Procedure 27.3.  Installing Zabbix 1.8 on Debian Lenny

1. Preparing to fetch lenny-backports packages

   We need to fetch Zabbix 1.8 from the lenny-backports repository, so we edit /etc/apt/sources.list:

   <snip>
   deb http://www.backports.org/debian lenny-backports main contrib non-free
   deb-src http://www.backports.org/debian lenny-backports main contrib non-free		
   	      

   We don't want to upgrade all of our packages to the lenny-backports version, so we also create /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/80version:

   APT::Default-Release "lenny";
   	      

   Then we update the repository metadata cache, install the keys for the backports repository, and update once more:

   
   
     apt-get update
     apt-get install debian-backports-keyring
     apt-get update
   
         

2. Installing the Zabbix server

   
   
     apt-get install -t lenny-backports zabbix-server-pgsql zabbix-frontend-php
   
         

   Debconf offers to use dbconfig-common to install the database. Use it, because otherwise the database will be created, but the tables will not.

3. Transferring the database to a separate host

   The above installation brings in postgresql-8.1 (8.4?) as a dependency, which is already better than just installing zabbix-frontend-php and having mysql tagging along even though you answer “postgres” to the question which database you want. But in order to have the database on a database server, we need to transfer it manually. So we dump the database on the zabbix server:

   
   
     sudo -u postgres pg_dump zabbix > zabbix.sql
   
         

   ... then we create the database on the database server:

   
   
     sudo -u postgres createuser zabbix
     sudo -u postgres createdb zabbix -o zabbix
     sudo -u postgres psql
   
   
Welcome to psql 8.3.7, the PostgreSQL interactive terminal.

Type:  \copyright for distribution terms
       \h for help with SQL commands
       \? for help with psql commands
       \g or terminate with semicolon to execute query
       \q to quit

postgres=#ALTER USER zabbix WITH PASSWORD 'uioprehjdsnmc';
         

   Now we can state in /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf that

   DBHost=dbserver.mydomain.com
   DBName=zabbix
   DBUser=zabbix
   DBPassword=uioprehjdsnmc
   	      

   ... and in /etc/zabbix/dbconfig.php that:

   $DB["TYPE"]      = "pgsql";
   $DB["SERVER"]    = "dbserver.mydomain.com";
   $DB["PORT"]      = "0";
   $DB["DATABASE"]  = "zabbix";
   $DB["USER"]      = "zabbix";
   $DB["PASSWORD"]  = "uioprehjdsnmc";
   $ZBX_SERVER      = "127.0.0.1";
   $ZBX_SERVER_PORT = "10051";
   	      

   For Zabbix to run without complaint, we also need in /etc/php5/conf.d/forZabbix.ini:

   post_max_size = 50M;
   upload_max_filesize = 50M;
   mbstring.func_overload = 2;
   	      

   And finally we restart the server and reload the GUI:

   
   
     sudo /etc/init.d/zabbix-server restart
     sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload
   
         

4. Configuring Zabbix

   Now that Zabbix is running, we can make it show on the web with this in the Apache config:

       Alias /zabbix/ "/usr/share/zabbix/"
       <Directory "/usr/share/zabbix/">
           Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
           AllowOverride None
           Order deny,allow
           Deny from all
           Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128
       </Directory>
   	      

   First thing to do is to log in on Zabbix with the default username “Admin” and its password “zabbix”. Once logged in, a new Super Admin account should be created, and impossible-to-guess passwords should be set on all Super Admin accounts including Admin.

   Then, host groups should be made and discovery rules, and actions should be created that add hosts to these host groups as soon as they are discovered.

5. Configuring the client(s)

   In /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agent.conf, the server must be mentioned, and we can set the maximum time per request (from the server) the client may spend on Zabbix:

   Server=lwp23.service.rug.nl
   Timeout=15
   	      

   The Zabbix daemon that answers the requests from the server must also be configured, in /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.conf:

   Server=zabbox.mydomain.com
   Hostname=some.client.mydomain.com
   <snip>
   Timeout=15
   	      

   And we must restart the daemon for the settings to take effect:

   
   
     /etc/init.d/zabbix-agent restart
   
         

6. Leading Zabbix through the firewalls

   On the client, ufw is running, so configuring is simple:

   
   
   sudo ufw allow proto tcp from 129.125.36.118 to any port 10050
   
   

         

   On the server, plain iptables is at work:

   
   
   sudo iptables -A INPUT -s 10.0.23.0/24 -d 10.0.133.78/32 -p tcp -m tcp -m state --state NEW -m multiport --dports 10051 -j ACCEPT
   
         

   It may be necessary to restart the server after opening up the firewall.