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Migrate SoftNAS on VMware vSphere

Migrate SoftNAS on VMware vSphere

Apr 24, 2023

Symptoms

You have an existing SoftNAS instance set up on VMware vSphere, but you need to migrate it. Reasons for this may include:

  • Your current version of SoftNAS is out-of-date, and cannot be upgraded without migration (your instance is a version of SoftNAS older than 5.0)

  • Your instance needs to be moved because you are moving to another Vmware environment.

  • You are creating a new production environment from a staging environment.

Purpose

This knowlege base article covers the basic steps and key considerations when migrating a SoftNAS VPC hosted on VMware vSphere to another VPC.

Resolution

Remember, the old SoftNAS VM does not have to be of the same version as the VM you are migrating to. This process can be used as a migration path for versions of SoftNAS older than 5.x. The VM to which you are migrating to can be the latest version, providing your existing storage pools the benefits of SoftNAS' latest improvements.

Run the following command on the VM you wish to migrate from (original):
zpool export <pool-name>
Power off the VM you wish to migrate from (original) by Right-Clicking on the instance in vSphere and selecting Edit Settings...
Before you remove the VMDK, note down the data store that it resides in.
Select the VMDK, and click Remove.

Be careful to not select the option Remove from virtual machine and delete files from disk.

If you have not already done so, create the new SoftNAS VM that the storage pools will be migrated to.

Guidance on creating a SoftNAS VM for VMware can be found here.

Select the new VM from within the VMware Console and click Edit Settings


From the Hardware tab, select Add > Hard Disk.


Click Next.
Choose Use an exiting virtual disk.


Click Next.

Change directory to your storage pool and verify that your data is ok.

Start your old SoftNAS system and copy over the following config files from the old system to the new system.

Reboot the new system so that the copied configurations take effect.