35 freenas smbd[83874]:   STATUS=daemon 'smbd' finished starting up and ready to serve connectionsmatchname: host name/name mismatch: 192.168.2.111 != (NULL)
Dec 27 07:47:35 freenas smbd[83874]: [2017/12/27 07:47:35.984974,  0] ../source3/lib/util_sock.c:1199(get_remote_hostname)
Dec 27 07:47:35 freenas smbd[83874]:   matchname failed on 192.168.2.111
Dec 27 07:48:02 freenas smbd[83896]:   STATUS=daemon 'smbd' finished starting up and ready to serve connectionsmatchname: host name/name mismatch: 192.168.2.105 != (NULL)
Dec 27 07:48:02 freenas smbd[83896]: [2017/12/27 07:48:02.497441,  0] ../source3/lib/util_sock.c:1199(get_remote_hostname)
Dec 27 07:48:02 freenas smbd[83896]:   matchname failed on 192.168.2.105
Dec 27 07:55:02 freenas ntpd_initres[2333]: host name not found: 0.freebsd.pool.ntp.org
Dec 27 07:55:02 freenas ntpd_initres[2333]: host name not found: 1.freebsd.pool.ntp.org
Dec 27 07:55:02 freenas ntpd_initres[2333]: host name not found: 2.freebsd.pool.ntp.org
Dec 27 08:11:04 freenas ntpd_initres[2333]: host name not found: 0.freebsd.pool.ntp.org
Dec 27 08:11:04 freenas ntpd_initres[2333]: host name not found: 1.freebsd.pool.ntp.org
Dec 27 08:11:04 freenas ntpd_initres[2333]: host name not found: 2.freebsd.pool.ntp.org
Dec 27 08:11:52 freenas smbd[84552]:   STATUS=daemon 'smbd' finished starting up and ready to serve connectionsmatchname: host name/name mismatch: 192.168.2.105 != (NULL)
Dec 27 08:11:52 freenas smbd[84552]: [2017/12/27 08:11:52.007168,  0] ../source3/lib/util_sock.c:1199(get_remote_hostname)
Dec 27 08:11:52 freenas smbd[84552]:   matchname failed on 192.168.2.105
Dec 27 08:27:06 freenas ntpd_initres[2333]: host name not found: 0.freebsd.pool.ntp.org
Dec 27 08:27:06 freenas ntpd_initres[2333]: host name not found: 1.freebsd.pool.ntp.org
Dec 27 08:27:06 freenas ntpd_initres[2333]: host name not found: 2.freebsd.pool.ntp.org
Dec 27 08:43:08 freenas ntpd_initres[2333]: host name not found: 0.freebsd.pool.ntp.org
Dec 27 08:43:08 freenas ntpd_initres[2333]: host name not found: 1.freebsd.pool.ntp.org
Dec 27 08:43:08 freenas ntpd_initres[2333]: host name not found: 2.freebsd.pool.ntp.org
Dec 27 08:44:36 freenas manage.py: [freeadmin.navtree:599] An error occurred while unserializing from http://192.168.2.103/plugins/plexmediaserver/1/_s/treemenu: No JSON object could be decoded
Dec 27 08:45:06 freenas manage.py: [freeadmin.navtree:599] An error occurred while unserializing from http://192.168.2.103/plugins/plexmediaserver/1/_s/treemenu: No JSON object could be decoded
Dec 27 08:59:10 freenas ntpd_initres[2333]: host name not found: 0.freebsd.pool.ntp.org
Dec 27 08:59:10 freenas ntpd_initres[2333]: host name not found: 1.freebsd.pool.ntp.org
Dec 27 08:59:10 freenas ntpd_initres[2333]: host name not found: 2.freebsd.pool.ntp.org
Dec 27 09:00:13 freenas manage.py: [freeadmin.navtree:599] An error occurred while unserializing from http://192.168.2.103/plugins/plexmediaserver/1/_s/treemenu: No JSON object could be decoded
Dec 27 09:01:19 freenas smbd[87259]:   STATUS=daemon 'smbd' finished starting up and ready to serve connectionsmatchname: host name/name mismatch: 192.168.2.105 != (NULL)
Dec 27 09:01:19 freenas smbd[87259]: [2017/12/27 09:01:19.889755,  0] ../source3/lib/util_sock.c:1199(get_remote_hostname)
Dec 27 09:01:19 freenas smbd[87259]:   matchname failed on 192.168.2.105

 

[nightshade00013]

Personally I have to say turn off the console, unplug the monitor and don't worry about the error messages unless they are emailed to you or there is something actually having an issue. All you are doing is beating your head against a brick wall. There will always be messages in the console about different stuff.

Watching the console is akin to having camera's on every moving part of a vehicle and watching every single one of them while trying to drive down a bumpy road while speeding and lighting your hair on fire. (And I think that is another analogy that will get me a hall of fame vote.)

As far as upgrading part of that depends on if there are things the upgrade will bring you as well as your hardware. Since you have been on 9.3 so long you may have to upgrade in steps.... Also I have to wonder why you watch the console but don't upgrade to a newer version within a decent time frame. I can understand not wanting to fix something that isn't broken and I tend to wait a few weeks to a month before hopping on the upgrade train when some big changes happen but still.

Anyway it is also personal preference, I know there are people out there who still use FreeNAS from before iXsystems took over. There are some security concerns over older software but it can potentially cause issues with other things like if you are using a SAS controller the software in the controller will also need to be updated. The pool will also be in for an update that can potentially eat your children along with your data.

It is also possible that some of your hardware could be incompatible with the latest version or features that you may want to try and use. Since hardware info has not been posted it's hard to even guess if that is the case but I can say that if the CPU is older than a Xeon E5600 series you will not be able to use VM's and if you have something setup with the software VM included with 9.3 you will be unhappy as that software goes away.

 

[danb35]

There will always be messages in the console about different stuff.

Yes, and it's unfortunate--FreeNAS blasts a lot of stuff onto the console that has no reason to be there. WALL should be reserved for "your server is on fire"-level critical messages, but FreeNAS puts a ton of minor errors, or even non-error info messages, out there.

Since you have been on 9.3 so long you may have to upgrade in steps

No, you can go directly from 9.3 to 11.1 (though whether you'd want to is another issue--I reverted to 11.0-U4 until they figure out what's going on with scrubs killing other performance).

 

[nightshade00013]

No, you can go directly from 9.3 to 11.1 (though whether you'd want to is another issue--I reverted to 11.0-U4 until they figure out what's going on with scrubs killing other performance).

I wasn't too sure on going straight through. With all the changes along the way I figure there is something in there somewhere to import the old config into the new system, especially when it goes from 9.3 to 9.10 but going from 9.3 to 11 I would have to guess that the import would be different again.

I also am still on 11.0-U4 as I would rather wait a little bit for any possible bugs to be worked out once 11.1-U1 or U2 hits I may take the plunge.

 

[danb35]

going from 9.3 to 11 I would have to guess that the import would be different again.

There's one process to import a config file, and it's supposed to work with anything from 9.3 on (and I'm pretty sure I've seen reports of it working with even older versions).