This section provides the steps required for a successful upgrade from Zabbix 3.4.x to Zabbix 4.0.x using official Zabbix packages for Debian/Ubuntu.
While upgrading Zabbix agents is not mandatory (but recommended), Zabbix server and proxies must be of the same major version. Therefore, in a server-proxy setup, Zabbix server and all proxies have to be stopped and upgraded.
To minimize downtime and data loss during the upgrade, it is recommended to stop and upgrade Zabbix server and then stop, upgrade and start Zabbix proxies one after another. When all proxies are upgraded, start Zabbix server. During the Zabbix server downtime, running proxies will keep collecting and storing data and will pass the data to Zabbix server when the server is up and running. Any notifications for problems during Zabbix server downtime will be generated only after the upgraded server is started.
Note that with SQLite database on proxies, history data from proxies before the upgrade will be lost, because SQLite database upgrade is not supported and the SQLite database file has to be manually removed. When proxy is started for the first time and the SQLite database file is missing, proxy creates it automatically.
Depending on database size the database upgrade to version 4.0 may take a long time.
Before the upgrade make sure to read the relevant upgrade notes!
The following upgrade notes are available:
Upgrade from | Read full upgrade notes | Important notes/changes between versions |
---|---|---|
3.4.x | For 4.0 | 'libpthread' and 'zlib' libraries now mandatory; Support for plain text protocol dropped and header is mandatory; Pre-1.4 version Zabbix agents are no longer supported; The Server parameter in passive proxy configuration now mandatory |
3.2.x | Also for 3.4 | SQLite support as backend database dropped for Zabbix server/frontend; Perl Compatible Regular Expressions (PCRE) supported instead of POSIX extended; 'libpcre' and 'libevent' libraries mandatory for Zabbix server; Exit code checks added for user parameters, remote commands and system.run[] items without the 'nowait' flag as well as Zabbix server executed scripts; Zabbix Java gateway has to be upgraded to support new functionality |
3.0.x | Also for 3.2 | Database upgrade may be slow, depending on the history table size |
You may also want to check the requirements for 4.0.
It may be handy to run two parallel SSH sessions during the upgrade, executing the upgrade steps in one and monitoring the server/proxy logs in another. For example, run tail -f zabbix_server.log
or tail -f zabbix_proxy.log
in the second SSH session showing you the latest log file entries and possible errors in real time. This can be critical for production instances.
Stop Zabbix server to make sure that no new data is inserted into database.
If upgrading Zabbix proxy, stop proxy too.
It is known to be possible to upgrade the server only and have older, yet unupgraded proxies report data to a newer server (the proxies can't refresh their configuration though). This approach, however, is not recommended and not supported by Zabbix and choosing it is entirely at your own risk.
This is a very important step. Make sure that you have a backup of your database. It will help if the upgrade procedure fails (lack of disk space, power off, any unexpected problem).
Make a backup copy of Zabbix binaries, configuration files and the PHP file directory.
Configuration files:
# mkdir /opt/zabbix-backup/
# cp /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf /opt/zabbix-backup/
# cp /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/zabbix.conf /opt/zabbix-backup/
PHP files and Zabbix binaries:
To proceed with the update your current repository package has to be uninstalled.
Then install the new repository configuration package.
On Debian 9 run:
# wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/4.0/debian/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_4.0-2+stretch_all.deb
# dpkg -i zabbix-release_4.0-2+stretch_all.deb
On Debian 8 run:
# wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/4.0/debian/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_4.0-2+jessie_all.deb
# dpkg -i zabbix-release_4.0-2+jessie_all.deb
On Ubuntu 18.04 run:
# wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/4.0/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_4.0-2+bionic_all.deb
# dpkg -i zabbix-release_4.0-2+bionic_all.deb
On Ubuntu 16.04 run:
# wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/4.0/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_4.0-2+xenial_all.deb
# dpkg -i zabbix-release_4.0-2+xenial_all.deb
On Ubuntu 14.04 run:
# wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/4.0/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_4.0-2+trusty_all.deb
# dpkg -i zabbix-release_4.0-2+trusty_all.deb
Update the repository information.
To upgrade Zabbix components you may run something like:
If using PostgreSQL, substitute mysql
with pgsql
in the command. If upgrading the proxy, substitute server
with proxy
in the command.
See the upgrade notes for details on mandatory changes.
For new optional parameters, see the What's new section.
Start the updated Zabbix components.
After the upgrade you may need to clear web browser cookies and web browser cache for the Zabbix web interface to work properly.
It is possible to upgrade minor versions of 4.0.x (for example, from 4.0.1 to 4.0.3). It is easy.
To upgrade Zabbix minor version please run:
To upgrade Zabbix server minor version please run:
To upgrade Zabbix agent minor version please run: