zabbix server and zabbix proxy's version question

[ioiioi]

I read the official document, the zabbix server's version is supports to be the same with zabbix proxy, does it means extactly the same or just the major version is the same is enough?

for example, if the zabbix server version is 3.0.2, and the zabbix proxy's version is 3.0.0, does these two comptible?

[LenR]

Well, my patching process doesn't guarantee my server and proxies get updated at exactally the same time, they are upgraded within 15-20 minutes, but whatever goes first will re-sync with the older, still running version.

That said, I never trust a 0.0 version of anything :-)

[ioiioi]

@LenR

thanks buddy, I have another question, could I upgrade zabbix throught apt-get install <zabbix-new-version> or yum install <zabbix-new-version>?

[LenR]

Probably, I keep a copy of the parts of the Zabbix repo we use. I copy down the versions when I'm ready to update and our monthly maintenance cycle installs the new versions. That is just a "yum update".

You could do the same by adding Zabbix's repo to your systems, we have the local copy so any network outage or slowness doesn't delay our patching. For test/dev systems I have just used their repo in the same manner.

[ioiioi]

@LenR

zabbix official doc suggest to backup the following files before upgrade:

3 Back up configuration files, PHP files and Zabbix binaries
Make a backup copy of Zabbix binaries, configuration files and the PHP file directory.

it's trivial to do that manually, is there a script or program to do that?

[LenR]

In my world, our standard server backup would cover that.

The RPM package appears to be configured to not overlay a changed config file, it creates a .rpmnew file instead. Other products may overlay a file, but will create a .rpmsave backup. If Zabbix introduces new config parms, your config file may need edited.

The Zabbix (and other packages) doc is written from a very generic view. Add a package manager and some automatic things happen. Add a devops environment and more magic happens. I manage my agent and proxy configs with Puppet.

I can change the config file on 500 servers in 30 minutes, makes adding UserParameters much easier :-)

[bbrendon]

@LenR

thanks buddy, I have another question, could I upgrade zabbix throught apt-get install <zabbix-new-version> or yum install <zabbix-new-version>?

I use the deb packages from the zabbix repo and they upgrade fine.

I don't make any backups before doing an upgrade. I can restore from backup or re-install an older package if I need to.