Migrating disk sets from 2XFreeNAS systems into 1

[leenux_tux]

Folks,

I have two freenas boxes, freenas01 and freenas02, "01" is "master" and "02" provides backup functionality to 01 via rsync and zfs send. Freenas02 is not on all the time as it is also a ESXi system. Wakky I know but I just use different thumbdrives depending on what I want to do and, when ESXi is running an ISCSI connection to freenas01 provides disk storage.

This is of course putting unnecessary strain on the freenas02 hard drives, being powered up and down again, depending on what I want. I have purchased some shiny new hardware, shed loads of RAM and an IBM M1015, which has been reflashed to IT mode.

What I want to do is migrate disk sets from both FreeNAS systems into 1, on the new box. Has anyone had any experience with this, any "gotchas" to look out for ?

FreeNAS01 is "master" so I am guessing I should save off the configuration for this system, install freenas from scratch on my new box and restore the config ? Then import the pool from freenas02 and manually set up security, shares etc on the imported pool ?

Any advice/tips greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

[paleoN]

FreeNAS01 is "master" so I am guessing I should save off the configuration for this system, install freenas from scratch on my new box and restore the config ? Then import the pool from freenas02 and manually set up security, shares etc on the imported pool ?

It's what I would do. Two things jump to mind. Networking may need to be fixed and you will want to delete any rsync/replication tasks if configured in the GUI.

 

[leenux_tux]

Thanks for the tips PaleoN,

The new system will also be called "FREENAS01" so I am hoping that there won't be any "funnies" regarding networking (fingers crossed). If things do go south, shouldn't be too difficult to fix.

As a side item though, additional networking configuration is required anyway as my new system has multiple NICS and I want to dedicate one to iSCSI, but that's for another day and another forum section if I need tips.

 

[paleoN]

The new system will also be called "FREENAS01" so I am hoping that there won't be any "funnies" regarding networking (fingers crossed).

I was referring to the physical NIC(s) in this case. If the new system has a different chipset it will use a different driver or multiple NICs might be detected in a different order. Which might result in not getting an appropriate IP, but you plan on redoing the networking anyway.

 

[leenux_tux]

paleoN,

You were correct about the NIC's, didn't recognize them at all, however, it was not that much work to get them sorted.

Just as an FYI to anyone out there who is looking at doing something similar to what I have done, the process went super-smooth (after getting hold of an IBM M1015 SAS HBA because I have 8 drives now). Too be honest, I was amazed at how straight forward the process was and how quickly the system was back up and running again. The one "funny" I had was on the client side (Windows 7) where I could not access any of my CIFS shares. After removing the shares I could not add them back in, Windows kept complaining that there was a user account conflict (or something similar). I had to reboot the Win 7 machine for the shares to come back up.