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TrueNAS SCALETrueNAS SCALE Version Documentation
This content follows the TrueNAS SCALE 23.10 (Cobia) releases. Use the Product and Version selectors above to view content specific to different TrueNAS software or major version.

Preparing to Migrate TrueNAS CORE to SCALE (Enterprise HA)

  6 minute read.

Last Modified 2024-03-19 08:38 EDT

TrueNAS Enterprise

High Availability (HA) systems cannot migrate directly from CORE to SCALE.

Enterprise customers with HA systems should contact iXsystems Support before attempting any migration.

Customers who purchase iXsystems hardware or that want additional support must have a support contract to use iXsystems Support Services. The TrueNAS Community forums provides free support for users without an iXsystems Support contract.

iXsystems Customer Support
Support Portalhttps://support.ixsystems.com
Emailsupport@ixsystems.com
Telephone and Other Resourceshttps://www.ixsystems.com/support/

Migrating TrueNAS from CORE to SCALE is a one-way operation. Attempting to activate or roll back to a CORE boot environment can break the system.

Upgrade your CORE system to the latest publicly-available 13.0-Ux release before attempting to migrate from CORE to SCALE.

TrueNAS Enterprise

SCALE Bluefin deprecates and SCALE Cobia removes the built-in DDNS, OpenVPN server and client, rsync, S3, and TFTP services. The WebDAV service and share feature are also deprecated in Bluefin and removed in Cobia. New applications are available in SCALE Bluefin to serve as replacements for the functions provided by these services.

To avoid any potential service outages, Enterprise customers with licensed TrueNAS systems are prevented from upgrading from SCALE 22.12.3 (or later) to SCALE 23.10 unless the deprecated services have been replaced and/or disabled. Enterprise customers can contact iXsystems Support for assistance migrating from deprecated services.

What can or cannot migrate?

Although TrueNAS attempts to keep most of your CORE configuration data when upgrading to SCALE, some CORE-specific items do not transfer. These are the items that don’t migrate from CORE:

  • FreeBSD GELI encryption. If you have GELI-encrypted pools on your system that you plan to import into SCALE, you must migrate your data from the GELI pool to a non-GELI encrypted pool before migrating to SCALE.
  • Malformed certificates. TrueNAS SCALE validates the system certificates when a CORE system migrates to SCALE. When a malformed certificate is found, SCALE generates a new self-signed certificate to ensure system accessibility.
  • CORE plugins and jails. Save the configuration information for your plugin and back up any stored data. After completing the SCALE install, add the equivalent SCALE application using the Apps option. If your CORE plugin is not listed as an available application in SCALE, use the Launch Docker Image option to add it as an application and import data from the backup into a new SCALE dataset for the application.
  • NIS data.
  • System tunables.
  • ZFS boot environments.
  • AFP shares also do not transfer, but migrate into an SMB share with AFP compatibility enabled.
  • CORE netcli utility. A new CLI utility is used for the Console Setup Menu and other commands issued in a CLI. By default, any TrueNAS user account with netcli as the chosen Shell updates to use the nologin option instead. See the Users Screens reference article for descriptions of all Shell options.
  • SAS multipath is not supported in TrueNAS SCALE.
  • TrueNAS CORE account names beginning with a number are not supported in TrueNAS SCALE. Usernames in SCALE must begin with a letter or an underscore. Before attempting a CORE to SCALE migration, review the local user accounts and rename or replace any accounts that begin with a numeric character (0-9).

VM storage and its basic configuration transfer over during a migration, but you need to double-check the VM configuration and the network interface settings specifically before starting the VM.

Init/shutdown scripts transfer, but can break. Review them before use.

Before Migrating to SCALE

You cannot directly migrate a TrueNAS Enterprise High Availability (HA) system from CORE to SCALE! Instead, the system can be freshly installed with TrueNAS SCALE and storage data pools reimported after the install process is complete.

This section outlines actions to take or consider to prepare for the clean installation of SCALE for an Enterprise (HA) system.

Before you begin the clean install of SCALE, on CORE:

  1. Back up your stored data files and any critical data! If you need to do a clean install with the SCALE iso file, you can import your data into SCALE.

  2. Write down your network configuration information to use after the clean install of SCALE.

    TrueNAS uses DHCP to assign the IP address to the primary system network interface. DHCP only provisions one IP address. You can use this DHCP-provided address or you can assign a static IP address. You must assign each network interface cards (NICs) installed in your system and wired to your network an IP address if you want to communicate over your network using the interfaces. To configure your TrueNAS server to work with your network, you need:

    • DHCP broadcast messages enabled on the network or the subnet(s) in your network where TrueNAS is installed
    • DNS name sever IP addresses in your network (SCALE can accommodate up to three name server IP addresses)
    • IP address for the Network Time Protocol (NTP) server you use to synchronize time across your servers and network
    • Main domain name or the domain name for the portion of your network where the TrueNAS SCALE server is deployed
    • Host name you want to use if not using the default-assigned host name in SCALE (truenas is the default host name in SCALE)
    • IP address for each additional network interface added in your system and connected to your network (static IP not provided by DHCP)
    • IP address assigned to the controller. Either allow DHCP to assign the IP address or assign a static IP.

  3. Identify your system dataset. If you want to use the same dataset for the system dataset in SCALE, note the pool and system datasat. When you set up the first required pool on SCALE import this pool first.

  4. Review and document down any system configuration information in CORE you want to duplicate in SCALE. Areas to consider:

    • Tunables on CORE. SCALE does not use Tunables the way CORE does. SCALE provides script configuration on the System Settings > Advanced screen as Sysctl scripts. A future release of SCALE could introduce similar tunables options found in CORE but for now it is not available.

    • CORE init/shutdown scripts to add to SCALE.

    • CORE cron jobs configured if you want to set the same jobs up in SCALE.

    • The global self-encrypting drive (SED) password to configure in SCALE, or unlock these drives in CORE before you clean install SCALE.

    • Cloud storage backup provider credentials configured in CORE if you do not have these recorded in other files kept secured outside of CORE.

    • Replication, periodic snapshot, cloud sync, or other tasks settings to reconfigure in SCALE if you want to duplicate these tasks.

    • Make sure you have backed-up copies of certificates used in CORE to import or configure in SCALE.

    • Record deprecated service settings and any WebDAV share dataset and user configurations.

Download the SCALE SCALE ISO file or the SCALE upgrade file and save it to your computer or on two USB drives (see the Physical Hardware tab in Installing SCALE).

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