SOLVED Questions before I upgrade 9.2.1.8 -> 9.3.1

[dtemp]

1) It says "UFS is no longer supported". However, it appears my boot drive is formatted UFS. Is this a problem?

Code:

# df -h
Filesystem  Size  Used  Avail Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/ufs/FreeNASs2a  926M  704M  148M  83%  /
devfs  1.0k  1.0k  0B  100%  /dev
/dev/md0  4.6M  3.3M  893k  79%  /etc
/dev/md1  823k  2.0k  756k  0%  /mnt
/dev/md2  149M  17M  120M  12%  /var
/dev/ufs/FreeNASs4  19M  3.2M  15M  17%  /data

2) It also says you need at least a 8GB boot drive. I'm running mine on a 8GB datastore (ok I know you don't support virtualization, let's just call it a 8GB USB stick). Looking at the SIZE column above, it doesn't add up to anywhere close to 8GB. What's up with that?

3) I have my LSI chip flashed with IT mode v16. I notice in the 9.3.1 release announcement that the "LSI driver [was updated] to v20." Will the v20 driver work with my v16 IT firmware?

Thank you for the help.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

1. The upgrade will reformat the boot device to ZFS.
2. The use of ZFS for the boot device makes it possible to keep a history of boot environments, and the 8GB recommendation is to allow plenty of space for this.
3. You need the driver and the firmware to match if you want things to run smoothly.

But I suggest you take a look around the forums to see the issues people are having with 9.3.1 before you upgrade. It seems there are some problems with replication tasks.

 

[dtemp]

Ok thanks.

So you're saying that I absolutely should upgrade my LSI firmware to v20 before continuing. If I didn't happen to read the announcement and just hit upgrade, do you think I'd have a nonfunctional server?

Yeah the 9.3.1 update looks interesting... Looks like they aren't even calling it 9.3.1, just 9.3-STABLE. Is it smart to stay on the 9.2.x train until 9.3 gets more stable? It's been out a while...

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

So you're saying that I absolutely should upgrade my LSI firmware to v20 before continuing. If I didn't happen to read the announcement and just hit upgrade, do you think I'd have a nonfunctional server?

No, just plan to update the firmware very soon after you upgrade.

Is it smart to stay on the 9.2.x train until 9.3 gets more stable?

Many of us have been on the 9.3-STABLE train for a while without major issues. It's specifically the 9.3.1 update that has caused problems with replication for some people. Once those are fixed, I wouldn't hesitate to upgrade. If you're not using replication tasks, you probably won't have any trouble with 9.3.1.