How To Install Zabbix Server on Ubuntu 20.04

Zabbix is a free and open-source monitoring solution designed for real-time monitoring of servers, virtual machines, networks, and cloud services. It was developed by Alexei Vladishev and actively supported by Zabbix SIA. It is based on the client-server model and capable of monitoring millions of metrics, such as CPU load, network utilization and disk space consumption from tens of thousands of servers.

In this tutorial, we will explain how to install Zabbix server on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS system.

Pre-Requsities

We assume you have a running Ubuntu 20.04 system with sudo privileged account access. Follow the below steps to install Zabbix server on your Ubuntu system.

Step 1 – Setup LAMP

Zabbix required PHP programming language to run, MySQL as database server and a Web server like Apache or Nginx. We use Apache web server for this tutorial. Let’s have the installation of all the required packages on your system by running the following commands.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install apache2 libapache2-mod-php
sudo apt install mysql-server
sudo apt install php php-mbstring php-gd php-xml php-bcmath php-ldap php-mysql

Next, you need to set a strong password for the MySQL root user. Execute the below command and follow the instructions. After completing below command, you will have a password for the root account of MySQL database server.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

You update the PHP configuration variables. Edit the PHP configuration file /etc/php/7.4/apache2/php.ini for Apache and update timezone as per your requirements.

vim /etc/php/7.4/apache2/php.ini

memory_limit 256M
upload_max_filesize 16M
post_max_size 16M
max_execution_time 300
max_input_time 300
max_input_vars 10000
date.timezone = 'Asia/Kolkata'

Step 2 – Configure Zabbix Repository

Zabbix offical team provides Apt package repositories for the Debian based system. Use the following commands to add the repository on your Ubuntu system.

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

Step 3 – Installing Zabbix Server

Once you added the Apt repository, use the following commands to install Zabbix server packages. Here zabbix-server-mysql package includes Zabbix server with MySQL support. The zabbix-frontend-php package provides the web interface for Zabbix server.

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

Step 4 – Create Zabbix Database and User

Next, create a database schema for the Zabbix server. Login to the MySQL server with the root account and create MySQL database and user with the following commands.

mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE zabbixdb character set utf8 collate utf8_bin;
CREATE USER 'zabbix'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON zabbixdb.* TO 'zabbix'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

After creating the database, load the default schema of Zabbix of database.

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

Step 5 – Update Zabbix Configuration

Edit Zabbix server configuration file /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf in your favorite text editor and update the following database configurations. This will be used by Zabbix server to connect to the database.

sudo vi /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf

  DBHost=localhost
  DBName=zabbixdb
  DBUser=zabbix
  DBPassword=password

Now, enable the Zabbix serivce to start on system boot and restart service to reload new settings.

sudo systemctl enable zabbix-server
sudo systemctl restart zabbix-server

The Zabbix packages also creates its own Apache configuration file ie /etc/zabbix/apache.conf and make a link to Apache configuration directory. Let’s use the following command to restart Apache service.

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Now your system is ready for the Zabbix installation. Just go to the Zabbix web installer and finish the installation.

Step 6 – Adjust Firewall for Zabbix

Next, you will need to allow the Zabbix ports 10050 and 10051. and HTTP service through firewalld. You can allow them with the following command:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=10050/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=10051/tcp

Now, reload the firewalld service to implement the changes:

sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Step 7 – Running Zabbix Web Installer

Zabbix web installer can be accessed on /zabbix subdirectory URL on your servers IP or domain. For example, host.tecadmin.net is pointed to my Zabbix server. Now access the Zabbix using the following URL. You must change FQDN as per your setup.

https://server.tecadmin.net/zabbix/

And follow the steps as per given screenshots below.

Now, open your favorite web browser and type the URL http://your-server-ip/zabbix. You will be redirected to the Zabbix web installation wizard in the following screen:

Click on the Next step button. You should see the following page:

Make sure all the requirements are fulfulls by the server. Then click on the Next step button. You should see the following page:

Provide your database credentials created in above steps and click on the Next step button. You should see the following page:

Provide your Zabbix server details and click on the Next step button. You should see the following page:

Make sure all the configuration parameters are correct then click on the Next step button. Once the installation has been completed successfully, you should see the following page:

Click on the Finish button. You will be redirected to the Zabbix login page as shown below:

Use below credentials to login:

Username: Admin
Password: zabbix

After successful loign, you will see the Zabbix dashbaord as below screenshot.

Conclusion

Congratulations! you have successfully installed the Zabbix server on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS system. You can now start exploring the Zabbix dashboard for more details and add the client for monitoring.