Migrating from FreeNAS to Open Media Vault while also importing FreeNAS ZFS to ZFS on Linux - Roadmap Advice sought please

Hi folks

Firstly thank you for taking time to read this.

After 5 years of attempting to make a 12TB PowerNAS unit useful and functional with FreeNAS from IXSystems - I regret that my tolerance and patience is exhausted. I have built it three times from the ground up - 1st time initial build - 2nd time due to kind electric folks killing power and our UPS breaching operational boundaries (I thought 20 minutes would be enough and I was offsite) - 3rd time the flimsy USB stick on board with the FreeNAS OS fried due to overheating - oh and in all of this I thought I would be "clever" and encrypt the ZFS Pool - and after it failed to import cleanly after a os rebuild was simply told by FreeNAS forum that Encrypting the ZFS pool is something that they would never do in the first place - nice.

I am, at this stage, looking to identify a smooth roadmap - I am a sole trader and have clients to look after / find - my modus operandi is to own our own data and be self sufficient in doing so - but without the constant fear of having to burn 3-6 weeks a year just attempting to make sure we can keep using the appliance in a practical and sensible way.

(my audience are not technical - so need to keep this simple, please)

My next to additions to this thread

1) current state of play

2) motivations and intentions for the hot foot to Open Media Vault and ZFS on Linux

Current State of Play

Power NAS Box specs

> AMD 64 Dual core 3GHz (manufactured 2014)

> 16GB RAM (6 of which FreeNAS passed to ZFS Cache)

> 4 x 3TB Western Digital Reds

> 2 ethernet interfaces

> 1 ethernet to board interface for boot on lan / remote BIOS management (Which has borked during the various rebuilds and my tiny brain hasn't the time and inclination to fix)

Preventing the need to rebuild in the future - steps

So have uprated UPS - and found a USB spinning 500GB disk on a cable plugged into the board to drive the OS so that no longer overheats.

Current usage

1 ZFS pool across all 4 3TB disks so 4.7 TB real storage avaiable

CIFs for Sonos (grr)

CIFS for a couple of a couple of windows high end laptops

2 FreeBSD Jails -

1) simple jail for administering the data sets, offsite backups

2) comprehensive jail for a nextcloud on apache / php / mysql

prior to upgrade to FreeNAS 11.3 - had a couple of bhyve VMs - each running UBUNTU

1) running Only Office community server

1) another for a gnucash - this is now redundant because Windows 10 has re-appeared in our estate

I did approach the hardware vendor to upgrade RAM on the powerNAS unti because Virtual machines via bhyve were too slow and crashey due to lack of RAM. They told me the this unit, even though 64-bit - can't extend RAM beyond 16GB RAM - mother board constrained.

the upgrade to FreeNAS 11.3 and nextcloud 18 has forced my hand to look elsewhere

the former trashed the bhyve VMs - the latter integration with Only office runs a Linux Binary that FreeNas won't support - and has deprecated all previous support for linux binaries

The largest frustration has to be what ever decision path I have taken - I have to rework the installation after each upgrade- and I don't consider my paranoid configuration to be exceptional

Nor do I have the time for maintaining the continual drip drip of updates

Migration to OMV - Intentions and Motivations

Ideally, 4 simple metrics are my target:

1) Import the ZFS pool from FreeNAS direct into ZFS for Linux / OMV

The data on these disks is crucial (when is it not ?? ) - and while I have backups and backups I would rather not have to fill a new Pool

2) Migrate Nextcloud full stack from FreeNAS jail into the OMV nextcloud config

I would like to bring my nextcloud configuration over from the apache installation in the FreeNAS jail - a lot has gone into this to ensure SSL / TLS / and other paranois are addressed

2a) - I hope that Nextcloud 18 / + and OnlyOffice Community document server is ready to roll in the OMV - -

3) apply CIFs / samba shares for the Sonos and windows users

4) rclone - is a must - this drives our current backup to off premise.

Moon on a stick?

Finally - the first question: (thanks if you are still with me here:)

> Anyone successfully

> blown away the FreeNAS OS

> installed OMV

> and ZFS on Linux on top

> imported ZFS into OMV / ZFS on Linux?

Were there any special steps to consider?

Thank you ryecoaaron -

Zitat von ryecoaaron

I don't know of any zfs features that aren't supported by Linux and zfs on linux. So this shouldn't be an issue. You may have to do some things with zfs from the command line on OMV since the plugin doesn't support everything zfs can do.

Sounds reasonable - has anyone attempted this or am I going to into new territory?

Zitat von ryecoaaron

rclone is in the Debian repo and docker images are available. There is no OMV plugin available. So, you would have to use outside of OMV but it would work fine

Yeah - thats fine - I only use Bash scripts for specific data sets - so should be no reason for that to not translate over

Quote from irnerd CIFs / samba shares for the Sonos

Zitat von ryecoaaron

No issues there.

Are ACLs a challenge just like FreeNAS ? - one for later.

Additional (again - road map storming here)

Forgot to ask - is OpenSSL well supported ? Prefer myown roots and subordinates - my audience is small and local anyway

Zitat von ryecoaaron

I don't know of any zfs features that aren't supported by Linux and zfs on linux. So this shouldn't be an issue. You may have to do some things with zfs from the command line on OMV since the plugin doesn't support everything zfs can do.

Thanks ryecoaaron -

Anyone else out there attempted a straight zpool import from FreeNAS into OMV ? - please?

Was thinking about using Debian for appliance OS (just because I am more familiar )

Reason for my caution presently.

The Zpool is currently configured at FreeNAS Version 10.2

Attempting to export the ZPOOL for backup sake seems to invoke more crazy than helpful.

"zpool export POOL" command suite in FreeNAS 11 has been jarred around with - the CLI version is now borking because there are services requiring it (including after shutting down all iocage jails and bhyve VMs)

- they are now forcing a key to be supplied. I fear doing this will create a massive headache for the OMV to import it.

even "zpool export -f POOL" failed as "Files Depend" on the pool - even the attempt to export this caused the FreeNAS Gui lose sight of the pool completely even though zpool status still said all okay (cache no doubt)

So bottom line

Is it "safe" to

1) cleanly shut down the NAS (without a zpool export)

2) start the NAS - install new OS (as I say Debian preferred)

3) install OMV

4) Import the FreeNAS 10 created pool straight into OMV

Am I likely to hit immeasurable road blocks and diversions - forcing me to need to create the pool from scratch?

Any other advice or others woes poured here would help me think about fitting my seatbelt ...

Thanks again and in advance ...