Question Regarding the Config Backup File

[cs2000]

Hey guys,

I'm running TrueNAS-12.0-U8.1. I originally set up the machine just to be a basic NAS and used some very old hardware (but new disks) as i didn't need much CPU grunt or RAM. As i guess a lot of us have done, i have now expanded my use and am using plugins and virtual machines, everything is working great, but i'm seeing the limitations of my hardware and as such am purchasing a new motherboard, CPU and RAM to do an upgrade.

My new motherboard only has 4 SATA plugs, not the 6 my current one has, meaning i need to switch my boot drive from the 120Gb Sata SSD to a NVME M.2 drive, i have quite a few unused 256Gb ones which i can use one of.

I totally understand the general advice of "reinstall and restore using the config backup", but what exactly does this restore? I will be using the same 4x physical disks for my data backups. WIll the config backup that i have just taken restore all my settings, plugins and VM's? If not, what do i need to manually change afterwards?

I'm also wondering if i switch all this hardware, will this cause issues with my current data on my drives as they will be in different ports on the motherboard. I know this causes problems in a traditional RAID system, but im new to ZFS and exactly how Truenas deals with this kind of situation.

 

[winnielinnie]

Active (imported) pools, shares, services, tasks, general system configurations, etc.

Basically, everything you changed (in the GUI) that veers from a fresh TrueNAS installation/boot.

 

[Samuel Tai]

The configuration backup creates a TAR file containing a copy of /data/freenas-v1.db, which is the complete middleware configuration database, and, if you checked "Export secret seed" a copy of /data/pwenc_secret, and, if you checked "Export Legacy Encryption (GELI) Keys", a copy of the contents of /data/geli.

Assuming you restore to a system containing the original disks, you'll get an exact copy of the system running the configuration when the config backup was performed, all plugins, jails, VMs, and settings intact. The only change you may need to make is to manually redo your networking, if the restore system has different hardware from the source of the config backup, and then to adjust the NICs for your jails, plugins, and VMs.

TrueNAS doesn't care about the drive ports; it tracks drives by GPTID, which is the UUID associated with the ZFS partition on those drives.

 

[cs2000]

Thanks guys, two very very helpful replies, much appreciated!