Zabbix

In this blog, we will install Zabbix 5.4 on Ubuntu Server.

Last updated on 22nd September 2021

This blog is specifically targeted at Zabbix 5.4. Check the life cycle of Zabbix versions below before selecting the latest version (Zabbix 5.4 at the time of writing this blog). I would recommend to go for Zabbix 5.0 LTS unless you need a functionality not offered by this version. Check Zabbix link for further information on Zabbix life cycle.

Release name	Release date	End of Full Support	End of Limited Support
Zabbix 5.4	May 17, 2021	Nov 30, 2021	Dec 31, 2021
Zabbix 5.2	Oct 27, 2021	Jul 31, 2021	Jul 31, 2021
Zabbix 5.0 LTS	May 12, 2020	May 31, 2023	May 31, 2025
Zabbix 4.0 LTS	October 1, 2018	October 31, 2021	October 31, 2023

Make sure you have an Internet connection on your Ubuntu Server and it is up-to-date as well. Run the following commands to update/upgrade the list of available packages.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

1. Select Zabbix Version

Head down to zabbix.com/download and select the Zabbix Version, OS Distribution, OS Version, Database and Web Server. I will be using the following:

ZABBIX VERSION	OS DISTRIBUTION	OS VERSION	DATABASE	WEB SERVER
5.4	Ubuntu	20.04 (Focal)	MySQL	Apache

Perform the first step and Install the Zabbix repository. In my case, it is Zabbix 5.4 and it could be different when you are following this blog.

wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/5.4/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_5.4-1+ubuntu20.04_all.deb

Once the repository is downloaded, run the following command to install it.

sudo dpkg -i zabbix-release_5.4-1+ubuntu20.04_all.deb

This is important, otherwise, you will run into problems. Update/Upgrade the installed packages with the following command.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

2. Install Zabbix Server, frontend, agent, and database

Now we will install Zabbix server, frontend, agent, and database. I have added additional bit mysql-server to the official Zabbix command because without that I could not run mysql_secure_installation command.

sudo apt install zabbix-server-mysql zabbix-frontend-php zabbix-apache-conf zabbix-sql-scripts zabbix-agent mysql-server

3. Check Versions

Check all the software versions you have installed. Here you can check the supported versions

MySQL server version

sudo mysql -V

Apache version

sudo apache2 -V

PHP Version

sudo php --version

4. Configure MySQL Server

This is again missing in the official documentation, let’s secure our MySQL server and give a password to the root user:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

• yes or no, if you would like to install Validate Password Plugin (I said no for this in my lab environment)
• The next part offers you to change the password for the root of MYSQL
• The next option to remove anonymous users, I will say Yes 
• The next option to stop root login remotely, I would go for no 
• Reload privileges table: Yes 
• You will see, “All done”, once it is all done 

5. Create an initial database and a user

Database	zabbix
User	zabbix
Password	password

1. Let’s login to MySQL server and provide the MySQL root password which you entered in the previous step.

sudo mysql -u root -p

2. Create a database and name it zabbix.

create database zabbix character set utf8 collate utf8_bin;

3. Create a new user and name it zabbix. Also, pick a password for this user. We will need this password later on for Zabbix server config file.

create user zabbix@localhost identified by 'password';

4. Now grant permissions on zabbix database to user zabbix.

grant all privileges on zabbix.* to zabbix@localhost;

5. Once done, flush the privileges.

flush privileges;

6. Confirm privileges for user zabbix on database zabbix.

show GRANTS FOR 'zabbix'@'localhost';

7. Let’s get out of MySQL

quit;

6. Import initial schema and data.

In the previous step, we created a new database and user. Now we will utilize that database and import initial schema and data to that database. Run the following command and provide the password for the database user zabbix. Be patient with this command and it could take 5 to 30 seconds or more to finish.

sudo zcat /usr/share/doc/zabbix-sql-scripts/mysql/create.sql.gz | mysql -uzabbix -p zabbix

Verify the schema is imported successfully to database zabbix.

• In order to do that, we have to log in to MySQL server with MySQL user root and provide the password when prompted

sudo mysql -u root -p

• Use database zabbix, where we imported initial schema and data

use zabbix;

• So we are now in database zabbix. Let’s see the tables

show tables;

• You should see the tables on the screen. Let’s get out of MySQL server

quit;

7. Update Zabbix Server Config file

Well! this file has a lot of stuff. We will update only one thing, however, this is the place where you tune up your Zabbix server. We will update the zabbix server password only. If you have used different zabbix database name, consider updating that as well.

sudo nano /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf

Let’s find the keyword DBPassword
Hit Ctrl + W on your keyboard, type DBPassword, and then hit Enter on your keyboard. You should see #DBPassword. Update it as follows:

DBPassword=password

Once you have made the above change, then use the following on your keyboard to save the file:
Ctrl  + O and Ctrl + X

8. Configure PHP for Zabbix frontend

We will edit  /etc/zabbix/apache.conf file to update the timezone. Here is the list of timezones and find yours.

sudo nano  /etc/zabbix/apache.conf

Look for # php_value date.timezone Europe/Riga below PHP 7.0 configuration and update your timezone accordingly. Mine looks like this

php_value date.timezone Australia/Melbourne

Once you have made the above change, then use the following on your keyboard to save the file:
Ctrl  + O and Ctrl + X

9. Start Zabbix server and agent processes

Alright, now it is the time to start Zabbix server and agent. 

sudo systemctl restart zabbix-server zabbix-agent apache2

Let’s add Zabbix server and agent services to auto start at system boot

sudo systemctl enable zabbix-server zabbix-agent apache2

10. Configure Front End

All the hard work is done and now let’s finish it off through a web browser. Make sure your system can ping the Ubuntu server from where you are accessing the browser.

1. Open your favourite browser and open Zabbix by typing the following:
   http://Your_IP_Address/zabbix
   
   In my case, it will look like http://172.24.188.94/zabbix. You should see the front end welcome screen.

   

2. You will check of pre-requisites step and make sure everything is ok before proceeding further
3. Provide the details of zabbix database we configured earlier and click on the next step

   

4. Update the name, I will call it MMDM-NETMON01 and click on the next step

   

5. Update GUI settings according to your needs and click Next step

   

6. You will see the pre-installation summary and click Next step

   

7. Well I welcomed by the following screen

   

11. Login to Zabbix

The default credentials are as follows:
Username: Admin
Password: zabbix

Note: Username is case sensitive.

Well that is all. Let me know how did you go with your setup along with your current configuration (Ubuntu Version, MySQL Version, PHP Version and Apache Version)

In this post, we will look at how to install and configure Zabbix Agent on the Windows platform.

1. Download Windows Zabbix Agent

1. Download the Windows Zabbix Agent from officially Zabbix website. Below is an example for x64 machine with no encryption. Here is the direct download link https://www.zabbix.com/download_agents and select the following from the given options.

OS Distribution	OS Version	Hardware	Zabbix Version	Encryption	Packaging
Windows	Any	amd64	5.2	No encryption	MSI

2. You will see the Zabbix Release options as below and usually, you would go for the latest release and click on download.

3. Downloaded file will be a zip file and unzip the file, you will see the below content.

• bin folder has the following files
  

• conf folder has the configuration file

2. Move files on the target endpoint

For this example, my target endpoint is Windows Server 2019 OS (TEKNEX-CA01).

1. Create zabbix folder in the Windows root directory
c:\zabbix

2. Copy below files to newly created zabbix folder

• bin\zabbix_agentd.exe
• conf\zabbix_agentd.conf

3. Prepare Windows firewall

By default, Zabbix agent communicates over 10050 port, and I am sticking with the default port.

1. Add port TCP 10050 in the allow list for inbound communication. You could use GUI to achieve this, however, it is easier to run the following PowerShell command. This will add TCP port 10050 in the inbound allow list.
Ensure you apply to the correct profile, TEKNEX-CA01 is part of the domain and this is why I am applying inbound to the Domain profile only. Run the following one-line command in PowerShell as administrator.

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Allow inbound 10050" -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -Action Allow -LocalPort 10050 -Profile Domain

To add this firewall rule to all profiles, you can use the following command. This command will allow inbound port 10050 on Domain, Private and Public profile.

  New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Allow inbound 10050" -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -Action Allow -LocalPort 10050 -Profile Any

2. Confirm the rule has been added by running the following command.

Get-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Allow inbound 10050"

4. Update Zabbix configuration file

Open zabbix_agentd.conf with any editor, even Windows built-in notepad will do the job. Uncomment the following and update accordingly. Save the file once you make changes.

• Server
  Provide Zabbix server IP address
  

• ListenPort
  Keep this default as 10050, unless you changed it
  

• Hostname
  Enter the hostname if your Zabbix does not resolve the hostname to IP address. If your DNS is functioning correctly, you can use the variable system.name. To keep things simple, I will just provide hostname manually.

5. Install and Start Zabbix service

1. Browse to zabbix folder on Windows endpoint

2. Select File in the Navigation pane > hover over Windows PowerShell > click Open Windows PowerShell as administrator

3. Run the below command to install Zabbix.

PS C:\zabbix> .\zabbix_agentd.exe -c .\zabbix_agentd.conf -i

You will see this message when you run the above command

4. Run the following command to start Zabbix service or you could start the service from the Task Manager

4. Verify Zabbix agent service in the Task Manager

6. Create a new Group on Zabbix Server

To add a host, we need to create a host group first. If you already have a group then you can skip this part.

1. Login to Zabbix front end > Extend Configuration > Click on Host groups

2. Click on Create host group on the top right hand corner

3. Give a name to new host group and click Add

7. Add a host on Zabbix Server

1. Login to Zabbix front end > Extend Configuration > Click on Hosts

2. Click on Create host on the top right hand corner

3. Enter the following information and click on Add

Host name	TEKNEX-CA01	This must match the Zabbix conf file.
Visible Name	TEKNEX-CA01	This can be anything meaningful.
Groups	MMDM Blog
Agent IP Address	10.0.0.4	The IP address of the endpoint TEKNEX-CA01.
DNS name	Leave it blank	FQDN of the endpoint. In my case, it could be TEKNEX-CA01.TEKNEX.LOCAL.
Connect to	IP	Zabbix server will connect to agent via IP address.
Port	10050	This must match the Zabbix conf file. 10050 is the default.
Description	Add something meaningful
Monitored by proxy	no proxy
Enabled	Checked	Keep this option checked

You will see something like following once you add a host under Configuration > Hosts

8. Link a template with the host

A host must have a template linked so that Zabbix Agent can report back to Zabbix Server with the requested data. In this step, let’s link a template with our newly added host TEKNEX-CA01.

1. Go to Configuration > Hosts

2. Click on newly added host TEKNEX-CA01

4. On the TEKNEX-CA01 host page, click on Templates

5. Next to Link new templates click on select

6. In the Host group search, type operating systems and click on Templates/Operating Systems

7. Check Template OS Windows by Zabbix Agent and click on Select

8. Click on update to save changes

9. Check availability

It can take a couple of minutes for the Zabbix server to initiate an initial communication with the endpoint. Once you attach a template, communication might not start straight away and you will see something like below under Configuration > Hosts

Once the communication has initiated, ZBX will turn into green and you would see something like below.

10. Troubleshooting

If you have waited long enough and ZBX did not turn into green, this indicates that there is something not right. Check the following:

• Inbound port 10500 is opened for the required profile. In the above example, I used Domain Profile because the endpoint is part of a domain.
• Ping endpoint from the Zabbix server and it should ping successfully
• Check the log file on the endpoint located in the Windows root directory and it can indicate you if there is an issue
  

Your feedback is very important. Let me know how did you go in the comments below.

In this blog, we will install Zabbix 5.0 LTS on Ubuntu Server.

Last updated on 8th July 2021

This blog is specifically targeted at Zabbix 5.0 LTS. Check the life cycle of Zabbix versions below before selecting the latest version (Zabbix 5.4 at the time of writing this blog). I would recommend to go for Zabbix 5.0 LTS unless you need a functionality not offered by this version. Check Zabbix link for further information on Zabbix life cycle.

Release name	Release date	End of Full Support	End of Limited Support
Zabbix 5.4	May 17, 2021	Nov 30, 2021	Dec 31, 2021
Zabbix 5.2	Oct 27, 2021	Jul 31, 2021	Jul 31, 2021
Zabbix 5.0 LTS	May 12, 2020	May 31, 2023	May 31, 2025
Zabbix 4.0 LTS	October 1, 2018	October 31, 2021	October 31, 2023

Make sure you have an Internet connection on your Ubuntu Server and it is up-to-date as well. Run the following commands to update/upgrade the list of available packages.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

1. Select Zabbix Version

Head down to zabbix.com/download and select the Zabbix Version, OS Distribution, OS Version, Database and Web Server. I will be using the following:

ZABBIX VERSION	OS DISTRIBUTION	OS VERSION	DATABASE	WEB SERVER
5.0 LTS	Ubuntu	20.04 (Focal)	MySQL	Apache

Perform the first step and Install the Zabbix repository. In my case, it is Zabbix 5.0 and it could be different when you are following this blog.

wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/5.0/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_5.0-1+focal_all.deb

Once the repository is downloaded, run the following command to install it.

dpkg -i zabbix-release_5.0-1+focal_all.deb

This is important, otherwise, you will run into problems. Update/Upgrade the installed packages with the following command.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

2. Install Zabbix Server, frontend, agent, and database

Now we will install Zabbix server, frontend, agent, and database. I have added additional bit mysql-server to the official Zabbix command because without that I could not run mysql_secure_installation command.

sudo apt install -y zabbix-server-mysql zabbix-frontend-php zabbix-apache-conf zabbix-agent mysql-server

3. Check Versions

Check all the software versions you have installed. Here you can check the supported versions

MySQL server version

sudo mysql -V

Apache version

sudo apache2 -V

PHP Version

sudo php --version

4. Configure MySQL Server

This is again missing in the official documentation, let’s secure our MySQL server and give a password to the root user:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

• yes or no, if you would like to install Validate Password Plugin (I said no for this in my lab environment)
• The next part offers you to change the password for the root of MYSQL
• The next option to remove anonymous users, I will say Yes 
• The next option to stop root login remotely, I would go for no 
• Reload privileges table: Yes 
• You will see, “All done”, once it is all done 

5. Create an initial database and a user

Database	zabbix
User	zabbix
Password	password

1. Let’s login to MySQL server and provide the MySQL root password which you entered in the previous step.

sudo mysql -u root -p

2. Create a database and name it zabbix.

create database zabbix character set utf8 collate utf8_bin;

3. Create a new user and name it zabbix. Also, pick a password for this user. We will need this password later on for Zabbix server config file.

create user zabbix@localhost identified by 'password';

4. Now grant permissions on zabbix database to user zabbix.

grant all privileges on zabbix.* to zabbix@localhost;

5. Once done, flush the privileges.

flush privileges;

6. Confirm privileges for user zabbix on database zabbix.

show GRANTS FOR 'zabbix'@'localhost';

7. Let’s get out of MySQL

quit;

6. Import initial schema and data.

In the previous step, we created a new database and user. Now we will utilize that database and import initial schema and data to that database. Run the following command and provide the password for the database user zabbix. Be patient with this command and it could take 5 to 30 seconds or more to finish.

sudo zcat /usr/share/doc/zabbix-server-mysql*/create.sql.gz | mysql -u zabbix -p zabbix

Verify the schema is imported successfully to database zabbix.

• In order to do that, we have to log in to MySQL server with MySQL user root and provide the password when prompted

sudo mysql -u root -p

• Use database zabbix, where we imported initial schema and data

use zabbix;

• So we are now in database zabbix. Let’s see the tables

show tables;

• You should see the tables on the screen. Let’s get out of MySQL server

quit;

7. Update Zabbix Server Config file

Well! this file has a lot of stuff. We will update only one thing, however, this is the place where you tune up your Zabbix server. We will update the zabbix server password only. If you have used different zabbix database name, consider updating that as well.

sudo nano /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf

Let’s find the keyword DBPassword
Hit Ctrl + W on your keyboard, type DBPassword, and then hit Enter on your keyboard. You should see #DBPassword. Update it as follows:

DBPassword=password

Once you have made the above change, then use the following on your keyboard to save the file:
Ctrl  + O and Ctrl + X

8. Configure PHP for Zabbix frontend

We will edit  /etc/zabbix/apache.conf file to update the timezone. Here is the list of timezones and find yours.

sudo nano  /etc/zabbix/apache.conf

Look for # php_value date.timezone Europe/Riga below PHP 7.0 configuration and update your timezone accordingly. Mine looks like this

php_value date.timezone Australia/Melbourne

Once you have made the above change, then use the following on your keyboard to save the file:
Ctrl  + O and Ctrl + X

9. Start Zabbix server and agent processes

Alright, now it is the time to start Zabbix server and agent. 

sudo systemctl restart zabbix-server zabbix-agent apache2

Let’s add Zabbix server and agent services to auto start at system boot

sudo systemctl enable zabbix-server zabbix-agent apache2

10. Configure Front End

All the hard work is done and now let’s finish it off through a web browser. Make sure your system can ping the Ubuntu server from where you are accessing the browser.

1. Open your favourite browser and open Zabbix by typing the following:
   http://Your_IP_Address/zabbix
   
   In my case, it will look like http://10.0.0.8/zabbix. You should see the front end welcome screen.
2. You will check of pre-requisites step and make sure everything is ok before proceeding further
3. Provide the details of zabbix database we configured earlier and click on the next step
4. Update the name, I will call it TEKNEX-NETMON01 and click on the next step
5. Here you will see a summary of the settings which you selected and provided. Click next and finish

11. Login to Zabbix

The default credentials are as follows:
Username: Admin
Password: zabbix

Note: Username is case sensitive.

Well that is all. Let me know how did you go with your setup along with your current configuration (Ubuntu Version, MySQL Version, PHP Version and Apache Version)

In my test lab, I have a few physical servers, virtual machines and a pfSense router with a couple of VLANs configured. I require something which can monitor my network. I do not need something which shows me whether my devices are online or not, but something which actually shows my network performance, configuration and more in depth historical data.

Well! Zabbix is a perfect fit for this.

What is Zabbix?

Zabbix is an open-source monitoring tool. It was first released in 2001 and developed by Zabbix LLC. Zabbix LLC is based in the US, Europe, and Japan.

Cost

Zabbix is free. You can download and run it on your hardware or configure it in the cloud.

Zabbix Monitoring

Zabbix just doesn’t monitor the network. It goes way beyond that. Let’s have a look at the list of items Zabbix can monitor:

• Networks: Monitor and keep historical data of network performance metrics and incidents. Find more information here.
• Servers: Zabbix monitors server performance metrics and incidents. Find more information here.
• Clouds: This includes Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Apps, Google Cloud, and more.
• Applications: WordPress, ActiveMQ, Microsoft IIS, SharePoint, and more. Check the full list here.
• Services: HTTP, HTTPS, DNS, and more.
• Web monitoring: Microsoft IIS, Apache, and more.
• Storage devices: Synology, QSAN, Hitachi, and more.
• Virtual machines: Hyper-V, Microsoft Azure, VMware Oracle VM, and more.
• Java applications: ActiveMQ, Glassfish, Java Monitoring, and more.
• Databases: Zabbix monitors all popular databases. This includes Microsoft SQL, Oracle, MySQL, SQLite, MariaDB, DB2, Ingress, and more.
• KLA/SLA monitoring: Out-of-box SLA solution is available for NGINX. Check this document for more information.
• Telephony: This includes Asterisk, Avaya, and more.
• Security: This includes Active Directory, LDAP, OpenVPN, and more. Check out the full list here.

Zabbix Installation OS, DB and web server support

Currently, the Zabbix Server and agent installation is supported on the following Platforms:

Platform	Server	Agent	Agent2
Linux	x	x	x
IBM AIX	x	x	–
FreeBSD	x	x	–
NetBSD	x	x	–
OpenBSD	x	x	–
HP-UX	x	x	–
macOS X	x	x	–
Solaris	x	x	–
Windows	–	x	x

Zabbix Supports the following database types:

• MySQL
• PostgreSQL
• Oracle
• SQLite

Zabbix Supports the following web server types:

• Apache
• NGINX

Learn more about the OS, DB and web server support here.

How does Zabbix monitor?

Zabbix utilizes the following to receive the information from the endpoints:

Zabbix Agent: It is deployed on the endpoint to monitor the local resources and applications. Information gathered by the agent forwarded to the Zabbix server for further processing. Learn more about this here.

SNMP Agent: Any device which supports SNMP can be configured to report back to Zabbix on the basis of configured templates. Learn more about the SNMP agent here.

JMX Monitoring: This is used to monitor JMS counters of a Java application. Learn more about this here. 

IPMI Checks: This allows Zabbix to monitor the health and availability of the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) devices. Learn more about this here.

What data to retrieve through monitoring?

Now we know that Zabbix will use Zabbix Agent, SNMP, JMS, and IPMI checks. However, how will these monitoring techniques know what data to retrieve? 

This will be dictated by templates. When you add a host in Zabbix to monitor, then you assign a templated to that host. Template dictates what type of data it would like Zabbix agent, SNMP, JMS, or IPMI checks have to send back to Zabbix.

There are out-of-box templates available ready to be used. You can check the full list of available templates here.