Install Zabbix Agent on Ubuntu 22.04/Debian 11

In this tutorial, you will learn how to easily install Zabbix agent on Ubuntu 22.04/Debian 11.

Install Zabbix Agent on Ubuntu 22.04/Debian 11

Zabbix agent can be used to poll various system metrics as outlined below and push them to Zabbix server for visualization.

Install Zabbix agent on Ubuntu 22.04

• Install Zabbix DEB Repositories on Ubuntu 22.04;

wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/6.0/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_6.0-2+ubuntu22.04_all.deb

dpkg -i zabbix-release_6.0-2+ubuntu22.04_all.deb

• Run system package cache update and install Zabbix agent on Ubuntu 22.04

apt update

apt install zabbix-agent

Install Zabbix agent on Debian 11

• Install Zabbix DEB Repositories on Debian 11;

wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/6.0/debian/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_6.0-1+debian11_all.deb

dpkg -i zabbix-release_6.0-1+debian11_all.deb

• Install Zabbix Agent

apt update

apt install zabbix-agent

Configure Zabbix Agent

Once the installation is done, configure Zabbix agent to be able to communicate with the Zabbix server.

vim /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.conf

The only change we make here is to set Zabbix server IP address for passive and active checks, and just hostname.

...
Server=192.168.60.22             ## IP for Zabbix Server
...
ServerActive=192.168.60.22       
...
Hostname=jellyfish

Save and exit the file.

Ensure the agent hostname is resolvable to an IP address that it will use to communicate with the Zabbix server and not a loopback address. Exact Hostname will be required while adding hosts to the Zabbix server for monitoring.

If no DNS in place, use host file;

ping jellyfish -c 4

PING jellyfish (192.168.60.23) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from jellyfish (192.168.60.23): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.030 ms
64 bytes from jellyfish (192.168.60.23): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.092 ms
64 bytes from jellyfish (192.168.60.23): icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.035 ms
64 bytes from jellyfish (192.168.60.23): icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.071 ms

--- jellyfish ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3028ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.030/0.057/0.092/0.025 ms

Running Zabbix Service on Ubuntu 22.04/Debian 11

Start and enable Zabbix service on Ubuntu 22.04/Debian 11 to run on boot;

systemctl enable --now zabbix-agent

Check the status;

systemctl status zabbix-agent

● zabbix-agent.service - Zabbix Agent
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/zabbix-agent.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sat 2022-05-14 22:26:15 EAT; 7min ago
   Main PID: 6340 (zabbix_agentd)
      Tasks: 6 (limit: 1693)
     Memory: 5.7M
        CPU: 190ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/zabbix-agent.service
             ├─6340 /usr/sbin/zabbix_agentd -c /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.conf
             ├─6341 /usr/sbin/zabbix_agentd: collector [idle 1 sec]
             ├─6342 /usr/sbin/zabbix_agentd: listener #1 [waiting for connection]
             ├─6343 /usr/sbin/zabbix_agentd: listener #2 [waiting for connection]
             ├─6344 /usr/sbin/zabbix_agentd: listener #3 [waiting for connection]
             └─6345 /usr/sbin/zabbix_agentd: active checks #1 [idle 1 sec]

May 14 22:26:13 debian11 systemd[1]: Starting Zabbix Agent...
May 14 22:26:15 debian11 systemd[1]: Started Zabbix Agent.

Zabbix Agent listens on port 10050/TCP.

ss -altnp | grep 10050

LISTEN 0      4096         0.0.0.0:10050      0.0.0.0:*    users:(("zabbix_agentd",pid=2412,fd=4),("zabbix_agentd",pid=2411,fd=4),("zabbix_agentd",pid=2410,fd=4),("zabbix_agentd",pid=2409,fd=4),("zabbix_agentd",pid=2408,fd=4),("zabbix_agentd",pid=2407,fd=4))
LISTEN 0      4096            [::]:10050         [::]:*    users:(("zabbix_agentd",pid=2412,fd=5),("zabbix_agentd",pid=2411,fd=5),("zabbix_agentd",pid=2410,fd=5),("zabbix_agentd",pid=2409,fd=5),("zabbix_agentd",pid=2408,fd=5),("zabbix_agentd",pid=2407,fd=5))

The server should be able to connect to the agent via this port. Hence, open this port on firewall;

ufw allow from <zabbix-server-IP> to any port 10050 proto tcp comment "Allow Zabbix Server"

Also, ensure that you can connect to Zabbix server on port 10051/tcp.

Monitor the Host from Zabbix Server

You can now add the host to the Zabbix server and start monitoring.

See the link below on how to add and monitor Linux hosts using Zabbix server.

Add Hosts to Zabbix Server for Monitoring

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