Backup Before Updating Software

Before updating the TrueNas software it says to do a backup. Now it’s really tough to backup a 10TB NAS all the time. Is that the type of back you are talking about where you copy everything in the pool to another NAS? Or am I missing something. I do, do a backup that sends a .db file to my downloads folder. Is that the backup the software is referring to?

Jerry

I suspect you are referring to Backing Up the TrueNAS Configuration file and Secret Seed. This is a very small file. You should be backing up this file routinely already. It will save you a lot of pain down the road should you ever need it.

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Updating the versions of TrueNAS asks about doing that. As long as you have the configuration file and the secret seed, you could pull out the boot drive, replace it with another drive, do a fresh TrueNAS install and then restore the configuration file and you should be back to running status.

On a separate note, you really should have backups of your data. If your pool dies, so does your data. If you have three disks in Raid-Z1 and you lose a disk, your pool is degraded. If you lose two disks, the pool and data is lost. You will hear 3-2-1. Three copies of the active data, two backup copies and one offsite copy as a recommended scheme.

It’s up to you to determine your risk and how you handle it.

Thanks a bunch. That’s what I thought but could not find a definitive answer when searching the other posts, so I was a little concerned.