5 Installation from containers

Overview

This section describes how to deploy Zabbix with Docker or Docker Compose.

Zabbix officially provides:

• Separate Docker images for each Zabbix component to run as portable and self-sufficient containers.
• Compose files for defining and running multi-container Zabbix components in Docker.

Since Zabbix 6.0, deterministic triggers need to be created during the installation. If binary logging is enabled for MySQL/MariaDB, this requires superuser privileges or setting the variable/configuration parameter log_bin_trust_function_creators = 1. See Database creation scripts for instructions how to set the variable.
Note that if executing from a console, the variable will only be set temporarily and will be dropped when a Docker is restarted. In this case, keep your SQL service running, only stop zabbix-server service by running ‘docker compose down zabbix-server’ and then ‘docker compose up -d zabbix-server’.
Alternatively, you can set this variable in the configuration file.

Source files

Docker file sources are stored in the Zabbix official repository on GitHub, where you can follow latest file changes or fork the project to make your own images.

Docker

Zabbix provides images based on a variety of OS base images. To get the list of supported base operating system images for a specific Zabbix component, see the component’s description in Docker Hub. All Zabbix images are configured to rebuild latest images if base images are updated.

Installation

To get Zabbix component image, run:

docker pull zabbix/zabbix-server-mysql

Replace zabbix/zabbix-server-mysql with the name of the required docker repository.

This command will pull the latest stable Zabbix component version based on the Alpine Linux OS. You can append tags to the repository name to get an image based on another operating system or of the specific Zabbix major or minor version.

The following repositories are available in Docker Hub:

SNMP trap support is provided in a separate repository zabbix/zabbix-snmptraps. It can be linked with Zabbix server and Zabbix proxy.

Tags

Official Zabbix component images may contain the following tags:

Initial configuration

After downloading the images, start the containers by executing docker run command followed by additional arguments to specify required environment variables and/or mount points. Some configuration examples are provided below.

To enable communication between Zabbix components, some ports, such as 10051/TCP for Zabbix server (trapper), 10050/TCP for Zabbix agent, 162/UDP for SNMP traps and 80/TCP for Zabbix web interface will be exposed to a host machine. Full list of default ports used by Zabbix components is available on the Requirements page. For Zabbix server and agent the default port can be changed by setting ZBX_LISTENPORT environment variable.

Environment variables

All Zabbix component images provide environment variables to control configuration. Supported environment variables are listed in the component repository.

These environment variables are options from Zabbix configuration files, but with different naming method. For example, ZBX_LOGSLOWQUERIES is equal to LogSlowQueries from Zabbix server and Zabbix proxy configuration files.

Some of configuration options cannot be changed. For example, PIDFile and LogType.

The following environment variables are specific to Docker components and do not exist in Zabbix configuration files:

Volumes

The images allow to mount volumes using the following mount points:

For additional information, see Zabbix official repositories in Docker Hub.

Examples

Example 1

The example demonstrates how to run Zabbix server with MySQL database support, Zabbix web interface based on the Nginx web server and Zabbix Java gateway.

1. Create network dedicated for Zabbix component containers:

# docker network create --subnet 172.20.0.0/16 --ip-range 172.20.240.0/20 zabbix-net

2. Start empty MySQL server instance

# docker run --name mysql-server -t \
             -e MYSQL_DATABASE="zabbix" \
             -e MYSQL_USER="zabbix" \
             -e MYSQL_PASSWORD="zabbix_pwd" \
             -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD="root_pwd" \
             --network=zabbix-net \
             --restart unless-stopped \
             -d mysql:8.0-oracle \
             --character-set-server=utf8 --collation-server=utf8_bin \
             --default-authentication-plugin=mysql_native_password

3. Start Zabbix Java gateway instance

# docker run --name zabbix-java-gateway -t \
             --network=zabbix-net \
             --restart unless-stopped \
             -d zabbix/zabbix-java-gateway:alpine-6.4-latest

4. Start Zabbix server instance and link the instance with created MySQL server instance

# docker run --name zabbix-server-mysql -t \
             -e DB_SERVER_HOST="mysql-server" \
             -e MYSQL_DATABASE="zabbix" \
             -e MYSQL_USER="zabbix" \
             -e MYSQL_PASSWORD="zabbix_pwd" \
             -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD="root_pwd" \
             -e ZBX_JAVAGATEWAY="zabbix-java-gateway" \
             --network=zabbix-net \
             -p 10051:10051 \
             --restart unless-stopped \
             -d zabbix/zabbix-server-mysql:alpine-6.4-latest

5. Start Zabbix web interface and link the instance with created MySQL server and Zabbix server instances

# docker run --name zabbix-web-nginx-mysql -t \
             -e ZBX_SERVER_HOST="zabbix-server-mysql" \
             -e DB_SERVER_HOST="mysql-server" \
             -e MYSQL_DATABASE="zabbix" \
             -e MYSQL_USER="zabbix" \
             -e MYSQL_PASSWORD="zabbix_pwd" \
             -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD="root_pwd" \
             --network=zabbix-net \
             -p 80:8080 \
             --restart unless-stopped \
             -d zabbix/zabbix-web-nginx-mysql:alpine-6.4-latest

Example 2

The example demonstrates how to run Zabbix server with PostgreSQL database support, Zabbix web interface based on the Nginx web server and SNMP trap feature.

1. Create network dedicated for Zabbix component containers:

# docker network create --subnet 172.20.0.0/16 --ip-range 172.20.240.0/20 zabbix-net

2. Start empty PostgreSQL server instance

# docker run --name postgres-server -t \
             -e POSTGRES_USER="zabbix" \
             -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD="zabbix_pwd" \
             -e POSTGRES_DB="zabbix" \
             --network=zabbix-net \
             --restart unless-stopped \
             -d postgres:latest

3. Start Zabbix snmptraps instance

# docker run --name zabbix-snmptraps -t \
             -v /zbx_instance/snmptraps:/var/lib/zabbix/snmptraps:rw \
             -v /var/lib/zabbix/mibs:/usr/share/snmp/mibs:ro \
             --network=zabbix-net \
             -p 162:1162/udp \
             --restart unless-stopped \
             -d zabbix/zabbix-snmptraps:alpine-6.4-latest

4. Start Zabbix server instance and link the instance with created PostgreSQL server instance

# docker run --name zabbix-server-pgsql -t \
             -e DB_SERVER_HOST="postgres-server" \
             -e POSTGRES_USER="zabbix" \
             -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD="zabbix_pwd" \
             -e POSTGRES_DB="zabbix" \
             -e ZBX_ENABLE_SNMP_TRAPS="true" \
             --network=zabbix-net \
             -p 10051:10051 \
             --volumes-from zabbix-snmptraps \
             --restart unless-stopped \
             -d zabbix/zabbix-server-pgsql:alpine-6.4-latest

5. Start Zabbix web interface and link the instance with created PostgreSQL server and Zabbix server instances

# docker run --name zabbix-web-nginx-pgsql -t \
             -e ZBX_SERVER_HOST="zabbix-server-pgsql" \
             -e DB_SERVER_HOST="postgres-server" \
             -e POSTGRES_USER="zabbix" \
             -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD="zabbix_pwd" \
             -e POSTGRES_DB="zabbix" \
             --network=zabbix-net \
             -p 443:8443 \
             -p 80:8080 \
             -v /etc/ssl/nginx:/etc/ssl/nginx:ro \
             --restart unless-stopped \
             -d zabbix/zabbix-web-nginx-pgsql:alpine-6.4-latest

Example 3

The example demonstrates how to run Zabbix server with MySQL database support, Zabbix web interface based on the Nginx web server and Zabbix Java gateway using podman on Red Hat 8.

1. Create new pod with name zabbix and exposed ports (web-interface, Zabbix server trapper):

podman pod create --name zabbix -p 80:8080 -p 10051:10051

2. (optional) Start Zabbix agent container in zabbix pod location:

podman run --name zabbix-agent \
           -e ZBX_SERVER_HOST="127.0.0.1,localhost" \
           --restart=always \
           --pod=zabbix \
           -d registry.connect.redhat.com/zabbix/zabbix-agent-64:latest

3. Create ./mysql/ directory on host and start Oracle MySQL server 8.0:

podman run --name mysql-server -t \
             -e MYSQL_DATABASE="zabbix" \
             -e MYSQL_USER="zabbix" \
             -e MYSQL_PASSWORD="zabbix_pwd" \
             -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD="root_pwd" \
             -v ./mysql/:/var/lib/mysql/:Z \
             --restart=always \
             --pod=zabbix \
             -d mysql:8.0 \
             --character-set-server=utf8 --collation-server=utf8_bin \
             --default-authentication-plugin=mysql_native_password

4. Start Zabbix server container:

podman run --name zabbix-server-mysql -t \
                         -e DB_SERVER_HOST="127.0.0.1" \
                         -e MYSQL_DATABASE="zabbix" \
                         -e MYSQL_USER="zabbix" \
                         -e MYSQL_PASSWORD="zabbix_pwd" \
                         -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD="root_pwd" \
                         -e ZBX_JAVAGATEWAY="127.0.0.1" \
                         --restart=always \
                         --pod=zabbix \
                         -d registry.connect.redhat.com/zabbix/zabbix-server-mysql-50

5. Start Zabbix Java Gateway container:

podman run --name zabbix-java-gateway -t \
             --restart=always \
             --pod=zabbix \
             -d registry.connect.redhat.com/zabbix/zabbix-java-gateway-50

6. Start Zabbix web-interface container:

podman run --name zabbix-web-mysql -t \
                         -e ZBX_SERVER_HOST="127.0.0.1" \
                         -e DB_SERVER_HOST="127.0.0.1" \
                         -e MYSQL_DATABASE="zabbix" \
                         -e MYSQL_USER="zabbix" \
                         -e MYSQL_PASSWORD="zabbix_pwd" \
                         -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD="root_pwd" \
                         --restart=always \
                         --pod=zabbix \
                         -d registry.connect.redhat.com/zabbix/zabbix-web-mysql-50

Pod zabbix exposes 80/TCP port (HTTP) to host machine from 8080/TCP of zabbix-web-mysql container.

Docker Compose

Alternatively, Zabbix can be installed using Docker Compose plugin. Compose files for defining and running multi-container Zabbix components are available in the official Zabbix Docker repository on GitHub.

Official Zabbix compose files support version 3 of Docker Compose.

These compose files are added as examples; they are overloaded. For example, they contain proxies with both MySQL and SQLite3 support.

To obtain Docker compose files provided by Zabbix, clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/zabbix/zabbix-docker.git

Switch to the required version:

git checkout 6.4

Compose configuration files and create and start containers:

docker compose -f ./docker-compose_v3_alpine_mysql_latest.yaml up

Replace docker-compose_v3_alpine_mysql_latest.yaml in the command above with the required configuration file.

The following options are available:

Storage

Compose files are configured to support local storage on a host machine. Docker Compose will create a zbx_env directory in the folder with the compose file when you run Zabbix components using the compose file. The directory will contain the same structure as described in the Volumes section and directory for database storage.

There are also volumes in read-only mode for /etc/localtime and /etc/timezone files.

Environment variables

The variable files have the following naming structure: .env_<type of component> and are located in the env_vars directory. See environment variables for details about variable naming and available selection.

Examples

Example 1

# git checkout 6.4
       # docker compose -f ./docker-compose_v3_alpine_mysql_latest.yaml up -d

The command will download the latest Zabbix 6.4 images for each Zabbix component and run them in detach mode.

Do not forget to download .env_<type of component> files from github.com official Zabbix repository with compose files.

Example 2

# git checkout 6.4
       # docker compose -f ./docker-compose_v3_ubuntu_mysql_local.yaml up -d

The command will download base image Ubuntu 22.04 (jammy), then build Zabbix 6.4 components locally and run them in detach mode.