The purpose of this document is to assist in installing the Zabbix server software and Zabbix agent on the Alpine Linux operating system. Instructions on how to configure and use Zabbix - as well as many useful tutorials - can be found at http://www.zabbix.com.

Note: The minimum required version of Alpine Linux required to install Zabbix is Alpine 2.2.

Install Lighttpd, and PHP

Basic Installation

For installing the additional packages first activate community packages and update the package index

Install the required packages:

# apk add lighttpd php82 fcgi php82-cgi

Configure Lighttpd

Edit lighttpd.conf (/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf) and uncomment the line:

Contents of /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

...
include "mod_fastcgi.conf"
...

Edit mod_fastcgi.conf (/etc/lighttpd/mod_fastcgi.conf), find and change /usr/bin/php-cgi to /usr/bin/php-cgi82.

Contents of /etc/lighttpd/mod_fastcgi.conf

...
"bin-path" => "/usr/bin/php-cgi82" # php-cgi
...

Start `lighttpd` service and add it to default runlevel

# rc-service lighttpd start # rc-update add lighttpd default

Configure PostgreSQL

Install PostgreSQL

apk add postgresql postgresql-client

Now configure PostgreSQL:

/etc/init.d/postgresql setup /etc/init.d/postgresql start rc-update add postgresql

Install Zabbix

apk add zabbix zabbix-pgsql zabbix-webif zabbix-setup

Now we need to set up the zabbix database. Substitute '*********' in the example below for a real password:

psql –U postgres postgres=# create user zabbix with password '*********'; postgres=# create database zabbix owner zabbix; postgres=# \q cd /usr/share/zabbix/database/postgresql cat postgresql.sql | psql -U zabbix zabbix cd .. cd data/ cat data.sql | psql -U zabbix zabbix cat images_pgsql.sql | psql -U zabbix zabbix

Create a softlink for the Zabbix web-frontend files:

rm /var/www/localhost/htdocs -R ln -s /usr/share/webapps/zabbix /var/www/localhost/htdocs

Edit PHP configuration to satisfy some zabbix requirements. Edit /etc/php/php.ini and configure the following values at least:

Max_execution_time = 600
Expose_php = off
Date.timezone = <insert your timezone here>
post_max_size = 32M
upload_max_filesize = 16M
max_input_time = 600
memory_limit = 256M

Configure the following entries in /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf, where DBPassword is the password chosen for the database above:

DBName=zabbix

# Database user

DBUser=zabbix

# Database password
# Comment this line if no password used

DBPassword=*********

FpingLocation=/usr/sbin/fping

Start Zabbix server:

rc-update add zabbix-server /etc/init.d/zabbix-server start

Fix permissions on conf directory.

chown -R lighttpd /usr/share/webapps/zabbix/conf

You should now be able to browse to the Zabbix frontend: http://yourservername/.

or

You should now be able to browse to the Zabbix setup frontend: http://yourserverip/instal.php.

Follow the setup instructions to configure Zabbix, supplying the database information used above.

After setup, login using: Login name: Admin Password:zabbix. (as described at http://www.zabbix.com/documentation/1.8/manual/installation)

Finally, Zabbix requires special permissions to use the fping binary.

chmod u+s /usr/sbin/fping

Install Zabbix Agent on Monitored Servers

Zabbix can monitor almost any operating system, including Alpine Linux hosts. Complete the following steps to install the Zabbix agent on Alpine Linux.

Note: Support to allow zabbix-agentd to view running processes on Alpine Linux has been added since linux-grsec-2.6.35.9-r2. Please ensure you have that kernel installed prior to attempting to run zabbix-agentd.

Ensure that the readproc group exists (support added since alpine-baselayout-2.0_rc1-r1), by adding the following line to /etc/group:

readproc:x:30:zabbix

Install the agent package:

apk add zabbix-agent

Edit the /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.conf file and configure at least the following option:

Server=<ip or hostname of zabbix server>
Hostname=<ip or hostname of zabbix agent>
ListenPort=10050

Start the zabbix-agent:

rc-update add zabbix-agentd /etc/init.d/zabbix-agentd start

In case you want to monitor using SNMP agent on remote machines you have to add these packages on zabbix server:

apk add net-snmp net-snmp-tools

And add these packages on remote machines:

apk add net-snmp

Optional: Crash course in adding hosts, checks, and notifications

Note: This is optional since it's not specific to Alpine Linux, but I wanted a couple notes for how to perform a simple check on a server that doesn't have the agent installed on it, and be notified on state changes.

Administration -> Media Types -> Email

Setup server, helo, email from address

Administration -> Users

Setup each user who'll get notified, make sure they have media type "Email" added with their address

Configuration -> Hosts -> Create host

In Linux Servers hostgroup
Define dns name, ip, connect by IP
If the machine is a simple networking device that will only be monitored using SNMP, add it to Template_SNMPv2_Device, and you're done.

Configuration -> Templates -> Create template

Give it a name (Template_Alpine_Linux_Infra_HTTP)
In Templates group

Configuration -> Templates -> Template_Alpine_Linux_Infra_HTTP -> Items

Create Item
Host: Template_Alpine_Linux_Infra_HTTP
Description: HTTP Basic Check
Type: Simple_check
Key: http,80

Configuration -> Templates -> Template_Alpine_Linux_Infra_HTTP -> Triggers

Create Trigger
Name: "HTTP Trigger"
Expression: {Template_Alpine_Linux_Infra_HTTP:http,80.last(0)}#1
Severity: High

Configuration -> Actions ->

Create Action
name: Email notifications
Event source: triggers
Default Subject: add "{HOST.DNS}:" to the beginning
Default message: add "{HOST.DNS}:" to the beginning
Conditions: make host have to be from "Linux Servers" hostgroup, and Template_Alpine_Linux_Infra_HTTP:HTTP trigger" is not 1
Email affected users