2 Debian/Ubuntu

Overview

This section provides the steps required for a successful upgrade from Zabbix 4.4.x to Zabbix 5.0.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. Keeping proxies running during server upgrade no longer will bring any benefit as during proxy upgrade their old data will be discarded and no new data will be gathered until proxy configuration is synced with server.

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 5.0 may take a long time.

The following upgrade notes are available:

You may also want to check the requirements for 5.0.

Upgrade procedure

1 Stop Zabbix processes

Stop Zabbix server to make sure that no new data is inserted into database.

# systemctl stop zabbix-server

If upgrading Zabbix proxy, stop proxy too.

# systemctl stop zabbix-proxy

2 Back up the existing Zabbix database

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).

3 Back up configuration files, PHP files and Zabbix binaries

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:

# cp -R /usr/share/zabbix/ /opt/zabbix-backup/
       # cp -R /usr/share/doc/zabbix-* /opt/zabbix-backup/

4 Update repository configuration package

Before proceeding with the upgrade, uninstall your current repository package:

# rm -Rf /etc/apt/sources.list.d/zabbix.list

Then, install the latest repository configuration package to ensure compatibility with the newest packages and to include any recent security patches or bug fixes.

On Debian 11, run:

# wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/5.0/debian/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_5.0-2+debian11_all.deb
       # dpkg -i zabbix-release_5.0-2+debian11_all.deb

On Debian 10, run:

# wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/5.0/debian/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_5.0-1+buster_all.deb
       # dpkg -i zabbix-release_5.0-1+buster_all.deb

For older Debian versions, replace the link above with the correct one from Zabbix repository. Note, however, that packages for those versions may not include all Zabbix components. For a list of components included, see Zabbix packages.

On Ubuntu 20.04, run:

# wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/5.0/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_5.0-1+focal_all.deb
       # dpkg -i zabbix-release_5.0-1+focal_all.deb

On Ubuntu 18.04, run:

# wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/5.0/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_5.0-1+bionic_all.deb
       # dpkg -i zabbix-release_5.0-1+bionic_all.deb

For Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and versions older than Ubuntu 18.04, replace the link above with the correct one from Zabbix repository. Note, however, that packages for those versions may not include all Zabbix components. For a list of components included, see Zabbix packages.

Then, update the repository information:

# apt-get update

5 Upgrade Zabbix components

To upgrade Zabbix components you may run something like:

# apt-get install --only-upgrade zabbix-server-mysql zabbix-frontend-php zabbix-agent

If using PostgreSQL, substitute mysql with pgsql in the command. If upgrading the proxy, substitute server with proxy in the command. If upgrading the agent 2, substitute zabbix-agent with zabbix-agent2 in the command.

Then, to upgrade the web frontend with Apache correctly, also run:

# apt-get install zabbix-apache-conf

Distributions prior to Debian 10 (buster) / Ubuntu 18.04 (bionic) / Raspbian 10 (buster) do not provide PHP 7.2 or newer, which is required for Zabbix frontend 5.0. See this page for information about installing Zabbix frontend on older distributions.

6 Review component configuration parameters

See the upgrade notes for details on mandatory changes.

For new optional parameters, see the What's new section.

7 Start Zabbix processes

Start the updated Zabbix components.

# systemctl start zabbix-server
       # systemctl start zabbix-proxy
       # systemctl start zabbix-agent
       # systemctl start zabbix-agent2

8 Clear web browser cookies and cache

After the upgrade you may need to clear web browser cookies and web browser cache for the Zabbix web interface to work properly.

Upgrade between minor versions

It is possible to upgrade minor versions of 5.0.x (for example, from 5.0.1 to 5.0.3). It is easy.

To upgrade Zabbix minor version please run:

$ sudo apt install --only-upgrade 'zabbix.*'

To upgrade Zabbix server minor version please run:

$ sudo apt install --only-upgrade 'zabbix-server.*'

To upgrade Zabbix agent minor version please run:

$ sudo apt install --only-upgrade 'zabbix-agent.*'

or, for Zabbix agent 2:

$ sudo apt install --only-upgrade 'zabbix-agent2.*'