Building Zabbix server

Below versions of Zabbix server are available in respective distributions at the time of creation of these build instructions:

RHEL (8.8, 8.10, 9.2, 9.4) have 7.0.4
SLES 15 SP5 has 4.0.50
SLES 15 SP6 has 6.0.28
Ubuntu 20.04 has 4.0.17
Ubuntu 22.04 has 5.0.17

The instructions provided below specify the steps to build Zabbix server version 7.0.5 on Linux on IBM Z for following distributions:

RHEL (8.8, 8.10, 9.2, 9.4)
SLES (15 SP5, 15 SP6)
Ubuntu (20.04, 22.04, 24.04)

General Notes:

When following the steps below please use a standard permission user unless otherwise specified.
A directory /<source_root>/ will be referred to in these instructions, this is a temporary writable directory anywhere you'd like to place it.

1. Build using script

If you want to build Zabbix server using manual steps, go to STEP 2.

Use the following commands to build Zabbix server using the build script. Please make sure you have wget installed.

wget -q https://raw.githubusercontent.com/linux-on-ibm-z/scripts/master/Zabbix/7.0.5/build_zabbixserver.sh

# Build Zabbix server
bash build_zabbixserver.sh

If the build completes successfully, go to STEP 7. In case of error, check logs for more details or go to STEP 2 to follow manual build steps.

2. Install dependencies

export SOURCE_ROOT=/<source_root>/
cd $SOURCE_ROOT

2.1. Install Basic Dependencies

RHEL (8.8, 8.10)

sudo subscription-manager repos --enable=codeready-builder-for-rhel-8-s390x-rpms
cat > MariaDB.repo <<'EOF'
# MariaDB 10.11 RedHatEnterpriseLinux repository list - created 2023-07-14 14:59 UTC
# https://mariadb.org/download/
[mariadb]
name = MariaDB
# rpm.mariadb.org is a dynamic mirror if your preferred mirror goes offline. See https://mariadb.org/mirrorbits/ for details.
# baseurl = https://rpm.mariadb.org/10.11/rhel/$releasever/$basearch
baseurl = https://mirror.its.dal.ca/mariadb/yum/10.11/rhel/$releasever/$basearch
module_hotfixes = 1
# gpgkey = https://rpm.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB
gpgkey = https://mirror.its.dal.ca/mariadb/yum/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB
gpgcheck = 1
EOF
sudo mv MariaDB.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/

sudo yum install -y autoconf libtool cmake openssl-devel libcurl libcurl-devel libxml2 libxml2-devel readline  \
libzip-devel libzip nginx openssl pkgconf zlib-devel bzip2 sqlite-libs sqlite-devel oniguruma oniguruma-devel libpq-devel \
gcc-toolset-10-gcc gcc-toolset-10-gcc-c++ binutils  initscripts httpd tar wget curl vim pcre \
pcre-devel pcre2-devel make net-snmp net-snmp-devel httpd-devel git libxml2-devel libjpeg-devel libpng-devel freetype \ 
freetype-devel openldap openldap-devel libevent-devel libyaml-devel perl-IPC-Run3 bzip2-devel curl-devel enchant-devel \
gmp-devel krb5-devel postgresql-devel aspell-devel cyrus-sasl-devel libXpm-devel libxslt-devel recode-devel readline-devel \
gdbm-devel php-fpm libdb-devel automake patch pkgconfig perl-YAML-LibYAML perl-Path-Tiny ncurses-devel boost-devel check-devel \
perl-Test-Simple perl-Time-HiRes  pam-devel hostname unixODBC-devel bison aspell MariaDB-server MariaDB-client mysql-devel

sudo yum groupinstall -y 'Development Tools' ```

RHEL (9.2, 9.4)

sudo dnf install -y initscripts httpd tar wget curl vim gcc make net-snmp net-snmp-devel php-mysqlnd mysql-libs git \
    php libcurl-devel libxml2-devel php-xml php-gd php-bcmath php-mbstring php-ldap php-json libevent-devel unixODBC-devel \
    pcre-devel pcre2-devel policycoreutils-python-utils automake pkgconfig libcmocka-devel libyaml-devel perl-YAML-LibYAML \
    libpath_utils-devel perl-IPC-Run3 perl-Path-Tiny mariadb mariadb-server mysql-devel perl-Time-HiRes
sudo yum groupinstall -y 'Development Tools'

SLES (15 SP5, 15 SP6)

sudo zypper install -y wget tar curl vim gcc make net-snmp net-snmp-devel net-tools git apache2 apache2-devel mariadb \
    libmariadbd-devel apache2-mod_php8 php8 php8-mysql php8-xmlreader php8-xmlwriter php8-gd php8-bcmath php8-mbstring \
    php8-ctype php8-sockets php8-gettext libcurl-devel libxml2-2 libxml2-devel openldap2-devel php8-ldap unixODBC-devel \ 
    libevent-devel pcre-devel pcre2-devel awk gzip automake cmake libyaml-devel perl-YAML-LibYAML perl-Path-Tiny perl-IPC-Run3 \
    glibc-locale
export LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"

Ubuntu 20.04

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install wget curl perl vim make pkg-config snmp snmptrapd ceph locales libmariadbd-dev libxml2-dev \
    libsnmp-dev libcurl4 libcurl4-openssl-dev git apache2 apache2-dev mysql-server libevent-dev libpcre3-dev \ 
    libpcre2-dev automake pkg-config libcmocka-dev libyaml-dev libyaml-libyaml-perl libpng-dev libpath-tiny-perl \ 
    libipc-run3-perl build-essential locales language-pack-de autoconf libtool libssl-dev libjpeg-dev libxpm-dev \
    libreadline8 libreadline-dev libzip-dev libxslt1-dev nginx openssl zlib1g-dev libfreetype6-dev \
    libsqlite3-dev libonig-dev libpq-dev unixodbc-dev gcc-10 g++-10 tar bzip2
    
#switch to GCC 10
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/cc cc /usr/bin/gcc-10 40
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-10 40
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-10 40
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/c++ c++ /usr/bin/g++-10 40
    
export PATH=${PREFIX}/bin${PATH:+:${PATH}}

Ubuntu 22.04

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install wget curl vim gcc make pkg-config snmp snmptrapd ceph locales libmariadbd-dev libxml2-dev \
    libsnmp-dev libcurl4 libcurl4-openssl-dev git apache2 php php-mysql libapache2-mod-php mysql-server php8.1-xml php8.1-gd \
    php-bcmath php-mbstring php8.1-ldap libevent-dev libpcre3-dev libpcre2-dev automake pkg-config libcmocka-dev unixodbc-dev \
    libyaml-dev libyaml-libyaml-perl libpath-tiny-perl libipc-run3-perl build-essential

Ubuntu 24.04

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install wget curl vim gcc make pkg-config snmp snmptrapd ceph locales libmariadbd-dev libxml2-dev libsnmp-dev \
    libcurl4 libcurl4-openssl-dev git apache2 php php-mysql libapache2-mod-php mysql-server php8.3-xml php8.3-gd php-bcmath \
    php-mbstring php8.3-ldap libevent-dev libpcre3-dev libpcre2-dev automake pkg-config libcmocka-dev unixodbc-dev \
    libyaml-dev libyaml-libyaml-perl libpath-tiny-perl libipc-run3-perl build-essential

2.2. Set locale (Ubuntu Only)

sudo locale-gen en_US en_US.UTF-8
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -f noninteractive locales  
export LANG='en_US.UTF-8'
export LANGUAGE='en_US.UTF-8'

2.3. Build and install cmocka (RHEL 8.x, SLES 15.x)

cd "$SOURCE_ROOT"
git clone -b cmocka-1.1.5 https://gitlab.com/cmocka/cmocka.git
cd cmocka
mkdir -p build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr ..
sudo make install

2.4. Build PHP-8.x (RHEL 8.x, Ubuntu-20.04)

cd "$SOURCE_ROOT"
PHP_VERSION="8.3.9"
PHP_URL="https://www.php.net/distributions/php-${PHP_VERSION}.tar.gz"
wget -qO- $PHP_URL | tar xzf -
cd "$SOURCE_ROOT/php-${PACKAGE_VERSION}"

./configure --prefix=${PREFIX} --enable-zts \
--without-pcre-jit --without-pear \
--with-pdo-mysql=mysqlnd --with-mysqli=mysqlnd \
--with-readline --with-gettext \
--with-apxs2=/usr/bin/apxs \
--enable-gd --with-jpeg \
--with-freetype --with-xpm --with-openssl \
--with-xsl --with-gmp --with-zip \
--with-mhash --enable-intl \
--enable-fpm --enable-exif --enable-xmlreader \
--enable-sockets --enable-ctype --enable-sysvsem \
--enable-sysvshm --enable-sysvmsg \
--enable-shmop --enable-pcntl --enable-mbstring \
--enable-soap --enable-bcmath --enable-calendar \
--enable-ftp --enable-zend-test=shared \
--with-curl=/usr --with-zlib --with-zlib-dir=/usr/local

make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install

sudo install -m644 php.ini-production ${PREFIX}/lib/php.ini
sudo sed -i "s@php/includes\"@&\ninclude_path = \".:/usr/local/lib/php\"@" /usr/local/lib/php.ini
sudo sed -i "s/;mysqli.allow_local_infile = On/mysqli.allow_local_infile = On/" /usr/local/lib/php.ini
sudo sed -i "s/;opcache.enable=1/opcache.enable=1/" /usr/local/lib/php.ini
sudo sed -i "s/;opcache.enable_cli=0/opcache.enable_cli=1/" /usr/local/lib/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/max_execution_time = 30/max_execution_time = 300/g' /usr/local/lib/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/max_input_time = 60/max_input_time = 300/g' /usr/local/lib/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/post_max_size = 8M/post_max_size = 16M/g' /usr/local/lib/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/;date.timezone =/date.timezone = Asia\/Kolkata/g' /usr/local/lib/php.ini

3. Enable PHP support by modifying Apache configuration file

RHEL

/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

cd /etc/httpd/conf/
sudo chmod 766 httpd.conf

cat <<EOF >> httpd.conf
 ServerName localhost
 AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
 <Directory />
     DirectoryIndex index.php
 </Directory>
EOF

sudo chmod 644 httpd.conf

SLES

/etc/apache2/httpd.conf

cd /etc/apache2/
sudo chmod 766 httpd.conf

cat <<EOF >> httpd.conf
ServerName localhost
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
<Directory />
    DirectoryIndex index.php
</Directory>
LoadModule php_module /usr/lib64/apache2/mod_php8.so
EOF

sudo chmod 644 httpd.conf

Ubuntu

/etc/apache2/apache2.conf

cd /etc/apache2/
sudo chmod 766 apache2.conf

cat <<EOF >> apache2.conf
ServerName localhost
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
<Directory />
    DirectoryIndex index.php
</Directory>
EOF

sudo chmod 644 apache2.conf

4. Download and install Zabbix server

Create a zabbix user required to start Zabbix server daemon

RHEL, SLES

sudo groupadd --system zabbix
sudo useradd --system -g zabbix -d /usr/lib/zabbix -s /sbin/nologin -c "Zabbix Monitoring System" zabbix

Ubuntu

sudo addgroup --system --quiet zabbix
sudo adduser --quiet --system --disabled-login --ingroup zabbix --home /var/lib/zabbix --no-create-home zabbix

Download Zabbix server

cd $SOURCE_ROOT
git clone -b 7.0.5 --depth 1 https://github.com/zabbix/zabbix.git
cd zabbix
export CFLAGS="-std=gnu99"
./bootstrap.sh tests

Build and install Zabbix server

cd $SOURCE_ROOT/zabbix
./configure --enable-server --enable-agent --enable-proxy --with-mysql --with-unixodbc --enable-ipv6 --with-net-snmp --with-libcurl --with-libxml2 --with-libpcre2
make -j$(nproc)
make dbschema -j$(nproc)
sudo make install

Run Tests (optional)
```
cd $SOURCE_ROOT/zabbix
make tests
```

Note: Following Test Case zbx_mock_test_entry for macro_functions might fail since these tests are written for Europe/Riga time zone. Run the following command to make the test case pass - TZ=Europe/Riga tests/tests_run.pl --suite macro_functions.

Install Zabbix web interface

RHEL

cd $SOURCE_ROOT/zabbix/ui/
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/html/zabbix
sudo cp -rf * /var/www/html/zabbix/
sudo chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/zabbix/conf

SLES

cd $SOURCE_ROOT/zabbix/ui/
sudo mkdir -p /srv/www/htdocs/zabbix
sudo cp -rf * /srv/www/htdocs/zabbix
sudo chown -R wwwrun:www /srv/www/htdocs/zabbix/conf

Ubuntu

cd $SOURCE_ROOT/zabbix/ui/
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/html/zabbix
sudo cp -rf * /var/www/html/zabbix/
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/zabbix/conf

5. Prerequisites to start Zabbix server

Start httpd and mysql or mariadb servers

RHEL

sudo service httpd start
sudo service mariadb start        # (RHEL 8.x, 9.x)

SLES

sudo service apache2 restart
sudo service mariadb restart      # (SLES 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP6)

Ubuntu

sudo service apache2 start
sudo service mysql stop
sudo usermod -d /var/lib/mysql/ mysql
sudo service mysql start

Create database and grant privileges to zabbix user

RHEL (8.x, 9.x), SLES, Ubuntu (22.04, 24.04)

 sudo mysql -e "create user 'zabbix'@'localhost'"
 sudo mysql -e "create database zabbix character set utf8 collate utf8_bin"
 sudo mysql -e "grant all privileges on zabbix.* to 'zabbix'@'localhost'"

Ubuntu 20.04

sudo mysql -e "create user 'zabbix'@'localhost' identified with mysql_native_password"
sudo mysql -e "create database zabbix character set utf8 collate utf8_bin"
sudo mysql -e "grant all privileges on zabbix.* to 'zabbix'@'localhost'"

Populate database with initial load

cd $SOURCE_ROOT/zabbix/database/mysql
sudo mysql -e "SET GLOBAL log_bin_trust_function_creators = 1"  # (Ubuntu)
sudo mysql -uzabbix zabbix < schema.sql
sudo mysql -uzabbix zabbix < images.sql
sudo mysql -uzabbix zabbix < data.sql

6. Change php.ini file

RHEL (9.x)

/etc/php.ini

sudo sed -i 's/max_execution_time = 30/max_execution_time = 300/g' /etc/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/max_input_time = 60/max_input_time = 300/g' /etc/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/post_max_size = 8M/post_max_size = 16M/g' /etc/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/;date.timezone =/date.timezone = Asia\/Kolkata/g' /etc/php.ini

SLES (15 SP5, 15 SP6)

/etc/php8/apache2/php.ini

sudo sed -i 's/max_execution_time = 30/max_execution_time = 300/g' /etc/php8/apache2/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/max_input_time = 60/max_input_time = 300/g' /etc/php8/apache2/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/post_max_size = 8M/post_max_size = 16M/g' /etc/php8/apache2/php.ini

Ubuntu 22.04

/etc/php/8.1/apache2/php.ini

sudo sed -i 's/max_execution_time = 30/max_execution_time = 300/g' /etc/php/8.1/apache2/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/max_input_time = 60/max_input_time = 300/g' /etc/php/8.1/apache2/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/post_max_size = 8M/post_max_size = 16M/g' /etc/php/8.1/apache2/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/;date.timezone =/date.timezone = Asia\/Kolkata/g' /etc/php/8.1/apache2/php.ini

Ubuntu 24.04

/etc/php/8.3/apache2/php.ini

sudo sed -i 's/max_execution_time = 30/max_execution_time = 300/g' /etc/php/8.3/apache2/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/max_input_time = 60/max_input_time = 300/g' /etc/php/8.3/apache2/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/post_max_size = 8M/post_max_size = 16M/g' /etc/php/8.3/apache2/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/;date.timezone =/date.timezone = Asia\/Kolkata/g' /etc/php/8.3/apache2/php.ini

7. Start Zabbix server

Please edit /usr/local/etc/zabbix_server.conf and add the appropriate location depending on where the mysql or mariadb installation creates the socket.
```
DBSocket=/<mysql_sock_location>/  # (e.g. DBSocket=/tmp/mysql.sock)
```

Restart http service and start Zabbix server

RHEL

sudo service httpd restart
sudo service php-fpm restart
zabbix_server

SLES

sudo service apache2 restart
PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/sbin/ zabbix_server

Ubuntu

sudo service apache2 restart
zabbix_server

8. Configure through online console

After starting Zabbix server, direct your Web browser to the Zabbix Console by using the following URL:
```
http://<HOST_IP>/zabbix
```
Follow the prompts to finish configuration. Please take note of the following caveats.
- Change Database host from localhost to 127.0.0.1 if you get the error "Error connecting to database: No such file or directory".
- On RHEL, the firewall may be configured to not allow connections in. If you cannot connect to the site please change the firewall to allow those connections:
```
sudo firewall-cmd --add-service={http,https} --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port={10051/tcp,10050/tcp} --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --reload
```
- On RHEL, SELinux may get in the way of completing the web installation:
  - If the web installation is getting access denied on the database please run the following commands:
```
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_connect_zabbix 1
sudo setsebool -P zabbix_can_network 1
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect_db 1
```
  - If the web installation cannot create the config file try disabling SELinux temporarily:
```
sudo su
# disable SELinux
setenforce 0 && sed -i 's/^SELINUX=.*/SELINUX=permissive/g' /etc/selinux/config
exit
```
    At this point, you should go back to the web installation, it should now be able to create the configuration file. Once that's done please follow these steps:
```
sudo su
# re-enable SELinux
setenforce 1 && sed -i 's/^SELINUX=.*/SELINUX=enforcing/g' /etc/selinux/config
exit
# create a policy with exceptions for the things zabbix needed and apply it
sudo grep "denied.*zabbix" /var/log/audit/audit.log | audit2allow -M zabbix_policy
sudo semodule -i zabbix_policy.pp
```
- If you get an error 'DBType not set' after setup, click retry to reload config file. To avoid the error, wait 5 seconds before clicking 'finish' at the end.
- Login to Zabbix using below default credentials.
```
 User     : Admin
 Password : zabbix
```

References:

The information provided in this article is accurate at the time of writing, but on-going development in the open-source projects involved may make the information incorrect or obsolete. Please open issue or contact us on IBM Z Community if you have any questions or feedback.

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Building Zabbix server

Building Zabbix server

General Notes:

1. Build using script

2. Install dependencies

2.1. Install Basic Dependencies

2.2. Set locale (Ubuntu Only)

2.3. Build and install cmocka (RHEL 8.x, SLES 15.x)

2.4. Build PHP-8.x (RHEL 8.x, Ubuntu-20.04)

3. Enable PHP support by modifying Apache configuration file

4. Download and install Zabbix server

5. Prerequisites to start Zabbix server

6. Change php.ini file

7. Start Zabbix server

8. Configure through online console

References:

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