Upgrade freenas 9.3 to truenas 13

[Rosin0416]

Hello to all,
I'm contact you because I want to migrate my data pool from freenas 9.3 to truenas 13 (as soon as it will be available).
I want to create a fresh installation of truenas 13 on a new ssd.

Currently my configuration is as follows:
System volume : 1x 32Gb usb stick
Dataset volume : 1x mirror pool (2x500GB)
Data volume : 1x raidz2 pool (4x3TB)

Special feature : the data pool is encrypted.

Given the number of versions and the numerous evolutions between these two versions of the system, is this manipulation possible?

Regards

 

[Heracles]

Hey @Rosin0416,

I want to migrate my data pool from freenas 9.3 to truenas 13

I want to create a fresh installation of truenas 13 on a new ssd

is this manipulation possible?

Yes, it sure is possible.

the data pool is encrypted

Oups ; careful here... Pool level encryption destroyed and lost much MUCH more data than it protected any. It is more an illusion of security than an actual security. As long as your server is online, pool level encryption offers plain nothing as a protection. As long as your server can boot up unattended, pool level encryption offers nothing at all regarding the server's physical security. The only moment where it may play a role is when a single disk is taken out of the system. But even for that, it is not so much because ZFS by itself is so complexe, there is no tools to recover data in a "partial" pool setup and when anything is possible, it is a gigantic effort that most often does not worth the recovered data. In your case, the only scenario would be if you remove one of your two mirrored drive. That one, by itself, would be readable in another system if it was not for encryption.

ZFS now offers dataset level encryption and pool level encryption is now managed in a completely different process. As such, my first recommendation would be for you to disable pool level encryption and not re-activate it, before doing any migration.

Should you insist to risk your data with encryption, decrypt your actual pool before migration, do the migration with a cleartext pool and once imported in TrueNAS, re-encrypt only the datasets that requires encryption.

Even if you keep going for pool level encryption, again decrypt everything before, migrate and re-encrypt.

Because the encryption works in a different way, be very sure that you understand it, know how to backup your keys, how to recover and unlock your own data or be ready to become another victim of the self-inflicted ransomware that pool level encryption becomes so often.