Is it safe to upgrade from FreeNAS 9.3 to the latest version?

[macosxgeek]

Hi,

I'm running FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201504152200
It's been a while since I've applied any upgrades to the system. I was wondering if it's possible to upgrade my NAS to the latest version?
I'm booting my NAS box from USB pendrive if it helps.. Is there a tutorial or some instructions available with the upgrade steps?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Chris Moore]

Hi,

I'm running FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201504152200
It's been a while since I've applied any upgrades to the system. I was wondering if it's possible to upgrade my NAS to the latest version?
I'm booting my NAS box from USB pendrive if it helps.. Is there a tutorial or some instructions available with the upgrade steps?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I wouldn't do it in one step. It could cause some compatibility problems. Can you tell us more about the configuration you have?

 

[macosxgeek]

It's a single stand-alone NAS box running on SuperMicro server. I have 8x 4TB hard drives in it running in RAID10. I'm booting the system from 8GB USB pendrive which seems to have some issues at the moment as well - I might replace it with a new USB stick. I have some iSCSI shares on it acting as LUN targets for VMware (actually quite a lot of them). I also have some CIFS/SMB shares and FTP server running on it. Would you like some more specific configuration details? If so - what details exactly?

 

[Dan Tudora]

hello
NO, is not safe
do not upgrade pool features after upgrade until not verify work correct (to have posibiliti to revert to anterior boot environment)
the right "path" to upgrade is

save config
install 9.3 on a small SSD (with USB to SATA adapter, if not have SATA port avaiable)
restore config
save config
verify if working correct (1 day :D)
save config
upgrade to latest 9.10
save config
verify if working correct (1 day :D)
upgrade to latest 11
save config
verify if working correct (1 day :D)
upgrade to latest 11.2
save config
verify if working correct (1 day :D)
upgrade to latest 11.3
save config
verify if working correct (1 day :D)

succes

 

[Chris Moore]

I'm booting the system from 8GB USB pendrive which seems to have some issues at the moment as well - I might replace it with a new USB stick.

You will certainly need to replace that 8GB drive with a larger capacity drive. It isn't enough for the latest version. I think the documentation now stipulates a 16 GB, but I would suggest 32GB as a being the minimum.

@Dan Tudora gave great advice though. Replacing the boot drive with a small SSD is really the best way. I did that several years ago and have been very happy with it.

I have some iSCSI shares on it acting as LUN targets for VMware (actually quite a lot of them). I also have some CIFS/SMB shares and FTP server running on it.

I am a little concerned that some of these configurations might not survive upgrade steps. Just be sure you have it all well documented in case you need to reconfigure something and test it all at each increment as was suggested above.

The jails subsystem is completely changed from the version of FreeNAS you have, but you didn't say anything about jails.

 

[Chris Moore]

I forget when it happened, but there have been several changes to the samba version that provides CIFS/SMB and they have changed the default security configuration. That will likely cause you a little access problem. There is documentation in the forum on how to solve it. Just post back if you have any trouble and someone is sure to help you.

 

[macosxgeek]

Jayzus... It seems to be a bit complicated.. But it makes sense no doubt. I'm quite far behind the latest STABLE I guess.. My fault I didn't do all the upgrades along the way.. Thank you very much for all the hints. Much appreciated.

 

[Chris Moore]

I didn't do all the upgrades along the way.

There have been plenty of others that didn't. That is how we found out it can be a problem. Too many configuration changes to jump over.

 

[Chris Moore]

I'm quite far behind the latest STABLE

Here is where you can get the older versions:

https://archive.freenas.org/

 

[macosxgeek]

Perfect! Thank you Chris!

 

[Dan Tudora]

hello
calm down
make just 1 step, verify, make more coffee, take a sleep, wait, verify, next step etc., loop !!
success

 

[Dan Tudora]

and I forgot something
sometime 1 single malt or 2 not 3 or 4 help
to sleep well