Freenas upgrade from 9.2.1.9 (32 bit) to latest 64 bit

[slag]

I'm replacing the hardware from an old sempron system to a 64 bit AMD quad core machine I have. I want to import my ZFS pool in so I don't lose anything but am not familiar with how to do this. I've been reading up on http://doc.freenas.org/9.10/install.html#upgrading and want to know, when I go to install the latest and greatest Freenas version with the new cpu/motherboard, how do I import and upgrade the existing ZFS disks so I don't lose the data? Who has done this and can give pointers?

Will the install wizard go out and actively see ZFS disks and go "hey, there's an existing array here" and add it to the mix, or how does that work? My ZFS pool is not encrypted.

I'm afraid i wont be able to perform an upgrade since it's new hardware but need to know how to retain the zfs pool since it has several hundred movies and games on it.

I guess the key is backing up and restoring configuration data through the gui...

 

[dave_the_nerd]

It's pretty simple.

You are correct that you will probably want to log into your existing FreeNAS system and export the configuration (that will grab all your users, shares, iSCSI target/initiator settings, etc.) However, the zpool itself is self-contained (all the information about the pool is in particular locations on the HDDs) and doesn't require this.

Build your new system, put the latest FreeNAS on a USB stick, plug in your drives, and power it on. Assuming everything's plugged in right, FreeNAS should automatically scan out and import the old zpool. If something dumb happens, just go into the CLI and import the pool manually.

(Cliff's version "zpool import [poolname]" and you're done. Repeat for each zfs pool.)

Do a test reboot of the system at this point to make sure the imported pool auto-mounts going forward, then restore your config data (or reconfigure your users/shares if that doesn't work right - I don't know if FreeNAS config data from 9.x can be imported into 10.x. I'd assume it would be, but I've been surprised before.)

 

[slag]

Yeah, it was super simple. I swapped out hardware, downloaded the new 64 bit version, plugged both usb drives in, upgraded, but in the end, had to break my ZFS pool (I had already backed up my data), because I have a failing drive. Took the drive out, rebuilt the pool without it, and moved the data over. I think I want to buy a couple 4 or 5 TB drives and just mirror them.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Glad it went reasonably well, then! Bummer about the failing HDD.