Installing Zabbix on nixOS Latest

Zabbix is an open-source monitoring software that allows system administrators to keep track of network services, servers, and other IT infrastructure components. nixOS is a Linux distribution known for its declarative configuration management system, functional package manager, and reliable roll-back features. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of installing Zabbix on nixOS latest.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure to have the following requirements:

Step 1: Update the system

To ensure that our system is up to date, run the following command:

sudo nix-channel --update && sudo nixos-rebuild switch

This will update the nixOS channels and roll out the changes to the system configuration.

Step 2: Prepare the environment for Zabbix

We will install some of the necessary packages that we need for the installation of Zabbix. Run the following command:

sudo nix-env -i bash wget curl unzip iproute2 postgresql python python-pip python-setuptools

This command will install Bash, wget, curl, unzip, iproute2, PostgreSQL, Python, pip, and setuptools.

Step 3: Install Zabbix

Now that we have prepared our environment, we can proceed to install Zabbix. We will use the nix-env command to install it.

sudo nix-env -i zabbix

This command will install the Zabbix package and its dependencies.

Step 4: Configure Zabbix

After the installation, we need to configure our Zabbix server. We will configure the following components:

  1. Database
  2. Web server
  3. Zabbix server and agent

4.1 Create a PostgreSQL user and database

First, create a new PostgreSQL user and database for Zabbix. Run the following command:

sudo -u postgres createuser --pwprompt zabbix

Enter a password for the newly created user when prompted. Next, create a new database for Zabbix:

sudo -u postgres createdb -O zabbix -E Unicode -T template0 zabbix

4.2 Configure the web server

To configure the web server, we need to set up the Zabbix front-end. We will use Apache as our web server.

sudo nix-env -i apacheHttpd

This command will install Apache.

Next, we need to edit the /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf file to add the Zabbix configuration. Add the following lines:

Listen 80
<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "/var/zabbix/frontend/php/"
    ServerName YOUR_SERVER_NAME_OR_IP
    ServerAlias YOUR_ALIASES
    <Directory "/var/zabbix/frontend/php/">
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
    ErrorLog "/dev/stderr"
    CustomLog "/dev/stdout" combined
</VirtualHost>

Replace YOUR_SERVER_NAME_OR_IP with the domain name or IP address of your server, and YOUR_ALIASES with any additional domain names or aliases that you want to associate with this server.

4.3 Configure the Zabbix server and agent

Next, edit the /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf file and uncomment the following lines:

DBName=zabbix
DBUser=zabbix
DBPassword=YOUR_PASSWORD

Replace YOUR_PASSWORD with the password you set for the Zabbix user in step 4.1.

Now, start the Zabbix server and agent:

sudo systemctl start zabbix-server zabbix-agent

Then, enable them to start at boot:

sudo systemctl enable zabbix-server zabbix-agent

Step 5: Access Zabbix

Now that we have completed the installation and configuration, we can access the Zabbix web interface by navigating to:

http://YOUR_SERVER_NAME_OR_IP

Then, log in with the default credentials:

Conclusion

We have successfully installed and configured Zabbix on nixOS latest. You can now monitor your IT infrastructure components by adding hosts and setting up monitoring items, triggers, and alerts.

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