Migrating from 4.4.5 (Redhat 7.7) to 7.0 (RedHat 8.9)

[carlos.pena]

Hi,
I need to upgrade Zabbix to the latest version available (7.0), including changing the server. After several readings I am a bit confused. According to what I understand, I need :

1. To install the new version of Zabbix on the new server, but I should not create the database schema (MariaDB);
2. Then I need to stop the Zabbix services on the new server, and import the dump of the old database;
3. Then I need to start the Zabbix services again, and I understand that at that time Zabbix will update the DB schema to the new version;

My first question is whether the procedure described is correct, and the second is whether the history of the old server will be available or if another procedure needs to be performed.

Thank you very much for your help.

[cyber]

Yes, procedure is correct. with second point, you probaby do not have to stop anything, because it will not even start without DB.. And just installing packages will not start services also, IIRC, as you need to update config first...

Not sure what you mean with "another procedure", but you probably need to take a backup anyway...
As your old server will be left intact, its all there, probably until you decommission that machine(s).

[tim.mooney]

I need to upgrade Zabbix to the latest version available (7.0), including changing the server. After several readings I am a bit confused. According to what I understand, I need :

1. To install the new version of Zabbix on the new server, but I should not create the database schema (MariaDB);
2. Then I need to stop the Zabbix services on the new server, and import the dump of the old database;
3. Then I need to start the Zabbix services again, and I understand that at that time Zabbix will update the DB schema to the new version;

My first question is whether the procedure described is correct, and the second is whether the history of the old server will be available or if another procedure needs to be performed.

As Cyber said, that's the correct procedure.

Be sure you set "SET GLOBAL log_bin_trust_function_creators = 1;" before starting the zabbix-server service in the new environment, as described in the upgrade notes: https://www.zabbix.com/documentation...rade_notes_700

Because you are making such a big jump in versions, you may also want to read the upgrade notes for 5.0.0 and 6.0.0, because there are going to be things in there that may impact you.

https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/5.0/en/manual/installation/upgrade_notes_500

https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/6.0/en/manual/installation/upgrade_notes_600

For example, there's a manual database schema change that you would normally apply at 5.0.0 for the history tables, as outlined in " Enabling extended range of numeric (float) values" in the 5.0.0 upgrade notes. You will likely have to apply that manually.

Similarly, at 6.0.0 there's a manual database schema change that you would apply to get primary keys on the history tables, as outlined in "Primary keys" section of the 6.0.0 upgrade notes. That's likely another thing you'll need to do manually, after upgrading to 7.0.x.

Finally, Zabbix before 5.0.0 was a little lax on character set and collation for the database. MySQL and MariaDB arguably made things worse with their older defaults and "utf8" that wasn't true utf8. If your existing database isn't using true utf8 (probably called "utf8mb4" for your MariaDB version) for character set and "utf8mb4_bin" for collation, you may have to make character set and collation adjustments to both the database and to tables after the upgrade.

All of those things are things that (I think) you can deal with after the zabbix-server process has upgraded your database schema to the 7.0.x schema. You just need to be aware that there were some manual procedures that were done at versions you're skipping over, that will still be relevant for your install.

Oh, one last thing: why RHEL 8.x? You'll have 5 years of support with 8.x, but you're not going to get much for new software versions (e.g. PHP 8.2) on RHEL 8.x because it's already in the second phase of its lifecycle. That will make future Zabbix upgrades more challenging. If you're building a new environment anyway, RHEL 9.4 will give you more options for future Zabbix upgrades before you have to rebuild the server again.

[carlos.pena]

Thank you Cyber and Tim. I decided to change my rhel 8.10 by an rhel 9.4 server. After, I wil follow this procedure. I appreciated your help.