Upgrade from old freenas not possible?

[haggle]

So I'm rolling with an old version of freenas right now (0.69.2) and have been for the past few years.. I've finally decided it's time to make the move to the newest (8.0.4) and take advantage of the prettier gui and added features.. I read in the wiki that you can't do a straight upgrade from such an old version, but that it is possible to start clean and import my old volume/s. So, I started clean with 8.0.4 then attempted to import my old raid 5 (software raid, UFS).. I get the dreaded "The selected disks were not verified for this import rules".. Some searching showed me that this seems to be a somewhat common problem/error, but I didn't find any threads where anyone actually had an answer.. Can I really not use my old software raid volume with this new version? Luckily, I did the 8.0.4 install on a different usb drive, so I was able to stick in the old one and get my volume back. I'd love to upgrade to the latest/greatest, but not if I can't keep my data.. Any suggestions are very welcome and appreciated.

 

[survive]

Hi haggle

I think the problem is that 8.0.X\8.2 doesn't do UFS software RAID anymore. I believe the problem is that the software that does the RAID functions hasn't been maintained for a couple of years....it's basically a zombie project at this point, so the decision to drop it in 8 was made.

You might be able to run one of the pre-FreeBSD 9.0 FreeNAS 0.7.X\nas4free builds, but honestly, if you are still running on the original hardware you built the system on I bet it's quite dated and most likely wouldn't run any of the more modern releases well at all. To be blunt, you best bet would probably be to start budgeting now for a new filer and just copy the data over to it.

-Will

 

[haggle]

Thanks for the reply I appreciate it. Yes, the hardware is old (athlon 2600 @ 2ghz w/ 512 mb ram).. I guess I'm a little confused. The whole reason I built a nas box in the first place was that it allowed me to use my old hardware for something useful.. The drives are WD 1.5 tb so they're not terribly old.. Three of them making a 3 TB raid 5 volume. Honestly, just playing around in the gui on 8.0.4 it seemed to run fine. Are you saying I now need a like a core2/i3/i5, etc to run the latest freenas?

edit: I should add that I'm using a pci sata expansion for the 3 drives.. I'm able to pull about 25 MB/sec over gigabit network. Also, an additional question. If software raid was dropped- freenas now only supports hardware raid or are they just calling it something different?

 

[William Grzybowski]

You can give it a shot, but you must use UFS instead of ZFS.
Either way 512mb may be too little, so it will probably be slow.

 

[haggle]

But I will not be able to build a software raid volume with the new freenas? Even if I start from scratch and ditch the idea of importing my old one?

 

[William Grzybowski]

Yes, you will, but using UFS.
You can use mirror, stripe or raid3.

 

[haggle]

Ok, I was thrown off by the first reply to my thread where the poster said "freenas doesn't do UFS with software raid anymore". You're saying that I can- but not with raid 5, and that I can not import my old UFS/software raid volume?

 

[William Grzybowski]

He meant RAID 5, the one you were asking. You can't do raid5 with freenas 8, thus can't import old that.
You're limited to raid3 or mirror.

 

[paleoN]

You're saying that I can- but not with raid 5, and that I can not import my old UFS/software raid volume?

That's my understanding of it exactly.

 

[haggle]

Alrighty then.. Well, that's a big sack of bummer- but I have my answer. Thanks to all who chimed in. I guess I will see if there's anywhere I can temporarily store 3 tb of data while I rebuild it.. (or stick w/ my old version)

 

[bmcclure937]

If you can throw more RAM into your system you should be able to handle using ZFS. That would be the ideal solution, IMO.

ZFS was also available in FN .69 and FN .7.x builds. I have not updated to FN8 yet either and am still trying to decide if I am ready to make the move. Luckily I have 6Gb RAM and I am already using ZFS... so the import should be relatively straightforward.

 

[haggle]

Wouldn't I still have to temporarily move my 3 tb of stuff off of the drives so I could format zfs? Or can I convert to zfs without losing anything and then try the import w/ FN8?

 

[paleoN]

Wouldn't I still have to temporarily move my 3 tb of stuff off of the drives so I could format zfs? Or can I convert to zfs without losing anything and then try the import w/ FN8?

Yes, you would as there is no on-the-fly ZFS conversion.