Need help changing boot drive

[sabi-tech]

Good morning all,
I have read the online manual but i am still a little confused...
I would like to change my boot drive from a 256 USB SSD to a 16gb USB Stick. From what i understand i need to plug in a stick, backup the config file from within the GUI,
Boot using fresh install and then re-load the config file. Do i then need to re-add the pools etc?

 

[dlavigne]

Were you able to change your boot drive?

 

[sabi-tech]

I can't say i have tried yet, I am waiting to get some downtime :)
I'm waiting for delivery of my HP Microserver too so might just wait and move it all onto the new machine.

 

[NASbox]

Were you able to change your boot drive?

A short section(s) in the user manual on recovering from a failed boot drive / recreating a boot drive / moving your disks to a new machine would be VERY helpful. (Similar to what I have written below). These procedures are so second nature to the experienced people who write the docs that they don't appreciate the little tweaks that would make life so much easier (and reduce the amount of traffic on the forums) for people who don't have a lot of experience.

I've only had to do a fresh install about 3 times since 2012, Initial install, one failed USB boot, and then upgrade to SSD.

I'm going from old memory, so can you please confirm that I have give good advice. Thanks

Good morning all,
I have read the online manual but i am still a little confused...
I would like to change my boot drive from a 256 USB SSD to a 16gb USB Stick. From what i understand i need to plug in a stick, backup the config file from within the GUI,
Boot using fresh install and then re-load the config file. Do i then need to re-add the pools etc?

If you are going to a smaller boot media, I believe you would have to do a fresh install. (Can someone confirm this?) Last install I did was September 2019-Went from a USB to an SSD. As I recall it was quite easy.

The procedure would be to

1. FIRST save the config to your PC
2. Export your pools - may not be necessary, but couldn't hurt (Can someone confirm this?)
3. Power down amd detach the SSD
4. Plug in the USB stick
5. Power Up and Iinstall FreeNAS
6. Restore the config saved in step 1
7. Reboot
8. Import the pools if they aren't imported automatically by the restored config.

You should be right back where you started but with a USB stick for a boot device.

I assume the SSD is going in your new machine?

 

[sabi-tech]

Thanks for the reply. I managed to do this pretty much following the guide along with a full hardware change. So my steps were:
1. Export config from existing setup
2. Power down old machine
3. Move data drives to new build
4. Boot from fresh install on new boot device (I actually went from u6 to u7 too)
5. Restore config file.
6. Change mac address for static IP in router.
7. Drink beer and smile

All my data, shares, permissions and pools were there and ready for me

 

[NASbox]

4. Boot from fresh install on new boot device (I actually went from u6 to u7 too)

Glad you got it handled OK. For completeness to help anyone who goes after you:

Did you install FreeNAS on your new hardware without any data drives attached, then reboot with the drives attached and restore the config,
or did you assemble everything, install FreeNAS, restore the config.

I don't remember if a FreeNAS install will attempt to grab any drives/pools sitting in the box at time of installation, or if that is something that you do manually after installion (or that will be done if the config is restored from a previously working setup).

@dlavigne - The above point would make a good note for the documentation. If I want to move hardware/recover a failed system, I want to know before I start if doing a fresh install is going to put my existing data pool(s) at risk. Even with backups restoring 10-20TB of data takes a lot of time.

A quick line in the Docs in the install section would clarify and make things easier.

 

[sabi-tech]

OK so I made the boot drive by doing the following:
Spin up VM on my laptop using the FreeNAS installer ISO
Attached USB stick to the VM
Installed FreeNas to my USB stick.

The USB was then put into my new machine with storage attached, booted and restored config.

When I booted it does search for any existing pools and does other stuff.

 

[NASbox]

OK so I made the boot drive by doing the following:
Spin up VM on my laptop using the FreeNAS installer ISO
Attached USB stick to the VM
Installed FreeNas to my USB stick.

The USB was then put into my new machine with storage attached, booted and restored config.

Very smart idea. Easier/more convenient than burning an install stick.

Did you need to reboot again after restoring the config, (or does the restore force a reboot), or were you ready immediately after the restore with no reboot.

When I booted it does search for any existing pools and does other stuff.

Did it import the pools, or did you have the choice to wait till you restore the old config.

 

[sabi-tech]

If I remember correctly it did reboot after I restored the config so that it could re apply all the settings etc. This worked well as I had also updated the IP config so it picked up my reservation.

when it booted it did some stuff but I think that was just discovering the disks.
When I uploaded my config and it rebooted the pools were there as were the datasets and the shares