Upgrade from FreeNAS 11.1-STABLE

[DieterH]

Hello,



some few days ago I took over the IT administration of a small company. They have Windows 10, Debian 11 and FreeNAS (the latter on a NAS box).



Obviously since a long time, the former administrator did not update / upgrade FreeNAS on the NAS box. Output of „freebsd-version -ku“ is:



11.1-STABLE
11.1-STABLE



Output of „uname -a“ is:

FreeBSD nas1.NAMEMODIFIED.loc 11.1-STABLE FreeBSD 11.1-STABLE #0 r321665+6bdfda58b62(HEAD): Thu Dec 20 14:27:36 EST 2018 root@mp19.lab.ixsystems.com:/freenas-releng-final/fr
eenas/_BE/objs/freenas-releng-final/freenas/_BE/os/sys/FreeNAS.amd64 amd64

The NAS box has LVM and ZFS implemented. Its sole purpose is to receive backups from Windows workstations (e.g. urbackup) and some major files from the Debian servers.



As I am a newbie with respect to FreeNAS, I would like to receive some hints how to successfully upgrade the NAS box to the latest FreeNAS / TrueNAS version.

Should the whole upgrade process be split into a) upgrading to the latest FreeNAS version and subsequently b) to the latest TrueNAS version?



Is it possible to perform the whole upgrade process via ssh / VPN so that I have not to go to the customer’s premises?



Are special utility programs available which backup up all configuration files?

Do you need more information for your answers?



Could you provide some pertinent hints for a smooth upgrade, please?



Best regards

Dieter

 

[Ericloewe]

You should probably start by opening the GUI rather than a console via SSH, that's where most of the administration needs to happen.

Should the whole upgrade process be split into a) upgrading to the latest FreeNAS version and subsequently b) to the latest TrueNAS version?

Theoretically not strictly necessary, but config database migrations can get weird after a few versions. Won't hurt to do it in two steps.

Is it possible to perform the whole upgrade process via ssh / VPN so that I have not to go to the customer’s premises?

Yes, of course. Usual caveats apply.

Are special utility programs available which backup up all configuration files?

No, that's what System/General/Save Config is for: https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11.3-U5/system.html#general

Could you provide some pertinent hints for a smooth upgrade, please?

Well, first of all, make sure the system is healthy before upgrading. Not that it makes fixes any easier, but it makes debugging issues a lot easier. If you're not using any jails, the only thing that comes to mind is that you'll need to redo any replication tasks you might have after the upgrade(s).

 

[DieterH]

There are jails. Could you check the output of "df -Th" in the attached text file, please? Please note that I anonymized some mount points by modifying their names in the text file.

Does upgrading directly lead to the the latest TrueNAS version?

 

[Ericloewe]

Well, Warden jails complicate things. It's been a while and the details are fuzzy by now, but the bottom line is that you need to recreate the jails with iocage.