First Time User - Migration Plan - Any advice would be very welcome

[Alex Chilcott]

Hi,

I'm a soon-to-be first time user of FreeNAS (though have been watching it for some time). Will be building a new PC (parts list below, all looks compatible to me, but any comments more than welcome) and setting up FreeNAS on it this weekend.

Once I've installed FreeNAS on the new machine (installation will be on the CF card, with the 4TB HDD available for storage), I will need to migrate data from my Synology (DS411J), which I will refer to as the Syno, that I am deprecating. This currently has 4x2TB drives in, with one of those drives used for redundancy. (I will take a backup first, don't worry!)

My plan is as follows:

1. Initialise a ZFS filesystem using the 4TB drive.
2. Copy 4TB of data off the Syno.
3. Shut down both machines.
4. Move one of the 2TB drives from the Syno to the FreeNAS box.
5. Start up both machines.
6. Add the new 2TB drive to the ZFS filesystem.
7. Copy 2TB more of data from the Syno to the FreeNAS box.
8. Repeat step 3 to 7 until all data and HDDs have been moved from the Syno to the FreeNAS box.

Would really appreciate anyone pointing out any flaws with my plan. Again, I've never used FreeNAS, so am likely to hit some kind of hiccup or something I've not anticipated along the way, so any issues you guys can foresee would really be useful to know!
Cheers,
Alex

Parts List:

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus Z87M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair XMS3 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Western Digital Green 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive
Case: Fractal Design Arc Mini MicroATX Mini Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Other: Syba Compact Flash Interface Adapter
Kingston 16GB 266X Compact Flash Card

 

[cyberjock]

Yeah, if you want redundancy those steps are a no go. For the answer and explanation I refer to you my noobie presentation in my sig. In particular, the part about "once you create a vdev you can never add disks to it".