Migrating Configurations/Jails from MBR to UEFI System?

[Matt Mabis]

Hello,

I have an interesting issue was hoping someone might be able to help, i have an older MBR based system (non-UEFI) that i would like to migrate to a new board that is UEFI based. I am wondering if there is there a way to migrate the Boot configuration and data (including Jails) from the MBR based drives to a UEFI based Drive-set. (similar to pulling the SSD from one system and migrating it to the other).

I have Jails and other data that i would like to be transitioned to the other system hence why i am looking at the data/configuration migration and i know this motherboard prefers the UEFI based booting rather than Legacy MBR.

Old System

• X9SRI-3F
• E5-2660 Xeon
• 128GB DDR3 Ram
• SAS-3008 Controllers
  • Connected via External cables to External Drive Chassis with Intel SAS Expander (Raid Z2 - 8x8TB & Raid Z2 - 8x4TB)
• SATA onboard
  • Dual SATADOM for Boot (MBR)
• NVME
  • ZIL and Cache - Intel P3700 400GB AIC Cards (will remove prior to move)
• Network cards
  • Mellanox ConnectX3 Dual VPI Controller with QSFP to SFP+ converter running 10Gb to Switch.

New System

• ASRock D1541D4U-2T8R
• Xeon D1541
• 128GB DDR4 Ram
• SAS-3008 Controller
  • Onboard Controller - Would connect to existing external Drive Chassis with Intel SAS Expander listed above
• SATA Onboard
  • Dual SATADOM for Boot (UEFI Ideally)
• NVME
  • M2 P3700 800GB for Cache (Would Attach after the migration)
  • AIC P3700 400GB for ZIL (Would Attach after the migration)
• Network cards
  • Mellanox ConnectX3 Dual VPI Controller with QSFP to SFP+ converter running 10Gb to Switch..

Any help would be appreciated :)

 

[pschatz100]

It is good practice to maintain backups of your configuration. Then you can do a fresh install of FreeNAS on the new hardware, and restore the configuration. You might have to update your network settings for the new hardware, but most everything else should be OK.

Then you can import your pools on the new system and you should be all set.

 

[Matt Mabis]

@pschatz100 - Thanks for your guidance, i was wondering if that backup config would be enough to carry over the jails or not, i will give it a shot and see how things roll :)

Thanks again!