Replicating both primary and backup FreeNAS to new servers

[f.svara]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently running two identical FreeNAS 11.2 servers. One is the primary (active) one, the other one is a passive backup and receives snapshots from the primary (active) one. Everything working nicely so far.

Now, I'd like to replace both servers by new, larger ones. What is the recommended procedure for this?

Would you replicate from Active (old) to Active (new), then from Active (new) to Passive (new)?

In principle it should be possible to save time by replicating from Active (old) to Active (new) and from Passive (old) to Passive (new) in parallel. However, I'm unsure about whether that may cause problems later on, when the periodic replication from Active (new) to Passive (new) starts.

Any thoughts? Other things I may need to consider?

Best, and thanks in advance!

 

[ChrisRJ]

My scenario is from a single instance to an active-passive setup, where the old instance becomes the passive/backup. I have used replication snapshots from the old to the new NAS for about 8 weeks. This was primarily meant as a burn-in phase to ensure that the new hardware (which partly consists of used gear) works.

The approach I chose was this:

• Have replication snapshots from old to new NAS
• Gradual cut over (per SMB share)
  • Disable SMB share on old NAS
  • Disable replication task from old to new NAS
  • Enable SMB share on new NAS
  • Enable replication from new to old NAS

I know this does not answer the question directly, but perhaps it is still helpful.

 

[Chris Moore]

I have been through this (similar) process several times over the years. I would bring one of the new systems in and make a full copy of everything from the primary active system to it. I just completed a changeover like this that I started back in August. That system has around 450TB of data, and users keep changing things, so it took a while but I finally got everything synchronized from the old primary to the new primary yesterday and did the change over. I switched the IP address on the old primary to something else (so it is still available as a backup) and put the new primary system on the original IP address, then got all the services running so the new primary is doing all the things the old one was. I don't think the users even noticed because I did it when they were mostly out of the workspace. Next, I will be implementing the new backup system. Only about 80TB of free space on the current backup, so I need to make that happen, but the fastest time is still probably a couple months to complete because of the volume of data.
Simple is best. Do it one step at a time and verify that it all works before decommissioning the old server. You can always go back to the old server if something isn't working on the new one. Just don't wait to the last moment when you have run out of working space in the storage pool.

Please post up any additional questions you have. Someone will be happy to give advice.