Why isn’t there a openjdk-8-jdk package on debian anymore?

Zabbix server is installable on any Linux distribution, but in this tutorial, I will show you how to install and optimize the latest Zabbix Proxy 6 LTS  or 6.4 standard release on 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) / Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal) / Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic).

Zabbix is 100% free open-source ultimate enterprise-level software designed for monitoring availability and performance of IT infrastructure components. You can read a case-study about Zabbix popularity and find out more about open-source movement in this article.

Enough of talk lets do some work! First, we will install and configure Zabbix server, then a database and lastly the frontend – check the picture bellow for a better understanding of Zabbix architecture.

This guide is for installing Zabbix monitoring system (Server) on Ubuntu, while guide for installing Zabbix-proxy on Ubuntu can be found on this link.

Step 1: Install Zabbix server, frontend, and agent

Install Zabbix 6 .deb package on your Ubuntu OS (22.04, 20.04, 18.04 and 16.04 are supported).

Zabbix 6.0 LTS version (supported until February, 2027)
wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/6.0/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_6.0-4+ubuntu$(lsb_release -rs)_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i zabbix-release_6.0-4+ubuntu$(lsb_release -rs)_all.deb
sudo apt update
sudo apt -y install zabbix-server-mysql zabbix-frontend-php zabbix-apache-conf zabbix-sql-scripts zabbix-agent

                        OR

Zabbix 6.4 standard version (supported until November, 2023)
wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/6.4/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_6.4-1+ubuntu$(lsb_release -rs)_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i zabbix-release_6.4-1+ubuntu$(lsb_release -rs)_all.deb
sudo apt update
sudo apt -y install zabbix-server-mysql zabbix-frontend-php zabbix-apache-conf zabbix-sql-scripts zabbix-agent

Step 2: Configure database

In this installation, I will use password as root password and as Zabbix password for DB. Consider changing your password for security reasons.

a. Install MariaDB 10.6

sudo apt install software-properties-common -y

curl -LsS -O https://downloads.mariadb.com/MariaDB/mariadb_repo_setup
sudo bash mariadb_repo_setup --mariadb-server-version=10.6

sudo apt update
sudo apt -y install mariadb-common mariadb-server-10.6 mariadb-client-10.6

sudo systemctl start mariadb
sudo systemctl enable mariadb

b. Reset root password for database

Secure MySQL/MariaDB by changing the default password for MySQL root:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Enter current password for root (enter for none): Press Enter
Switch to unix_socket authentication [Y/n] y
Change the root password? [Y/n] y
New password: <Enter root DB password>
Re-enter new password: <Repeat root DB password>
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]:  Y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]:  Y

c. Create database

sudo mysql -uroot -p'rootDBpass' -e "create database zabbix character set utf8mb4 collate utf8mb4_bin;"
sudo mysql -uroot -p'rootDBpass' -e "grant all privileges on zabbix.* to [email protected] identified by 'zabbixDBpass';"

d. Import initial schema and data.

Import database shema for Zabbix server (could last up to 5 minutes):

sudo zcat /usr/share/zabbix-sql-scripts/mysql/server.sql.gz | mysql --default-character-set=utf8mb4 -uzabbix -p'zabbixDBpass' zabbix

e. Enter database password in Zabbix configuration file

Open zabbix_server.conf file with command:

sudo nano /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf

and add database password in this format anywhere in file:

DBPassword=zabbixDBpass

Step 3: Configure firewall

If you have a UFW firewall installed on Ubuntu, use these commands to open TCP ports: 10050 (agent), 10051 (server), and 80 (frontend):

ufw allow 10050/tcp
ufw allow 10051/tcp
ufw allow 80/tcp
ufw reload

Step 4: Start Zabbix server and agent processes

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

Step 5: Configure Zabbix frontend

a. Configure PHP for Zabbix frontend

Edit file /etc/zabbix/apache.conf:

sudo nano /etc/zabbix/apache.conf

Uncomment 2 lines in apache.conf that starts with “# php_value date.timezone Europe/Riga” by removing symbol # and set the right timezone for your country, for example:

php_value date.timezone Europe/Amsterdam

b. Restart Apache web server and make it start at system boot

sudo systemctl restart apache2
sudo systemctl enable apache2

c. Configure web frontend

Connect to your newly installed Zabbix frontend using URL “http:///zabbix” to initiate the Zabbix installation wizard. 

In my case, that URL would be “http://192.168.1.161/zabbix” because I have installed Zabbix on the server with IP address 192.168.1.161 (you can find the IP address of your server by typing “ip a” command in the terminal).

That’s it, you have installed Zabbix monitoring system!

Step 6: Login to frontend using Zabbix default login credentials

In my example, I have installed Zabbix on server 192.168.1.161 so I will enter in my browsers URL field http://192.168.1.161/zabbix (you can find the IP address of your server by typing “ip a” command in the terminal)

Step 7: Optimizing Zabbix Server (optional)

Don’t bother with this optimization if you are monitoring a small number of devices, but if you are planning to monitor a large number of devices then continue with this step.

Open “zabbix_server.conf” file with command: “sudo nano /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf” and add this configuration anywhere in file:

This is not a perfect configuration, keep in mind that you can optimize it even more. Let’s say if you don’t use ICMP checks then set the “StartPingers” parameter to 1 or if you don’t use active agents then set “StartTrappers” to 1 and so on. You can find out more about the parameters supported in a Zabbix server configuration file in the official documentation.

Step 8: Optimizing MySQL / MariaDB database (optional)

a. Create custom MySQL configuration file

Create file “10_my_tweaks.cnf" with “sudo nano /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/10_my_tweaks.cnf” and paste this configuration:

sudo chown mysql:mysql /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/10_my_tweaks.cnf
sudo chmod 644 /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/10_my_tweaks.cnf

Two things to remember!

Configuration parameter max_connections must be larger than the total number of all Zabbix proxy processes plus 150. You can use the command below to automatically check the number of Zabbix processes and add 150 to that number:

The second most important parameter is innodb_buffer_pool_size, which determines how much memory can MySQL get for caching InnoDB tables and index data. You should set that parameter to 70% of system memory if only database is installed on server.

However, in this case, we are sharing a server with Zabbix and Apache processes so you should set innodb_buffer_pool_size to 40% of total system memory. That would be 800 MB because my Ubuntu server has 2 GB RAM.

I didn’t have any problems with memory, but if your Zabbix proxy crashes because of lack of memory, reduce “innodb_buffer_pool_size” and restart MySQL server.

b. Restart Zabbix Server and MySQL service

Stop and start the services in the same order as below:

sudo systemctl stop zabbix-server
sudo systemctl stop mysql
sudo systemctl start mysql
sudo systemctl start zabbix-server

Step 9: Create MySQL partitions on History and Events tables

Zabbix’s housekeeping process is responsible for deleting old trend and history data. Removing old data from the database using SQL delete query can negatively impact database performance. Many of us have received that annoying alarm “Zabbix housekeeper processes more than 75% busy” because of that.

That problem can be easily solved with the database partitioning. Partitioning creates tables for each hour or day and drops them when they are not needed anymore. SQL DROP is way more efficient than the DELETE statement.

You can partition MySQL tables in 5 minutes using this simple guide.

Step 10: How to manage Zabbix / MySQL / Apache service

Sometimes you will need to check or restart Zabbix, MySQL or Apache service – use commands below to do that.

Zabbix Server
sudo systemctl <status/restart/start/stop> zabbix-server

MySQL Server
sudo systemctl <status/restart/start/stop> mysql

Apache Server
sudo systemctl <status/restart/start/stop> apache2

Zabbix Agent
sudo systemctl <status/restart/start/stop> zabbix-agent 

Step 11: Upgrade between minor versions

I wrote about these upgrade procedures in my post about Zabbix upgrade. Zabbix’s team releases new minor versions at least once a month. The main purpose of minor upgrades is to fix bugs (hotfix) and sometimes even bring new functionality. Therefore, try to do a minor upgrade of Zabbix at least once a month.

There is no need for backups when doing a minor upgrade, they are completely safe. With this command you can easily upgrade smaller versions of 6.0.x (for example, from 6.0.1 to 6.0.3):

sudo apt install --only-upgrade 'zabbix*'

And restart Zabbix server afterward:

sudo systemctl restart zabbix-server