Install Zabbix on Linux

Zabbix is a software for monitoring availability and performance of IT infrastructure components. It is opensource and helps gathering statistical data of system health. 

Following are its core features:

1. A web-based interface
2. Secure user authentication
3. A flexible user permission schema
4. Agents based data gathering and agent-less monitoring
5. Polling and trapping support.
6. Zabbix-proxy to centrally collect information and upload to zabbix server.
7. Remote commands support
8. True open-source software 
9. Notification by SMS, Jabber, email, skype, IM, Voice
10. Visualisation 

Requirement

Memory size: 128 MB 

Disk size: 256 MB 

Backend database: 

1. MySQL 5.0.3 or later
2. PostgreSQL 8.1 or later
3. Oracle 10g or later
4. SQLite 3.3.5 or later
5. IBM DB2 9.7 or later

Zabbix frontend requires:

1. Apache 1.3.12 or later
2. PHP 5.3.0 or later
3. PHP extensions: gd, bcmath, ctype , libXML, xmlreader, xmlwriter, session, sockets, mbstring, gettext, ibm_db2, mysqli, oci8, pgsql, sqlite3
4. OS Packages: net-snmp.x86_64, snmp.x86_64, OpenIPMI-libs.x86_64, mysql-server

Install required package with yum command below.

yum -y install httpd.x86_64 php.x86_64 php-bcmath.x86_64 php-common.x86_64 php-gd.x86_64 php-mysql.x86_64 php-odbc.x86_64 php-xml.x86_64 php-mbstring

Download fping from URL below:

wget  http://pkgs.repoforge.org/fping/fping-3.1-1.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm

rpm ivh fping-3.1-1.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm

Download iksemel package

http://repo.zabbix.com/non-supported/rhel/6/x86_64/iksemel-1.4-2.el6.x86_64.rpm

Download Zabbix rpm.

1. Go to URL http://www.zabbix.com/download.php
2. Under Zabbix Packages heading select the version of OS and architecture.
3. Choose desired version and download 

Package description:

zabbix-agent-*.rpm Client agent that will be installed on the Zabbix client. Need to be installed on every machine that is intended to monitor.
zabbix-web-*.rpm Web interface to configure Zabbix server. It comes with two backend database flavor.

• zabbix-web-mysql-*.rpm
• zabbix-web-pgsql-*.rpm

Zabbix-proxy-*.rpm Optional package component that will centrally collect data and upload to zabbix server. It comes with three backend database.

• zabbix-proxy-mysql-*.rpm
• zabbix-proxy-pgsql-*.rpm
• zabbix-proxy-sqlite3-*.rpm

Zabbix-server-*.rpm Core package the installed the zabbix server. It comes with two backend database 

• zabbix-server-mysql-*.rpm
• zabbix-server-pgsql-*.rpm

At least zabbix-web-*.rpm and Zabbix-server-*.rpm package is required to install on monitoring server.

Install zabbix-server package.

rpm -ivh zabbix-2.4.7-1.el6.x86_64.rpm zabbix-server-2.4.7-1.el6.x86_64.rpm zabbix-server-mysql-2.4.7-1.el6.x86_64.rpm

Install  zabbix-web packages

rpm -ivh zabbix-web-2.4.7-1.el6.noarch.rpm zabbix-web-mysql-2.4.7-1.el6.noarch.rpm

Configure backend database to store zabbix data. In my case I am using mysql as backend database.Install mysql initial database(Fresh Database)

mysql_install_db 

Start mysql database

/etc/init.d/mysqld start

Login as user root and change mysql root password

mysql -u root 
update mysql.user
set password=PASSWORD('*******')

where user='root';

Create mysql database zabbix with character set utf8

Create database zabbix character set utf8;

Create user zabbix

grant all on zabbix.* to zabbix@'localhost' identified by '********';
flush privileges;

Now create required schema objects.

cd /usr/share/doc/zabbix-server-mysql-2.4.7/create/
mysql -uzabbix -p zabbix < schema.sql
mysql -uzabbix -p zabbix < images.sql
mysql -uzabbix -p zabbix < data.sql

Edit zabbix_server.conf file to set database IP, User and client. Add following lines on the file.

vi /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf 

DBHost=localhost

DBName=zabbix

DBUser=zabbix

DBPassword=(your zabbix password)

Modify php.ini configuration file
Change following parameter values

max_execution_time 300
memory_limit 128M
post_max_size 16M
upload_max_filesize 2M
max_input_time 300
date.timezone Asia/Kathmandu

Start httpd and zabbix-server

/etc/init.d/httpd start
/etc/init.d/zabbix-server start

Make sure these services are startup at boot.

chkconfig httpd on
chkconfig zabbix-server on
chkconfig mysqld on

Monitor logfile with command below

tail -f /var/log/zabbix/zabbix_server.log 

Verify all services are started properly.

Web configuration

Open following URL on browser.

http://192.168.1.250/Zabbix

Click on Next

Verify all pre-requisites are installed and click on next.

Configure database connections parameters and click on Test connection.

Click on next if Test connection returns OK

Enter hostname, name and port and click on next

Verify the Pre-Installation Summary and Click on Next to continue.

Click on Finish to complete Installation.

Login with Admin/zabbix