Zabbix Monitoring Setup and Usage Guide

Monitoring Fundamentals

1. Hardware Monitoring

Inspects data center equipment, remote management cards, and IPMI.

2. System Monitoring

  • CPU Load: Use uptime (target < 3), top (ideal 30%-70%), vmstat, mpstat.
  • Memory: Use free -m (utilization should be < 80%).
  • Disk: Use df, iotop (for I/O process monitoring), iostat.
  • Network: Use iftop -n.
  • Performance Tool: nmon offers comprehensive monitoring for testing.

3. Network Monitoring

Tools include iftop, webmaster utilities, SmokePing, and external monitoring services.

CPU Monitoring Concepts

Key Metrics

  1. Context Switching: The process scheduler's task switching.
  2. Run Queue Length: Number of processes waiting per time unit.
  3. Utilization: Percentage of CPU time used.

Performance Baselines

  • Run queue length per core should be between 1-3 (e.g., 4 cores < 12).
  • CPU utilization: 65%-70% user time (us), 30%-35% system time (sy), 0%-5% idle (id).

Monitoring Tools

Common commands: top, vmstat 1 10, mpstat (requires sysstat package).

Zabbix Installation

Refer to the official documentation for package installation.

1. Add Zabbix 2.4 Yum Repository

rpm -ivh http://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/2.4/rhel/6/x86_64/zabbix-release-2.4-1.el6.noarch.rpm

2. Install Zabbix Packages

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

3. Initialize Database

mysql> CREATE DATABASE zabbix CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_bin;
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON zabbix.* TO 'zabbix'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'zabbix123';

Populate the database schema and data:

cd /usr/share/doc/zabbix-server-mysql-2.4.8/create/
mysql -uroot -pRoot123 zabbix < schema.sql
mysql -uroot -pRoot123 zabbix < images.sql
mysql -uroot -pRoot123 zabbix < data.sql

4. Configure Timezone

Edit the Apache configuration for Zabbix:

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

Add or modify the line:

php_value date.timezone Asia/Shanghai

5. Configure Zabbix Server Database Connection

Edit the server configuration file:

vim /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf

Set the following parameters:

DBHost=172.16.1.214
DBName=zabbix
DBUser=zabbix
DBPassword=zabbix123

6. Start Services

/etc/init.d/httpd restart
/etc/init.d/zabbix-server start

Access the web interface at http://[server_ip]/zabbix/. Default login is Admin / zabbix.

7. Install and Configure Zabbix Agent

yum install zabbix-agent
vim /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.conf

Set the server adress:

Server=172.16.1.211

8. Start Zabbix Agent

/etc/init.d/zabbix-agent start

Custom Monitoring with Zabbix

1. Add Custom Agent Check (Monitor Logged-in Users)

Edit the agent configuration file:

vim /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.conf

Add a UserParameter:

UserParameter=login.user,uptime | awk '{print $6}'

Restart the agent for changes to take effect.

2. Test the Custom Item from Server

zabbix_get -s 172.16.1.210 -k login.user

Then, create a new Item in the Zabbix web interface using this key. You can also create graphs for this item.

3. Configure Custom Alert Scripts

Place scripts in /usr/lib/zabbix/alertscripts/. They must accept three parameters: recipient, subject, and body.

Example script sms.sh:

#!/bin/bash
RECIPIENT=$1
SUBJECT=$2
MESSAGE=$3
echo "$RECIPIENT $SUBJECT $MESSAGE" >> /tmp/sms.log

4. Configure Alert Actions in Web Interface

Use these macros in action operations:

  • {ALERT.SENDTO} - Recipient addres.
  • {ALERT.SUBJECT} - Message subject.
  • {ALERT.MESSAGE} - Detailed content.

For a trigger action, you can use a message like:

Status: {TRIGGER.STATUS}
Time: {EVENT.DATE} {EVENT.TIME}
Trigger: {TRIGGER.NAME}
Host: {HOST.NAME}
Item: {ITEM.NAME}: {ITEM.VALUE}

For a recovery action, use:

Status: {TRIGGER.STATUS}
Time: {EVENT.RECOVERY.DATE} {EVENT.RECOVERY.TIME}
Trigger: {TRIGGER.NAME}
Host: {HOST.NAME}
Item: {ITEM.NAME}: {ITEM.VALUE}

Monitoring MySQL with Percona Plugins

1. Install Percona Monitoring Plugins

yum install https://www.percona.com/downloads/percona-monitoring-plugins/percona-monitoring-plugins-1.1.7/binary/redhat/7/x86_64/percona-zabbix-templates-1.1.7-2.noarch.rpm
yum install percona-zabbix-templates php php-mysql
cp /var/lib/zabbix/percona/templates/userparameter_percona_mysql.conf /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.d/
systemctl restart zabbix-agent

2. Import Zabbix Templates

Import the modified template files compatible with Zabbix 3.0+.

3. Configure MySQL Connection

Edit the PHP configuration script:

vim /var/lib/zabbix/percona/scripts/ss_get_mysql_stats.php.cnf

Set database credentials:

<?php
$mysql_user = 'root';
$mysql_pass = 's3cret';
?>

4. Test MySQL Monitoring

zabbix_get -s 172.16.20.11 -k MySQL.max-connections

Zabbix Agent Active Mode

Use active mode when the server queue has many delayed items or when monitoring over 300 hosts.

Configuration

Modify the agent configuration file:

#Server=172.16.100.1 # Comment out passive server setting
StartAgents=0 # Disable passive listening
ServerActive=172.16.100.1 # Address of Zabbix server/proxy
Hostname=tools01-uat # Must match host name as configured on server

In the server template, change item types to "Zabbix agent (active)".

Zabbix Proxy Deployment

1. Install Zabbix Proxy

yum install zabbix-proxy zabbix-proxy-mysql mariadb-server
systemctl start mariadb

2. Create and Initialize Proxy Database

mysql> CREATE DATABASE zabbix_proxy CHARACTER SET utf8;
mysql> GRANT ALL ON zabbix_proxy.* TO 'zabbix_proxy'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'zabbix_proxy';

Load the schema:

zcat /usr/share/doc/zabbix-proxy-mysql-*/schema.sql.gz | mysql -uzabbix_proxy -pzabbix_proxy zabbix_proxy

Zabbix Automation

1. Agent Auto-Registration

Configure the agent to enable auto-registration:

vim /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.conf

ServerActive=172.16.100.1
Hostname=tools01-uat.hewomi.com
HostMetadataItem=system.uname

On the Zabbix server, create an "Auto registration" action to add new hosts.

2. Using Zabbix API for Automation

First, obtain an authentication token:

curl -s -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json-rpc' -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "user.login",
    "params": {
        "user": "Admin",
        "password": "password"
    },
    "id": 1,
    "auth": null
}' http://172.16.100.1/zabbix/api_jsonrpc.php

Use the returned token to make subsequent API calls, such as listing hosts or creating new ones.

3. Python Script Example for API Authentication

#!/usr/bin/env python
import requests
import json

url = 'http://192.168.56.11/zabbix/api_jsonrpc.php'
post_data = {
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "user.login",
    "params": {
        "user": "zhangsan",
        "password": "123123"
    },
    "id": 1
}
post_header = {'Content-Type': 'application/json-rpc'}

response = requests.post(url, data=json.dumps(post_data), headers=post_header)
result = json.loads(response.text)
if 'result' in result:
    print(result['result'])
else:
    print('Login error')

After authentication, use the API to add hosts, assign templates, and manage groups programmatically.

Tags: Zabbix monitoring Linux MySQL Percona

Posted on Sat, 01 Aug 2026 16:11:01 +0000 by Hagbard

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