TrueNAS Scale just how old a ZFS pool can it import?

[diskdiddler]

A good friend of mine has been very slack upgrading his old FreeNAS machine.
I posted about here:

What is the very old upgrade process? 9.2.1.7 -> 13

Hi all, I've got a good pal who is still reliably running 9.2.1.7 with totally capable hardware of running 13, he's just been slow on updating. Does anyone know the best update path? Does 9.2.17 let you update by uploading an update file to the WebUI or anything? I'm almost positive all jails...

www.truenas.com

He got lazy and still hasn't done this, so he's rocking a nice and reliable FreeNAS 9 machine....

Could boot off a TrueNAS scale drive and import a ZFS pool that old and just set up his shares / permissions etc from scratch?
Any thoughts?

Paging @Samuel Tai again possibly (thanks, if you have time again)

 

[danb35]

Could boot off a TrueNAS scale drive and import a ZFS pool that old and just set up his shares / permissions etc from scratch?

I don't see any reason why not. When ZFS has problems, it's typically with newer pools that have unsupported feature flags.

I'd say install SCALE on a fresh device and see if it will import the pool. If so, you're good to go. If not, no harm, and we can see what the problem is.

 

[Samuel Tai]

Paging Samuel Tai again possibly (thanks, if you have time again)

I've not attempted a direct upgrade from FreeNAS 9.2.1.7 to SCALE before. What I would do:

1. Export the pool.
2. Pull the FreeNAS 9 boot drive and set it aside in a safe place.
3. Install a new boot drive, and install SCALE on it.
4. Import the pool into SCALE.
5. Set up the SCALE system, but don't upgrade the pool.

This way, he can easily go back to FreeNAS 9 by exporting the pool, swapping boot drives, and then importing the pool back into his FreeNAS 9 system.

 

[diskdiddler]

I've not attempted a direct upgrade from FreeNAS 9.2.1.7 to SCALE before. What I would do:

1. Export the pool.
2. Pull the FreeNAS 9 boot drive and set it aside in a safe place.
3. Install a new boot drive, and install SCALE on it.
4. Import the pool into SCALE.
5. Set up the SCALE system, but don't upgrade the pool.

This way, he can easily go back to FreeNAS 9 by exporting the pool, swapping boot drives, and then importing the pool back into his FreeNAS 9 system.

I was not aware about the whole exporting pool thing. What risk is there of bypassing this?
(we will do it, but now I'm curious about what it does?)

Does it just remove all attachments and connections to the pool, somewhat akin to a USB drive disconnect via software in Windows?

 

[HoneyBadger]

The pool is exported on a clean shutdown anyways, so it's sort of moot - but as far as backwards-compatibility goes, your friend's old FreeNAS pool should import just fine.

As suggested, back up your config file, import the pool into a clean SCALE install, and don't perform a pool upgrade - just let it run as-is until your friend is confident that they won't want or need to go back to their old install to record anything manually.

I believe the old versions of FreeNAS also allowed a few things that aren't permitted any longer - sharing the root of a pool, or permitting access over SMB via the root account - so be aware in case things like that are in place now.

 

[diskdiddler]

The pool is exported on a clean shutdown anyways, so it's sort of moot - but as far as backwards-compatibility goes, your friend's old FreeNAS pool should import just fine.

As suggested, back up your config file, import the pool into a clean SCALE install, and don't perform a pool upgrade - just let it run as-is until your friend is confident that they won't want or need to go back to their old install to record anything manually.

I believe the old versions of FreeNAS also allowed a few things that aren't permitted any longer - sharing the root of a pool, or permitting access over SMB via the root account - so be aware in case things like that are in place now.

I would speculate that the config from FN9 is in fact so old, it's pointless to import it as it probably won't work? (There's been huge changes in core from 9 to 13)

I know his jails will go bye bye, no biggie.

Just re share some folders and create some accounts.

Maybe configure some apps

 

[HoneyBadger]

I would speculate that the config from FN9 is in fact so old, it's pointless to import it as it probably won't work?

Agreed. The config is just for the ability to "roll back" to a known state, if that's needed or desired. I don't know if importing from that old of a FreeNAS install would work at all on SCALE, let alone be attempted. Just watch for the rules around root datasets and "root" as a user.