Hello,
my customer is using a merchandise management software called Abisco.
Abisco needs a PostgreSQL database to store its information. At the moment my customer is running an UCS 4.3.3 with PostgreSQL 9.6.
The problem is, that Abisco throws an annoying error message at its startup, because of a wrong database version. After typing “AUF EIGENES RISIKO” and closing that message everything runs fine.
The Abisco support tells me, that Postgres 9.5.5 is the only version they support. I don’t see, what is so special with 9.5.5…
Though 9.5.5 is not in the official repo and even is not in build UCS 4.4, i can only install it, using the debian packages postgres is offering itself.
What issues can i expect, if i install and downgrade to 9.5.5. on UCS 4.3.3 or 4.4.1?
The ucs server runs also the primary domain and the Nextcloud server.
Specific to UCS: There is software in UCS like PKGDB that is tested to work with the PostgreSQL version shipped with UCS. If such software starts using specific features not supported with 9.5.5 (rare but may happen) the fingerpointing will start since you’d be running an unsupported version of PostgreSQL from the perspective of Univention. You’ll end up with issues with one of both vendors, not something what you want.
Manually installing packages for an older Debian release is definitely something I wouldn’t want to do or maintain. Older versions are linked against older libraries not present (think of libssl) which is bound to cause issues.
Manually compiling PostgreSQL from source with compile-time options that would allow it to run alongside the system-integrated server, can be time-intensive. I would strongly discourage from doing so from a maintenance perspective.
If that vendor insists on running PostgreSQL 9.5.x, finding a distribution or even that is still supported and where you can install PostgreSQL 9.5 from a compiled package/installer … I don’t see much point in trying to make it work on UCS.
What is even more weird is them insisting on 9.5.5 specifically, which is a release from 2016. This release is bound to have numerous (possibly security) bugs unfixed that were closed with 9.5.19 which is the latest patch release for the 9.5 branch as of writing.
Anyhow, what might be your options? I’d encapsulate that thing in its own environment, thinking of a VM or container, that could possibly be:
Windows VM and PostgreSQL 9.5(.5 or the latest) also from the project page.
If they absolutely insist on 9.5.5 you will even end up with issues using the PGDG repo since they don’t provide all minor releases as well for the 9.5 branch. IMO: Not a funny position to be in as a customer if that applies to their latest or current product release. If they have a more recent version that supports other releases of PostgreSQL, that would make things potentially easier.
If that vendor provides a recommended OS/distribution to run their software on, I would ask them if there is such a recommendation and if it looks sane, use their recommendation to build a VM instead of shoehorning this into UCS.
Sidenote: To me it sounds a bit interesting that they insist on Postgres 9.5 since their own website specifies PostgreSQL 9… (and not a specific minor version)
Thanks for your detailed answer!
I know it’s really weired… My customer spoke to the ceo of Byterider (Abisco) and he got that answer:
Well, i don’t understand this whole thing. Regarding to 9.6 release notes there should be nothing completely different. A few deprecated options removed and the main part seems to me just performance stuff. The backup of db.config? wtf?! pg_hba.conf and postgresql.conf are not accessible from the Abisco client.
Another interesting fact: Abisco is offering an own server bundled with all necessary software for a monthly rate. Evil to him who evil thinks
So i really consider running windows 7 in a vm. An the other hand, just typing “AUF EIGENES RISIKO” on the startup in the morning should be acceptable, because the software is running without any further issues.
That somewhat shows a lack on the vendor of keeping up with upstream changes considering Postgres has seen 3 major releases with 9.6, 10 and 11 until now. I could name others products in similar situations but that’s not the point here.
Could you at least confirm that they support the latest patch release of PostgreSQL 9.5 or do they insist on 9.5.5? That would give them until February 2021 to fix their application to support a more recent major release as that represents the end of patch support for 9.5 by the PostgreSQL project.
This would permit you running a Linux-based VM in a version that is at least getting updates for a longer period in time compared to Windows 7 reaching EoL in January 2020.
Running that application on 9.6 will inherently give them a chance to play the “blame game” for any unexpected behavior or bugs. They can (if they want to) ultimately block any support calls until you are running it in an environment they officially support - which if it is a production system - isn’t really a great outlook.
Hi msi,
so i finally talked to Byterider. They told me, that security bugs are unimportant as long as PostgreSQL runs in an internal network…
Anyhow i am now allowed to use version 9.5.19 instead of 9.5.5. So it means i am able to build a vm with this version without further problems.
That’s at least some good news. Yes, I agree with them to a degree, nonetheless you can see that numerous bugs have been fixed with later releases that are not related related to security. Overall it’s definitely better to have them instead of running a minor releases of almost 3 years worth of bugfixes by using 9.5.5.
This gives you some time until february 2021 (ahem: “Gnadenfrist”) to run the software at least on a maintained software stack.
Since 9.5.x packages are vailable from the PGDG for Debian, Ubuntu LTS and CentOS you have at least 3 Linux-based choices that are supported longer than 9.5 is going to get bugfixes:
If you want something that behaves the closest to UCS, Debian 10 would be an obvious choice. If you want the longest support, it is likely CentOS. I was initially uncertain if packages of 9.5 were available for buster and bionic, but quickly checking the repo confirmed that yes, they were available as of writing.
Though I hope for you that the vendor ultimately starts supporting more recent versions at some point. Good luck
