Upgrade from v3.7.8 to v4.4.0 fails on migration `users.0005_alter_user_table` (`core_objecttype` missing)

[pheus]

Deployment Type

Self-hosted

NetBox Version

v4.4.0

Python Version

3.10

Steps to Reproduce

1. Start with a fresh PostgreSQL database (no existing NetBox tables).
2. Clone the NetBox repository and check out v3.7.8:

   git clone https://github.com/netbox-community/netbox.git /opt/netbox
   cd /opt/netbox
   git checkout v3.7.8

3. Configure NetBox per the installation guide (minimal config with DB/Redis and ALLOWED_HOSTS) and initialize using the provided script:

   ./upgrade.sh

4. Upgrade the working tree to v4.4.0:

   git checkout v4.4.0

5. Run the upgrade script again to apply migrations for v4.4.0:

   ./upgrade.sh

Expected Behavior

The upgrade should complete successfully. All migrations should apply without errors and NetBox should start normally on v4.4.0.

Observed Behavior

The migration fails while applying users.0005_alter_user_table with an error indicating that core_objecttype does not exist:

Applying users.0005_alter_user_table...Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/netbox/venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/django/db/backends/utils.py", line 105, in _execute
    return self.cursor.execute(sql, params)
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/opt/netbox-/venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/psycopg/cursor.py", line 97, in execute
    raise ex.with_traceback(None)
psycopg.errors.UndefinedTable: relation "core_objecttype" does not exist
LINE 1: ...type"."public", "core_objecttype"."features" FROM "core_obje...
                                            ^

After this exception, the upgrade process aborts.

[pheus]

Cross‑reference: This issue was originally raised in GitHub Discussions:
Errors while upgrading from 3.7.8 to 4.4.0 (#20284)

---

I was able to fix the migration failure by adjusting the dependency ordering for users.0005_alter_user_table so that the core_objecttype table exists before this migration runs.

users.0005_alter_user_table implicitly relies on core_objecttype, but its dependencies didn’t guarantee that core.0018_concrete_objecttype (and the later Extras changes) had been applied first. This led to the error.

netbox/netbox/users/migrations/0005_alter_user_table.py

Lines 26 to 29 in c9f8231

	dependencies = [
	('users', '0002_squashed_0004'),
	('extras', '0113_customfield_rename_object_type'),
	]

I changed the migration’s dependencies as follows:

 class Migration(migrations.Migration):
     dependencies = [
+        ('core', '0018_concrete_objecttype'),
+        ('extras', '0117_move_objectchange'),
         ('users', '0002_squashed_0004'),
-        ('extras', '0113_customfield_rename_object_type'),
     ]

After this change, ./upgrade.sh (or python manage.py migrate) completes without errors and the upgrade to v4.4.0 succeeds for me.

I’m happy to open a PR with this change if the approach looks acceptable.

Thanks for taking a look!

[AnythingOverIP]

I was also getting the error on users.0005_alter_user_table while trying to migrate from 3.7.6 to 4.4.0. After applying the above mentioned change, I got past the error I had but now getting the following error on extras.0115_convert_dashboard_widgets:

Applying database migrations (python3 netbox/manage.py migrate)...
Operations to perform:
  Apply all migrations: account, auth, circuits, contenttypes, core, dcim, django_rq, extras, ipam, sessions, social_django, taggit, tenancy, thumbnail, users, virtualization, vpn, wireless
Running migrations:
  Applying extras.0115_convert_dashboard_widgets...Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/netbox-4.4.0/venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/django/db/backends/utils.py", line 105, in _execute
    return self.cursor.execute(sql, params)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/opt/netbox-4.4.0/venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/psycopg/cursor.py", line 97, in execute
    raise ex.with_traceback(None)
psycopg.errors.UndefinedTable: relation "core_objecttype" does not exist
LINE 1: ...type"."public", "core_objecttype"."features" FROM "core_obje...
                                                             ^

[jeremystretch]

I have confirmed that this error occurs only when upgrading directly from v3.7.x to v4.4.0 (which, to be fair, is meant to be supported). As a workaround, you can first upgrade to v4.3.7, and then to v4.4.0 or later:

Migrating from v3.7.8 to v4.3.7:

Running migrations:
  Applying extras.0108_convert_reports_to_scripts... OK
  Applying extras.0109_script_model... OK
  Applying extras.0110_remove_eventrule_action_parameters... OK
  Applying extras.0111_rename_content_types... OK
  Applying extras.0112_tag_update_object_types... OK
  Applying extras.0113_customfield_rename_object_type... OK
  Applying users.0005_alter_user_table... OK
  Applying users.0006_custom_group_model... OK
  Applying users.0007_objectpermission_update_object_types... OK
  Applying users.0008_flip_objectpermission_assignments... OK
  Applying users.0009_update_group_perms... OK
  Applying extras.0114_customfield_add_comments... OK
  Applying extras.0115_convert_dashboard_widgets... OK
  Applying extras.0116_custom_link_button_color... OK
  Applying core.0011_move_objectchange... OK
  Applying extras.0117_move_objectchange... OK
  Applying extras.0118_customfield_uniqueness... OK
  Applying extras.0119_notifications... OK
  Applying extras.0120_eventrule_event_types... OK
  Applying extras.0121_customfield_related_object_filter... OK
  Applying extras.0122_charfield_null_choices... OK
  Applying tenancy.0015_contactassignment_rename_content_type... OK
  Applying tenancy.0016_charfield_null_choices... OK
  Applying ipam.0070_vlangroup_vlan_id_ranges... OK
  Applying ipam.0071_prefix_scope... OK
  Applying dcim.0186_location_facility... OK
  Applying dcim.0187_alter_device_vc_position... OK
  Applying dcim.0188_racktype... OK
  Applying dcim.0189_moduletype_rack_airflow... OK
  Applying dcim.0190_nested_modules... OK
  Applying dcim.0191_module_bay_rebuild... OK
  Applying dcim.0192_inventoryitem_status... OK
  Applying dcim.0193_poweroutlet_color... OK
  Applying ipam.0072_prefix_cached_relations... OK
  Applying ipam.0073_charfield_null_choices... OK
  Applying ipam.0074_vlantranslationpolicy_vlantranslationrule... OK
  Applying ipam.0075_vlan_qinq... OK
  Applying dcim.0194_charfield_null_choices... OK
  Applying dcim.0195_interface_vlan_translation_policy... OK
  Applying dcim.0196_qinq_svlan... OK
  Applying dcim.0197_natural_sort_collation... OK
  Applying circuits.0044_circuit_groups... OK
  Applying circuits.0045_circuit_distance... OK
  Applying circuits.0046_charfield_null_choices... OK
  Applying circuits.0047_circuittermination__termination... OK
  Applying circuits.0048_circuitterminations_cached_relations... OK
  Applying circuits.0049_natural_ordering... OK
  Applying circuits.0050_virtual_circuits... OK
  Applying circuits.0051_virtualcircuit_group_assignment... OK
  Applying circuits.0052_extend_circuit_abs_distance_upper_limit... OK
  Applying core.0012_job_object_type_optional... OK
  Applying core.0013_job_data_encoder... OK
  Applying core.0014_datasource_sync_interval... OK
  Applying core.0015_remove_redundant_indexes... OK
  Applying extras.0123_journalentry_kind_default... OK
  Applying extras.0124_remove_staging... OK
  Applying extras.0125_alter_tag_options_tag_weight... OK
  Applying extras.0126_exporttemplate_file_name... OK
  Applying extras.0127_configtemplate_as_attachment_and_more... OK
  Applying extras.0128_tableconfig... OK
  Applying extras.0129_fix_script_paths... OK
  Applying dcim.0198_natural_ordering... OK
  Applying dcim.0199_macaddress... OK
  Applying dcim.0200_populate_mac_addresses... OK
  Applying dcim.0201_add_power_outlet_status... OK
  Applying dcim.0202_location_comments_region_comments_sitegroup_comments... OK
  Applying dcim.0203_add_rack_outer_height... OK
  Applying dcim.0203_device_role_nested... OK
  Applying dcim.0204_device_role_rebuild... OK
  Applying dcim.0205_moduletypeprofile... OK
  Applying dcim.0206_load_module_type_profiles... OK
  Applying dcim.0207_remove_redundant_indexes... OK
  Applying dcim.0208_devicerole_uniqueness... OK
  Applying dcim.0209_device_component_denorm_site_location... OK
  Applying dcim.0210_macaddress_ordering... OK
  Applying tenancy.0017_natural_ordering... OK
  Applying tenancy.0018_contact_groups... OK
  Applying tenancy.0019_contactgroup_comments_tenantgroup_comments... OK
  Applying tenancy.0020_remove_contactgroupmembership... OK
  Applying virtualization.0039_virtualmachine_serial_number... OK
  Applying virtualization.0040_convert_disk_size... OK
  Applying virtualization.0041_charfield_null_choices... OK
  Applying virtualization.0042_vminterface_vlan_translation_policy... OK
  Applying virtualization.0043_qinq_svlan... OK
  Applying virtualization.0044_cluster_scope... OK
  Applying virtualization.0045_clusters_cached_relations... OK
  Applying virtualization.0046_alter_cluster__location_alter_cluster__region_and_more... OK
  Applying virtualization.0047_natural_ordering... OK
  Applying virtualization.0048_populate_mac_addresses... OK
  Applying ipam.0076_natural_ordering... OK
  Applying ipam.0077_vlangroup_tenant... OK
  Applying ipam.0078_iprange_mark_utilized... OK
  Applying ipam.0079_add_service_fhrp_group_parent_gfk... OK
  Applying ipam.0080_populate_service_parent... OK
  Applying ipam.0081_remove_service_device_virtual_machine_add_parent_gfk_index... OK
  Applying ipam.0082_add_prefix_network_containment_indexes... OK
  Applying social_django.0016_alter_usersocialauth_extra_data... OK
  Applying social_django.0017_usersocialauth_user_social_auth_uid_required... OK
  Applying users.0010_add_token_meta_ordering... OK
  Applying vpn.0005_rename_indexes... OK
  Applying vpn.0006_charfield_null_choices... OK
  Applying vpn.0007_natural_ordering... OK
  Applying vpn.0008_add_l2vpn_status... OK
  Applying vpn.0009_remove_redundant_indexes... OK
  Applying wireless.0009_wirelesslink_distance... OK
  Applying wireless.0010_charfield_null_choices... OK
  Applying wireless.0011_wirelesslan__location_wirelesslan__region_and_more... OK
  Applying wireless.0012_alter_wirelesslan__location_and_more... OK
  Applying wireless.0013_natural_ordering... OK
  Applying wireless.0014_wirelesslangroup_comments... OK
  Applying wireless.0015_extend_wireless_link_abs_distance_upper_limit... OK

Migrating from v4.3.7 to v4.4.0:

Running migrations:
  Applying core.0016_job_log_entries... OK
  Applying core.0017_objectchange_message... OK
  Applying core.0018_concrete_objecttype... OK
  Applying dcim.0211_platform_manufacturer_uniqueness... OK
  Applying dcim.0212_interface_tx_power_negative... OK
  Applying dcim.0213_platform_parent... OK
  Applying dcim.0214_platform_rebuild... OK
  Applying dcim.0215_rackreservation_status... OK
  Applying extras.0130_imageattachment_description... OK
  Applying extras.0131_concrete_objecttype... OK
  Applying extras.0132_configcontextprofile... OK
  Applying thumbnail.0001_initial... OK
  Applying users.0011_concrete_objecttype... OK