Migrate TrueNAS Scale to a new system/install?

[Intel]

Does TrueNAS scale have a data migration assistant or tool to make migrating everything painless between installs?

A use case example:
- Setting up TrueNAS Scale on a VM
- Configuring all apps (containers)
- Some basic shares

Then having a brand new hardware with TNS installed
- bigger physical drives (no fake VM disks)

Ideally this would help people who want to play with setting up TrueNAS Scale Apps in a VM and then wish to move it to real-dedicated hardware later, without having to manually re-do the entire thing manually again. "Thing" defined as creating Apps, configurations, etc. I realize this ask is probably such a rare edge case that it doesn't exist... but hey better asking and I may be surprised that there's a way to do this.

 

[darkcloud784]

Does TrueNAS scale have a data migration assistant or tool to make migrating everything painless between installs?

A use case example:
- Setting up TrueNAS Scale on a VM
- Configuring all apps (containers)
- Some basic shares

Then having a brand new hardware with TNS installed
- bigger physical drives (no fake VM disks)

Ideally this would help people who want to play with setting up TrueNAS Scale Apps in a VM and then wish to move it to real-dedicated hardware later, without having to manually re-do the entire thing manually again. "Thing" defined as creating Apps, configurations, etc. I realize this ask is probably such a rare edge case that it doesn't exist... but hey better asking and I may be surprised that there's a way to do this.

Its all ZFS, so you just import your ZFS pools after migration. Pretty easy honestly.

 

[Intel]

Its all ZFS, so you just import your ZFS pools after migration. Pretty easy honestly.

maybe I am missing something... I know ZFS datasets can be transferred pretty easily even over SSH but what about the TrueNAS "System" settings and all of the containers themselves?

Copying my "apps" ZFS dataset to a new system wouldn't result in the "apps" to be installed and running on the new system just like that... I don't think? which is what I am asking about.

 

[darkcloud784]

maybe I am missing something... I know ZFS datasets can be transferred pretty easily even over SSH but what about the TrueNAS "System" settings and all of the containers themselves?

Copying my "apps" ZFS dataset to a new system wouldn't result in the "apps" to be installed and running on the new system just like that... I don't think? which is what I am asking about.

When you setup apps, it asks you where you want to place the dataset. This is where all your apps/volumes/etc go for apps. The System dataset is set to the boot disk, but can be changed in the GUI at any point. You can also download your system settings and re-import them to the new setup as well. Obviously some things won't import due to standardize differences like interface names but networking portions should always be re-deployed anyway.

 

[Intel]

When you setup apps, it asks you where you want to place the dataset. This is where all your apps/volumes/etc go for apps. The System dataset is set to the boot disk, but can be changed in the GUI at any point. You can also download your system settings and re-import them to the new setup as well. Obviously some things won't import due to standardize differences like interface names but networking portions should always be re-deployed anyway.

So in theory, I would do a fresh OS install on new system. Then try to ZFS copy 'boot' and 'apps' datasets?

When is downloading the settings from the web UI vs. /boot/ ZFS dataset copy preferable, only when NIC names change?

 

[Clauxorr]

Hello. I am interested in this topic as well. I have Apps installed on my current - first ever TreuNAS for me - but I'm preparing a server for the new TrueNAS - using lessons learned while building and setting up my first.

The new machine will get the main tank pool from the first NAS (2 x 16 TB Seagate IronWolf Pro CMR NAS Mirrored HDDs) (via export/import pool) - so all the data used by apps - like qBittorrent, Plex, etc. - will be there.

For Apps, I have a dedicated pool - which I also know how to export/import. I also know how to move all the Apps between pools.
But I don't want to move this physical volume to the new machine - it's an mSATA SSD :) I still want the data - I suppose it's here where all the torrents and Plex libraries are stored.

Is there a way to have them all migrated to the new machine?

Thank you very much for your time.

 

[Etorix]

General procedure:

0) Save the configuration file.
1) Move all disks to the new system.
2a) If the boot device was migrated as well, all should just work ,with the possible exception of networking if the onboard NIC was used.
2b) If there is a new boot device, make a fresh install, load the configuration file and adjust network settings if required.

Done. One need not even export and import the pool.

For Apps, I have a dedicated pool - which I also know how to export/import. I also know how to move all the Apps between pools.
But I don't want to move this physical volume to the new machine - it's an mSATA SSD :) I still want the data - I suppose it's here where all the torrents and Plex libraries are stored.

A single drive vdev/pool I suppose? And the new system will use a different drive for this purpose.
If the new drive can be attached to the old system in any possible way (USB adapters allowed!) and is at least as large as the old mSTATA, we can just use the flexibility of mirrors (a single drive is a "one-way mirror": Plug in the new drive, expand the vdev with it, let resilver, remove the old drive.
The pool is ready to migrate according to the general case.

 

[chuck32]

I was about to write an answer when the message popped up, that there is a new answer available.

I would just want to add, if the system dataset is on the drive you do not migrate over, I'd move it prior to migration.

As for the procedure described for the apps, wouldn't it be enough to just move the apps dataset in the apps region? Maybe reboot before migration and verify it worked. The pool should only contain the ix applications dataset in that case anyway.

 

[Clauxorr]

A single drive vdev/pool I suppose? And the new system will use a different drive for this purpose.
If the new drive can be attached to the old system in any possible way (USB adapters allowed!) and is at least as large as the old mSTATA, we can just use the flexibility of mirrors (a single drive is a "one-way mirror": Plug in the new drive, expand the vdev with it, let resilver, remove the old drive.
The pool is ready to migrate according to the general case.

Yes, it's just one drive. I will try that. Thank you very much for your time. Will come back with a comment when it's all done. At the moment I'm still planning and doing some hardware upgrades to the old HP Z820 - the next-to-be server.