How to install and configure Zabbix on CentOS 7

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Zabbix is an open-source monitoring software used for collecting metrics from various devices and systems such as networks devices, VM systems, Linux/Windows systems, and cloud services. Zabbix can send notification alerts of issues in any monitored system.

In this tutorial, we shall provide you a guide on installing and configuring Zabbix on CentOS system. Before that let’s take a look at the prerequisites.

Prerequisites

• Apache web server
• PHP with required extensions
• MySQL/ MariaDB server

Installing Zabbix on CentOS

Login to Terminal as root and start firing up the commands below.

Step 1 – Disable SELinux

Open SELinux configuration and edit the file:

vim /etc/sysconfig/selinux

Change “SELINUX=enforcing” to  “SELINUX=disabled”

Save and exit the file. Then reboot the system.

reboot

Step 2 – Install and Configure Apache

Use the following commands:

yum -y install httpd

check service status.

systemctl status httpd.service

If Apache service is not running, start it manually.

systemctl start httpd.service

Enable httpd service on system boot.

systemctl enable httpd

Step 3 – Configure Needed Repositories

Install epel and remi repos.

yum -y install epel-release

yum install http://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-7.rpm

Disable PHP 5 repositories and enable PHP 7.2 repo.

yum-config-manager --disable remi-php54

yum-config-manager --enable remi-php72

Step 4 – Install PHP

yum install php php-pear php-cgi php-common php-mbstring php-snmp php-gd php-pecl-mysql php-xml php-mysql php-gettext php-bcmath

Modify the PHP time Zone by editing the php.ini file.

vim /etc/php.ini

Uncomment the following line and add your time zone.

date.timezone = Australia/Sydney

Step 5 – Install MariaDB

yum --enablerepo=remi install mariadb-server

Start the MariaDB service.

systemctl start mariadb.service

Enable MariaDB on system boot.

systemctl enable mariadb

Run the following command to secure MariaDB.

mysql_secure_installation

Add a new root password and continue. Then it will ask a few questions. Type “Y” to agree to that.

Login to DB server and verify.

  mysql -u root -p

Step 6 – Create a Database for Zabbix

You can choose any name for the database in place of fosslinuxzabbix in the below command:

Create database fosslinuxzabbix;

Create a DB user and grant privileges.

create user 'zabbixuser'@'localhost' identified BY '@dfEr234KliT90';

grant all privileges on fosslinuxzabbix.* to zabbixuser@localhost ;

Flush privileges.

flush privileges;

Step 7 – Install Zabbix and needed dependencies

Adding Zabbix repository. Copy the latest download URL from the official website. Paste it in the below command appropriately.

rpm -ivh https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/4.0/rhel/7/x86_64/zabbix-release-4.0-1.el7.noarch.rpm

Install Zabbix.

yum install zabbix-server-mysql  zabbix-web-mysql zabbix-agent zabbix-get

Step 8 –  Configure Zabbix

Change Time Zone by editing the Zabbix Apache configuration file.

vim /etc/httpd/conf.d/zabbix.conf

Uncomment the following line and add your Time Zone.

php_value date.timezone Australia/Sydney

PHP Parameters should look like as follows:

php_value max_execution_time 300
php_value memory_limit 128M
php_value post_max_size 16M
php_value upload_max_filesize 2M
php_value max_input_time 300
php_value max_input_vars 10000
php_value always_populate_raw_post_data -1
php_value date.timezone Australia/Sydney

Restart HTTPD service.

systemctl restart httpd.service

Generally, Zabbix installation package gives SQL file which includes an initial schema and data for the Zabbix server with MySQL.

Change directory and go the Zabbix directory.

cd /usr/share/doc/zabbix-server-mysql-4.0.4/

Import the MySQL dump file.

zcat create.sql.gz | mysql -u zabbixuser -p fosslinuxzabbix

Now modify the Zabbix configuration file with Database details.

vim /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf

Modify the following parameters

DBHost=localhost

DBName=fosslinuxzabbix

DBUser=zabbixuser

DBPassword=@dfEr234KliT90

Then save and exit the file. Restart Zabbix service.

systemctl status zabbix-server.service

Enable Zabbix on system boot.

 systemctl enable zabbix-server.service

Modify firewall rules.

firewall-cmd --add-service={http,https} --permanent

firewall-cmd --add-port={10051/tcp,10050/tcp} --permanent

firewall-cmd --reload

Now restart httpd service.

systemctl restart httpd

Step 9 – Setup Zabbix

You can access Zabbix using following URL:

http://Server-Host-Name Or IP /zabbix/

You should see the welcome page.

Click Next.

Here you Zabbix will check installed PHP, MySQL/MariaDB versions and parameters, etc.

If you see any parameter failing, you have to modify it and refresh the page.

E.g.:- for PHP parameter you have to modify (/etc/php.ini) file. Click Next.

Add database details and click Next. Then you will see server details, and you can add any name for “Name”.

Click Next. You should see the Database details and server details.

Click Next to complete the installation.

Click finish to access the login page.

The default login name is “admin” and password is “zabbix”. You will go to the Zabbix Dashboard.

Step 10 – Monitor Servers with Zabbix Agent

Zabbix Agent collects the data from the client machine and sends them to the Zabbix Server.  We will install the Zabbix agent on the Ubuntu machine to monitor it.

Execute following commands to install the agent on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. As usual, replace the URL with the latest from the official website.

wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/4.0/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_4.0-2+bionic_all.deb

dpkg -i zabbix-release_4.0-2+bionic_all.deb

apt update

Install agent.

apt-get install -y zabbix-agent

Now modify the agent configuration file.

vim  /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.conf

Modify the following parameters. Replace IP and hostname with yours in the below command:

Server=10.94.10.205
ServerActive=10.94.10.205
Hostname=UbuntuFosslinux

Save and exit the file.

Restart Zabbix agent.

systemctl restart zabbix-agent

Enable on system boot.

systemctl enable zabbix-agent

Step 11 – Add host to monitor on Zabbix server

Go to Configuration > Hosts > Create host.

Then you will get the interface as follows:

Add Hostname, Visible Name and agent interface IP. Select a group from the list. In our scenario, we are going to monitor the Ubuntu server. So we will select Linux servers from the list.

Select and go to Template Tab. Then click on the select button and select “Template OS Linux” from the list.

Click “add,” and it will list linked templates.

Click on the update button to update.

Step 12 – View Graphs

Go to Monitoring > Graphs. You can select needed group, host and graph to display the graphs.

Congratulations! You have successfully configured Zabbix server and added hosts to monitor. Let us know your feedback in the comments below.