Step-by-Step Guide to Install and Configure Zabbix on CentOS 7

System Overview

Zabbix is an enterprise‑grade solution that supports real‑time monitoring of thousands of servers, virtual machines, and network devices, collecting millions of metrics.

Main features of Zabbix include:

Metric collection from any device, system, or application.

Problem detection with intelligent thresholds.

Visualization via a single‑pane management interface.

Alerting and remediation to ensure timely, effective notifications.

Security and authentication to protect data at all layers.

Easy deployment with many ready‑to‑use templates, saving valuable time.

Automatic discovery for large dynamic environments.

Distributed monitoring with unlimited scalability.

Key Terminology

Zabbix defines several specific terms:

Host : The server, workstation, switch, or other network device you want to monitor, identified by IP or hostname.

Host group : A collection of hosts sharing a role or attribute, e.g., all Windows servers grouped under “Windows server”.

Item : The data you want to collect from a host or host group, such as CPU usage.

Trigger : A logical expression that evaluates collected data against predefined thresholds, producing states “Problem” or “OK”.

Event : A single occurrence that requires attention, such as a trigger changing state.

Action : A predefined operation executed automatically when an event occurs, e.g., running reboot when CPU usage exceeds 80%.

Zabbix server : Core daemon that communicates with agents, evaluates triggers, sends alerts, and stores data.

Zabbix agent : Program installed on monitored hosts to collect local resources and applications.

Installation Steps

1. Disable firewall and SELinux

sed -i 's/SELINUX=enforcing/SELINUX=disabled/' /etc/selinux/config

systemctl disable --now firewalld

reboot

2. Install Zabbix RPM repository

rpm -Uvh https://mirrors.aliyun.com/zabbix/zabbix/5.0/rhel/7/x86_64/zabbix-release-5.0-1.el7.noarch.rpm

sed -i 's#http://repo.zabbix.com#https://mirrors.aliyun.com/zabbix#' /etc/yum.repos.d/zabbix.repo

yum clean all

3. Install Zabbix server and agent

yum install zabbix-server-mysql zabbix-agent -y

4. Install Zabbix frontend

yum install centos-release-scl -y

vi /etc/yum.repos.d/zabbix.repo   # set enabled=1

yum install zabbix-web-mysql-scl zabbix-apache-conf-scl -y

5. Install MariaDB

yum install mariadb-server -y

systemctl enable --now mariadb

mysql_secure_installation

6. Configure Zabbix database

mysql -u root -p   # enter root password

create database zabbix default character set utf8 collate utf8_bin;

grant all privileges on zabbix.* to zabbix@localhost identified by "zabbix_pwd";

zcat /usr/share/doc/zabbix-server-mysql*/create.sql.gz | mysql -uzabbix -p zabbix

7. Configure Zabbix and install frontend

vi /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf   # set DBPassword to the Zabbix DB password

vi /etc/opt/rh/rh-php72/php-fpm.d/zabbix.conf   # set php_value[date.timezone]=Asia/Shanghai

systemctl restart zabbix-server zabbix-agent httpd rh-php72-php-fpm

systemctl enable zabbix-server zabbix-agent httpd rh-php72-php-fpm

Open a browser and navigate to http://IP/zabbix to continue the web installation.

Follow the wizard: click “Next step”, verify the environment (all OK), configure database connection (default port 3306), accept default server settings, and finish the installation.

Log in with default credentials: username Admin , password zabbix .

Configure Chinese language

In the lower‑left “User settings”, set Language to Chinese (zh_CN) .