How to Monitor Nginx, MySQL, PHP‑FPM and Zabbix Server with Zabbix

Monitor Nginx

Enable the ngx_http_stub_status_module (compile Nginx with --with-http_stub_status_module) and add a location block to the Nginx configuration:

location /status {
    stub_status;
}

Reload Nginx: systemctl reload nginx Visit http://127.0.0.1/status to see the status page.

Parameter explanation:

Active connections: current active client connections (including waiting). accepts: total accepted connections. handled: total handled connections. requests: total client requests. Reading: connections reading request headers. Writing: connections writing responses. Waiting: idle connections waiting for a request.

Write a Bash script to extract these values:

#!/bin/bash
ping() { /sbin/pidof nginx | wc -l; }
nginx_active() { curl -s "http://127.0.0.1/status" | awk '/Active/ {print $NF}'; }
reading() { curl -s "http://127.0.0.1/status" | awk '/Reading/ {print $2}'; }
writing() { curl -s "http://127.0.0.1/status" | awk '/Writing/ {print $4}'; }
waiting() { curl -s "http://127.0.0.1/status" | awk '/Waiting/ {print $6}'; }
accepts() { curl -s "http://127.0.0.1/status" | awk 'NR==3 {print $1}'; }
handled() { curl -s "http://127.0.0.1/status" | awk 'NR==3 {print $2}'; }
requests() { curl -s "http://127.0.0.1/status" | awk 'NR==3 {print $3}'; }
$1

Make the script executable:

chmod +x /usr/lib/zabbix/alertscripts/monitor_nginx.sh

Add a user parameter to the Zabbix agent configuration:

UserParameter=nginx.[*],/usr/lib/zabbix/alertscripts/monitor_nginx.sh $1

Restart the agent and test:

systemctl restart zabbix-agent
zabbix_get -s 192.168.179.132 -k nginx.[ping]

Create Nginx Monitoring Template

Link the template to the host, add items (e.g., nginx.ping), create triggers and graphs as shown in the screenshots.

Monitor MySQL

Retrieve MySQL status with:

mysqladmin -uroot -proot extended-status
mysqladmin -uroot -proot status

To avoid plain‑text passwords, store credentials in a MySQL option file and run:

mysqladmin --defaults-extra-file=/etc/my.cnf status

Two script approaches are provided. Below is the first Bash script:

#!/bin/bash
MYSQL_USER='root'
MYSQL_PWD='root'
MYSQL_HOST='192.168.179.132'
MYSQL_PORT='3306'
MYSQL_CONN="/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin -u${MYSQL_USER} -p${MYSQL_PWD} -h${MYSQL_HOST} -P${MYSQL_PORT}"
if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then
    echo "arg error!"
    exit 1
fi
case $1 in
    Uptime) result=`${MYSQL_CONN} status | cut -f2 -d":" | cut -f1 -d"T"`; echo $result;;
    Com_update) result=`${MYSQL_CONN} extended-status | grep -w "Com_update" | cut -d"|" -f3`; echo $result;;
    Slow_queries) result=`${MYSQL_CONN} status | cut -f5 -d":" | cut -f1 -d"O"`; echo $result;;
    Com_select) result=`${MYSQL_CONN} extended-status | grep -w "Com_select" | cut -d"|" -f3`; echo $result;;
    Com_rollback) result=`${MYSQL_CONN} extended-status | grep -w "Com_rollback" | cut -d"|" -f3`; echo $result;;
    Questions) result=`${MYSQL_CONN} status | cut -f4 -d":" | cut -f1 -d"S"`; echo $result;;
    Com_insert) result=`${MYSQL_CONN} extended-status | grep -w "Com_insert" | cut -d"|" -f3`; echo $result;;
    Com_delete) result=`${MYSQL_CONN} extended-status | grep -w "Com_delete" | cut -d"|" -f3`; echo $result;;
    Com_commit) result=`${MYSQL_CONN} extended-status | grep -w "Com_commit" | cut -d"|" -f3`; echo $result;;
    Bytes_sent) result=`${MYSQL_CONN} extended-status | grep -w "Bytes_sent" | cut -d"|" -f3`; echo $result;;
    Bytes_received) result=`${MYSQL_CONN} extended-status | grep -w "Bytes_received" | cut -d"|" -f3`; echo $result;;
    Com_begin) result=`${MYSQL_CONN} extended-status | grep -w "Com_begin" | cut -d"|" -f3`; echo $result;;
    *) echo "Usage:$0(Uptime|Com_update|Slow_queries|Com_select|Com_rollback|Questions|Com_insert|Com_delete|Com_commit|Bytes_sent|Bytes_received|Com_begin)";;
esac

Make it executable:

chmod +x /usr/lib/zabbix/alertscripts/monitor_mysql.sh

Add user parameters to /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.d/userparameter_mysql.conf:

UserParameter=mysql.status[*],/usr/lib/zabbix/alertscripts/monitor_mysql.sh $1
UserParameter=mysql.ping,/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin -uroot -proot ping 2>/dev/null | grep -c alive
UserParameter=mysql.slave,mysql -uroot -proot -e 'show slave status\G' 2>/dev/null | grep -E "Slave_IO_Running|Slave_SQL_Running" | awk '{print $2}' | grep -c Yes

Restart the agent and test:

systemctl restart zabbix-agent
zabbix_get -s 192.168.179.132 -k mysql.ping
zabbix_get -s 192.168.179.132 -k mysql.[Uptime]

Monitor PHP‑FPM

Enable status in /usr/local/php/etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf: pm.status_path = /php_status Uncomment the PID line in /usr/local/php/etc/php-fpm.conf: pid = run/php-fpm.pid Reload PHP‑FPM:

kill -USR2 `cat /usr/local/php/var/run/php-fpm.pid`

Add a location to Nginx for the status page:

location ~ ^/(php_status|ping)$ {
    fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
    fastcgi_index index.php;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /usr/share/nginx/html$fastcgi_script_name;
    include fastcgi_params;
}

Reload Nginx and test:

systemctl reload nginx
curl 127.0.0.1/php_status
curl 127.0.0.1/php_status?full

PHP‑FPM status parameters:

pool, process manager, start time, start since, accepted conn, listen queue, max listen queue, listen queue len, idle processes, active processes, total processes, max active processes, max children reached, slow requests.

Full detail (XML output) parameters:

pid, state, start time, start since, requests, request duration, request method, request URI, content length, user, script, last request cpu, last request memory.

Add user parameters for PHP‑FPM to /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.d/userparameter_mysql.conf:

UserParameter=php-fpm.status[*],/usr/bin/curl -s "http://127.0.0.1/php_status?xml" | grep "<$1>" | cut -d '>' -f2 | cut -d '<' -f1
UserParameter=php-fpm.ping,/sbin/pidof php-fpm | wc -l
UserParameter=php-fpm.version,/usr/local/php/sbin/php-fpm -v | awk 'NR==1{print $1,$2}'

Restart the agent and verify:

systemctl restart zabbix-agent
zabbix_get -s 192.168.179.132 -k php-fpm.ping

Monitor Zabbix Server

Zabbix already provides a template for monitoring the server itself; simply link the Zabbix‑server template to the host. No additional Zabbix‑agent template is required because it is already linked to the OS template.

All templates and scripts referenced in this article are available on GitHub:

https://github.com/zhouhua-amei/zabbix/

Feel free to join the discussion and share your experience.