How to move pool or volume to all new hardware?

[mgh333]

I know there is probably a simple way, but not sure I have found it yet.

I wan't to move my zpool to all new hardware, including new disks and new zpool. What is the best way to do this? The main reason is I want to create a new zpool with 4TB disks, and my old pool was created back in the old days with 512B size, block size: 512B configured, 4096B native.

I have read about taking a snapshot, but never done it. Will the snapshot be the same size as all the data on the pool, and in a file? So you can just move the file and restore the snapshot somehow? I assume that wouldn't change the blocksize somehow when I restored it?

I have also see the send receive, zfs send -vR tank@$SNAPSHOT | ssh <target> zfs recv -F tank, I assume this sends it over the network to the new pool?

Is there something I'm missing where I can/should just export the volumes and move them?

Thanks,

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Will the snapshot be the same size as all the data on the pool

No, but when you replicate a snapshot, the output will be the same size as the data the snapshot represents.

and in a file?

If you send it to a file, yes. if you send it to another pool, no.

I assume that wouldn't change the blocksize somehow when I restored it?

I don't think the snapshot has a block size property. When you receive the snapshot to the new pool, the new pool will already have its own block size and you'll be good to go.

I have also see the send receive, zfs send -vR tank@$SNAPSHOT | ssh <target> zfs recv -F tank, I assume this sends it over the network to the new pool?

Correct.

Is there something I'm missing where I can/should just export the volumes and move them?

There's a backup and restore feature that was added to the GUI and the console menu in a relatively recent update, but I haven't seen it discussed much. Looks like it dumps everything to a network host.

 

[SweetAndLow]

I think snapshot and replication us probably the best solution. This way you get to keep your jails and datasets. I'm sure there is good information in the manual and probably in some forum posts.