How to decide when to upgrade from Core to Scale?

TrueNAS General
1

My TN server is in a location I only have physical access seasonally. My signature contains details about my server at this time. I am assuming my hardware is compatible w/ Scale.

I use my server for a NAS using SMB and NFS. Additionally, I have jails configured for the following:

  • Unifi
  • Plex
  • sabnzbd+
  • Sonarr
  • Radarr
  • Lidarr
  • lms (logitech media server, but would like to move to the newer “Lyra” version)

I also have an Ubuntu VM I will SSH into remotely.

I know that I will need to rebuild my jails. I am not sure if I will need to rebuild my ubuntu VM.

I am running pfSense for my firewall, and have several rules configured for Plex and the Ubuntu VM. I assume I will just need to point those at the new MAC address?

From what I heard before, the 24.10 release was a huge step forward for those using jails in Core. It sounds like 25.04 has improved this as well.

What I am trying to figure out is when I should move from Core to Scale? And I would assume I should move to 25.04?

I don’t mind re-building my jails as containers, provided there are some good guides to get me started.

Anything else I am missing? I am expecting to download the ISO, use my IPMI to load the ISO as the CD boot drive, and then restart my server and run the install/ugprade.

I did look at the upgrade guide before, but it has been a month or so. Any gotchas? Is the general consensus that 24.10 was a good point at which those running Core w/ Jails should migrate?

I have a hot spare drive in the machine that I will backup essential files to, but I would really not want to have to restore my data from a cloud backup. I am hoping my pool will come across fine as-is.

2

My thoughts (please get 2nd opinions)

You have the right perspective… review each App to see if the equivalent is supported. Apps.truenas.com

You can use standard Apps or Dockge. Dockge has more power and flexibility (like jails).

The security issue needs some thought. Standard Apps can be given an IP Alias , but not a MAC address.

If you don’t have a compelling reason to migrate, you can wait from 25.04.2 and avoid Electric Eel. The cadence we have is such that the 2nd update of each release is very solid for more complex deployments. (with 13.0… it was about the 5th update).

When you do migrate, we’d love to hear about the experience and where we could improve the docs.

The pool migration has been safe.

3

Thank you @Captain_Morgan for the reply and confirmation. I will wait for the 25.04.2 point release.

I know in Core, using the standard apps kind of fell out of favor as they were not well maintained. Is that the case on Scale?

Sure, I don’t mind providing my feedback on the migration guide. Should I put them here? Or is there a preferred feedback format?

4

On Community Edition (fka SCALE) the Apps are well maintained. Docker removes the update needs and complexity.

The area where custom Apps has advantages is with customized networking and grouping of Apps into a larger application.

So it depends on the skills of the user.

5

Hi Ryan. I was waiting for feature parity and Fangtooth is 99% there, for what I use. I was big on jails/plugins but found apps (containers) for everything I was using. Backed up configs and data, nuked the jails, and went through the upgrade. Moving from Core to Fangtooth wasn’t really supported through the GUI, I had to step up to EE first, and from there I changed trains to Fangtooth. So 2 upgrades back to back. My pools had a stutter, I had to hit the import button once, but otherwise no drama. Nothing was lost.

Depending on how your pfsense rules were working, that will need to be retooled also. Like the Capt was saying, we don’t get MAC addresses that are specific to each app, we do IP aliases now, so any MAC-based rules won’t work. If you had IP-based rules (like port forwards for each app), once you apply IP aliases to your primary interface, then apply each alias to the matching app, the rule should work. This is easy with a little planning and all apps should let you do this now.

One little pro-tip to speed up the migration. Check your current boot settings for old dusty boot environments and remove what you don’t use. That will all come over during the upgrade. Less trash there, less trash to copy.

Again, you can do this all through the gui. Check for updates > change train > update. You don’t need to fiddle with ipmi and iso’s if you don’t want to. But again I agree with the Captain here, waiting for Fangtooth’s .2 release will make that a direct upgrade to the latest and greatest.

Also I’m not sure about your ubuntu VM. I nuked the one I had prior to upgrading, I seem to remember the guide saying it wouldn’t come over.

Oh, one more pro-tip. Networking in the VM’s is stranger now, so ideally you create a bridge network device like br0 and assign your IP to that and bind it to your main interface. Then, in the new Instances VM module, you can choose that bridge and your VM will have networking immediately. Some kid made a 3 minute video covering that and it is so simple to do. So look for that video maybe and get comfortable with that concept. I think he’s called Serversatho.me on youtube and the web. Has a lot of really great howtos.

That’s about all. With enough planning, the upgrade should be fine. I had a few months to get comfortable with Scale on another machine so it didn’t shock me.