2 Debian/Ubuntu

Overview

This section provides the steps required for a successful upgrade from Zabbix 5.4.x to Zabbix 6.0.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 6.0 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 Most important changes between versions
5.4.x For:
Zabbix 6.0
Minimum required database versions upped;
Server/proxy will not start if outdated database;
Audit log records lost because of database structure change.
5.2.x For:
Zabbix 5.4
Zabbix 6.0
Minimum required database versions upped;
Aggregate items removed as a separate type.
5.0.x LTS For:
Zabbix 5.2
Zabbix 5.4
Zabbix 6.0
Minimum required PHP version upped from 7.2.0 to 7.2.5.
4.4.x For:
Zabbix 5.0
Zabbix 5.2
Zabbix 5.4
Zabbix 6.0
Support of IBM DB2 dropped;
Minimum required PHP version upped from 5.4.0 to 7.2.0;
Minimum required database versions upped;
Changed Zabbix PHP file directory.
4.2.x For:
Zabbix 4.4
Zabbix 5.0
Zabbix 5.2
Zabbix 5.4
Zabbix 6.0
Jabber, Ez Texting media types removed.
4.0.x LTS For:
Zabbix 4.2
Zabbix 4.4
Zabbix 5.0
Zabbix 5.2
Zabbix 5.4
Zabbix 6.0
Older proxies no longer can report data to an upgraded server;
Newer agents no longer will be able to work with an older Zabbix server.
3.4.x For:
Zabbix 4.0
Zabbix 4.2
Zabbix 4.4
Zabbix 5.0
Zabbix 5.2
Zabbix 5.4
Zabbix 6.0
'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 For:
Zabbix 3.4
Zabbix 4.0
Zabbix 4.2
Zabbix 4.4
Zabbix 5.0
Zabbix 5.2
Zabbix 5.4
Zabbix 6.0
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 LTS For:
Zabbix 3.2
Zabbix 3.4
Zabbix 4.0
Zabbix 4.2
Zabbix 4.4
Zabbix 5.0
Zabbix 5.2
Zabbix 5.4
Zabbix 6.0
Database upgrade may be slow, depending on the history table size.
2.4.x For:
Zabbix 3.0
Zabbix 3.2
Zabbix 3.4
Zabbix 4.0
Zabbix 4.2
Zabbix 4.4
Zabbix 5.0
Zabbix 5.2
Zabbix 5.4
Zabbix 6.0
Minimum required PHP version upped from 5.3.0 to 5.4.0
LogFile agent parameter must be specified
2.2.x LTS For:
Zabbix 2.4
Zabbix 3.0
Zabbix 3.2
Zabbix 3.4
Zabbix 4.0
Zabbix 4.2
Zabbix 4.4
Zabbix 5.0
Zabbix 5.2
Zabbix 5.4
Zabbix 6.0
Node-based distributed monitoring removed
2.0.x For:
Zabbix 2.2
Zabbix 2.4
Zabbix 3.0
Zabbix 3.2
Zabbix 3.4
Zabbix 4.0
Zabbix 4.2
Zabbix 4.4
Zabbix 5.0
Zabbix 5.2
Zabbix 5.4
Zabbix 6.0
Minimum required PHP version upped from 5.1.6 to 5.3.0;
Case-sensitive MySQL database required for proper server work; character set utf8 and utf8_bin collation is required for Zabbix server to work properly with MySQL database. See database creation scripts.
'mysqli' PHP extension required instead of 'mysql'

You may also want to check the requirements for 6.0.

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.

Upgrade procedure

1 Stop Zabbix processes

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

service zabbix-server stop

If upgrading Zabbix proxy, stop proxy too.

service zabbix-proxy stop
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/zabbix-* /opt/zabbix-backup/
4 Update repository configuration package

To proceed with the update your current repository package has to be uninstalled.

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

Then install the new repository configuration package.

On Debian 12 run:

wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/6.0/debian/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_6.0-5+debian12_all.deb
       dpkg -i zabbix-release_6.0-5+debian12_all.deb

On Debian 11 run:

wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/6.0/debian/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_6.0-1+debian11_all.deb
       dpkg -i zabbix-release_6.0-1+debian11_all.deb

On Debian 10 run:

wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/6.0/debian/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_6.0-1+debian10_all.deb
       dpkg -i zabbix-release_6.0-1+debian10_all.deb

On Debian 9 run:

wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/6.0/debian/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_6.0-1+debian9_all.deb
       dpkg -i zabbix-release_6.0-1+debian9_all.deb

On Ubuntu 20.04 run:

wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/6.0/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_6.0-1+ubuntu20.04_all.deb
       dpkg -i zabbix-release_6.0-1+ubuntu20.04_all.deb

On Ubuntu 18.04 run:

wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/6.0/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_6.0-1+ubuntu18.04_all.deb
       dpkg -i zabbix-release_6.0-1+ubuntu18.04_all.deb

On Ubuntu 16.04 run:

wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/6.0/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_6.0-1+ubuntu16.04_all.deb
       dpkg -i zabbix-release_6.0-1+ubuntu16.04_all.deb

On Ubuntu 14.04 run:

wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/6.0/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_6.0-1+ubuntu14.04_all.deb
       dpkg -i zabbix-release_6.0-1+ubuntu14.04_all.deb

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 Zabbix agent 2, substitute zabbix-agent with zabbix-agent2 in the command.

Upgrading Zabbix agent 2 with the apt install zabbix-agent2 command could lead to an error. For more information, see Known issues.

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 6.0. See information about installing Zabbix frontend on older distributions.

6 Review component configuration parameters

Make sure to review Upgrade notes to check if any changes in the configuration parameters are required.

7 Start Zabbix processes

Start the updated Zabbix components.

service zabbix-server start
       service zabbix-proxy start
       service zabbix-agent start
       service zabbix-agent2 start
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 6.0.x (for example, from 6.0.1 to 6.0.3). 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.*'