Deploy Zabbix Monitoring with Docker Compose: A Complete Step‑by‑Step Guide

Introduction

Zabbix is an enterprise‑grade, distributed, open‑source monitoring solution that can monitor applications, databases, networks, and operating systems, and since version 6.x also supports Kubernetes monitoring. This article explains how to implement host monitoring with Zabbix.

Install Zabbix Server with Docker Compose

We use Docker Compose to set up a Zabbix monitoring stack.

# Pull images
docker pull zabbix/zabbix-server-mysql:6.4.1-centos
docker pull zabbix/zabbix-web-nginx-mysql:6.4.1-centos

# Create data directories
mkdir -p zabbix/{data,alertscripts}
mkdir -p zabbix/mysql/{data,conf}
cd zabbix/

# MySQL configuration
cat > mysql/conf/my.cnf <<eof
[client]
default-character-set = utf8

[mysqld]
character-set-server = utf8
collation-server = utf8_bin
default_storage_engine = InnoDB
port = 3306
datadir = /var/lib/mysql
max_connections=1000
expire_logs_days = 15
relay_log_purge = 1
slow_query_log_file = /var/log/mysql/slow.log
log-error = /var/log/mysql/error.log
log-bin = /var/log/mysql/mysql-bin.log
default_authentication_plugin = mysql_native_password
socket = /tmp/mysql.sock
lower_case_table_names = 1
sql_mode = NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION
default-time_zone='+8:00'
eof
chmod 644 mysql/conf/my.cnf

# Docker‑compose file
cat > docker-compose.yml <<eof
version: '3.9'
networks:
  zbx:
    driver: bridge
services:
  zabbix-mysql:
    image: mysql:8.0.30
    hostname: mysql
    container_name: mysql
    volumes:
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - ./mysql/conf/my.cnf:/etc/my.cnf
      - ./mysql/data:/var/lib/mysql
    restart: always
    privileged: true
    command: --character-set-server=utf8 --collation-server=utf8_bin
    environment:
      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=Egfi9Jnn9BzJf3Q6
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=zabbix
      - MYSQL_USER=zabbix
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=zabbix
      - TZ=Asia/Shanghai
      - LANG=en_US.UTF-8
    ports:
      - 3306:3306
    networks:
      - zbx

  zabbix-server:
    image: zabbix/zabbix-server-mysql:6.4.1-centos
    container_name: zabbix-server
    volumes:
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - ./data:/var/lib/zabbix/
      - ./alertscripts:/usr/lib/zabbix/alertscripts:ro
    restart: always
    privileged: true
    environment:
      - DB_SERVER_HOST=zabbix-mysql
      - DB_SERVER_PORT=3306
      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=Egfi9Jnn9BzJf3Q6
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=zabbix
      - MYSQL_USER=zabbix
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=zabbix
      - ZBX_CACHESIZE=1G
      - ZBX_HISTORYCACHESIZE=512M
      - ZBX_HISTORYINDEXCACHESIZE=32M
      - ZBX_TRENDCACHESIZE=256M
      - ZBX_VALUECACHESIZE=256M
      - ZBX_STARTPINGERS=64
      - ZBX_IPMIPOLLERS=1
      - ZBX_ENABLE_SNMP_TRAPS=true
      - ZBX_STARTTRAPPERS=1
    ports:
      - 10051:10051
    networks:
      - zbx

  zabbix-web:
    image: zabbix/zabbix-web-nginx-mysql:6.4.1-centos
    container_name: zabbix-web
    volumes:
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    restart: always
    privileged: true
    environment:
      - ZBX_SERVER_NAME=Zabbix 6.0
      - ZBX_SERVER_HOST=zabbix-server
      - ZBX_SERVER_PORT=10051
      - DB_SERVER_HOST=zabbix-mysql
      - DB_SERVER_PORT=3306
      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=Egfi9Jnn9BzJf3Q6
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=zabbix
      - MYSQL_USER=zabbix
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=zabbix
      - PHP_TZ=Asia/Shanghai
    ports:
      - 80:8080
    networks:
      - zbx
eof

# Start services
docker compose up zabbix-mysql -d && sleep 5
docker compose up -d

After the services start, you can log in to the web UI with the default credentials Admin / zabbix .

Install Zabbix Agent

The Zabbix agent collects host metrics. The guide uses the binary package method; for many hosts, Ansible is recommended.

# Download binary package
wget -c https://cdn.zabbix.com/zabbix/binaries/stable/6.4/6.4.1/zabbix_agent-6.4.1-linux-3.0-amd64-static.tar.gz
mkdir -p /usr/local/zabbix
tar xf zabbix_agent-6.4.1-linux-3.0-amd64-static.tar.gz -C /usr/local/zabbix

# Create zabbix user
useradd -s /sbin/nologin -M zabbix
chown -R zabbix.root /usr/local/zabbix

# Create configuration file
rm -rf /usr/local/zabbix/conf/zabbix_agentd/*
cat > /usr/local/zabbix/conf/zabbix_agentd.conf <<eof
PidFile=/usr/local/zabbix/logs/zabbix_agentd.pid
LogFile=/usr/local/zabbix/logs/zabbix_agentd.log
LogFileSize=100
ListenPort=10050
StartAgents=2
Server=172.16.110.169
ServerActive=172.16.110.169
HostMetadata=basic
Include=/usr/local/zabbix/conf/zabbix_agentd/*.conf
eof

Create a systemd service for the agent:

# Service unit file
cat > /usr/lib/systemd/system/zabbix-agent.service <<eof
[Unit]
Description=Zabbix Agent
After=syslog.target
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=on-failure
PIDFile=/usr/local/zabbix/logs/zabbix_agentd.pid
KillMode=control-group
ExecStart=/usr/local/zabbix/sbin/zabbix_agentd -c /usr/local/zabbix/conf/zabbix_agentd.conf
ExecStop=/bin/kill -SIGTERM $MAINPID
RestartSec=10s
User=zabbix
Group=zabbix

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
eof

# Enable and start
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable zabbix-agent --now

Automatic Registration

The agent can automatically register itself with the Zabbix server, reducing server load. After adding matching conditions and registration actions in the Zabbix UI, newly added agents appear automatically.

Custom Dashboard

Zabbix’s default dashboard does not show host metrics. Create a new host panel, select the desired host group and items, and add it to the dashboard to visualize host performance.

Optional LDAP Integration

Zabbix supports LDAP authentication for unified account management. Configure the LDAP settings in the Zabbix UI, create users belonging to appropriate groups and roles, and enable LDAP as the authentication method.

End of tutorial.