Moving to new motherboard and CPU

[chrispeden]

Hey everyone, I have ran FreeNAS for years as my home nas. When I have needed to upgrade I have always just built a new server and migrated data. However I don't want to go that route this time if I can avoid it. So I am looking to confirm my understanding what should happen when migrating hardware.

My current setup is a old Phenom II quad core with 8gb ram. I have 3 x 4port PCIe SATA controllers giving me 12 drive ability. FreeNAS is running off a USB thumbdrive. My understanding is that I SHOULD be able to change the motherboard out (cpu and ram as well obviously) and just plug my controller cards in the new board and FreeNAS and ZFS should just see the drives without issue and be like nothing changed. I am also thinking I "COULD" not even use the controllers and use the onboard SATA ports and it should also just see the drives (obviously as long as FreeBSD has a drivers for the controller) and just work as well.

Can anyone confirm my understanding here? Anything I should be aware of doing a hardware swap?

 

[ThreeDee]

A little while ago .. I was having issues trying to install FreeNAS via USB drive .. so I burned the ISO to a disc.

I don't have a cd/dvd drive in my FreeNAS so I installed to a USB drive via a spare computer I was setting up to sell. Then I moved the USB drive over to my FreeNAS box and re-setup interfaces so I could log in. Worked just fine ...

I would recommend replacing your USB drive with an SSD though .. you can just install the SSD and mirror it to the USB drive and then make it your boot drive without having to reinstall anything. (that's what I did going from an SSD to my current NVMe SSD drive)