6 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:

Component Docker repository
Zabbix agent zabbix/zabbix-agent
Zabbix server
with MySQL support zabbix/zabbix-server-mysql
with PostgreSQL support zabbix/zabbix-server-pgsql
Zabbix web interface
based on Apache2 web server with MySQL support zabbix/zabbix-web-apache-mysql
based on Apache2 web server with PostgreSQL support zabbix/zabbix-web-apache-pgsql
based on Nginx web server with MySQL support zabbix/zabbix-web-nginx-mysql
based on Nginx web server with PostgreSQL support zabbix/zabbix-web-nginx-pgsql
Zabbix proxy
with SQLite3 support zabbix/zabbix-proxy-sqlite3
with MySQL support zabbix/zabbix-proxy-mysql
Zabbix Java gateway zabbix/zabbix-java-gateway

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:

Tag Description Example
latest The latest stable version of a Zabbix component based on Alpine Linux image. zabbix-agent:latest
<OS>-trunk The latest nightly build of the Zabbix version that is currently being developed on a specific operating system.

<OS> - the base operating system. Supported values:
alpine - Alpine Linux;
ltsc2019 - Windows 10 LTSC 2019 (agent only);
ol - Oracle Linux;
ltsc2022 - Windows 11 LTSC 2022 (agent only);
ubuntu - Ubuntu
zabbix agent:ubuntu-trunk
<OS>-latest The latest stable version of a Zabbix component on a specific operating system.

<OS> - the base operating system. Supported values:
alpine - Alpine Linux;
ltsc2019 - Windows 10 LTSC 2019 (agent only);
ol - Oracle Linux;
ltsc2022 - Windows 11 LTSC 2022 (agent only);
ubuntu - Ubuntu
zabbix-agent:ol-latest
<OS>-X.X-latest The latest minor version of a Zabbix component of a specific major version and operating system.

<OS> - the base operating system. Supported values:
alpine - Alpine Linux;
ltsc2019 - Windows 10 LTSC 2019 (agent only);
ol - Oracle Linux;
ltsc2022 - Windows 11 LTSC 2022 (agent only);
ubuntu - Ubuntu

X.X - the major Zabbix version (i.e. 6.0, 7.0, 7.2).
zabbix-agent:alpine-7.0-latest
<OS>-X.X.* The latest minor version of a Zabbix component of a specific major version and operating system.

<OS> - the base operating system. Supported values:
alpine - Alpine Linux;
ltsc2019 - Windows 10 LTSC 2019 (agent only);
ol - Oracle Linux;
ltsc2022 - Windows 11 LTSC 2022 (agent only);
ubuntu - Ubuntu

X.X - the major Zabbix version (i.e. 6.0, 7.0, 7.2).

* - the Zabbix minor version
zabbix-agent:alpine-7.0.1

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.

Zabbix must not be run as PID1/as an init process in containers in Zabbix 7.0.0-7.0.2.

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:

Variable Components Default value Description
DB_SERVER_HOST Server
Proxy
Web interface
mysql-server for MYSQL
postgres-server for PostgreSQL
IP or DNS name of MySQL or PostgreSQL server.
DB_SERVER_PORT Server
Proxy
Web interface
3306 for MYSQL
5432 for PostgreSQL
Port of MySQL or PostgreSQL server.
MYSQL_USER Server
Proxy
Web-interface
zabbix MySQL database user.
MYSQL_PASSWORD Server
Proxy
Web interface
zabbix MySQL database password.
MYSQL_DATABASE Server
Proxy
Web interface
zabbix for Zabbix server
'zabbix_proxy' for Zabbix proxy
Zabbix database name.
POSTGRES_USER Server
Web interface
zabbix PostgreSQL database user.
POSTGRES_PASSWORD Server
Web interface
zabbix PostgreSQL database password.
POSTGRES_DB Server
Web interface
zabbix for Zabbix server
'zabbix_proxy' for Zabbix proxy
Zabbix database name.
PHP_TZ Web-interface Europe/Riga Timezone in PHP format. Full list of supported timezones is available on php.net.
ZBX_SERVER_NAME Web interface Zabbix Docker Visible Zabbix installation name in right top corner of the web interface.
ZBX_JAVAGATEWAY_ENABLE Server
Proxy
false Enables communication with Zabbix Java gateway to collect Java related checks.
ZBX_ENABLE_SNMP_TRAPS Server
Proxy
Enables SNMP trap feature. It requires zabbix-snmptraps instance and shared volume /var/lib/zabbix/snmptraps to Zabbix server or Zabbix proxy.
Volumes

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

Volume Description
Zabbix agent
/etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.d The volume allows to include *.conf files and extend Zabbix agent using the UserParameter feature
/var/lib/zabbix/modules The volume allows to load additional modules and extend Zabbix agent using the LoadModule feature
/var/lib/zabbix/enc The volume is used to store TLS-related files. These file names are specified using ZBX_TLSCAFILE, ZBX_TLSCRLFILE, ZBX_TLSKEY_FILE and ZBX_TLSPSKFILE environment variables
Zabbix server
/usr/lib/zabbix/alertscripts The volume is used for custom alert scripts. It is the AlertScriptsPath parameter in zabbix_server.conf
/usr/lib/zabbix/externalscripts The volume is used by external checks. It is the ExternalScripts parameter in zabbix_server.conf
/var/lib/zabbix/modules The volume allows to load additional modules and extend Zabbix server using the LoadModule feature
/var/lib/zabbix/enc The volume is used to store TLS related files. These file names are specified using ZBX_TLSCAFILE, ZBX_TLSCRLFILE, ZBX_TLSKEY_FILE and ZBX_TLSPSKFILE environment variables
/var/lib/zabbix/ssl/certs The volume is used as location of SSL client certificate files for client authentication. It is the SSLCertLocation parameter in zabbix_server.conf
/var/lib/zabbix/ssl/keys The volume is used as location of SSL private key files for client authentication. It is the SSLKeyLocation parameter in zabbix_server.conf
/var/lib/zabbix/ssl/ssl_ca The volume is used as location of certificate authority (CA) files for SSL server certificate verification. It is the SSLCALocation parameter in zabbix_server.conf
/var/lib/zabbix/snmptraps The volume is used as location of snmptraps.log file. It could be shared by zabbix-snmptraps container and inherited using the volumes_from Docker option while creating a new instance of Zabbix server. SNMP trap processing feature could be enabled by using shared volume and switching the ZBX_ENABLE_SNMP_TRAPS environment variable to 'true'
/var/lib/zabbix/mibs The volume allows to add new MIB files. It does not support subdirectories, all MIBs must be placed in /var/lib/zabbix/mibs
Zabbix proxy
/usr/lib/zabbix/externalscripts The volume is used by external checks. It is the ExternalScripts parameter in zabbix_proxy.conf
/var/lib/zabbix/db_data/ The volume allows to store database files on external devices. Supported only for Zabbix proxy with SQLite3
/var/lib/zabbix/modules The volume allows to load additional modules and extend Zabbix server using the LoadModule feature
/var/lib/zabbix/enc The volume is used to store TLS related files. These file names are specified using ZBX_TLSCAFILE, ZBX_TLSCRLFILE, ZBX_TLSKEY_FILE and ZBX_TLSPSKFILE environment variables
/var/lib/zabbix/ssl/certs The volume is used as location of SSL client certificate files for client authentication. It is the SSLCertLocation parameter in zabbix_proxy.conf
/var/lib/zabbix/ssl/keys The volume is used as location of SSL private key files for client authentication. It is the SSLKeyLocation parameter in zabbix_proxy.conf
/var/lib/zabbix/ssl/ssl_ca The volume is used as location of certificate authority (CA) files for SSL server certificate verification. It is the SSLCALocation parameter in zabbix_proxy.conf
/var/lib/zabbix/snmptraps The volume is used as location of snmptraps.log file. It could be shared by the zabbix-snmptraps container and inherited using the volumes_from Docker option while creating a new instance of Zabbix server. SNMP trap processing feature could be enabled by using shared volume and switching the ZBX_ENABLE_SNMP_TRAPS environment variable to 'true'
/var/lib/zabbix/mibs The volume allows to add new MIB files. It does not support subdirectories, all MIBs must be placed in /var/lib/zabbix/mibs
Zabbix web interface based on Apache2 web server
/etc/ssl/apache2 The volume allows to enable HTTPS for Zabbix web interface. The volume must contain the two ssl.crt and ssl.key files prepared for Apache2 SSL connections
Zabbix web interface based on Nginx web server
/etc/ssl/nginx The volume allows to enable HTTPS for Zabbix web interface. The volume must contain the two ssl.crt, ssl.key files and dhparam.pem prepared for Nginx SSL connections
Zabbix snmptraps
/var/lib/zabbix/snmptraps The volume contains the snmptraps.log log file named with received SNMP traps
/var/lib/zabbix/mibs The volume allows to add new MIB files. It does not support subdirectories, all MIBs must be placed in /var/lib/zabbix/mibs

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-7.0-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-7.0-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-7.0-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-7.0-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-7.0-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-7.0-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-70: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-70

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-70

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-70

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 7.0

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:

File name Description
docker-compose_v3_alpine_mysql_latest.yaml The compose file runs the latest version of Zabbix 7.0 components on Alpine Linux with MySQL database support.
docker-compose_v3_alpine_mysql_local.yaml The compose file locally builds the latest version of Zabbix 7.0 and runs Zabbix components on Alpine Linux with MySQL database support.
docker-compose_v3_alpine_pgsql_latest.yaml The compose file runs the latest version of Zabbix 7.0 components on Alpine Linux with PostgreSQL database support.
docker-compose_v3_alpine_pgsql_local.yaml The compose file locally builds the latest version of Zabbix 7.0 and runs Zabbix components on Alpine Linux with PostgreSQL database support.
docker-compose_v3_ol_mysql_latest.yaml The compose file runs the latest version of Zabbix 7.0 components on Oracle Linux with MySQL database support.
docker-compose_v3_ol_mysql_local.yaml The compose file locally builds the latest version of Zabbix 7.0 and runs Zabbix components on Oracle Linux with MySQL database support.
docker-compose_v3_ol_pgsql_latest.yaml The compose file runs the latest version of Zabbix 7.0 components on Oracle Linux with PostgreSQL database support.
docker-compose_v3_ol_pgsql_local.yaml The compose file locally builds the latest version of Zabbix 7.0 and runs Zabbix components on Oracle Linux with PostgreSQL database support.
docker-compose_v3_ubuntu_mysql_latest.yaml The compose file runs the latest version of Zabbix 7.0 components on Ubuntu 20.04 with MySQL database support.
docker-compose_v3_ubuntu_mysql_local.yaml The compose file locally builds the latest version of Zabbix 7.0 and runs Zabbix components on Ubuntu 20.04 with MySQL database support.
docker-compose_v3_ubuntu_pgsql_latest.yaml The compose file runs the latest version of Zabbix 7.0 components on Ubuntu 20.04 with PostgreSQL database support.
docker-compose_v3_ubuntu_pgsql_local.yaml The compose file locally builds the latest version of Zabbix 7.0 and runs Zabbix components on Ubuntu 20.04 with PostgreSQL database support.

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 7.0
       docker compose -f ./docker-compose_v3_alpine_mysql_latest.yaml up -d

The command will download the latest Zabbix 7.0 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 7.0
       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 7.0 components locally and run them in detach mode.