TrueNAS Core 12.0-U3 to TrueNAS Scale & hardware migration

[JaMu]

Hi All,

I'm currently running Core as a VM on ESXi, (using hardware passthrough), on a Dell R720. I now have a Dell R730 that I would like to run Scale on bare metal. My intention is to simplify my setup and use Scale as my hypervisor. I only run a few basic VMs, (Plex, Unifi, couple of Windows VMs, etc.).

My question is regarding the best way to migrate. I wasn't planning to try an migrate the VMs from ESXi, I'll just create new ones in Scale. However, I am hoping that I can migrate the pool and configuration. Is it as simple as backing up the config from Core and restoring it to Scale and moving the disks from one server to the other? Should I update Core to the newest release first? Or, would I be better off configuring Scale from scratch and importing the pool. I don't have a complex setup setup, so it wouldn't be a huge undertaking, and I would get that warm fuzzy "clean build" feeling.

Any input and suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[JaMu]

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[mellman]

If you're wanting to just migrate your pools, you can easily just attach the disks to your new server. freenas will see the pool and allow you to import it. I've done this several times moving between hosts. I use a disk shelf, attach the shelf to the new server, and can easily import the pool via the GUI, done this on FN9,10,11 have not tried on newer versions but have to imagine it's the same. I don't use encryption or anything so if you do that could be a consideration.

when i've done this i've always stayed within the same major release on the new box, then upgraded after the migration, though that was mostly due to two of my moves being related to hardware failure so was trying to minimize change between setups.

 

[Chewie198]

I just performed an in-place upgrade from Core to Scale and encountered very few issues with the migration itself. Some of the issues have already been patched and should be released in the update coming out next week. If you hold off on migrating the pool feature flags, you should be able to try that and easily roll back the VM if you encounter any issues. Assuming that you have VM snapshots or backups. Once you confirm that it's working as expected, then just export/import the config to bare metal and re-import the pools.