How to transfer jail config settings?

[RoadHazard]

Dumb question du jour: What's the preferred way to transfer a plugin and all of its configuration settings (say, Plex Media Server, for example) from an old FreeNAS 9.3 jail to a shiny new FreeNAS 11 jail on the same system?

I've recently upgraded from 9.3 to 11.0, and my plugins are still running in their old-style jails. It's time to transport them to new surroundings. Or more accurately, to recreate them from scratch under FN11.

Simply clicking the new plugin and letting it create a new jail and a new instance of Plex is the easy part. My question is, how do I then transfer all my configuration settings from the old Plex to the new Plex? Or do I have to recreate all of Plex's settings manually? That's not a deal-breaker, but I'd like to avoid error-prone manual labor if possible.

 

[nightshade00013]

For something like plex you would go into the folder that contains the data for plex like:

/usr/local/plexdata-plexpass/Plex Media Server/
/usr/local/plexdata/Plex Media Server/

This would be in the jail in question so it would have a /mnt/freenas-pool/jail-install-location/jail-name/usr/local/plexdata/Plex Media Server/

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/ar...the-Plex-Media-Server-data-directory-located-

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201370363-Move-an-Install-to-Another-System

You would then copy the config file over from the old to the new along with the database backups.

The caveat is that the mount point has to be exactly the same and there may be different settings since in 9.3 you are probably looking at a much earlier version of plex compared to the most recent one. By the time you do all of this you will likely find that setting the mount points and then scanning the files will be easier and while with a large library it may take a while to download the metadata and graphics it's a lot less of a headache.

For other plugins or jails it will depend on where the data is stored but a google search should give you the information on the configurations and as an added advantage with FreeNAS 11 compared to some others the old jails while not able to update can run alongside a new jail so until you are happy the new jail is 100% correct you can run the other one and even then you can always keep ahold of it for a few months in case any unforeseen problems arise later on. Just stop the old jail and prevent it from auto starting.

 

[danb35]

Or more accurately, to recreate them from scratch under FN11.

Since FN11.1 is supposed to be incorporating a completely different jail management system, you might want to hold off doing this until then. Your FN9.3 jails should still run just fine, though you likely won't be able to run package updates now.

 

[RoadHazard]

... though you likely won't be able to run package updates now.

True dat.