Install FreeBSD 15 in separate boot environment?

VulcanRidr · Wednesday at 5:31 PM

I have a zVault NAS that I would like to test drive FreeBSD with webzfs for NAS management. Is it possible/what is the process to set up an empty boot environment and install FreeBSD alongside of the existing boot environment(s)?

Thanks,
--vr

MG · Wednesday at 5:37 PM

Does it boot from USB?

nxjoseph@ · Wednesday at 8:57 PM

I think it would be as easy as creating a boot environment, changing into it, then running the upgrade process, i.e freebsd-update. I have never updated to 15 from 14 yet, though, YMMV.

mer · Wednesday at 9:01 PM

What is the current OS? If it's something that supports ZFS and BEs I think taking FreeBSD 15 install media, booting it, there may be an option to install into a new BE. If the current OS is not FreeBSD, freebsd-update is likely to not work

VulcanRidr · Thursday at 1:24 AM

mer said:
What is the current OS? If it's something that supports ZFS and BEs I think taking FreeBSD 15 install media, booting it, there may be an option to install into a new BE. If the current OS is not FreeBSD, freebsd-update is likely to not work

It is running zVault, which is an updated, de-ixsystems-ed TrueNAS Core 13.0. Instead of running FreeBSD 13.0 underneath, it is running 13.3, so in either case, long in the tooth. I am wanting to update the NAS to FreeBSD 15.1 and try webzfs to manage the pool...I already have it on my other FreeBSD boxes, but it looks like a decent way to update the NAS OS from the distant past to something current. My goal is to try to do that while preserving my current zVault bootenv.

MG said:
Does it boot from USB?

It does.

nxjoseph@ said:
I think it would be as easy as creating a boot environment, changing into it, then running the upgrade process, i.e freebsd-update. I have never updated to 15 from 14 yet, though, YMMV.

The problem is that the zVault is basically iXsystems' TrueNAS core, so it is probably far enough removed from stock FreeBSD as to make it impossible to upgrade. Going from 13 -> 14 -> 15 is possible, it is just the differences between TrueNAS/zVault and stock FreeBSD...With the very odd changes that ix did, there is likely no upgrade path.

MG · Thursday at 1:34 AM

If USB boot works, you can boot the FreeBSD installer stick and install to a 2nd stick.
When finished, change /etc/fstab, so that it tries the 1st USB drive da0 which was da1 during the installation. It's usually slower than a disk but there are +400MB/s flash drives that are on the same level. You can also copy things to /tmp to reduce system disk access and speed things up.

VulcanRidr · Thursday at 1:43 AM

MG said:
If USB boot works, you can boot the FreeBSD installer stick and install to a 2nd stick.
When finished, change /etc/fstab, so that it tries the 1st USB drive da0 which was da1 during the installation. It's usually slower than a disk but there are +400MB/s flash drives that are on the same level.

I have an SSD on the system, and a 6-drive data pool, and I would rather not run from usb thumb drives if I don't have to.

MG · Thursday at 1:47 AM

VulcanRidr said:
I have an SSD on the system, and a 6-drive data pool, and I would rather not run from usb thumb drives if I don't have to.

Take a piece of the SSD space for the 2nd OS, Only boot from USB, then mount the SSD filesystem as / and forget the stick.

My daily custom FreeBSD USB install boots from a stick and then forgets where it booted from. You can pkg install into the / RAM filesystem or mount other drives to store things.