Zabbix Monitoring: Complete Infrastructure Observability

Introduction

Zabbix is an enterprise-class monitoring solution for infrastructure, applications, and services.

Architecture Overview

Zabbix Components
├── Zabbix Server (Core engine)
├── Zabbix Database (PostgreSQL/MySQL)
├── Zabbix Frontend (Web UI)
├── Zabbix Proxy (Remote monitoring)
└── Zabbix Agent (Host monitoring)

Installation (Package-Based)

Install the server, frontend, and agent from the official repository for your distribution.

Database Setup

1CREATE USER zabbix WITH PASSWORD 'StrongPassword123!';
2CREATE DATABASE zabbix OWNER zabbix;

Import the initial schema provided by Zabbix.

Monitoring Methods

Agent-Based

$sudo apt install zabbix-agent2
$sudo systemctl enable --now zabbix-agent2

1# /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agent2.conf
2Server=192.168.1.10
3ServerActive=192.168.1.10
4Hostname=web-server-01

SNMP

Use SNMPv3 for network devices:

1Security Name: zabbix_monitor
2Security Level: authPriv
3Auth Protocol: SHA256
4Priv Protocol: AES256

Alerts

Create triggers, actions, and media types (Email/Slack/Teams). Example:

1avg(/Linux server/system.cpu.util,5m)>80

Dashboards

Build dashboards with graphs, maps, and SLA widgets to share with stakeholders.

Conclusion

Zabbix scales from small labs to large enterprises with a strong template ecosystem.