Deploy Zabbix Monitoring with Docker and Docker‑Compose on CentOS

Preparation

Server IP: 172.19.204.200 running CentOS Linux release 7.6.1810 (Core).

Install Docker

Disable the firewall and SELinux, install required packages, add the Docker repository, install docker-ce, start and enable the Docker service, verify the version, configure a Docker image accelerator, and restart Docker.

systemctl stop firewalld
systemctl disable firewalld
sed -i 's/enforcing/disabled/' /etc/selinux/config
setenforce 0
yum install -y yum-utils device-mapper-persistent-data lvm2
yum-config-manager --add-repo http://mirrors.aliyun.com/docker-ce/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo
yum install -y docker-ce
systemctl start docker
systemctl enable docker
curl -sSL https://get.daocloud.io/daotools/set_mirror.sh | sh -s http://f1361db2.m.daocloud.io
systemctl restart docker

Zabbix Server Deployment

Two installation methods are provided; both use Docker images. Method 1 follows the official Zabbix Docker guide, pulling images directly.

1) Start a MySQL container for Zabbix data

docker run --name zabbix-mysql -t \
  -p 3306:3306 \
  -e MYSQL_DATABASE="zabbix" \
  -e MYSQL_USER="zabbix" \
  -e MYSQL_PASSWORD="zabbix" \
  -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD="zabbix" \
  -v /home/zabbix/data:/var/lib/mysql \
  -d mysql:5.7 \
  --character-set-server=utf8 \
  --collation-server=utf8_bin

This creates a persistent MySQL instance with UTF‑8 settings to store Zabbix data.

2) Launch the Zabbix server container

Prepare a configuration file ( zabbix_server.conf) and mount it into the container along with directories for scripts, modules, TLS files, etc.

docker run --name zabbix-server-mysql -t \
  -e DB_SERVER_HOST="zabbix-mysql" \
  -e MYSQL_DATABASE="zabbix" \
  -e MYSQL_USER="zabbix" \
  -e MYSQL_PASSWORD="zabbix" \
  -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD="zabbix" \
  --link zabbix-mysql:mysql \
  -v /home/zabbix/zabbixconfig:/etc/zabbix \
  -v /home/zabbix/alertscripts:/usr/lib/zabbix/alertscripts \
  -v /home/zabbix/externalscripts:/usr/lib/zabbix/externalscripts \
  -v /home/zabbix/modules:/var/lib/zabbix/modules \
  -v /home/zabbix/enc:/var/lib/zabbix/enc \
  -v /home/zabbix/ssh_keys:/var/lib/zabbix/ssh_keys \
  -v /home/zabbix/ssl/certs:/var/lib/zabbix/ssl/certs \
  -v /home/zabbix/ssl/keys:/var/lib/zabbix/ssl/keys \
  -v /home/zabbix/ssl/ssl_ca:/var/lib/zabbix/ssl/ssl_ca \
  -v /home/zabbix/snmptraps:/var/lib/zabbix/snmptraps \
  -v /home/zabbix/export:/var/lib/zabbix/export \
  -v /home/zabbix/mibs:/var/lib/zabbix/mibs \
  -p 10051:10051 \
  -d zabbix/zabbix-server-mysql:centos-latest

Key volume mappings:

/usr/lib/zabbix/alertscripts – custom alert scripts (AlertScriptsPath)

/usr/lib/zabbix/externalscripts – external checks (ExternalScripts)

/etc/zabbix – server configuration files

/var/lib/zabbix/modules – loadable modules

/var/lib/zabbix/enc – TLS related files

/var/lib/zabbix/ssh_keys – SSH keys for checks

/var/lib/zabbix/ssl/certs – client SSL certificates

/var/lib/zabbix/ssl/keys – client SSL private keys

/var/lib/zabbix/ssl/ssl_ca – CA certificates for server verification

/var/lib/zabbix/snmptraps – SNMP trap log location

/var/lib/zabbix/mibs – MIB files (no sub‑directories)

3) Start the Zabbix web front‑end

docker run --rm --name zabbix-web-nginx-mysql -t \
  -e DB_SERVER_HOST="zabbix-mysql" \
  -e MYSQL_DATABASE="zabbix" \
  -e MYSQL_USER="zabbix" \
  -e MYSQL_PASSWORD="zabbix" \
  -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD="zabbix" \
  -e PHP_TZ="Asia/Shanghai" \
  --link zabbix-mysql:mysql \
  --link zabbix-server-mysql:zabbix-server \
  -p 8080:80 \
  -d zabbix/zabbix-web-nginx-mysql:latest

Ensure the --link names match the container names created earlier.

4) Verify all three containers are running

docker ps
# Example output shows zabbix-web-nginx-mysql, zabbix-server-mysql, and mysql containers up and listening on the expected ports.

5) Install Zabbix agent on the host (non‑container)

rpm -ivh https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/4.4/rhel/7/x86_64/zabbix-agent-4.4.5-1.el7.x86_64.rpm
yum install -y zabbix-agent
# Edit /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.conf
Server=172.17.0.3
ServerActive=172.17.0.3:10050
Hostname=Zabbix server
systemctl restart zabbix-agent
systemctl enable zabbix-agent

If the host uses Docker’s default bridge network, adjust Server in the agent config to point to the Docker‑host IP.

6) Access the Zabbix web UI

Open http://<em>host‑ip</em>:8080, log in with user Admin and password zabbix. The interface defaults to English with a white background; language and theme can be changed via the user menu.

Alternative: Deploy with docker‑compose

Install docker‑compose

# curl -L https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.23.2/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m) -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
docker-compose --version

Prepare configuration files

Create zabbix_server.conf and place it under /opt/docker-zabbix-server/zabbix/zabbixconfig/.

docker‑compose.yml

version: '3'
services:
  zabbix-mysql:
    image: mariadb:latest
    ports:
      - "3309:3306"
    volumes:
      - ./zabbix/data/mysqllib:/var/lib/mysql
    environment:
      - MYSQL_USER=zabbix
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=zabbix
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=zabbix
      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=123321
      - character-set-server=utf8
      - collation-server=utf8_bin
    restart: always
  zabbix-server:
    image: zabbix/zabbix-server-mysql:centos-latest
    ports:
      - "10052:10051"
    environment:
      - DB_SERVER_HOST=zabbix-mysql
      - MYSQL_USER=zabbix
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=zabbix
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=zabbix
      - DB_SERVER_ROOT_USER=root
      - DB_SERVER_ROOT_PASS=123321
      - TZ='Asia/Shanghai'
    volumes:
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro
      - ./zabbix/zabbixconfig/:/etc/zabbix/
      - ./zabbix/alertscripts:/usr/lib/zabbix/alertscripts
      - ./zabbix/externalscripts:/usr/lib/zabbix/externalscripts
      - ./zabbix/modules:/var/lib/zabbix/modules
      - ./zabbix/enc:/var/lib/zabbix/enc
      - ./zabbix/ssh_keys:/var/lib/zabbix/ssh_keys
      - ./zabbix/ssl/certs:/var/lib/zabbix/ssl/certs
      - ./zabbix/ssl/keys:/var/lib/zabbix/ssl/keys
      - ./zabbix/ssl/ssl_ca:/var/lib/zabbix/ssl/ssl_ca
      - ./zabbix/snmptraps:/var/lib/zabbix/snmptraps
      - ./zabbix/mibs:/var/lib/zabbix/mibs
    depends_on:
      - zabbix-mysql
  zabbix-web-nginx:
    image: zabbix/zabbix-web-nginx-mysql:latest
    ports:
      - "8088:80"
    environment:
      - DB_SERVER_HOST=zabbix-mysql
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=zabbix
      - MYSQL_USER=zabbix
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=zabbix
      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=123321
      - ZBX_SERVER_HOST=zabbix-server
      - PHP_TZ='Asia/Shanghai'
      - TZ='Asia/Shanghai'
    volumes:
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro
    links:
      - zabbix-mysql
      - zabbix-server
  zabbix-agent:
    image: zabbix/zabbix-agent:latest
    environment:
      - ZBX_HOSTNAME=Zabbix server
      - ZBX_SERVER_HOST=zabbix-server
      - ZBX_SERVER_PORT=10051
      - TZ='Asia/Shanghai'
    ports:
      - "10053:10050"
    restart: always
    privileged: true

For host‑level monitoring, it is recommended to install the native Zabbix agent via yum or binary rather than the containerized agent.

Deploy with docker‑compose

docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml up -d

Check the status with docker-compose ps; all services should be up and listening on the mapped ports.

Access the web UI

Open the mapped port (e.g., http://<em>host‑ip</em>:8088) and log in with the default credentials.

Zabbix Agent on Another Host

If Docker is available on the target host, use a docker‑compose file similar to the one above to run the agent container, adjusting the IP address in the environment variables.

docker run -d \
  --name zabbix-agent \
  -e ZBX_HOSTNAME=172.19.204.201 \
  -e ZBX_SERVER_HOST=172.19.204.200 \
  -e ZBX_SERVER_PORT=10051 \
  -e TZ='Asia/Shanghai' \
  -p 10050:10050 \
  --privileged zabbix/zabbix-agent:latest

If Docker is not installed, install the Zabbix agent via the RPM package as described earlier.