Zabbix server is not running: the information displayed may not be current

[BillP]

My Zabbix system has been running perfectly for quite a long time but it has recently stopped working. I have made no changes. I get the above message on the web page. top does not list the zabbix process.

I'm not a Linux expert but I can follow instructions. Zabbix is running on Ubuntu.

Bill.

[Noobz]

Check the logs, they'll tell you why it isn't running. Try starting the service again, then check logs again. Quite often it is because cache limits have been hit or similar.

[BillP]

Thank you very much. I checked the zabbix_server.log; it is full of lines like:

1129:20210923:092706.940 [Z3001] connection to database 'zabbix' failed: [1045] Access denied for user 'zabbix'@'localhost' (using password: NO)
1129:20210923:092706.940 database is down: reconnecting in 10 seconds

I also entered systemctl list-units --type=service --state=running (after a Google search!) and the two zabbix services are "loaded active running".

Are there other logs I need to check?

Best wishes,

Bill.

[Jason]

That is showing a connection problem to your database. Check that it is running and you're not exhausting the number of maximum connections to it.

[derli1988]

Also, check which web server you're running, probably Apache

In that case, go to this file: "/etc/zabbix/web/zabbix.conf.php" and make sure the user and password to access the database server are correct.

they should be the same as in /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf

[BillP]

Aha! zabbix_server.conf had no password but zabbix.conf.php had a password set. I added the pasword to zabbix_server.conf and it all works again!

Thank you very much! I wonder which one had got changed and how? Could a Ubuntu update have done it somehow?

Bill.

[derli1988]

Glad I could help, like my answer, then.

if the file zabbix_server had no password, probably zabbix server received an update going from 5.2 to 5.4 maybe, a new file is generated. Ubuntu update does upgrade software, you know.


Next time do this:

sudo apt-mark hold zabbix*

apt-get will then upgrade everything, but zabbix no matter what.

[BillP]

That sounds like it. I hadn't realised that an update would create a new file. I will do as you suggest; what is the proper way to update Zabbix? (I know that I ought to know that).

Thanks again,

Bill.

[derli1988]

I always take a backup of the virtual machine just in case, but also copy the config files to a different location.

use this guide if you want to have more info on how to do it.

https://bestmonitoringtools.com/upgrade-zabbix-to-the-latest-version/#Step_11_How_to_upgrade_Zabbix_50_or_52_to_54

[BillP]

Having read that link, I think I'll leave as it is for a while...

Bill.