Nagios Support Forum

Hi,

We need to plan out an upgrade for our Nagios servers running on RedHat 7.6 from version 5.5.5 to a current version. We have a couple of test servers to try first. There are quite a few versions between where we are and the current version, so there are probably incremental upgrade steps. We also have a Fusion version 4.1.2 server and quite a lot of NRPE version 2.15 agents installed, so I am assuming at some point(s) they will need to be upgraded too.

An alternate plan might be to do fresh installs and then somehow migrate all config and users over to the new servers, but that might be more difficult.

What are your recommendations?

Thank you for your help!

Regards,
Dave

(answered the ticket version of this one)

Hi Dave,

Generally speaking it's often safer and easier to build and upgrade new systems in parallel. It's a multi step process but pretty straight forward and will probably be a little easier since you are already on CentOS 7. All environments are uniq but our general guidance is to make steps within a 24 month window between releases to minimize the number of changes. That being said 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 (5.5.5 -> 5.6.14 -> 5.8.7). Below I will append our general instructions for upgrading via this path and put at the top a couple of handy docs/links for reference.

Knowledge Base Article on 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/


######################
Here's the process we generally recommend:
######################

# Build the new server running the supported version of linux you wish to use. In this case I would recommend RHEL or CentOS 7 or 8. Currently 8 is scheduled to be end of life (EOL) on 12/31/2021 where as 7 is scheduled for EOL on 6/31/2024 so staying with 7 would probably be the better option.

# On the new server install the same version of XI that is installed on the old server, no need to configure it, just install it and go through the initial setup. *Do not try to restore over different versions of XI, it will cause issues.*

Old versions of XI can be found here:
https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nag ... rsions.php

For convenience here's our knowledge base article on performing a manual install:
https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nag ... -Linux.pdf

# If you have a RAMDisk installed, are using RRDCacheD, or are running Mod_Gearman on the old system, set them up before restoring:

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

If you are monitoring vmware/oracle you'll need to reinstall the proper supporting packages on the new server again following these guides:

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

# On the old system perform a fresh backup and transfer that backup to the new system and restore it there.

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

Manual Backup Instructions can be found on page 4.
Restoration instructions begin on page 10 - *Be sure to read and follow the instructions in the restore section*.

# Shutdown (or re-IP) the old system, and configure the new system with the IP address of the old system.

https://support.nagios.com/kb/article/c ... s-549.html

# Then "apply configuration" and upgrade the new server to the next appropriate version of XI. One note if your current system is 32-bit you will need to follow this as well to migrate the performance data ( no need if you're already 64bit ):

https://support.nagios.com/kb/article.php?id=166

And that should be about all there is to it for XI. I would recommend starting a new thread when you're ready to upgrade Fusion but in the mean time here are links to the fusion changelog and the archive of previous versions:

https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nag ... rsions.php
https://www.nagios.com/downloads/nagios ... hange-log/


Thanks and Best Regards,
Keith