Have yous e'er needed to monitor a single example or a grouping of VMware ESXi hosts, but didn't take a budget for enterprise-grade monitoring? Well, I have some expert news for y'all! You tin become the monitoring you lot need for free, and be up and running in near an 60 minutes monitoring ESXi hosts and the virtual machine guests. Zabbix is the leading open-source enterprise-ready monitoring solution that is 100% free.
In this commodity, we will build a consummate solution. Starting from the ground upwards, yous will proceeds the noesis and confidence required to successfully install, configure, and manage a Zabbix server.
Here's what you'll exist doing:
Installing Ubuntu Server twenty.04 LTS which will become your Zabbix server.
Installing Zabbix 5.0 LTS and performing initial configuration steps.
Configuring Zabbix to monitor ESXi hosts using congenital-in templates.
Configuring triggers based on items being monitored and explore alerting capabilities.
By the end of this article, you will have all the required knowledge to begin monitoring your VMware ESXi hosts. We volition close out with all the additional resource links you will need for your Zabbix journey.
Are you interested? If so, keep reading.
Prerequisites
In social club to be fully successful in following along with this guide, you are going to be willing to get existent-life, easily-on experience. Don't worry though. Everything yous need and should know is outlined. Fifty-fifty if you may exist lacking feel in some areas, this guide explains each step, what is needed, and why. And so if you intend to follow along and build this solution yourself, here are the expectations ahead of time.
It is assumed that:
You lot take basic control-line knowledge and some Linux OS experience.
Y'all are comfortable with basic networking concepts and terminology.
You have some basic cognition of VMware ESXi hypervisor engineering.
Zabbix can exist installed using dissimilar distributions of Linux, and even has a couple of choices for web servers and databases. Simply for this guide, we'll focus on defaults. If y'all plan to follow forth, you will demand:
A virtual machine with at least i NIC, 128 MB of RAM, and 256 MB gratuitous disk space. Information technology is suggested that you utilise ii CPU cores, ii GB RAM, and 20 GB deejay. Performance is improve with this configuration starting out.
At least one or more ESXi hosts and optionally some VM guests (to simulate a monitoring scenario later). You can host your Zabbix VM on the same host yous plan to monitor equally well.
A running Ubuntu server – You'll use Ubuntu Server 20.04 in this commodity.
OPTIONAL – SSH customer like MobaXTerm or PuTTY. PowerShell 7 at present supports SSH natively.
You lot may be wondering why an SSH client is optional. While this guide will exist using the native PowerShell 7 adequacy of opening SSH connections, the choice is yours on what SSH client tool y'all desire to use to connect to the Linux VM. If you are just planning on using a virtual machine management console, yous may have to do actress typing as the SSH clients will permit y'all to paste the code examples in this guide.
Installing Zabbix Enterprise Monitoring 5.0
Once you lot have met all of the prereqs, it's time to begin installing your Zabbix server. The following steps will become you upwardly and running in near six minutes. So permit'southward start!
Adding the Zabbix Repository
The stride in the installation process is preparing adding the Zabbix repository to Ubuntu so y'all tin can download and install the packet.
Beginning, SSH to your Ubuntu Linux server.
Using the wget command, download the Zabbix repo. When yous printing Enter, your server volition begin to download the source repository information from Zabbix. Now you tin install Zabbix directly from per-compiled packages.
3. Now unpack the download to add together the configuration to your local repository list. Using the following control, unpack the download:
sudo dpkg -i zabbix-release_5.0-i+focal_all.deb
This process happens pretty speedily. Equally a best exercise, re-run the sudo apt update -y command again, just as you did when finishing the Ubuntu Server setup and configuration. You should run across the Zabbix repositories as shown in the following screenshot:
Output after updating APT repository on Ubuntu Server.
Now you are ready to brainstorm installing Zabbix components.
About Zabbix Components
There are three major components to every Zabbix deployment:
Zabbix Server (which contains MySQL or Postgre SQL)
Zabbix Web Front End (apache2, httpd, nginx, php vii.iv)
Zabbix Amanuensis
Zabbix does support splitting Zabbix Server and Zabbix Spider web Front Stop into standalone instances. Splitting upwards components is more advanced and isn't a typical scenario. Therefore, this guide volition not comprehend that type of setup.
Each of these components represents a core component for Zabbix.
Zabbix server daemon – handles the dorsum stop operations. It's the key process. Zabbix server performs polling and trapping of data, calculations of triggers, and sending notifications to users. Information technology'south the central repository for configuration, statistical and operational data. You lot tin can read more than well-nigh the Zabbix server process here.
Zabbix web front cease – a term used for the webserver components used. For this guide, you are going to be using Apache2 / HTTPd / PHP 7.four. All of these components combined serve the web interface and visualizations you will see afterwards on in this guide.
Zabbix Agent – a local agent that gathers data, and reports information technology to a key Zabbix server for additional processing. These agents utilize native organisation calls to gather information. The Zabbix agent is supported on nearly every Os platform available today. You can read more about the Zabbix Amanuensis here.
Installing Zabbix Components
To brainstorm installing the Zabbix components, enter the post-obit command. The components volition commencement downloading and installing from the Zabbix repository nosotros configured in the previous step. The -y parameter simply skips the confirmation dialogs.
Once complete, you are set to move on to setting up the MySQL server, creating a bare database, and importing a predefined schema into said database.
Creating and Configuring the Zabbix Database
Zabbix requires a database to store statistical and configuration data. The about common option is MySQL. Ubuntu Server twenty.04 default repositories use MariaDB, which is the upstream version of MySQL, both are open-source relational database systems. You could instead choose to employ PostgreSQL, but the process is a little dissimilar. For this guide, use the default option, which is MariaDB.
Begin setting upwards the database server by creating a blank database. Connect to your local MySQL server by typing the following command and pressing Enter. You may be prompted for credentials. Recall the credentials y'all used during the Os installation and SSH connections should be the same that you utilize here if prompted.
You should at present see mysql> at the terminal prompt. From here we can begin to issue MySQL-specific commands to set up the database. The database configuration process creates the database, then creates a user, and then assigns that user privileges on the database before exiting MySQL.
Using the following control, create a bare database chosen zabbix, which will be the database used by the Zabbix server to store all collected data.
create database zabbix character set utf8 collate utf8_bin;
Adjacent, yous need to create a user and assign that user a password. Be sure to supervene upon 'password' with something more secure, keeping the single quotes, and document it. This password will be used after in the guide. This is the account that will be able to connect to and modify the database:
Now you lot need to grant that user privileges on the newly created database and all tables within the database. This user is what the Zabbix server uses to write data collected to the appropriate tables in the zabbix database.
If you received no errors, quit the connection past typing the post-obit command and pressing Enter:
You should now exist returned to the Bash prompt.
Importing the Zabbix Database Schema
At this point, y'all accept an empty database. In that location are no tables or structure. The next step is the import the schema using a script and database template provided by Zabbix.
The lawmaking example below is going to use the command-line utility zcat to expand the compressed SQL file that contains the Zabbix database schema. This is all sent to standard output, which is and so piped into MySQL using the -uusername zabbix, require you exist prompted for a -p password so what database to connect to, zabbix. The -uzabbix -p zabbix credentials are not must be typed exactly as shown beneath or the script will not create the database schema.
Using the following control, execute the script provided with the Zabbix server installation to import the schema:
sudo zcat /usr/share/doc/zabbix-server-mysql*/create.sql.gz | mysql -uzabbix -p zabbix
This will take a minute or two to execute. When you return to the Bash prompt, you can continue.
Configuring Zabbix Server
Using the built-in text editor Nano that comes with Ubuntu Server, you demand to make a couple of edits to the /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf file.
You tin use Vim too if that works better for yous. This guide uses Nano in screenshots and instruction, but the actual edits practice non change based on your choice of text editing utility.
There are 2 parameters you will need to search for, uncomment, and edit. Those are DBPassword and StartVMwareCollectors.
You can quickly search for these options using CTRL+W when using the nano text editor.
Begin by opening zabbix_server.conf with nano and making the required edits. Type the following command into your terminal prompt and press Enter:
> sudo nano /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf
After opening the Zabbix server configuration file, utilise the shortcut cardinal combination CTRL+W to search for the DBPassword parameter and printing Enter. Y'all should now see the DBPassword parameter options, as shown below. Retrieve, you are entering the password used for the [email protected] database user, non the database server password.
Editing the DBPassword parameter in /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf using nano on Ubuntu Server
Now edit StartVMwareCollectors. Using CTRL+West over again, search for StartVMwareCollectors and press Enter. You should now run across the StartVMCollectors=0 parameter below. Edit StartVMwareCollectors parameter and assign a value of 5.
Editing the StartVMwareCollectors parameter in /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf using nano on Ubuntu Server
Earlier yous save the file, you may accept noticed there is a couple of other VMware related parameters. You do not need to edit these at this time as the defaults are fine. However, if you would like to write different settings, I encourage you to accept a look at the full list of parameters hither.
Relieve your changes using CTRL+10, choose Y, and and so printing Enter. You will exist returned to the Bash prompt.
The last configuration you will demand to edit in /etc/zabbix/apache.conf. This file controls the settings for the Zabbix web front stop.
Change the line in the <IfModule mod_php7.c> section. This is the section for PHP7 configuration parameters. The older <IfModule mod_php5.c> section is for PHP5 and here for backwards compatibility. PHP5 is no longer used in Zabbix starting with Zabbix 5.0 due to security vulnerabilities.
Editing the apache configuration in /etc/zabbix/apache.conf using nano on Ubuntu Server
Uncomment the line # php_value engagement.timezone Europe/Riga and change to the timezone you wish to use. For instance, you could enter America/New_York to set the timezone to Eastern Standard Time. See this site for a complete listing of valid PHP timezones. Your configuration should look similar to the screenshot below:
php_value appointment.timezone value set to America/New_York
Relieve your changes. You return to the Bash prompt. Y'all are now ready to start the Zabbix server.
Starting Zabbix Server
Restart the Zabbix services and enable them so they will auto start on reboot.
Using the commands below, you are restarting the Zabbix server, amanuensis, and apache2 daemons and then that your configuration file edits volition accept impact. Then you lot are enabling these daemons to machine commencement after reboot. If you lot do non exercise this, y'all will have to manually offset services each fourth dimension your host is taken downward for maintenance or becomes unstable and is rebooted.
You can now log off your SSH session, and shut your terminal.
You should now be able to open any modern web browser and navigate to the Zabbix spider web forepart end and finalize the initial configuration. That'due south precisely what you are going to do in the adjacent department.
Setting Up Zabbix Spider web Front Finish
You are most washed! From your spider web browser, navigate to http://[IP_Address]/zabbix/ and follow the on-screen instructions. Use the static IP accost you configured your server to use during the OS installation.
The first folio you lot come to is a welcome page. Click on Adjacent step:
Zabbix web front end welcome page
Next, Zabbix volition run through a list of pre-requisites. Yous should run into all OK statuses as you lot scroll down the listing. At this point, you will see if the edits you lot fabricated earlier are right. If they are not, the setup wizard will not proceed until y'all brand the corrections in your configuration files. If everything is correct and documented, click on Side by side step:
Zabbix spider web forepart end Cheque of pre-requisites
Now supply the database connection info to the web front. Exist sure to change the Database Port (if you did not apply the default MySQL port 3306) and enter the database user password you configured when setting up the Zabbix database. If everything is correct and documented, click on Adjacent step:
Zabbix web forepart end Configure DB connexion
Lastly, give the Zabbix server a Name and leave the default values for Host and Port. Whatsoever proper noun will work, this is only a style to label your Zabbix server in the Zabbix UI. As a all-time practice though, effort to use the bodily hostname of your server. When satisfied, click on Next step:
Zabbix web front end cease Zabbix server details
Lastly, verify the Pre-installation summary information. This is another skilful signal to document your Zabbix server configuration. When satisfied, click on Next step:
Zabbix web front end Pre-installation summary page
The installation is now complete. Click on Finish.
Zabbix web front cease consummate
Y'all will now be returned to the Zabbix server login folio. The default credentials to log in are case sensitive. Every time yous install a new instance of Zabbix, the default credentials are Admin / zabbix :
Zabbix server web front end log in folio
Monitoring a VMware ESXi Host
Yous've completed the most difficult office by installing Zabbix. Now that you have a fully working Zabbix UI, information technology's time to get downwardly to what this guide is all nearly.
In this section, yous are going to be walked through the process of configuring and adding a VMware ESXi host to Zabbix and configure a trigger to alarm you lot of status on the host when a status is met. Remember, Zabbix can monitor about any device you tin can connect to. The steps you will be doing to add a VMware ESXi host are nearly identical with some variances for other types of devices.
Adding a VMware ESXi Host
To begin monitoring a VMware ESXi host, you need first to create a host. A host in Zabbix is any device y'all wish to monitor, such as servers, workstations, virtual machines, switches, routers, firewalls, etc.
To practice and then, use the navigation card on the left side of the Zabbix UI and click to aggrandize the Configuration bill of fare and then click Hosts:
navigation menu on the left side of the Zabbix UI
Now click theCreate host button. This push is located in the upper right corner of the web UI:
Zabbix Hosts screen
At present enter some information regarding the VMware ESXi host you wish to monitor:
Zabbix Hosts configuration screen
Here are some parameters definitions:
The hostname is but a unique proper noun for the device to exist monitored. This field tin can exist an IP accost or FQDN. No leading or trailing spaces, but you can utilise alphanumeric, dots, dashes, and underscores.
When using the Zabbix Agent, do be sure to use the aforementioned hostname here every bit you practice in the agent configuration file. If y'all do not employ the aforementioned hostname, agile checks volition neglect. This is a required parameter.
Visible proper name is where yous tin give your device a friendlier proper noun that will be sued on lists, maps etc. It'south an optional parameter.
Groups are just that-Groups of hosts that vest together. Every host has to vest to at least i grouping. You lot can choose an existing group or create a new i.
Interfaces can be a few types that are supported by Zabbix. Those are Amanuensis, SNMP, JMX (java), and IPMI (out of band IP direction interface similar iLO/iDRAC) This is a required parameter but does not crave modification for monitoring VMware ESXi hosts.
Description is also an optional parameter, but information technology's a good thought to use this opportunity to document what yous are doing past calculation one.
Monitored by proxy is an optional parameter and tin can exist left at the default. Zabbix proxies are out of the scope of this guide.
Enabled should be checked. If information technology is not, be sure to select it then that the host will be active and monitored.
Enter the IP accost of the VMware ESXi host you want to monitor int he Hostname field, give it a friendlier name in the Visible proper name filed, Create a new Group called "VM Hosts" and add together a unproblematic Description of "This host is office of the ATA Weblog guide.".Do not click Add nonetheless!
Zabbix Hosts configuration screen filled out
Next, allow'due south add a apply a template to the host. A template is a set of entities y'all can attach to a host or group of hosts. To exercise and then, click on the Templates menu detail in the Hosts configuration screen:
Zabbix Hosts configuration screen menu
The next screen volition look like this:
Zabbix Hosts Templates configuration screen
You volition notice that there are no linked templates, and that's expected because you aren't collecting items to monitor on your host yet. Y'all could create your template by cloning and modifying an existing template. Even so, Zabbix comes with VMware templates right out of the box! You exercise not accept to spend hours setting upwards your items to be monitored.
Link the template called Template VM VMware. This volition add all the advisable item expressions and definitions for ESXi hosts. If y'all commencement typing that name into the search field, yous will encounter autocomplete suggestions. You lot tin salve some time typing by using the pointer cardinal and pressing enter once yous see the correct template. Practise not click Add together yet!
You run into 2 other templates listed. Those are Template VM VMware Guest and Template VM VMware Hypervisor. These ii templates are actually Low-Level Discovery (LLD) templates that are role of the one you are choosing. These volition use depression-level discovery rules to gather additional information virtually the host you lot are adding.
You may get an error message about unsupported items mentioning an invalid hypervisor UUID. Y'all can try enabling an option on your VMware ESXi host for Module Object Browser. Follow this KB for details. With that said, if you have chosen the right host template, yous should not see this with a generic ESXi host.
At present for the last host configuration step. Before Zabbix tin can connect to VMware ESXi hosts, you take to supply some host macros or parameters that will allow y'all to connect to the VMware ESXi host. To practice so, click on the Macros menu item in the Hosts configuration screen:
Zabbix Hosts configuration screen menu
The next screen volition look like this:
Zabbix Hosts Macros configuration screen
Now supply the following host macros that will enable Zabbix to perform simple checks against the host you lot are configuring. There are three required parameters:
{$URL} – VMware service (vCenter or ESX hypervisor) SDK URL
{$USERNAME} – VMware service user proper noun
{$PASSWORD} – VMware service {$USERNAME} user password
By default, yous only have one macro field, but you will demand two more. The reason you need additional macros is that you need to supply additional parameters. Clicking on Add volition add an additional field for the next parameter you want to assign. Click on Add every bit shown in the screenshot below 2 more times:
Calculation a new Host macros field
Using the documented macros for VMware services, add the {$USERNAME} and {$Password} macros mentioned before:
Entering user macros into Hosts Macros configuration screen
You may have noticed that there was an option for the password field. This is a new option with Zabbix 5.0.
All user macros can exist secured using this option and are slap-up for API tokens, passwords, and other sensitive data that yous do not desire to be exposed to non-admin users. It is recommended to use this option.
Secret Text Choice
One time this footstep is completed, you tin now click the blueish Add push every bit show below:
Add Host to Zabbix Server
You will be returned to the Hosts Configuration page. You should now see that your VMware ESXi host is now listed:
ESXi-01 added to Hosts
Don't exist alarmed if you do not come across any values for items being monitored right away. It tin can have upwardly to an 60 minutes to begin receiving data from the VMware ESXi host. You tin too add other templates for VMware guests and VMware (for logs) if y'all cull.
Creating a Trigger for Alerting
In the meantime, now configure a trigger based on items already being monitored. Cheers to the low-level discovery templates linked to the template y'all applied to your host, information is pouring in. There's a lot of details on the hypervisor, and even a few of the guests (if you take guests)! You will see that information being gathered when viewing Latest Data. You tin explore the items that each host contains to get an thought of what you lot could create an warning for. But for this guide, you are just going to create a simple trigger.
Creating a trigger will enable you to get an alert based on the status(south) you lot assign. For example, y'all would like to know when your tiny home lab ESXi hypervisor begins to run low on memory. You have so lilliputian available retention, you decide that y'all need to be alerted when the usage is at or over 8GB. Now in this lab, the hypervisor proper name is the default localhost.localdomain, then that's the one used in the examples going forrad. To begin creating the status for your alarm, click on the Triggers link as shown below:
On the following screen, click the Create Trigger button in the upper right corner:
Create Trigger for discovered VMware Hypervisor localhost.localdomain
You should now see the Triggers configuration screen:
Creating Trigger for localhost.localdomain
Allow's give the trigger the meaningful proper noun Half of Retention in Use, and select the Severity level of Alarm. Side by side, in the Expression field, click the Add together button as shown below to begin creating a provisional expression for the trigger:
Creating trigger conditions for localhost.localdomain Trigger
A pop up volition appear that will allow you to select weather for the trigger. Beginning by clicking Select in the Item field:
Weather for the Trigger
Click on Select to begin viewing the available items you tin create conditional expressions for:
Bachelor Items to exist used in Condition
Later on you scroll down the list, observe Used Memory, and click it. This will add the item to the condition expression. You have three additional fields that tin can be manipulated. Those fields are Function, Last of (T) Count, and Fourth dimension shift Time. These are all part of predictive trigger expressions and out of scope for this guide. For now, stick with the default office selection and and then change the resulting drop-down from = to ≥=. Zabbix primarily deals in bytes when information technology comes to retentiveness readings, and so y'all will give a value of 8589934592 which is 8GB. When washed, click on Insert to resume Trigger setup:
Adding Used retention weather condition to Trigger expression
Yous will be returned to the trigger expression screen. There are some other options here, simply ane, in item, that is worth mentioning. The OK upshot generation choice is the contrary of Problem event generation. Problem and is just a country of your trigger. Think of it this way. When your conditional expression evaluates to True, then a problem event is created. When the next check interval executes and conditional expression evaluates to FALSE, then an OK effect is generated. You could add together a carve up trigger expression to generate an OK upshot based on a conditional expression. This could exist useful for automation of alert handling if your ESXi host close a few VM's off and stopped using so much memory.
Add a unproblematic description and ensure that the Enabled box is checked and click on Add:
Add together Trigger with completed condition expression
And at present you take the offset trigger created for your ESXi host:
Trigger added to host
The initial Value should be OK as long as the trigger expression is evaluating to Imitation. If the trigger expression evaluates to True, you would come across a value of PROBLEM. Now time to run a examination on the trigger. You volition run across the warning on the monitoring dashboard if your trigger condition expression is truthful in the next section.
Viewing Alerts
Permit's say you've decided to spin upward some new Linux VM'due south on your ESXi host. Y'all've assigned your Junior Sysadmin the duty of minding the systems monitoring you've put in identify.
Afterwards morning coffee, your inferior sysadmin calls you up.
"Hey Boss. You have an alert on ane of your VMware hosts. Are you doing deployments on the wrong host?"
You pull upward your Zabbix URL on your iPad or Surface book and sign in. By default, you lot are shown the Global view dashboard.
You can create your own custom dashboard views, but this is out of scope for this guide. You can learn more about creating custom dashboard views
Global View Dashboard
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