Moving to TrueNAS 13 - Questions

[cgcmgr]

Hello everyone,

I've been on TrueNAS 12 for a while now and have never moved to 13. I know I can just update, but I have seen posts here where things have broken for some people after updating. I was thinking about doing a clean install and I have a few questions.

1. Currently I'm using two USB drives to boot my NAS as I do not have spare room for an SSD drive let alone two. Well, not really space, but rather SATA connections. If I do a clean install onto two new USB drives will the data on my four 4TB drives remain and be able to be used, or will it get erased?
2. If I do this clean install, would I be able to use a 12.0 Config file to get everything set up the way it was on 12?
3. If after setting up the two USB drives to boot into 13, would I be able to shutdown my NAS and replace the two 13 USB drives with the two 12 USB drives and boot back into TrueNAS 12 and have everything working properly? Meaning will I still be able to access my data on my drives and use my Emby server? I ask this because if when setting up 13, I can't use the 12 Config file or I run into issues setting things up, I'd still like to be able to boot back into my 12 and use my Emby server.

Thanks in advance,
Chris

 

[winnielinnie]

1. If I do a clean install onto two new USB drives will the data on my four 4TB drives remain and be able to be used, or will it get erased?

Drives used in storage pools (which are re-imported manually or automatically with a config file) are not touched during the installation process. Just make sure you only select your USB drives when the installer prompts you for which drives to use.

2. If I do this clean install, would I be able to use a 12.0 Config file to get everything set up the way it was on 12?

I believe you should be able to, as the config file's format and structure is relatively the same since FreeNAS 11.

3. If after setting up the two USB drives to boot into 13, would I be able to shutdown my NAS and replace the two 13 USB drives with the two 12 USB drives and boot back into TrueNAS 12 and have everything working properly? Meaning will I still be able to access my data on my drives and use my Emby server? I ask this because if when setting up 13, I can't use the 12 Config file or I run into issues setting things up, I'd still like to be able to boot back into my 12 and use my Emby server.

Not really relevant, because of the above steps (in regards to using an exported config file).


In my opinion, you'd be better served to just "update" TrueNAS Core. The update process automatically creates "Boot Environments" (of older versions of TrueNAS), which you can roll back if something goes wrong. It will also prompt you to export your config + secret seed before updating. The update process is more seamless than doing a fresh install where you have to import your config; plus you lose your earlier "Boot Environments" with a fresh install.

Do not "upgrade" the ZFS features on your storage pools when alerted in your notifications. This will break your storage pools' backwards compatibility to be used in older systems. (Since you are tentative and may consider reverting back to Core 12.)

 

[cgcmgr]

I must have missed your response and only noticed it this morning. Thanks for the response and the info. This will be helpful.

 

[cgcmgr]

Just an update. I actually built a new NAS with a better processor, more memory and more SATA connectors so I can add more drives in the future. I decided to just install the most recent version of Core 13 and I installed it onto two SSD drives which are now my boot pool. No longer using USB drives to boot from. I removed the 4 drives from my old NAS and put into the new one, imported the Pool, imported my TrueNAS Core 12 Config file and I was all set. All I had to do was remap the shares on my Windows machine as the IP address changed.

Appreciate the assistance!

Chris