Starting fresh, what and how to carry over from my previous tries?

[ovizii]

I've basically fiddled around for a few months, learned what I needed about freeNAS and am quite happy. Also, I'd like to add one more HD to my vdev so I decided to copy all my data onto external storage then start fresh and setup freeNAS again.

So basically the data is safe, and I think I can simply keep my existing boot media as when it starts, I'll just "kill" the old vdevs and create it all freshly, again, with the extra HD.

I assume this way I get to keep all the configuration but what about the jails? and the jail configs? I mean I am not sure how to recreate those and not sure I actually want to recreate the jails as they were, I'd like to start fresh there too.

Do you recommend to start with a completely fresh install of freeNAS?

I'm just wondering what I have to lose if I do a fresh install, certainly a bit of tinkering and setting preferences in the freeNAS GUI and that's it? I mean I only have 3 users and 1 group that share files.

Any feedback/input at all?

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

My suggestion would be to save your config first, so you have the option to restore it later if you want to. Then do your rebuild, either with a fresh install or the way you propose, by saving your data elsewhere and then just detaching the pool (you can opt to mark the disks as new at that point, which will save hassle later).

If you want to keep your jails and their configuration, you'll need to replicate their dataset someplace and restore it after you create your new pool. You do this with a combination of a ZFS snapshot and the zfs send and zfs receive commands. However, in my experience, preserving jails was easy but preserving plugins wasn't. Maybe I did something wrong.

Having created your new pool, you'll be in a position to try your old configuration and see if there's any benefit to keeping it. At any time, you'll have the option of resetting to 'factory defaults', either from the console menu or from the System | General tab.

 

[ovizii]

Thanks for the suggestions and confirming my thoughts. I'll give it all a go this afternoon once the data has finished copying.

 

[ovizii]

hm, after exporting data, adding an extra HD, creating new volumes still experiencing some trouble so I am now considering starting from scratch.

Here are my thoughts, please chime in if anything sounds wrong:

- My boot medium (USB stick is mirrored) so I assume I can unplug one and store it safely as a backup
- I'l delete my plugins and jails as there's nothing important here
- I'll delete my shares as those I can recreate
- I'll download freeNAS again and install it from scratch
- after booting the fresh version, I'll unlock my dataset and so my data will still be there.

Is there anything I have overlooked or a quicker way to "re-set" an existing freeNAS installation instead of a complete re-install?

 

[SweetAndLow]

I would backup all your data and rebuild your pool without encryption. You don't have a good reason to be using it.

Other ideas for starting over include using the factory reset button under the setting. This will make your os like new and not affect your data. I would not pull out a mirrored USB for backup that just doesn't make sense. You should leave it in for redundancy and just backup your configuration file. If you still have the crazy idea that you need encryption make sure you backup your encryption key and the password that unlocks it like the manual tells you to.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

- My boot medium (USB stick is mirrored) so I assume I can unplug one and store it safely as a backup
- I'l delete my plugins and jails as there's nothing important here
- I'll delete my shares as those I can recreate
- I'll download freeNAS again and install it from scratch
- after booting the fresh version, I'll unlock my dataset and so my data will still be there.

• I agree with @SweetAndLow regarding the boot device - removing and storing it doesn't make sense, backing up the config is the way to go.
• If you plan a clean install of FreeNAS, I would consider destroying the jails dataset instead of deleting the plugins and jails. The jails dataset will be created the first time it's needed.
• No point in deleting the shares, because...
• When you do your factory reset or clean install, there will be no record of the shares or the plugins.
• You will import the pool, and your datasets and data will be intact.

 

[ovizii]

consider destroying the jails dataset

thanks, didn't think about that one

rebuild your pool without encryption. You don't have a good reason to be using it.

please don't make assumptions.

Thanks for the feedback, I'll post back here once I get thigns going again.

 

[cyberjock]

please don't make assumptions.

Maybe you shouldn't make assumptions that someone with an order of magnitude more posts doesn't know what he's talking about. ;)

 

[ovizii]

@SweetAndLow I hope you didn't get my comment the wrong way, all I meant to say was that I do have a good reason to be using encryption, you could have asked for it, we could have agreed or disagreed, we could have argued, doesn't matter, the point is that you just assumed I don't have one :)

 

[cyberjock]

To be honest, 99.9% of people that say "I have a good reason", don't. I'm not even joking.

The problem is that encryption comes with its own risks and potential pitfalls. We've seen lots of people lose all of their data because of encryption. Not because its unreliable, but they misplace the key, don't make a backup, or they do something else that is silly (but seemed smart at the time they were doing it) and they lose all of their data in one or two mouse clicks.

So when he said what he said, he had your data at heart. We've watched people shoot themselves in the face with a shotgun and then ask us if it was loaded. Of course it was loaded! That was gunpowder you smelled!

Anyway, the encryption itself is designed to satisfy HEPA and other things like that. But, you also run the risk of things going wrong. They key on the hard drives themselves isn't backed up. If that one sector gets corrupted, the disk will fail to decrypt. So all you need is a bug or stray process to overwrite the last sector of every disk in your zpool, and your zpool and all of its data are irretrievable. To be totally honest, for people that think they are making their data secure from the gov't, NSA, or what-have-you, you aren't. If I wanted to get at your data, those pesky encryption keys are super easy to obtain, work around, capture, etc.

Their *only* worthwhile purpose is to prevent a thief who obtains those disks from having access to the contents and allow you to do things like an RMA without risk of someone potentially retrieving some data from your disk.

Do you know any thieves that know what the heck a zpool is, let alone how to use one? I sure as hell don't. They're going to sell it at a pawn shop or something, who will probably wipe the drives, or not. But even then, who is going to have experience with a zpool while trusting hardware that was purchased at a pawn shop? Not I.

Do you know any companies that are so bored that they have time for their employees to go looking on every disk, grab yours from the stack, and then with just one stripe of a zpool, attempt to do a recovery? I sure as hell would find the easier targets than that.

We basically recommend a full and regular backup of your data if you do encryption. This is basically something you should consider "mandatory" if deciding to go with FreeNAS' encryption.

 

[ovizii]

@cyberjock THX!
That was an awesome post, addressing every need I think I have for encryption and you're mostly right: I don't need it. I'll still keep it though, seeing that it's all setup now. You set me on a mission and I just spent 3 hours reading up countless posts and docu pages on encryption (this specific one used here) and have learned lots of stuff I had previously not known. My freenas config, passphrase, geli key and recovery key were always stored securely but now I have also exported my .eli keys (the meta) and stored it in the same safe place.