Migrating from TrueNAS CORE

5 minute read.

Last Modified 2022-12-13 12:31 -0500

Migration Notes

Migrating TrueNAS from CORE to SCALE is a one-way operation. Attempting to activate or roll back to a CORE boot environment can break the system. You cannot upgrade CORE systems with High Availability enabled (HA) to SCALE HA.

TrueNAS systems on 12.0x or lower should update to the latest CORE 13.0 release (e.g 13.0-U2) prior to migrating to SCALE.

TrueNAS SCALE is Linux based, so it does not support FreeBSD GELI encryption. If you have GELI-encrypted pools on your system that you plan to import into SCALE, you must migrate your data from the GELI pool to a non-GELI encrypted pool before migrating to SCALE.

TrueNAS SCALE validates the system certificates when a CORE system migrates to SCALE. When a malformed certificate is found, SCALE generates a new self-signed certificate to ensure system accessibility.

Migration Methods

You can migrate from CORE to SCALE using an iso file or a manual update file.

ISO File Method

Start by saving the SCALE ISO file to a USB drive (see the Physical Hardware tab in Installing SCALE). Plug the USB drive into the CORE system that you want to sidegrade and boot or reboot the system.

At the motherboard splash screen, use the hotkey defined by your motherboard manufacturer to select a boot device, then select the USB drive with the SCALE .iso.

When the SCALE console setup screen appears, select Install/Upgrade.

SCALEUpgrade1

Select your TrueNAS boot disk

SCALEUpgrade02

The installer asks if you want to preserve your existing configuration or start with a fresh installation. We recommend selecting Upgrade Install when migrating from CORE to SCALE to keep your configuration data. Then select Install in new boot environment.

SCALEUpgrade2

SCALEUpgrade3

Although TrueNAS attempts to keep most of your CORE configuration data when upgrading to SCALE, some CORE-specific items do not transfer. GELI encrypted pools, NIS data, jails, tunables, and boot environments do not migrate from CORE to SCALE. VM storage and its basic configuration is transferred over during a migration. You need to double-check the VM configuration and the network interface settings specifically before starting the VM. AFP shares also do not transfer, but you can migrate them into an SMB share with AFP compatibility enabled. Init/shutdown scripts transfer, but can break. Review them before use. The CORE netcli utility is also swapped for a new CLI utility to use for the Console Setup Menu and other commands issued in a CLI.

After choosing to install in new boot environment, the installer warns that SCALE installs into the boot pool previously used for CORE. Select Yes.

SCALEUpgrade4

Once the installation completes, reboot the system and remove the USB with the SCALE .iso file.

When TrueNAS SCALE boots, you might need to use the Shell to configure networking interfaces to enable GUI accessibility.

Manual Update File Method

Start by downloading the SCALE manual update file. Confirm that the TrueNAS system is on the latest public release, 13.0-U2 or better.

Click CHECK FOR UPDATES in the System Information card on the Dashboard or go to System > Update.

Click INSTALL MANUAL UPDATE FILE. SCALEManualSidegrade

Click SAVE CONFIGURATION to download a backup file that can restore the system configuration in the event something goes wrong with the migration. This is recommended but it not required. SCALEConfigSidegrade

Select a Temporary Storage Location (either Memory Device or a Pool) for the manual update file. Click Choose File and select the TrueNAS-SCALE.update file you downloaded. SCALEFileSidegrade Then click APPLY UPDATE.

After the update completes, reboot the system. SCALESidegradeReboot

Parallel SCALE CLI Commands

The following CLI commands are available after migrating from CORE to SCALE. The CORE equivalent CLI commands are for reference. These commands are for diagnostic use. Making configuration changes using the SCALE OS CLI is not recommended.

CORE CLI Comand	SCALE CLI Command	Description
camcontrol devlist	lshw -class disk -short sfdisk -l	Use `lshw -class disk -short sfdisk -l` to get detailed information on hardware (disk) configuration that includes memory, mainboard and cache cofiguration, firmware version, CPU version and speed.
geom disk list	lsblk, hdparm	Use `lsblk` to lists block devices or `hwparm` to get or set SATA/IDE device parameters.
glabel status	blkid	Use `blkid` to locate or print block device attributes.
gstat -pods	iostat iostat -dtx	Use `iostat -dtx` to display the device utiilization report with the time for each report displayed and includes extended statistics.
ifconfig ifconfig -l	ip addr ifconfig -s lshw -class network -short ethtool devname	Use `ip addr` to show or manipulate routing, devices, or policy routing and tunnels. Use `ifconfig -s` cofigure a network interface. Use `lshw -class network -short` to display a network device tree showing hardware paths. Use `ethtool devnam` to query or control network driver and hardware settings.
netstat -i	ifstat -i	Use `ifstat -i` to get interface statisitcs on a list of interfaces to monitor.
nvmecontrol devlist	nvme list	Use `nvme list` to identify the list of NVMe devices on your system.
pmcstat	profile-bpfcc	Use `profile-bpfcc` to get a CPU usage profile obtaine by sampling stack traces.
systat -ifstat	iftop netstat	Use `iftop` to display interface bandwidth usage by host and `netstat` to print network connections, routing tables, interface statistics, masquerade connections, and multicast memberships.
top -SHIzP	top -Hi	Use `top -Hi` to display Linux tasks for all individual threads and starts with the last remembered i state reversed.
vmstat -P	sar -P ALL	Use `sar -P ALL` to get reports with statistics for each individual processor and global statistics among all processors.