Trying to Understand Upgrades

[Al Slitter]

I have been using 9.1 Stable for awhile but then decided to move to 9.3 Stable as it seemed like a logical move.
After doing this I received the following message:
WARNING: The 9.3-STABLE Train is now in Maintenance Mode. No new features or non-essential changes will be made. Please switch to the 9.10-STABLE train for active support.

What is wrong or what am I missing?
Has FreeNas forked to two different operating systems?

Please give me a quick over few of what is happening and where I went wrong.

Thank you in advance.

 

[nojohnny101]

The warning says exactly what is happening, 9.3 is no longer being actively developed. It is very stable though so you can stay on 9.3 for a while before moving to 9.10 as 9.3 was only switched over to maintenance mode about a month or so ago. Read the release notes for 9.10 so if any of the fixes or additions make sense or are needed for your environment. Maybe some of the veterans on here will have more precise details on development plans.

Also see this thread for a discussion on when to upgrade:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/upgrading-from-9-3-to-9-10-when.42547/

SUMMARY: no need to be alarmed, 9.3 is a good and stable release, just don't stay on it forever.

 

[pirateghost]

9.1 =/= 9.10
9.1 -> 9.3 -> 9.10

9.10 is the latest and newest version of the OS

 

[Al Slitter]

Thank you every one for the replies, have read the links and I understand.
However I am confused why there where a 9.1 and a 9.3 ?
With me being the simple person that I am I saw 9.3 so moved from 9.1 to 9.3.
Seemed like a migration pass or rather it did to me.

 

[pirateghost]

Thank you every one for the replies, have read the links and I understand.
However I am confused why there where a 9.1 and a 9.3 ?
With me being the simple person that I am I saw 9.3 so moved from 9.1 to 9.3.
Seemed like a migration pass or rather it did to me.

9.1 is like 3+ years old.

9.3 was released in 2014(?)

9.10 was just released late last year.

Based on your comment, I'm having a hard time understanding what version you moved to/from.

Did you have 9.10 and install 9.3? Or were you on an install from several years ago and have never updated until now?

9.3 is considered end of life (which obviously makes any prior version to that end of life also), and 9.10 is in current progression.

Some people prefer to stay on an old version for some reason and the only things that are being pushed out for 9.3 are critical fixes and patches. No new functionality.


So where is your confusion?

 

[Al Slitter]

My confusion was the numbering system.
I believe I changed from 9.10 to 9.3 awhile back (Maybe one month ago).
I want to get back on track which is reverting to 9.10 whoever when trying to do this I cannot make sense of how to do this.

Under System information it reads: Build FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201604150515
Under System Information Update it says: Current Train: FreeNAS-9.10-STABLE ()

The manual update and Apply pending updates all refer to the 9.3 build which is what I do NOT want to do. I want to get the
system back on the 9.10 path.

What am I missing here??

 

[pirateghost]

Save config.

Install 9.10 on new USB

Power on with new USB

Upload config

 

[Al Slitter]

Thank you for the quick reply!
Being a Nob I want to go slowly with this update as I want it to be successful.

1. I went to System/General then selected the Save Config button and did a save.
2. I have now down loaded the 9.10 ISO to my system.

Regarding the Install of 9.10 on the new USB is this meant to replace the current bookable memory stick on my server?
If so I will need to remove the old one and install the new one in it's place.

If so reboot the server which is fine but (Upload config) not sure what you mean by this?

Do I leave the new boot stick in permanently or revert back to the old one?

Sorry but want to fully understand what I am doing.

 

[pirateghost]

Boot new stick. Leave old stick disconnected. (We only use a new one in case we need to boot back up the old one).

Upload config means that once your new install is up and running, you go to the GUI and 'restore' the backup you made.

 

[danb35]

9.10 was just released late last year.

Late March, actually.

FreeNAS is great, but I really have to wonder what iXSystems is thinking regarding version numbers. Up through 9.2.x everything made sense. Then we got 9.3, which did away with minor release numbers, except that they then released the so-called 9.3.1. But no actual release download was marked as 9.3.1, and the web GUI never reported a version of 9.3.1. Now they've released 9.10, which is numerically identical to (but obviously significantly different than) the three-year-old 9.1, and I've already lost count of how many threads here have confused the two. Hopefully when 10 is released they'll return to some kind of sense in version numbers.

 

[Al Slitter]

I removed the server to a work bench and replaced the USB stick with the new one that has 9.10 on it.
I booted the server
I was asked if I wanted Install/Upgrade
I said Yes
Then was presented with a screen showing me my 3- 2TB hard drives that are configured in RAID-Z
I was asked to select one or more of these drives by selecting the drive/drives with the space bar

Am I OK at this point?

If so, do I select the first drive only or all three drives?

I still am confused as to what I need to do with the old USB stick? I assume that the new USB stick will now be my
bootable drive?

Please advise

 

[Al Slitter]

Thinking about this do I need to install a second USB stick into the server and have the upgrade install into this second stick
and have it use it to be my boot USB Memory Stick?

Just a thought!

 

[pirateghost]

Um. You shouldn't be installing FreeNAS on your ZFS disks. You need it installed on a USB.

Why are you confused on what to do with your old USB? Nothing. It is simply there in the event you need to boot back up to it and get your data back if you screw something up...

The new USB should be your boot disk.

 

[Al Slitter]

OK, I understand I was simply following your instructions given above and in my mind there was not a mention of me needing
to install a second USB. I suppose that it is a given for someone as knowledgeable as you, however I am new to all of this.

Will try everything out again on the server and go from there.

Thank you

 

[pirateghost]

OK, I understand I was simply following your instructions given above and in my mind there was not a mention of me needing
to install a second USB. I suppose that it is a given for someone as knowledgeable as you, however I am new to all of this.

Will try everything out again on the server and go from there.

Thank you

When someone says 'install version x.xx on a new usb' they mean the actual OS not the installation medium...

 

[ethereal]

you nearly wiped all of your data instead of installing to a boot device - i would recommend reading the manual. so you don't loose your data. virtually everything you will need is here


http://doc.freenas.org/9.10/freenas.html

 

[Al Slitter]

Yes I realized that might be the case so I stopped the process and came back to ask the questions.

As of now when I boot the server it comes up with 9.10 however when I go to add the Update Config
it want me to link it to a file.
When Mr. Pirate gave me the initial instructions he asked that I Save the config which I did.
There was no path asked for or so I believe or I assume that the Config file is somewhere on the server.
How do I find it so that I might Update my configuration?
As it now stands everything that I had is gone.
Not a good situation for me.

 

[pirateghost]

Yes I realized that might be the case so I stopped the process and came back to ask the questions.

As of now when I boot the server it comes up with 9.10 however when I go to add the Update Config
it want me to link it to a file.
When Mr. Pirate gave me the initial instructions he asked that I Save the config which I did.
There was no path asked for or so I believe or I assume that the Config file is somewhere on the server.
How do I find it so that I might Update my configuration?
As it now stands everything that I had is gone.
Not a good situation for me.

When you select save config it prompts you to save to a local directory on your client machine (desktop). You upload THAT file to the server.

Now you understand why I said keep that old USB? In case you screwed up you can just boot that old USB.

 

[Al Slitter]

When you select save config it prompts you to save to a local directory on your client machine (desktop). You upload THAT file to the server.

Now you understand why I said keep that old USB? In case you screwed up you can just boot that old USB.

As mentioned I did NOT get asked for a path to save the "config file" too, in addition there is no file that is new on my desktop!
I will now remove the server again and install the old USB stick and hopefully every thing will revert to a point in time prior to my update attempts.

I sent a lot of money and invested a lot of time building my server, however I have a concern that I do Not meet the minimum intellectual level to run FreeNas successfully!

 

[pirateghost]

As mentioned I did NOT get asked for a path to save the "config file" too, in addition there is no file that is new on my desktop!
I will now remove the server again and install the old USB stick and hopefully every thing will revert to a point in time prior to my update attempts.

I sent a lot of money and invested a lot of time building my server, however I have a concern that I do Not meet the minimum intellectual level to run FreeNas successfully!

Even if you didn't have the old config, you could import the zpool and reconfigure everything, but your data is safe.