Switching Boot Device

[eye3]

I'm currently running 9.3 Stable on a Skylake board. To get around the USB issues I have FreeNas installed on the M.2 SSD (Samsung SM951). I am interested in moving to 9.10 Stable since it has Skylake support.

Do any of you have an idea as to how I could move my install from my M.2 SSD to a USB flash disk? My first thoughts were to backup my configuration data, install 9.10 onto the USB flash disk and then restore my configuration to the new install. I've never tried this before and I was unsure if that would even work give the configuration that I would be installing is 9.3 and the system I would restore to is 9.10.

Thanks for any help.

 

[sef]

Attach the USB device, and set it up as a mirror for your boot device. When it has finished resilvering, detach the SSD.

 

[joeschmuck]

Does that work to make it bootable too? Maybe I'm thinking of an earlier problem.

@eye3 Why move off the m.2 SSD? Trying to free up the ports?

 

[Bidule0hm]

Or just re-install and import the config (note that you should already have a backup of the config, do one now if you haven't) ;)

 

[eye3]

Does that work to make it bootable too? Maybe I'm thinking of an earlier problem.

@eye3 Why move off the m.2 SSD? Trying to free up the ports?

My thoughts on moving off the m.2 SSD was to just free up some faster storage. I always thought it was overkill to use the M.2 for a boot device but my options were limited with the Skylake setup on 9.3. I also could not find anything smaller than a 128 GB drive, which from a capacity standpoint is also much larger than I would need for a boot device.

 

[joeschmuck]

My thoughts on moving off the m.2 SSD was to just free up some faster storage. I always thought it was overkill to use the M.2 for a boot device but my options were limited with the Skylake setup on 9.3.

Fair answer. I thought using the m2 was overkill too but that was the best option you had at the time. Glad the USB is working for you.

 

[eye3]

Or just re-install and import the config (note that you should already have a backup of the config, do one now if you haven't) ;)

Yes that was my original thought, was to install 9.10 and import the config. What I'm not sure about is if you can import a 9.3 config on a 9.10 system.

 

[eye3]

Fair answer. I thought using the m2 was overkill too but that was the best option you had at the time. Glad the USB is working for you.

Well I haven't tried it yet. I'm assuming USB boot on a 9.10 Skylake system will work based on some other posts that I've read.

 

[joeschmuck]

What I'm not sure about is if you can import a 9.3 config on a 9.10 system.

From the thread it appears you can load your config without issue. But if I were you, I'd remove the m2 device and then install the USB flash and install the 9.10 and then restore your configuration. If it doesn't work, you can roll back to your m2 card.

 

[Bidule0hm]

What I'm not sure about is if you can import a 9.3 config on a 9.10 system.

Yes you can; note that the reverse doesn't work.

But if I were you, I'd remove the m2 device and then install the USB flash and install the 9.10 and then restore your configuration. If it doesn't work, you can roll back to your m2 card.

You can also keep the 9.3 config somewhere and re-install 9.3 then import the config if you've a problem with 9.10 ;)