Does it make sense to start with Zabbix 8.0 pre-release in a controlled “half-production” setup?
Hi everyone,
I’m planning a fresh Zabbix deployment and I’d like to ask for some practical opinions about using Zabbix 8.0 pre-release in a controlled semi-production setup.
At the moment, I already have a small Zabbix environment running on Zabbix 7.4.11. It originally started as a test system, but over time it became production-like. So far, upgrades from 7.2 to 7.4.11 have been completely smooth for us. Our update cycle is very fast: whenever a new Zabbix release comes out, I usually update shortly after. Because of that, long-term support is not a major requirement for us. We do not stay on old versions for a long time, and we do not rely heavily on vendor support.
The current environment is relatively small: around 224 hosts, around 4,300 items, and about 67 NVPS.
Now I want to build a new Zabbix server next to the current one. The idea is that the new server would initially be a controlled “half-production” or early-adoption system, while the current 7.4.11 server would remain available as a fallback and archive. Once Zabbix 8.0 stable is officially released, the new server would be upgraded to the stable release and then treated as the main production system.
I do not want to migrate historical data. I only plan to export and import the configuration: hosts, templates, host groups, macros, media types, actions, and possibly users or roles if needed. Historical data, trends, old events and problems are not important for this migration.
The planned stack for the new system would be Ubuntu Server 26.04 LTS, Zabbix 8.0 pre-release, PostgreSQL, TimescaleDB, Nginx, and Zabbix Proxy. I also want to start using a proxy as part of this new design and move hosts step by step rather than switching everything at once.
My main question is: does this approach make sense, or would you recommend staying on Zabbix 7.4.11 until Zabbix 8.0 stable is officially released?
I fully understand that pre-release versions are not recommended for critical production use. However, in my specific case, I am not migrating history, the existing 7.4.11 system can remain as a fallback, the environment is small, and we already update Zabbix very frequently after each release. The new server would also be deployed alongside the existing one, not as an immediate replacement on day one.
I would especially appreciate feedback about Zabbix 8.0 pre-release stability, PostgreSQL and TimescaleDB with Zabbix 8.0, Ubuntu 26.04 compatibility, Zabbix Proxy compatibility, importing configuration from 7.4.11 to 8.0, and Agent or Agent2 compatibility between 7.4 and 8.0.
Has anyone tested a similar setup already? Would you consider this a reasonable early-adoption approach, or is it still better to stay on 7.4.11 for now and only move to 8.0 after the stable release?
Thanks in advance for any practical experience or advice.