What is Zabbix? Steps to install Zabbix

Find and help solve snail-paced website loading, email loss, query and file transfer activity, causes of overload, server problems... are the benefits of network monitoring, especially is with companies that work on IT services like TinoHost .

What is Zabbix?
Zabbix is a distributed network monitoring solution that is software that uses the parameters of a network, the health and integrity of servers and network devices.

Simply put, Zabbix is ​​an open source tool that solves our monitoring problems.

 Zabbix was founded by Alexei Vladishev and is currently being developed and supported by Zabbix SIA.

Features of Zabbix 
Zabbix software can monitor network parameters and server health. Zabbix use the alert method flexible, allowing you to configure alerts based on email or SMS for most events occur, quick grasp of server incidents.

In addition, Zabbix also supports good reporting, aggregating and predicting functions based on the available data that has been stored. Therefore, Zabbix has the ability to plan for server responsiveness. This makes Zabbix even more ideal.

Finally, Zabbix plays an important role in monitoring the network infrastructure .

What outstanding advantages does Zabbix have?
Monitor both Server and network devices
Easy to operate and configure: All configuration of Zabbix via web interface. Proper planning and configuration will make monitoring easier and more convenient.
Support Linux server, Solaris, FreeBSD…
Trusted in user authentication
Flexibility in decentralizing users
Beautiful web interface
Issue notification via email and SMS
Tracking and Reporting Charts
Open source and low cost
Basic Ingredients of Zabbix
Zabbix server
This is the central component that keeps the Zabbix software running. 

Zabbix Server can remotely check network services through Agent reports sent to Zabbix Server and from there it will store all configurations as well as statistics. As a result, administrators can control activities over the network service that collects alarms with maximum efficiency. 

Zabbix Proxy
Zabbix Proxy is a server used to manage remote systems in different branches or network layers.

This is an optional part of Zabbix. It is responsible for acquiring data, caching and transferring it to the Zabbix Server.

Zabbix Proxy is an ideal solution for centralized monitoring of remote locations, corporate branches, networks without internal administrators.

At the same time, Zabbix Proxy is also used to distribute the load of a Zabbix Server

Zabbix Agent
To actively monitor local devices and applications (hard drives, memory, ...) on the network. Zabbix Agent will be installed on the Server. From there, the Agent will collect activity information from the Server it is running on and report this data to the Zabbix Server for processing.

Web interface
Users can easily access tracking data and then configure it from the provided web interface. The interface is part of Zabbix Server, and usually runs on servers.

Steps to install Zabbix
Step 1: Install some basic services and support packages for Zabbix such as:

# yum install httpd

# yum install mysql-server

# yum install php-mysql php-gd php-imap php-ldap php-odbc php-pear php-xml php-xmlrpc

Step 2: Then you start to install Zabbix:

# rpm -ivh http://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/2.0/rhel/6/x86_64/zabbix-release-2.0-1.el6.noarch.rpm

# yum install zabbix-server-mysql zabbix-web-mysql

Zabbix installation interface
Step 3: After installing Zabbix, we create a database: (for example, create database zabbix, user is zabbix )

# mysql -u root

# create database zabbix character set utf8;

# grant all privileges on zabbix.* to zabbix@localhost identified by 'zabbix';

# flush privileges;

# exit

Step 4: After creating the database, you import data into the newly created database:

# cd /usr/share/doc/zabbix-server-mysql-2.0.6/create/

# mysql -u root zabbix < schema.sql

# mysql -u root zabbix < images.sql

# mysql -u root zabbix < data.sql

Step 5: After the configuration is complete, you access the file /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf and configure the newly created database parameters as follows:

DBHost=localhost

DBName=zabbix

DBUser=zabbix

DBPassword=zabbix

Step t6: Restart zabbix: # service zabbix_server restart

Reference link:  http://www.zabbix.org/wiki/InstallOnCentOS_RHEL

Step 7: Then access the website browser http://[IP Address] /zabbix to proceed with the installation of the next steps.

Screen after successful installation of Zabbix
Through this article, TinoHost shared knowledge, introduced what Zabbix is ​​as well as guided the steps to install Zabbix software. Hope this article was useful to you. 

FAQs about Zabbix 
Does Zabbix have any downsides?
Zabbix does not support web interface on mobile platforms.
Because of the performance risks involved in PHP and Database, Zabbix is ​​not suitable for monitoring networks larger than 1000+ hosts.
Zabbix has a rather complex templating/alerting design that sometimes makes it difficult for users to use. 
What does Zabbix require the system's hardware to be?
Based on the number of devices and device systems, Zabbix requires different levels of hardware configuration to be able to launch the monitoring program. According to many users the hardware includes at a minimum: 

CPU: 2 cores
RAM: 1GB
Disk: 50GB
Is the Zabbix App Really Important?
As the article shared, Zabbix allows users to monitor their network. Zabbix is ​​like a signal machine, this software will notify you when the traffic exceeds the level, where the system error occurs so that you can promptly fix it. This is really useful for those who manage the company's network system. 

Is it difficult to install Zabbix?
To be able to successfully install and use Zabbix requires users to have knowledge of information technology in general and web development in particular. Therefore, to avoid problems, ask the company's IT department to install this software.