Upgrading 9.2.1.7 to 9.10

[Jellis1976]

I have an older version 9.2.1.7 64 bit version and would like to upgrade to 9.10. However the OS drive it is currently on is a 4gb Flash drive. It now states it recommends 8gb for the new Version. I need to know which is the best version to not loose all my information on the hard drives. I do have more than 8gb of ram and they are set up in raid 5 ZFS.

So the issue I am facing is doing one of two options:
1. Clone the first drive onto a new 8 gb flash drive and then upgrade to 9.3.1 then to 9.10
2. Install 9.10 directly on the 8gb Flash drive.

If I use either option will the information on the drives be lost. I currently have 4 tb worth of data and currently no other place to store this information to back it up.

 

[gpsguy]

First of all, backup (save) your configuration. There's an option in the webGUI.

I'd do a fresh install of 9.31 on a new 8GB flash drive and restore your configuration. After testing, you can either rinse and repeat with 9.10.1 or do an upgrade to it.

With 9.3 and later, you can't install an image to the flash drive, as you could with earlier 9.x version. If you have a machine that supports IPMI, etc. you can mount the ISO and install it to a new flash drive. Or, burn it to a CD, or install it on another flash drive - boot them and install it on your target 8GB flash drive.

This is one benefit of FreeNAS. The OS is stored on it's own drive and as long as you don't do something stupid, your data will be safe.