Hardware wise - I believe I am good to upgrade...confirmation please

[TDPsGM]

Howdy folks,

This IS my current hardware configuration:

Platform ASUS E35 M1-M Pro - AMD E-350 Processor​

Memory 7774MB (Patriot Gamer 2 Series DDR3 2 x 4GB PC3-12800)​

2 x Hitachi 2TB Deskstar 7K3000 SATA III Internal Drive w/ 64MB Cache & 2 x Seagate 2TB Barracuda SATA III w/ 64MB Cache​

in a Raidz2​

FreeNAS-8.3.0-RELEASE-p1-x64 (r12825)​

It is not a screamer, but she's been working very well for a while.
If I read the 9.2.0 hardware requirements correctly, I think I am ok but I was looking for a double check with regards to the "AMD E-350 Processor" processor and the LAN (which is a Realtek 8111E Gigabit Lan Controller) ===> If you search "RTL8111 based Fast Ethernet" I think that is what this falls under.

Thanks

 

[TDPsGM]

I guess that page 12 of the 9.2.0 manual mentions this as well:

The mps driver for 6gbps LSI SAS HBAs is version 13, which requires phase 13 firmware on
the controller. This is a hard requirement and running older firmware can cause many woes,
including the failure to probe all of the attached disks, which can lead to degraded or
unavailable arrays.​

​

Looking at my hardware . . . am I covering this requirement as well?

 

[TDPsGM]

oops . . . should I have posted this under the "Help & Support > Hardware" section?
Should I/How do I move it so I don't double post?
Thanks

 

[jgreco]

You have 8GB RAM. You have a slow processor that I don't think does ECC, which aside from speed is probably the only "bad" thing. Get yourself a new USB thumb drive and try FreeNAS 9 on it. Do not upgrade your pool until you are very happy AND some time has passed. If there are problems, roll back.

I have no idea what LSI HBA firmware has to do with your system. You don't list an LSI HBA in your manifest.

 

[TDPsGM]

Thanks jgreco.

I knew the processor was slow, but there is only 3 users on at any one time and 95% of the time it is only 1 user.
So far I have been very happy with it's performace and it's low power consumption.

As far as LSI HBA Firmware . . . I am not sure how I'd check that, or even where.

A couple of dumb questions to follow :p :

If I were to test version 9 on a NEW usb Drive does this sound like a reasonable procedure:

1. Shut the system down (I'll save the config file again just to be sure). Is there anything else I should 'export'?
2. unplug the version 8 usb drive.
3. add the new usb drive & install v9.2.0 from the cd
4. auto import the volumes

I won't update the the zfs pool from version 28 yet . . . I'll just run it for a while and see how it goes.
Barring the warning about "Backing Up", it sounds like "Running" a different version should not affect the "Data", is that right?

The version 8.x config file is probably not compatible for import to the V9.2.0 install is it?

If anything goes wrong, simply shut down, plugin the old USB Drive with version 8.x on it and restart.
I shouldn't have to "Auto Import" the volumes again in this situation, should I?

I guess I'll need to make sure that I have the "Root" Password for this New version; correct?
I had this post running regarding that and the "Upgrade" Process - I assume that the same applies for a clean install as well, no?

Thanks again for the advise.

 

[jgreco]

The version 8 config file should import into 9. It will not work the other way, and saving a copy of the v8 file is strongly suggested. There should be no risk to your data as long as you do not upgrade the pool version, which would eliminate the possibility of rolling back if there was a problem of some sort. The rest of your post seems reasonable and I have nothing to add.