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Monitoring your IT infrastructure is crucial for ensuring the smooth operation and performance of your systems. Zabbix, an open-source monitoring solution, offers a powerful toolkit to track and monitor various IT components, including networks, servers, virtual machines, and cloud services. With its web-based user interface, Zabbix allows you to monitor metrics such as network utilization, CPU load, and disk space consumption, providing valuable insights into the health of your IT infrastructure.

In this comprehensive guide, we will walk you through the step-by-step process of installing the Zabbix monitoring server on Ubuntu 22.04. By the end of this tutorial, you will have a fully functional Zabbix server up and running, ready to monitor your IT infrastructure effectively.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure you have the following prerequisites in place:

• A server running Ubuntu 22.04.
• A root password configured on the server.

Installing Zabbix Repository

To install Zabbix on Ubuntu 22.04, we first need to add the Zabbix official repository to our server. Follow these steps to download and install the Zabbix repository:

1. Open the terminal on your Ubuntu server.
2. Download the Zabbix 6 repository package from the official website using the following command:

wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/6.2/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_6.2-4%2Bubuntu22.04_all.deb

3. Install the repository package using the following command:

dpkg -i zabbix-release_6.2-4+ubuntu22.04_all.deb

Installing Zabbix Monitoring Server

Once the Zabbix repository is added to APT, we can proceed with the installation of the Zabbix server. Follow these steps to install the Zabbix server and other required components:

1. Update the Zabbix repository using the following command:

apt-get update -y

2. Install the Zabbix server and other necessary components using the following command:

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

3. After the installation is complete, we need to configure the PHP timezone. Open the PHP configuration file using the following command:

nano /etc/php/8.1/apache2/php.ini

4. Locate the line that sets the timezone  ( date.timezone ) and change it to your desired timezone. For example, to set the timezone to UTC, modify the line as follows:

date.timezone = UTC

5. Save and close the file.

Configuring MariaDB Database

Zabbix uses MariaDB as its database backend. Follow these steps to configure the MariaDB database for Zabbix:

1. Install the MariaDB database server by running the following command:

apt-get install mariadb-server -y

2. Once the MariaDB server is installed, secure the installation and set the root password by running the following command:

mariadb-secure-installation

3. Follow the prompts and answer the questions to secure your MariaDB installation. You will be asked to set a root password and choose other security options.
4. After securing the installation, connect to the MariaDB shell using the following command:

mysql -u root -p

5. Enter the root password when prompted.
6. In the MariaDB shell, create a database and a user for Zabbix using the following commands:

MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE zabbix character set utf8mb4 collate utf8mb4_bin;
MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON zabbix.* TO zabbix@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

Replace ‘password’ with a strong password of your choice.

7. Flush the privileges and exit the MariaDB shell by running the following commands:

MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
MariaDB [(none)]> EXIT;

Configuring Zabbix Server

Now that the database is set up, we need to configure the Zabbix server to connect to the MariaDB database. Follow these steps to configure the Zabbix server:

1. Open the Zabbix configuration file using the following command:

nano /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf

2. Locate the lines that specify the database name, username, and password ( DBName,DBUser,DBPassword ) and modify them according to your database configuration.
3. Save and close the file.
4. Import the Zabbix data into the database by running the following command:

zcat /usr/share/zabbix-sql-scripts/mysql/server.sql.gz | mysql -u zabbix -p zabbix

Enter the password for the Zabbix user when prompted.

5. Finally, restart and enable the Zabbix server, Zabbix agent, and Apache services by running the following command:

systemctl restart apache2
systemctl enable zabbix-server zabbix-agent apache2
systemctl restart zabbix-server zabbix-agent

Verifying the Installation

To verify that the Zabbix server is running correctly, you can check the status of the services. Run the following command to check the Zabbix server status:

systemctl status zabbix-server

You should see the status output indicating that the Zabbix server is active and running.

Similarly, you can check the status of the Zabbix agent and Apache services using the following commands:

systemctl status zabbix-agent
systemctl status apache2

Both services should be active and running without any errors.

Accessing the Zabbix Dashboard

Now that the Zabbix server is installed and running, you can access the Zabbix web interface to start monitoring your IT infrastructure. Follow these steps to access the Zabbix dashboard:

1. Open your web browser and enter the URL http://your-server-ip/zabbix, replacing your-server-ip with the IP address or domain name of your Zabbix server.
2. You will see the Zabbix language selection page. Choose your preferred language and click on the “Next step” button.
3. The next page will perform a prerequisite check to ensure that all requirements are met. If all checks pass, click on the “Next step” button.
4. On the database connection page, provide the necessary information, including the database name, username, and password you configured earlier. Click on the “Next step” button.
5. On the settings page, define your Zabbix server name, timezone, and theme according to your preferences. Click on the “Next step” button.
6. Review the installation summary on the next page. If everything looks correct, click the “Next step” button to start the installation process.
7. Once the installation is complete, you will see a confirmation page. Click on the “Finish” button to finish the installation.
8. You will be redirected to the Zabbix login page. Enter the default username Admin and the password zabbix to log in.
9. Congratulations! You are now logged into the Zabbix dashboard, where you can configure monitoring, set up hosts, and view the status of your IT infrastructure.

Conclusion

By following this comprehensive guide, you have successfully installed the Zabbix monitoring server on Ubuntu 22.04. With Zabbix, you can now monitor various IT components and track important metrics to ensure the optimal performance and health of your systems.

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Christian Wells