Step-by-Step Guide: Build a Zabbix Monitoring System from Scratch

Installation Preparation

Before installing Zabbix, disable SELinux, install required packages, and prepare the LAMP stack.

LAMP Environment Setup

Install Apache, MySQL, and PHP, start MySQL, enable it at boot, and set a root password (replace yourpassword with your own).

Install Zabbix Server

Download and install Zabbix server packages, then create the Zabbix database.

Create Zabbix Database

Import the initial schema and data into the newly created database.

Configure Zabbix

Edit the Zabbix configuration files, replacing yourpasswd with your database password, and adjust the timezone as needed.

Optional: Change Zabbix Login Password

Modify the default admin password if desired.

Start Services

Enable Zabbix server and Apache to start on boot, then start them.

Set the services to start automatically at boot.

Access the Zabbix web interface via http://hostname/zabbix; the default login is Admin/zabbix.

Install Zabbix Agent

Install the agent on monitored hosts, configure the server address, and start the agent.

Add Host to Zabbix Server

In the Zabbix UI, add the new host, assign a template, and enable monitoring.

Bind the appropriate template to the host.

After updating, the host appears in the Hosts list.

Open port 10050 in the firewall if the agent must be queried remotely.

Monitor Network Traffic

To monitor inbound/outbound traffic on interface em1 of host 192.168.8.5, create a template, items, triggers, and graphs.

Create a new template.

Add an application under Configuration → Templates → Create application.

Create monitoring items for inbound and outbound traffic (e.g., network traffic on em1).

Define triggers that fire when traffic exceeds a threshold (e.g., 1 MiB/s).

Create graphs to visualize the traffic data.

Bind the template to the host.

After these steps, the latest data and graphs are visible under Monitoring → Latest data and Monitoring → Graphs.

Custom Script Alerting

Configure Zabbix to send alerts via a custom script (e.g., a DingTalk webhook). Define a media type that points to /usr/lib/zabbix/alertscripts/dingding.py, which receives three parameters: recipient, subject, and message.

Implement dingding.py to log the parameters or forward them to a webhook, and set executable permissions.

Define Events and User Media

Create an event that triggers every hour, generating ten alerts at two‑minute intervals, and associate it with the DingTalk media type.

Link the media type to a user (e.g., Admin) via Administration → Users → Media.

After completing these configurations, Zabbix will monitor network traffic, generate alerts when thresholds are exceeded, and send notifications through the custom script.