[postgis-users] PostGIS Known Issues : OEL7 to RHEL8 Upgrade

[Nikhil Shetty]

Hi Team, 

We want to know if there are any open/known issues that we may face post-migration of the Postgres database  instance  with PostGIS enabled from centos7/RHEL7/OEL7 to RHEL8. 

We came across one issue regarding collation(https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Locale_data_changes), the solution for which is to reindex or use logical replication. This is not related to PostGIS but still a concern causing index corruption 

In a similar way, we want to understand if there are any other known issues related to PostGIS that should be taken care of

PostgreSQL : 13.6

PostGIS : 3.1.2

Thanks and Regards,

Nikhil

[Regina Obe]

3.1.2 is not the latest stable release for 3.1, so you really shouldn’t be using that.  The 3.1.2 is before the PostgreSQL security vulnerability patches for example and numerous bugs have been fixed since then.

 

Latest 3.1 is 3.1.9

 

https://postgis.net/2023/05/PostGIS-3.3.3-3.2.5-3.1.9-3.0.9-Patch-Releases/

News specific for 3.1 - https://git.osgeo.org/gitea/postgis/postgis/raw/tag/3.1.9/NEWS

 

I would say the same holds true for PostgreSQL 13.12 is the latest stable, so not sure why you are trying to use a version several micro updates behind

 

https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/postgresql-154-149-1312-1216-1121-and-postgresql-16-beta-3-released-2689/

 

 

Hope that helps,

Regina

[Nikhil Shetty]

Hi Regina,

We do have plans to upgrade both Postgres and PostGIS to higher versions but currently we are focusing on OS upgrade to RHEL8

Do you think being on PostGIS 3.1.2 will impact OS upgrade? Are there any known issues

Thanks,

Nikhil

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[Nikhil Shetty]

Hi Regina,

Please let us know if upgrading to RHEL8 with 3.1.2 would be an issue or any other known issues with PostGIS

Thanks,

Nikhil

[Greg Troxel]

Nikhil Shetty <nikhil...@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi Regina,
>
> Please let us know if upgrading to RHEL8 with 3.1.2 would be an issue or
> any other known issues with PostGIS
>
> Thanks,
> Nikhil

Questions about intentionally running old versions in the context of LTS
releases that intentionally choose old software seem best addressed to
the vendors providing that old software.

In general it is a problem in the LTS world where vendors sell
semi-proprietarized versions of software that is out of date, with the
result that people seek support for those old versions from the open
source world.

[Nikhil Shetty]

Hi Greg,

Not sure what is the your context, I am just asking if there are known issues with PostGIS when upgrading to RHEL8

We are not running anything intentionally, I have also mentioned we have plans for upgrade 

Please ask before putting messages out in the public domain.

Thanks,

Nikhil

[Greg Troxel]

Nikhil Shetty <nikhil...@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi Greg,
>
> Not sure what is the your context, I am just asking if there are known
> issues with PostGIS when upgrading to RHEL8
>
> We are not running anything intentionally, I have also mentioned we have
> plans for upgrade
>
> Please ask before putting messages out in the public domain.

I replied to a public message. Not sure what you mean here.

> Thanks,
> Nikhil



I interpreted your message as asking "if we upgrade from one LTS to some
other LTS, still using old postgis, and presumably old other software,
will it be ok".

In general the answer is "maybe, but we don't keep track of old
releases".

If you really meant "if anyone happens to know that this will break,
please speak up", then sorry, I misinterpreted.

The context is a long history of people running LTS who expect the
projects to provide support for old versions because they are in some
LTS.

Also, I dropped the developers list; please don't crosspost to both,
especially for things that belong on users.

[Regina Obe]

Nikhil,

 

As Greg had stated in a related post, I’d advice not using a micro we no longer support.  I already pointed at all the issues with those here - https://git.osgeo.org/gitea/postgis/postgis/src/branch/stable-3.1/NEWS

 

The BIG known issue is we can’t help you if anything goes wrong cause we don’t support PostGIS 3.1.2 and I honestly can’t remember that far back in time (2 years ago).

That’s 7 unsupported micro releases ago paired with a PostgreSQL version that is 7 micro releases behind the latest stable PostgreSQL 13.  Yes I suspect you’ll have lots of issues.

 

Any issues you run into using PostGIS 3.1.2 instead of any of our supported micros - https://postgis.net/development/source_code/

are on you.  PostgreSQL group will have the same answer if you ask them if you have issues with a micro they stopped supporting a while ago.

If you report an issue to either PostGIS or PostgreSQL groups, our answer will be  “Upgrade to the latest micro to make sure it’s not an issue we already solved” or go ask the group (e.g. vendor)

who is asking you to run an out of date version of software.

 

I also have no idea whether you are packaging your own or getting it from a distribution.

Most of the issues that arise are how you package the dependencies, which versions you are running with and how it conflicts with stuff you already have installed or applications that depend on it.

 

I’m also unclear what version of PostGIS you are upgrading from.  Telling me you are coming from RHEL7 tells me nothing since I have much newer minor versions of PostGIS running on RHEL 7 systems.

 

You will need to report at the very least:

 

SELECT version(), postgis_full_version();

 

From your RHEL7 system and if you are doing a pg_dump and pg_restore or not.

 

Generally running pg_dump / pg_restore is slowest way to upgrade but least hassle of issues so easiest to go if you have few databases or a small database.

Doing a replication and then pg_upgrade after is the fastest way to upgrade and what I do for databases in the high gigabytes or terabytes (least amount of downtime), but there are lots of gotchas with that such as

What I mentioned here: https://www.bostongis.com/blog/index.php?/archives/273-Using-pg_upgrade-to-upgrade-PostgreSQL-9.3-PostGIS-2.1-to-PostgreSQL-11-2.5-on-Yum.html

 

There are also often issues that arise with PROJ, but those should be less so since you are not trying to upgrade on the same system.

 

 

Hope that helps,

Regina

[Nikhil Shetty]

Hi Regina, Greg,

Thank you for the detailed explanation 

We will upgrade PostGIS to latest release and then migrate to RHEL8

We will share with the community if there are any findings 

Thanks,

Nikhil

[Nikhil Shetty]

Hi Regina,

One quick question, as per doc regd EOL

The PostGIS project strives to support each minor version of PostGIS for 2-4 years after initial release and at the very least until the lowest PostgreSQL version supported by the PostGIS minor version is EOL’d

For PostGIS 3.1(released in 2020), the support will end in 2024? or after PostgreSQL 11 EOL i.e 2023(Next 2-3 months) ?

I was thinking should we go for minor version upgrade (3.1.9) or move directly to major version (3.2 or 3.3) (will require more stringent tests)

Thanks,

Nikhil

[Regina Obe]

I doubt we’ll be ending support of 3.1 in 2024 but we haven’t voted on it.

We still need to EOL 3.0 too which we haven’t voted on either.

So 3.0 will most likely be in 2023.  3.1 probably not because we don’t like to EOL two versions in 1 year.

 

Also if there is no pressing reason to EOL, e.g the code hasn’t changed so much that we can’t apply security patches without rewriting the patch, we aren’t in that much of a rush.

 

So too things that force us to EOL

 

1. Patches are harder to Apply
2. We no longer have CI bots that can comfortably test all the PGs that were supported by that minor

 

Thanks,

Regina

[Nikhil Shetty]

Got it, Thanks Regina!