Install Zabbix from Source on CentOS 6.3

Here are my simple steps to install Zabbix on a CentOS machine. Zabbix is a monitoring system: the server collects data from agents running on the machines you want to watch, and a PHP web frontend shows the results.

Before you start

Run the commands as root (or with sudo).
You need a MySQL server for the Zabbix database. Step 1 installs the MySQL client and development files only. On CentOS 6 the server package is mysql-server and its service is mysqld:
Terminal window
```
yum install mysql-server
service mysqld start
chkconfig mysqld on
```
You also need Apache and PHP for the web frontend (yum install httpd php).
Use a test server first.

Install Zabbix

Install the build dependencies:
Terminal window
```
yum install zlib-devel mysql-devel glibc-devel curl-devel gcc automake mysql libidn-devel openssl-devel net-snmp-devel rpm-devel OpenIPMI-devel
```
The -devel packages contain the header files the compiler needs for the features enabled in step 6 (MySQL, SNMP, curl, IPMI).
Install the EPEL repository:
Terminal window
```
rpm -Uvh http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/5/i386/epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm
```
Correction: this is the release package for EPEL 5 (CentOS/RHEL 5, 32-bit), not CentOS 6, and that download address no longer exists. On CentOS 6 you need the EPEL 6 release package instead. Where the epel-release package is offered by your system’s own repositories, this is the simplest way to get it:
Terminal window
```
yum install epel-release
```
CentOS 6 and EPEL 6 are both end of life, so these repositories have been moved to archive servers and this step may fail today. See the notes at the end.
Install iksemel, which Zabbix uses for Jabber (XMPP) notifications:
Terminal window
```
yum --enablerepo=epel install iksemel iksemel-devel
```
Download the Zabbix installation file from www.zabbix.com/download, or:
Terminal window
```
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/zabbix/ZABBIX%20Latest%20Stable/1.8.1/zabbix-1.8.1.tar.gz?use_mirror=freefr
```
Because of the ?use_mirror=freefr part, wget may save the file with that text in its name. Adding -O zabbix-1.8.1.tar.gz saves it with a clean name:
Terminal window
```
wget -O zabbix-1.8.1.tar.gz "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/zabbix/ZABBIX%20Latest%20Stable/1.8.1/zabbix-1.8.1.tar.gz?use_mirror=freefr"
```
The original post goes straight to cd without extracting the archive. Extract it first:
Terminal window
```
tar xzf zabbix-1.8.1.tar.gz
```
Go into the source folder:
Terminal window
```
cd zabbix.1.2.3
```
Correction: the folder name must match the version you downloaded. For the file above it is:
Terminal window
```
cd zabbix-1.8.1
```
Configure the build with the server, the agent and the features you need:
Terminal window
```
./configure --enable-server --with-mysql --with-net-snmp --with-jabber --with-libcurl --with-openipmi --enable-agent
```
- --enable-server and --enable-agent build the Zabbix server and the agent.
- --with-mysql stores data in MySQL.
- --with-net-snmp, --with-jabber, --with-libcurl and --with-openipmi turn on SNMP checks, Jabber alerts, web checks and IPMI checks.
If configure stops with an error, it usually names the missing -devel package.
Install make if it is not already installed:
Terminal window
```
yum install make
```
Compile:
Terminal window
```
make
```
Install:
Terminal window
```
make install
```

Create the database

Log in to MySQL (mysql -u root -p) and create the database:
```
create database your_username character set utf8;
```
Correction: this should be the database name, not the username, so that it matches the next command:
```
create database your_database character set utf8;
```

Create the Zabbix database user and give it access:

grant all privileges on your_database.* to 'your_username'@'localhost' identified by 'your_password';

Type exit to leave MySQL.

Import the SQL files from the downloaded files. Check where they are: the folder depends on the Zabbix version (look under the create folder in the source).
Terminal window
```
mysql your_database < mysql.sql
mysql your_database < data.sql
mysql your_database < images_mysql.sql
```
Import them in this order: the first file creates the tables, the others fill them. If MySQL asks for a login, add -u your_username -p. Run each command from the folder that holds that file, or give the full path to the file.

Configure Zabbix

Create the config folder, go back to the top of the Zabbix source folder and copy the sample config files:
Terminal window
```
mkdir /etc/zabbix
cd ../..
cp misc/conf/{zabbix_server.conf,zabbix_agentd.conf} /etc/zabbix
```
cd ../.. goes up two levels, which takes you from the SQL folder in step 12 back to the source folder. Run pwd to check you are in the zabbix-1.8.1 folder before copying.
Edit the server config and enter your MySQL information:
Terminal window
```
vi /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf
```
The settings to change are the database ones, for example:
```
DBName=your_database
DBUser=your_username
DBPassword=your_password
```

Install the web frontend

Install the PHP modules the frontend needs:

yum install php-mysql php-gd php-bcmath php-mbstring php-xml

Copy the frontend files into Apache’s web folder:
Terminal window
```
cp -r frontends/php/ /var/www/html/
```
Rename the folder so the frontend is at /zabbix:
Terminal window
```
mv /var/www/html/php/ /var/www/html/zabbix
```
Edit the PHP settings:
Terminal window
```
nano /etc/php.ini
```
Add (or change) the following values:
```
max_execution_time = 600
memory_limit = 256M
post_max_size = 32M
mbstring.func_overload = 2
```
Restart Apache afterwards so PHP picks up the changes:
Terminal window
```
service httpd restart
```

My original notes stop here. The next stage is to open http://your-server-ip/zabbix in a browser to finish the frontend setup, and to start the Zabbix server and agent. Check the Zabbix documentation for your version for those steps.

Notes for today

CentOS 6 reached end of life on 30 November 2020. Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux are the common free replacements; Debian and Ubuntu are alternatives.
Zabbix 1.8 is very old. Current Zabbix releases are normally installed from the official Zabbix package repositories rather than compiled by hand. Follow the instructions for your system at https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/.
PHP: mbstring.func_overload was deprecated in PHP 7.2 and removed in PHP 8.0, so leave that line out on modern PHP.

MySQL 8: GRANT ... IDENTIFIED BY no longer works in MySQL 8.0. Create the user first, then grant:

CREATE USER 'your_username'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON your_database.* TO 'your_username'@'localhost';

Services and packages: service / chkconfig became systemctl start / systemctl enable, and yum became dnf on newer Red Hat-family systems.
Security: use a strong password for the database user, and make /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf readable only by root and the Zabbix user, as it contains the database password.