Zabbix agents starting with version 1.4 are compatible with Zabbix 4.0. However, you may need to review the configuration of older agents as some parameters have changed, for example, parameters related to logging for versions before 3.0.
To take full advantage of new and improved items, improved performance and reduced memory usage, use the latest 4.0 agent.
Note that Zabbix agent newer than 4.0 cannot be used with Zabbix server 4.0.
Zabbix 4.0.x server can only work with Zabbix 4.0.x proxies. Zabbix 4.0.x proxies can only work with Zabbix 4.0.x server.
It is known to be possible to start an upgraded server 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. For more information, see the upgrade procedure.
Warnings about using incompatible Zabbix daemon versions are logged since Zabbix 4.0.8.
XML files, exported with 1.8, 2.0, 2.2, 2.4, 3.0, 3.2 and 3.4 are supported for import in Zabbix 4.0.
In Zabbix 1.8 XML export format, trigger dependencies are stored by name only. If there are several triggers with the same name (for example, having different severities and expressions) that have a dependency defined between them, it is not possible to import them. Such dependencies must be manually removed from the XML file and re-added after import.