I have a system running Ubuntu 22.04 with their OpenZFS packages (v2.1.5); now, I am considering converting this box to TrueNAS in order to use ZFS replication from another TrueNAS box to it. I assume that I can “zfs export” the disks, install TrueNAS onto the system disks, and then there would be a way to “zfs import” the disks and establish the existing pool with its filesets on TrueNAS? If anyone has done this, can you tell me how the pool import would happen (via GUI, or command-line?) Thanks!
You need to try and import from GUI, although there are no guarantees that it will work nor that there wont be bugs because TrueNAS expects disks to be partitioned in a certain way.
I though ZFS has a “standard” way of partitioning the disks? (maybe based on ZFS version) Does TrueNAS do the partitioning differently somehow? I would think the ability to import an existing foreign ZFS pool into TrueNAS would be a benefit to folks who may want to switch over to TrueNAS…
ZFS does not partition disks, it uses block devices you give to it.
I did not say importing pools from other systems won’t work, I meant there are no guarantees and there may be bugs.
Also make sure you’re not using custom mountpoints for the datasets in the pool.
Additionally, you could install TrueNAS just as easily onto a different disk and test the import without overwriting the “system disk” yet.
Modern TrueNAS scale uses a single partition anyway.
You can replicate from TN to any system running ZFS. All you need is passwordless SSH login.