Old system... should I update??

Snake3y3s

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I am running an old school HP ProLiant Microserver (N36L) -

• AMD Athlon(tm) II Neo N36L Dual-Core Processor
• 8025mb of RAM

The version I am running is - FreeNAS-11.0-U4 (54848d13b)

I have 5x 3TB WD red SATA drives running in it.

I am using the system as a light raid storage (for 3D animation work and training, and series and movies, and a Plex server on the network (mainly use that through the PS4 to watch on the TV in the lounge)

So on to the question:

I really like the form factor of it and quite frankly I do not have the money available on hand to upgrade it right now.
The main question is should I upgrade to the latest build of freeNAS (also for the version where FreeNAS and TrueNAS are going to be one)??
Will this break any of the jails I have set up?
Will this impact the performance of the system? (even though it is already a bare minimum in performance)
I just need more information on what I have on hand and how i can improve it going forward.

on a side note (for later)... does anyone know if the chip is upgrade-able in this system (or is it a whole board swap) and can this system take more RAM

Thank you for any help
 

blanchet

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You should upgrade at least to FreeNAS 11.1u7. It will bring some improvements without breaking anything.

If you go to FreeNAS 11.2 or later, you have to know that there is some important modifications that may impact you:
  • new webui
  • new jail management system (based on iocage(8) instead of warden): you will have to recreate your jails
  • new boot loader: BTX instead of Grub
If your hardware is able to run FreeNAS 11.2, then you should jump directly to FreeNAS 11.3u4.1.

Nevertheless, TrueNAS Core 12 is still in Beta, so maybe you should wait for the stable release before considering using it.
 

Alecmascot

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I ran a couple of those for several years.
No, you cannot change the CPU but I had 16gb ram as I recall.
Are you running the patched bios for the 5th drive ?
I did fit a N54L mobo for a significant performance improvement
If you come up to date then you will have to do a bit of work :
If you have Warden Jails then you will need to convert to Iocage. These is a script for that which worked for me.
There is no real reason to upgrade beyond 11.1-U7.
 

Snake3y3s

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Valuable information... thank you guys

With regard to the Jails, was my first time setting it up so im not sure on the iocage system (If i recall I tried setting it up with iocage but it wasn't working or it didn't load or something... this was 4 years ago, so not sure) I'm still needing to setup a few more folders and such, but first need to figure something out with Plex.

on the system, I get the option to go to 11.2 or 11.3.... then 9.10 (for some reason), Then TrueNAS 12-Beta and 12-Nightly.

so can I just go straight to 11.3? will there be any performance hits?

I think i did patch the BIOS to use the 5th drive (again, did it a few years ago so cant 100% recall)

Fitting a N54L board into the system does sound intriguing (guessing its mobo and chip)... wonder where i could get a board (for future reference)

New webUI shouldnt be a issue, just something new to learn... new bootloader sounds scary to me, hoping that doesn't affect much.
same with the new jails... would need to re-setup a new jail system which is daunting as i did so much research to get it to the state it is now, and to be honest have forgotten alot of that information (do have it on hand as bookmarks and links though, so I could just re-learn) unless the script that Alecmascot mentioned works well.

so maybe going to 11.2 is a good idea, on system?


At the moment, its a case of... "everything is working so I dont really wana fcukc with it" but if it does have any performance increases or system improvements, I will consider it
 
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blanchet

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Some key points of the FreeNAS upgrading process:
  • When you upgrade FreeNAS, the installer creates a new boot environment in freenas-boot, and then it changes the default boot environment, then it reboots to the new boot environment. If you encouter an issue with the new version of FreeNAS, then you can choose another boot environment to revert back a previous version of FreeNAS.
  • if you do not upgrade the ZFS pool after upgrading the FreeNAS version, then you can always import the ZFSpool even with the oldest version of FreeNAS you have.
In such conditions, I consider that upgrading FreeNAS is risk-free, except when crossing the line 11.1 -> 11.2, because the boot loader has changed.
 
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Snake3y3s

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how would I go about upgrading to 11.1 then?
my system shows 11.2 as the lowest and going to 11.2 (as has been stated) the boot loader has changed, I am unsure of this aspect as I dont want any further complications, if the new bootloader brings in any for my system (again, not sure). its all working fine at the moment.

What does the change in the boot loader bring with it?

or... should I just not update and keep going along as I have
 

blanchet

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The webui does not propose anymore the upgrade to 11.1u7 because it is now is legacy version, but you can still upgrade with the ISO
Boot on the FreeNAS-11.1u7 ISO then select Upgrade instead of Install.

When it works, the new boot loader changes nothing for you (it is used only few seconds during the boot). Unfortunately, BTX does not work with some exotic BIOS (for example on my QNAP x86 server), on the other hand GRUB2 works on any computer I have ever tested.

Nevertheless, after searching for people with HP ProLiant Microserver (N36L) on the forum, I have found that @Adrian has reported that HP N36L can run FreeNAS -11.2-U6

One of my machines is a very old (8 years?) HP microserver:
HP N36L Microserver, 8 GB
AMD Athlon(tm) II Neo N36L Dual-Core Processor
4 * 2 TB WD Red as RAIDZ1
2 * mirrored Sandisk Cruzer Fit 1.00 boot USB sticks
FreeNAS-11.2-U6

So I guess that your server should be able to run also FreeNAS 11.3 (and even TrueNAS Core 12).
 
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Snake3y3s

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I have updated my Bois with a patched one to be able to have the 5th drive in the cage.
so would the boot loader be affected by this?
 

Alecmascot

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ornias

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If I where you I would wait 4 weeks and go straight to TrueNAS Core 12 (in steps that is)....
Save yourself some work and do everything in one go....
 

Alecmascot

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If you do not need a new feature in a later release I would update to the latest patch level of the version you have.
12.0 brings nothing new for a home user serving a few files, I tried it over the last few days, and the GUI interface is still poor with too much white space.
TrueNAS releases at the end of October so you have lots of time to contemplate :smile:)
 

Snake3y3s

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so going to 11.3 should be safe...
Alecmascot, do you have the script for converting from jails to iocage? and is this easy? (have not performed something like this in the past and my knowledge is a little limited.)
 

Alecmascot

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With 11.3 you will loose the old gui and have to go to IOCAGE.
 

adrianwi

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I recently decommissioned an N54L which had been my backup machine for a number of years. I don't think I'd updated it to 11.3, but it was certainly running 11.2 something. That had 5x4TB drives and 16GB RAM and while it was only receiving a replication backup every night, ran faultlessly. I've wiped it down and was planning to stick on ebay as a ready-built FreeNAS machine, and installed with the latest version from February this year, so 11.3 something. Seemed to work fine, although didn't use it in anger.
 

Snake3y3s

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sorry, I meant to say going to 11.2 would be safe (as this is also the lowest listed on the system at the moment.
 

ornias

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If you do not need a new feature in a later release I would update to the latest patch level of the version you have.
Thats bad advice, because said versions don't actually get upstream FreeBSD security patches anymore... Although IX does port some fixes, you should always try to at least not-run EOL OS versions if one could help it.

12.0 brings nothing new for a home user serving a few files
Over generalisation doesn't help anyone...
If you think OpenZFS2.0 doesn't bring anything that's relevant for a home user (including things like performance improvements), I think you don't really know what you are talking about.

I tried it over the last few days, and the GUI interface is still poor with too much white space
What are you talking about? It's 95% the same gui as 11.3?!

TrueNAS releases at the end of October
No, TrueNAS RC1 (which is comparable with FreeNAS Release), launches september according to the roadmap.

Anyway:
Both going for 11.3 or (in a month) 12.0 would be fine.
Don't use 11.2, it's EOL upstream so its a security risk.
 

Snake3y3s

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But... if I do go to 11.3, I need to switch from Jails to iocage...right?

This sounds daunting to me especially for the fact that at the moment everything is working...
Was wondering if there is any performance inprovements because some higher bitrate formats still stutter on playback so thought its worth a try updating to see if it would help
 

ornias

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But... if I do go to 11.3, I need to switch from Jails to iocage...right?
Yep.
It has been EOL for some time now (the upstream that is) so imho it's time to move, no mater how hard.

higher bitrate formats still stutter on playback

I noticed you where using: "AMD Athlon(tm) II Neo N36L", that's a VERY weak CPU... I doubt it's even able to handle lz4 compression at a relatively high bitrate playback... Same with 8gb of ram, it's quite low... There might be some speed improvements, but the issues you are having are really mostly your hardware being relatively weak...
 

Snake3y3s

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this is true, and understandable... my initial use for the NAS is basically just storage.
the plex usage is a bonus, but i have come to rely on it.

so... back to the initial question... should i upgrade, or am I just throwing myself into deep water
 

Alecmascot

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That's going to be your call. I think you have both sides of the argument.
Later versions of FreeNAS will slow your server down.
There are a couple of N54Ls up for auction on eBay UK at the moment.
Are you running your server in a noise sensitive environment ? Upgraded hardware with a similar noise profile will be relatively costly.
I replaced my Microservers with Dell T110-II and because they were slightly noisier they went in the loft space.
I bet you wish you never asked :smile:
 
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