Preparing for a switch from Core to Scale

TrueNAS General
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I have a big chunky recycled enterprise server that I currently use mostly as a Plex server and for backup for assorted computers. Because I have a bit more familiarity with Linux, and it seems like it will have greater flexibility going forward, I’m considering moving from TrueNAS Core to TrueNAS Scale. When the time comes, I’m planning to put together a storage solution beefy enough to serve as a full data backup so if the upgrade screws up my storage pools I won’t lose anything, but before I even pull the trigger on THAT I want to make sure this weird surplus server will be able to work with Scale.

Forgive the absolute beginner nature of this question but:

What do I need to know about my system/setup to know if it will work with Scale and how do I find that out?

I’m relatively computer savvy. I can follow instructions and navigate an ssh terminal, but I last meaningfully interacted with this system in 2021 and I have no memory whatsoever of what was in it or what I did to get it working.

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If the system’s hardware is supported by Core (FreeBSD), then you can safely assume it is supported by SCALE (Linux).

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Build the server, install TrueNAS SCALE on and and see if it works, then worry about switching from CORE.

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I think the worst headache for who swap from Core to Scale Is the manual work to migrate the jails, but it depends most on use case.

This resource help a lot finding the right “migration Path”, according on your setup.
Except that, the migration Is quite simple: you can make a clean install → config upload, or upgrade by GUI.

Take care about:

  • save your config BEFORE every attempt
  • don’t upgrade your pool until you don’t are sure to have setup everything

Or you will lose the possibility to rollback

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Do note that, differently from CORE, SCALE constantly writes to the boot pool.

On a personal note, I would wait a while before switching to SCALE in order to see which direction will take after gravitating away from Kubernets.

You will likely have to ditch, or at the very least migrate, your jails. Everything else should work, assuming you are not using plugins.

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I see. So probably I’d want to finally upgrade to a dedicated boot drive instead of the ridiculous “striped thumb drive” thing I’ve been doing. Good to know.

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Definitely.

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DavvoTrueNAS MVP

1d

On a personal note, I would wait a while before switching to SCALE in order to see which direction will take after gravitating away from Kubernets.

Hi @Davvo (or anyone else in the know) can you please expand on this?

I haven’t really been following development lately, can you elaborate what direction is this likely to go in – or at least what choices are being discussed.

Any idea how long it will take before this direction is going to be obvious?

I’ve been despirately needing a local Nextcloud server and I have been on the fence as to trying to do this in jails or switch to jails… I am far more proficient with linux than FreeBSD.

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Maybe a few months, maybe more.

Good question, hard to answer.
Start from here, with the latest information coming from this comment and a later one. See if it’s enough for you to decide into what to commit now.

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Given this, I’d recommend Dragonfish.
NextCloud as an App will b switched from Kubernetes to Docker, but you can wait until its validated before moving to Electric Eel.