Updating TrueNAS Scale and Mirroring the Boot Pool

A walkthrough on how to update TrueNAS Scale to the latest version from the web interface as well as attaching a second disk to the boot pool to create a mirror.
You do not need to format the drive and reinstall TrueNAS to switch to a mirror (as mentioned in the video, I had to install a fresh copy of TrueNAS onto my second drive because it was smaller than the existing drive where TrueNAS was installed). You need to ensure the second drive is the same capacity or larger when attaching a second disk to create a mirror.
homenetworkguy.com
EP07

[@dexter2433]

I am a new TrueNas user and this is exactly what I am wanting to do as I used a single 60gig ssd for TrueNAS boot drive and I ordered another identical 60 gig so I can set up a mirrored boot drive for redundancy Thanks for the video as yours is the first to show this process step by step in prefect detail .and next I plan to ad 2 more 8tb hd for a second data pool in mirrored for a total of 4 8tb hd and two 8tb mirrored data pools on our home network nice setup as mine is just a simple A320 AM4 mb that was my Daughters first gaming pc but has sense upgraded in a old computer case running 16 gig ddr 3200mhz ram and a low power 35w Athlon 3000g duel core cpu with a 1000Mb connection to network but it allows us to record OBS video's strait to the NAS for editing later and has been working great ..but I do have a R5 3600 6 core cpu I can toss in it if I need more horse power some day but right now system under load has only maxed out at drawing 83w of power from the wall and that's awesome ..but we are learning and I am positive some day we will build a bigger setup if the time arrives.

[@homenetworkguy]

I’m always happy to hear when a video helps someone!

[@TradersTradingEdge]

Thanks, that's really helpful.
Nice Homelab §8-)

[@homenetworkguy]

Thanks! My lab is a slow work in process. Took over 5 years to get to where I’m at today. Most of the hardware is several years old except for a couple things. But it still meets my needs and runs stable so that’s what you need in a home network/homelab!

[@RollerCoasterLineProductions]

Nice setup

[@homenetworkguy]

Thanks! Not super fancy but I have evolved it over time! I’ve already changed a few small things since that video.

[@felix871]

Hi, is there any way I can add smaller drives as mirrors to the boot pool? Or do I basically have to save my settings and do a fresh install?

[@homenetworkguy]

Unfortunately you probably have to do a fresh install if you already have a mirror with larger drives. I received an error message when starting with a single larger drive and tried to create a mirror with a second drive that was smaller. I didn’t care about losing overall capacity but it didn’t let me do it. I had to start over with the smaller drive and then mirror it with the larger drive. The good thing is that the configuration backup in TrueNAS works pretty well but if your doing more advanced things (using jails/VMs, etc depending on Core/Scale), I’m not sure what all is involved to restore everything. I do know all the main configuration restores quite well since I had to do that to mirror my drives with 2 different capacities.

[@Modernswing]

is there any way to remove mirror and stay with only one disk ? ( i made mirror using usb disk as second - that was my wrong way of making backup boot usb ) maybe if i will make fresh install and restore truenas config - it will not allert for second boot-pool mirror disk or it also will be demanded from config ?

[@homenetworkguy]

I don’t believe the configuration import cares about your boot disk configuration so you could start over with a config import but you may be able to drop the second disk off the mirror. I’d have to check to find out. (I’m not near my computer right now)

[@Modernswing]

Thank You @@homenetworkguy will wait for your answer !

[@homenetworkguy]

@@Modernswing There doesn't seem to be a way from the web UI, and a quick search says you can detach a disk from a mirror in ZFS but you will have a warning about a degraded disk. Probably best to start over and import your TrueNAS config if you want to go back to a single disk. I prefer to use mirrors for my boot drives just to minimize downtime if one of my disks fails.

[@Modernswing]

@@homenetworkguy thank You. it seems to me using degraded mirror is better then slow usb attached together with my nvme optane m10 system disk, couse i think the whole mirror worksas slow as slower part able to work? ... If warning is the only problem - i would continue attach usb once a month to sync and chek if it is still ok ))