A suggestion: make it work

[Stinky]

How about this for a big idea for Zabbix? Make it work. Let me explain.

I wanted to try Zabbix on a Centos box, so I go and add the epel repository and yum install zabbix zabbix-agent zabbix-web, as per the instructions on the Zabbix site.

At the end I get a heap of errors:

Error: Package: zabbix-1.4.7-1.el5.x86_64 (epel)
Requires: libcurl.so.3()(64bit)
Error: Package: zabbix-1.4.7-1.el5.x86_64 (epel)
Requires: libmysqlclient.so.15()(64bit)
Error: Package: zabbix-1.4.7-1.el5.x86_64 (epel)
Requires: libnetsnmp.so.10()(64bit)
Error: Package: zabbix-1.4.7-1.el5.x86_64 (epel)
Requires: libmysqlclient.so.15(libmysqlclient_15)(64bit)
You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest

You could try this and you could try that. Or how about the people who packaged up zabbix could try making packages that work? Obviously they don't know how to, and really have no business making packages that don't work.

The instructions for installing Zabbix here http://www.zabbix.com/wiki/howto/ins.../centosinstall should either be highlighted with the words "these don't work", or preferably removed.

The worst experience about trying software for the first time is encountering failure. I could tinker around with this and that, trying to make it work. But frankly I don't want to waste my time. My very first experience of Zabbix, and the experience that I will pass on to other people, is "it doesn't work. It doesn't even install". Not good.

Now, I could be really helpful and file a bug report. But, again, that should not be necessary. Packaged software should work.

0/10, do not pass Go, try harder, could do better, E, fail, zzz.

[NicoZanferrari]

Well, on the same page you've followed there is already written that "For RHEL/CentOS 5 there is only the obsolete zabbix version 1.4.7 in the EPEL repository. "
My suggestion is to do the manual installation or switch to CentOS 6.

Nico

[nelsonab]

You could try this and you could try that. Or how about the people who packaged up zabbix could try making packages that work? Obviously they don't know how to, and really have no business making packages that don't work.

I understand your frustration, however statements like that do not help your cause. However, I can assure you the people who are making the packages *DO* know what they are doing.

Since CentOS is derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I will explain things from the RHEL perspective. RHEL 5 was released in late 2007, as such most packages are of that vintage with mostly bug fixes. This is due to Red Hat's API/ABI commitment.

Zabbix 1.6 and 1.8 require versions of PHP which are not included in RHEL 5 and will likely not be included, likely due to some language changes in PHP. Because of this including Zabbix 1.6 or 1.8 in EPEL for RHEL 5 would require secondary packages. Thus the suggestion to use RHEL 6 for Zabbix 1.8.x.

As for the package dependency problems for the Zabbix 1.4.x packages in EPEL 5 I suggest you open a bugzilla ticket https://bugzilla.redhat.com. EPEL is part of the Fedora Project which is sponsored by Red Hat.

Otherwise it is recommended you install RHEL 6 or install Zabbix from source as noted in the instructions.

The worst experience about trying software for the first time is encountering failure. I could tinker around with this and that, trying to make it work. But frankly I don't want to waste my time. My very first experience of Zabbix, and the experience that I will pass on to other people, is "it doesn't work. It doesn't even install". Not good.

Again, I can appreciate your frustration, however I would suggest that in the future you do a little more research before you choose to bombast. And yes I have been very guilty of doing this at times.

[eskytthe]

Try the Zabbix Appliance - and you will be running in 5 min
http://www.zabbix.com/download.php

And look here for some more info:
Zabbix - into (the book!):
http://www.packtpub.com/sites/defaul...pleChapter.pdf
Starter:

http://www.zabbix.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22211

BR
Erik

[Zaniwoop]

My first installation was on Centos 5.4, Zabbix 1.6.x.

Worked like magic.

Not sure where the problem lies?

[Axilla]

in the future i'd suggest installing from source and skipping all headaches that come with REPO's and HOPING someone maintains them. Just my .02, blasting people will not help your cause.. This sounds more like P.E.B.K.A.C. than a Zabbix issue..

[Zaniwoop]

Just by the way...

I upgraded from 1.8.5 to 1.8.10 today; which involved a complete recompile etc...

It must have taken about 2 minutes out of my day.

[nelsonab]

in the future i'd suggest installing from source and skipping all headaches that come with REPO's and HOPING someone maintains them. Just my .02, blasting people will not help your cause.. This sounds more like P.E.B.K.A.C. than a Zabbix issue..

Or stick with Repos with a history of updating packages in a timely manner, such as EPEL. :-)

[soundjack]

I'm not sure about which CentoOS version the OP has but I'm having troubles installing Zabbix on CentoOS 6.2 from the epel repo.

Apparently it's trying to install 1.4.7-1 even though this repo is supposed to have 1.8.5 (as per http://lists.fedoraproject.org/piper...ry/006318.html). Here's what yum reports:

# yum provides zabbix
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, priorities
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: mirror.beyondhosting.net
 * epel: mirror.steadfast.net
 * extras: mirrors.serveraxis.net
 * rpmforge: mirror.rit.edu
 * rpmforge-extras: mirror.rit.edu
 * updates: mirror.team-cymru.org
[B][COLOR="red"]zabbix-1.4.7-1.el5.i386[/COLOR][/B] : Open-source monitoring solution for your IT infrastructure
Repo        : epel

Here are my current repos:

# yum repolist
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, priorities
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: mirrors.gigenet.com
 * epel: mirror.steadfast.net
 * extras: mirrors.serveraxis.net
 * rpmforge: mirror.rit.edu
 * rpmforge-extras: mirror.rit.edu
 * updates: pubmirrors.reflected.net
repo id                                                                                                                  repo name                                                                                                                                              status
base                                                                                                                     CentOS-6 - Base                                                                                                                                        4,764
[B]epel                                                                                                                     Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 6 - i386                                                                                                           5,735[/B]
extras                                                                                                                   CentOS-6 - Extras                                                                                                                                          6
rpmforge                                                                                                                 RHEL 6 - RPMforge.net - dag                                                                                                                            4,431
rpmforge-extras                                                                                                          RHEL 6 - RPMforge.net - extras                                                                                                                           672
updates                                                                                                                  CentOS-6 - Updates                                                                                                                                       919
repolist: 16,527

Already tried removing the epel repo and reinstalling but no luck... very frustrating!

Any ideas?

[Tekkell]

Zabbix 2.0 on CentOS 6.2

• Install a development build of CentOS 6.2
• Complete the configuration as you would normally configure a server.
• Modify your services to your need.

open a shell:

yum install mysql-server mysql-devel php-gd php-bcmath php-ctype php-xml php-mbstring OpenIPMI OpenIPMI-devel libssh2 libcurl net-snmp net-snmp-utils net-snmp-devel libcurl-devel php-pear glibc.i686

pear install net_socket

wget http://pkgs.repoforge.org/fping/fping-3.1-1.el6.rf.i686.rpm  
rpm -i fping-3.1-1.el6.rf.i686.rpm 

service mysqld start
mysql_secure_installation            (passwd: mysql) 

groupadd zabbix
useradd -g zabbix zabbix
passwd zabbix

download zabbix (zabbix.com) and extract.

mysql -uroot -pmysql
create database zabbix character set utf8;
quit;
mysql -uroot -pmysql zabbix < database/mysql/schema.sql
mysql -uroot -pmysql zabbix < database/mysql/images.sql
mysql -uroot -pmysql zabbix < database/mysql/data.sql


./configure --enable-server --enable-agent --with-mysql --with-net-snmp --with-libcurl
#( --with-jabber)

make install

all scripts you need are in the downloaded folder misc/init.d/redhat/8.0
copy them to /etc/init.d
make sure you automatically startup the services httpd and mysql in the runlevels (can do it with "setup" in a terminal)
edit the zabbix_server startup script so it runs later then mysql ! (line -chkconfig 89 11)

chkconfig zabbix_server on (to automatically link it to the correct runlevels)
chkconfig zabbix_agentd on

Edit the config files to reflect the path.
Disable selinux !
disable firewall !

Keep the manual with it! Read what you have to do. This is was only to make my life easier and I am sharing it with you guys.
After this done, pick the manual up at the part where you cp -a the php scripts to your webserver directory. LINK
This is my crude installation. Someone with some unix knowledge should firgure it out :-)

Good Luck

PS: as you noticed I used mysql.

[NicoZanferrari]

soundjack: you have problems with yum!

On http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel...ew/zabbix.html you can see that the currently available version is zabbix-1.8.13-1.el6.i686, and I do confirm it on my servers. Also, it is certainly an error that you have Cento6 installed and yum proposes to install an el5 package!

[soundjack]

NicoZanferrari: ok I see!

Meanwhile I did manage to install 2.0 by compiling from source, that went well fortunately.

But anyhow, regarding yum, I agree there must be something wrong with it. I did try to reinstall the repos, disable, enable back, but it always tries to pull the el5 package.

Any ideas about what else I could do to fix that?

Thanks!

[djangosChef]

@soundjack,
Did you use the EL6 instructions at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL/FAQ#howtouse (i.e. use http://download.fedoraproject.org/pu...7.noarch.rpm)?
Just wondering if you might have used the EL5 rpm?

[soundjack]

@djangosChef Yup, the EL6 from is exactly the one I took.
Take a look at my repolist:

# yum repolist
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, priorities
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: mirrors.gigenet.com
 * epel: mirror.steadfast.net
 * extras: mirrors.serveraxis.net
 * rpmforge: mirror.rit.edu
 * rpmforge-extras: mirror.rit.edu
 * updates: pubmirrors.reflected.net
repo id                                                                                                                  repo name                                                                                                                                              status
base                                                                                                                     CentOS-6 - Base                                                                                                                                        4,764
epel                                                                                                                     Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 6 - i386                                                                                                           5,735
extras                                                                                                                   CentOS-6 - Extras                                                                                                                                          6
rpmforge                                                                                                                 RHEL 6 - RPMforge.net - dag                                                                                                                            4,431
rpmforge-extras                                                                                                          RHEL 6 - RPMforge.net - extras                                                                                                                           672
updates                                                                                                                  CentOS-6 - Updates                                                                                                                                       919
repolist: 16,527