Nagios Support Forum

Hi,

We plan to upgrade our NagiosXI from 5.4.13 version to the latest 5.8.6 version. We need to know what is the recommended way to do so.

As clarify, our NagiosXI is installed over a "CentOS release 6.9 (Final)".

How must we proceed?
From "Upgrade to Latest Version" button in "Check For Updates" section of GUI?
From commands as explain this document https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nag ... ctions.pdf ?
Creating a new installation from the latest OVA versión of NagiosXI and migrate to it?

The migration from 5.4.13 to 5.8.6 probably will require a couple of steps due to the nature and number of changes over the years along with the required operating system step. That being said there should be a path.

Could you also send me a copy of your system profile via PM ( Admin (top) > System Profile (left) -> Download Profile button ) and provide a quick answer to the following questions ?

1) How many systems/services are you currently monitoring with the 5.4.13 system ?

2) Are you using any third party plugins or SDKs ( e.g. VMware or Oracle ) ?

3) Do you have a target operating system you want to be using moving forward ?


Also, before starting on the upgrade path the first thing you want to do is make sure you've got good backups of the application as well as the system itself. Additionally we strongly recommend you setup a test system/environment which is a reasonable facsimile of production . Our licensing agreement specifically allows for this to help ensure success:

Nagios XI License Policy

With every purchase we offer 3 separate activation of XI licenses. One for production, one for testing, and one for high availability. We always recommend upgrading on a test server first before making changes to the production server.

`Nagios License Entitlements

https://support.nagios.com/kb/article.php?id=145



Thanks and Best Regards,
Keith

Hi,

Attached the profile file, and answered your questions:

1) How many systems/services are you currently monitoring with the 5.4.13 system ?
650 Hosts
2650 services

2) Are you using any third party plugins or SDKs ( e.g. VMware or Oracle ) ?
Yes, we are using some third party plugins

3) Do you have a target operating system you want to be using moving forward ?
No, we only want to upgrade to the latest version. To migrate to another server or new NagiosXI "appliance" is not our goal. But we dont know if is possible to upgrade with the pressent OS version (centos 6.9).

Hi scobosb,

In answer to your question, unfortunately, the migration path will require you to upgrade to CentOS 7. We stopped supporting Cent0S 6 as it is officially end of life (EOL) and we need to make sure there is a means to update dependencies. Fortunately CentOS7 isn't scheduled to be EOL until mid 2024 and there are a lot of people and organizations using it as their primary platform.

Generally speaking in a situation like this we recommend that you build a fresh CentOS 7 system and upgrade in parallel. You will need to make the upgrade in a series of steps. The general guidance is to make steps within a 24 month window of time but there are a couple of places where you might want to be deliberate about how you proceed. Specially you will probably want to make a step to 5.6.14 to minimize some of the potential problems with the NDO version transition (5.4.13 -> 5.6.16 -> 5.8.7). For convenience sake here is our knowledge base article on migrating to a new system along with the generic upgrade instructions as well as a link to version archive for your convenience:

Migrating NagiosXI to a different server:
https://support.nagios.com/kb/article/m ... r-892.html

Upgrade Instructions:
https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nag ... ctions.pdf

Previous versions of NagiosXI:
https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nag ... rsions.php

Also here is a link to the Nagios XI changelog if you would like to review it:
https://www.nagios.com/downloads/nagios-xi/change-log/

Thanks and Best Regards,
Keith

Hi Keith,

First of all, thanks for your answer.
We dont understand your "phrase". Do you mean that we have a maximum of 24 months from when we start the migration until we complete it?

kfanselow wrote:You will need to make the upgrade in a series of steps. The general guidance is to make steps within a 24 month window of time but there are a couple of places where you might want to be deliberate about how you proceed.

In any case, to clarify, please review the following planning based on your proposal.

1) First of all, build fresh Centos 7 VM and install 5.4.13 NagiosXI versión from this link:
https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nag ... .13.tar.gz

2) Then, make a backup of our present NagiosXI "appliance" as explained in the following document:
https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nag ... ing_XI.pdf

3) Before restore in the new NagiosXI VM, we need to disable email notifications. Do you thinks it will get stopping postfix service or better from NagiosXI web interface?

4) Now, we will restore the backup in the new VM with a command like this:
/usr/local/nagiosxi/scripts/restore_xi.sh /store/backups/nagiosxi/1279411912.tar.gz

5) Also will make repairs:
cd /tmp/
wget https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nag ... _repair.sh
chmod +x restore_repair.sh
./restore_repair.sh

At this point the Nagios configuration would be migrated.

6) Then, make a "Manual Download" and upgrade to 5.6.14 version as explained in the document https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nag ... ctions.pdf
cd /tmp
rm -rf nagiosxi xi*.tar.gz
wget https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nag ... .14.tar.gz
tar xzf xi-5.6.14.tar.gz
cd nagiosxi
./upgrade

We will verify the upgrade accessing to NagiosXI web interface.

7) And again will upgrade to the latest version with:
cd /tmp
rm -rf nagiosxi xi*.tar.gz
wget http://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nagi ... est.tar.gz
tar xzf xi-latest.tar.gz
cd nagiosxi
./upgrade

Verifying again...

8) Al this point NagiosXI and his componentes would be up to date, then we need to install/configure 3rd party plugins, right?

9) Should we migrate the rrd graphic files at this time? How can we do it? copying rrd files from old to new NagiosXI host?

10) Finally, need to change ip address from old NagiosXI "appliance" to new NagiosXI VM and enable email notifications, correct?.



Do you think I left something?

Best Regards.
Sergio.

Hi Sergio,

My apologies, I wasn't clear in that explanation - we've found that often it is better to not upgrade to a release that is more that 24 months newer than the version currently in use. This minimizes the number changes per step to lower the risk of problems as well as help isolate the changes that might be causing a problem. Often it is not a factor and bigger steps can be made in the upgrade process but the more complex the environment the more valuable it is to keep the number of changes down. The flexibility of NagiosXI is one of it's best features but it really can make the upgrade process a little more complicated in complex environments.

It looks like you have a good plan outlined - a couple of notes:

1) If you are using a VM it would probably be good to take a snapshot of the VM at this point if your hypervisor supports it. Depending upon how things go it might be handy to have a quick path back to this point.

3) Redundancy is a good thing - let me say that again - redundancy is a good thing. In this case it would probably be a good idea to shutdown postfix and go in first thing after the restore and disable alerts in the UI.

4) If you are using a RAMdisk on your old system you will want to configure that before the restore.
https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nag ... giosXI.pdf
I didn't see mod gearman or RRDCacheD but if you are using those - be sure to install them prior to the restore as well.

8) Correct - depending upon the nature of the plugin it might be migrated as a part of the process however if it requires special libraries or dependencies you may have to reinstall. These two people most commonly have problems with:

https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nag ... ios-XI.pdf
https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nag ... ios-XI.pdf

9) Updating the rrd files will probably take one of two paths depending upon whether or not your old system is 32 or 64 bit (uname -a):
a) If your old system is 32 bit you will have to migrate them using the following guide.
---> https://support.nagios.com/kb/article.php?id=166
b) If your old system is 64 bit you should be able to copy them over to the new system as you would any other file.

Good Luck !!!

Thanks and Best Regards,
Keith

Ok, thanks for making it clearer.

We have some more questions.

1) Which is the version dou you recommend ? Centos Linux 7.10 final? RHEL 8 (availables licenses)?
Is there any OVA files with Centos 7 or RHEL with NagiosXI 5.4.13 preinstalled to download?

The operating system question is a tough one that you should consider in the context of your organization. End of Life for CentOS 7 is June 30 of 2024 however we're starting to see problems with out dated packages in the OS distribution. The end/support dates for RHEL 8 is a little more complex and you should consider what would be best in terms of cost and maintainability moving forward. For reference here's the list of Linux distributions we officially support:

Cent/RHEL 7, 8
Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04, 20.04 LTS
Debian 10, 11 64bit only

Unfortunately we don't have an ova image with 5.4.13 available however I did download 5.4.13 and installed using the fullinstall script on a fresh CentOS 7.9 system. It took about ten minutes and I didn't observe any problems:

Thanks and Best Regards,
Keith