Zabbix upgrades never work for me

[Jrit]

This is mostly a late-night rant after hours of multiple upgrade attempts have all failed but if you have some advice I'll listen.

This is my third time upgrading since I started using Zabbix. It's only my third because the first 2 went south and I'm reluctant to touch it. The previous two times required me to basically build a new server and start over rediscovering all my systems. This time I keep getting this error:

The frontend does not match Zabbix database. current database version (mandatory/optional): 4040000/4040002. required mandatory version: 5000000. contact your system administrator.

It seems common enough where this guide addresses it directly. Yet none of the solutions work. Nothing I've found in the official upgrade documentation or forums works. I've run the database patch, I've verified the db. credentials in the config files (server and php). I added the necessary $DB['DOUBLE_IEEE754'] line. I still cannot get past the database version error.

I'm on Ubuntu 20, MySQL and PHP are at least the required versions. What's in my zabbix_server.log? Nothing … literally. When I start the service it's not putting anything new in the log. The last log entry is 4.4.10 shutting down. I'm trying to go to 5. I've tried deleting the log hoping it would create a new one, it doesn't. I changed the debug level to 5, still nothing in the log. Just the db error when I bring up the webpage.

I rolled back to my 4.4.10 snapshot for now. Not really sure what else to do. I was debating a fresh 5 install and then restore a db. backup to that but A) I'm afraid that wont work and will be a waste of time and B) if I have to fight this software every time I upgrade I really should just use something else.
Thanks In Advance

[derli1988]

Did you look at the log under /var/log/zabbix/zabbix_server.log

It will probably tell you where the upgrade failed... I myself upgraded zabbix 5 times already, now I am under version 5.4.5, and most times I used the same article you used... Since you have nothing on your logs...

What do you have on your zabbix_server.conf?

If you want, I can post mine only hiding the real IP address and DB info... so you can compare.

OR, if you want, what you can do is, you can export the database, uninstall zabbix and install it from scratch and import the DB

[tim.mooney]

I'm on Ubuntu 20, MySQL and PHP are at least the required versions. What's in my zabbix_server.log? Nothing … literally. When I start the service it's not putting anything new in the log. The last log entry is 4.4.10 shutting down. I'm trying to go to 5. I've tried deleting the log hoping it would create a new one, it doesn't. I changed the debug level to 5, still nothing in the log. Just the db error when I bring up the webpage.

I rolled back to my 4.4.10 snapshot for now. Not really sure what else to do. I was debating a fresh 5 install and then restore a db. backup to that but A) I'm afraid that wont work and will be a waste of time and B) if I have to fight this software every time I upgrade I really should just use something else.

Sorry you've had a rough time with upgrades. I've upgraded Zabbix many, many times and not run into such serious issues, but I will say that Zabbix is complex enough that it can be sensitive to both changing database features and some hard-to-spot database problems that tend to "accumulate" over the course of upgrades. A lot of these aren't really Zabbix problems, but the documentation doesn't always cover some of the potential "external" database considerations.

I have a number of ideas for things that we could investigate that might help increase your chances of success, but I need a couple pieces of information first.

You've said you're on 4.4.10 and you would like to go to 5.0.x (probably 5.0.15). That answers one question I had, but the other questions are

1. what's the exact version of the database software you're using now? I know you said it's at least the required version, but it would really help to know the exact version.
2. if you remember, what versions of Zabbix have you previously upgraded "through" and what version of the database was in use for each of those, can you share what you remember? For example, did you start with Zabbix 3.0 on Ubuntu 16.04 with MySQL 5.5, and then go to Zabbix 3.2 still with MySQL 5.5, and then to Zabbix 4.0 with MySQL 5.7? Or what path did you take to get to your current setup? I know it sounds like a bit of a weird question, but I'm asking because it may provide some insight on things that might have accumulated over the course of several upgrades.
3. Have you customized any of the MySQL settings (in /etc/my.cnf or any file in /etc/my.cnf.d/*.cnf)?

If you're willing to provide answers to those questions, I'll see if I can provide some suggestions that might help.

Regarding a fresh install and a DB import of your current database -- that might fix the problem (depending on what the problem is), but I'm honestly not a fan of that procedure. The reason why is that if the problem is something with the database itself, depending upon how you do the reload, you might just be importing the same problem(s) that caused the issue in the first place.