How To Install Zabbix Server 3.4 on CentOS/RHEL 7/6

Zabbix is an open source software for networks and application monitoring. Zabbix provides agents to monitor remote hosts as well as Zabbix includes support for monitoring via SNMP, TCP and ICMP checks. Click here to know more about zabbix.

This article will help you to step by step install Zabbix 3.0 Server on CentOS/RHEL 7/6 systems. Before starting installation read below basic requirements to run Zabbix 3.4.

• Apache: 1.3.12 or later.
• PHP: 5.4.0 or later.
• MySQL: 5.0.3 or later.
• OpenIPMI: Required for IPMI support.
• libssh2: Required for SSH support. Version 1.0 or higher.
• fping: Required for ICMP ping items.
• libcurl: Required for web monitoring.
• libiksemel: Required for Jabber support.
• net-snmp: Required for SNMP support.

Step 1 – SetUp Apache, MySQL and PHP

In order to use Zabbix, we required a Web Server, database server, and PHP to work. In this steps we are going to set up these services, You may skip this step if you have already configured it.

Install All Services

yum install httpd httpd-devel
yum install mysql mysql-server
yum install php php-devel php-bcmath  php-pear php-gd php-mbstring php-mysql php-xml

Start All Services

service httpd start
service mysqld start

MySQL Initial Setup

Run the following command to setup MySQL initially and secure it

mysql_secure_installation

Step 2 – Configure Yum Repository

You can file zabbix repositories package on zabbix official website. You can also use one of following commands to add zabbix repository in your system.

CentOS/RHEL 7:
rpm -Uvh http://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/3.4/rhel/7/x86_64/zabbix-release-3.4-2.el7.noarch.rpm

CentOS/RHEL 6:
rpm -Uvh http://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/3.4/rhel/6/x86_64/zabbix-release-3.4-1.el6.noarch.rpm

Step 3 – Install Zabbix Server with MySQL

You have added Zabbix yum repository in above step. Now use the following command to install Zabbix server with MySQL database support packages on your system.

yum install zabbix-server-mysql zabbix-web-mysql zabbix-proxy-mysql

Step 4 – Setup Zabbix Apache Configuration

Zabbix creates its own apache configuration file /etc/httpd/conf.d/zabbix.conf. Edit this file and just update timezone. More timezone’s

  php_value date.timezone Asia/Kolkata

After changing value restart Apache service.

service httpd restart

Step 5 – Configure MySQL Database for Zabbix

This installation is using MySQL as the backend of Zabbix, So we need to create MySQL database and User for Zabbix installation.

mysql -u root -p

mysql> CREATE DATABASE zabbixdb CHARACTER SET UTF8;
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES on zabbixdb.* to [email protected] IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
mysql> quit

After creating database restore the default mysql database provided by zabbix. These files can be found at /usr/share/doc/zabbix-server-mysql-<version>/create/ directory.

zcat /usr/share/doc/zabbix-server-mysql*/create.sql.gz | mysql -uroot -p zabbixdb
zcat /usr/share/doc/zabbix-proxy-mysql*/schema.sql.gz | mysql -uroot -p zabbixdb

Now edit Zabbix server configuration file /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf and update the following database configurations.

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

Step 6 – Start Zabbix Server

After completing setup, let’s start Zabbix server using the following command.

service zabbix-server start

After starting Zabbix service, let’s go to Zabbix web installer and finish the installation.

Step 7 – Complete Zabbix Web Installer Wizzard

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.

http://host.tecadmin.net/zabbix/

and follow the steps as per given screenshots below.

Zabbix Setup Welcome Screen

This is the welcome screen of Zabbix web installer. Go forward by click on next button.

Check for pre-requisities

Check if your system has all required packages, if everything is ok click next.

Configure DB Connection

Enter database details created in Step #4 and click next to continue.

Zabbix Server Details

This is the host and port of running Zabbix server. As your Zabbix server is running on the same host, so keep the values unchanged. You can give a name for your instance.

Pre-Installation Summary

In this step will show the summary you have entered previous steps, so simply click next.

Install Zabbix

If everything goes correctly, You will see a successful installation message on this page. This will also show you a message for created configuration file.

Zabbix Login Screen

Login to Zabbix using default credentials.

 Username:  admin
 Password:  zabbix

After successful login, You will get Zabbix dashboard like below.

Congratulation! Your Zabbix setup has been completed. Read our next article to install zabbix agent and add host in zabbix server.