Installation

Zabbix-DB1

First, I SSH’d into the server I’ll be using as the database.

Then I downloaded the MariaDB repo.

wget https://downloads.mariadb.com/MariaDB/mariadb_repo_setup
chmod +x mariadb_repo_setup
sudo ./mariadb_repo_setup

Then I installed MariaDB, and enabled it to start upon boot.

sudo apt install mariadb-server
sudo systemctl enable mariadb
sudo systemctl start mariadb

Next I logged into MariaDB as root.

mariadb -u root -p

I then created the database and users for zabbix-ha1, zabbix-ha2, and the virtual IP I’ll be setting up later.

create database zabbix character set utf8mb4 collate utf8mb4_bin;

create user zabbix@'10.33.99.101' identified by 'top_secret_password';
create user zabbix@'10.33.99.102' identified by 'top_secret_password';
create user zabbix@'10.33.99.105' identified by 'top_secret_password';

grant all privileges on zabbix.* to 'zabbix'@'10.33.99.101' identified by 'top_secret_password';
grant all privileges on zabbix.* to 'zabbix'@'10.33.99.102' identified by 'top_secret_password';
grant all privileges on zabbix.* to 'zabbix'@'10.33.99.105' identified by 'top_secret_password';

set global log_bin_trust_function_creators = 1;
quit;

I then installed the Zabbix repository and SQL Scripts, which are used during the installation and configuration of a Zabbix server.

wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/7.0/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_7.0-1+ubuntu22.04_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i zabbix-release_7.0-1+ubuntu22.04_all.deb
sudo apt update
sudo apt install zabbix-sql-scripts

Then ran the import.

zcat /usr/share/zabbix-sql-scripts/mysql/server.sql.gz | mysql --default-character-set=utf8mb4 -u root -p zabbix

After the imported completed I disabled the log_bin trust.

mysql -u root -p
set global log_bin_trust_function_creators = 0;
quit;

Zabbix-HA1

Zabbix server will be installed on both Zabbix-HA1 and Zabbix-HA2.

First, I downloaded and added the Zabbix 7.0 repository.

wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/7.0/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_7.0-1+ubuntu22.04_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i zabbix-release_7.0-1+ubuntu22.04_all.deb
sudo apt update

Then I installed the server package along with MySQL database support.

sudo apt install zabbix-server-mysql

Next, I needed to make some changes to the .conf file.

sudo nano /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf

I found the following lines and filled them out accordingly.

DBHost=10.33.99.103
DBUser=zabbix
DBPassword=password

I scrolled to the very bottom of the file and uncommented the following lines.

HANodeName=zabbix-ha1
NodeAddress=10.33.99.101

Then saved and exited.

CTRL + X
'Enter'
Y

Zabbix-HA2

Now to do the same on Zabbix-HA2 with some minor changes.

Once again I downloaded and added the Zabbix 7.0 repository.

wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/7.0/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_7.0-1+ubuntu22.04_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i zabbix-release_7.0-1+ubuntu22.04_all.deb
sudo apt update

Then I installed the server package along with MySQL database support.

sudo apt install zabbix-server-mysql

Next, I needed to make some changes to the .conf file.

sudo nano /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf

I found the following lines and filled them out accordingly.

DBHost=10.33.99.103
DBUser=zabbix
DBPassword=password

Here’s where the minor differences are. I scrolled to the very bottom of the file and filled these lines as follows.

HANodeName=zabbix-ha2
NodeAddress=10.33.99.102

Then I enabled Zabbix to start on boot and to started the service on both ha1 and ha1.

sudo systemctl enable zabbix-server
sudo systemctl start zabbix-server

Nginx

This will be setup on both ha1 and ha2 servers, again with some minor differences on each.

First, I installed ‘keepalived’ on both servers.

sudo apt install keepalived

Then created the following .conf file on both servers.

sudo nano /etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf

On zabbix-ha1 I configured the conf. file as the master.

vrrp_track_process chk_nginx {
  process nginx
  weight 10
}

vrrp_instance ZBX_1 {
  state MASTER
  interface ens18
  virtual_router_id 51
  priority 244
  advert_int 1
  authentication {
    auth_type PASS
    auth_pass top_secret_password
  }
  track_process {
    chk_nginx
  }
  virtual_ipaddress {
    10.33.99.105/24
  }
}

On zabbix-ha2 there’s a few differences.

vrrp_track_process chk_nginx {
  process nginx
  weight 10
}

vrrp_instance ZBX_1 {
  state BACKUP
  interface ens18
  virtual_router_id 51
  priority 243
  advert_int 1
  authentication {
    auth_type PASS
    auth_pass top_secret_password
  }
  track_process {
    chk_nginx
  }
  virtual_ipaddress {
    10.33.99.105/24
  }
}

On both servers I installed the Zabbix frontend.

sudo apt install nginx zabbix-frontend-php zabbix-nginx-conf

I then edited the following .conf file on both servers.

sudo nano /etc/zabbix/nginx.conf

I then uncommented the following lines and changed the port and server name (this will be the same on both ha1 and ha2).

# listen 8080;
# server_name example.com;

listen 80;
server_name 10.33.0.105;

Then finally enabled Nginx and keepalived to start on boot, and started the services.

sudo systemctl enable nginx keepalived
sudo systemctl start nginx keepalived

Frontend

To setup the front end, I’ll have to go through the initial Zabbix configuration twice. The first will be on ha1, then stopping Nginx on ha1, and repeating it for ha2. But, I’ll be doing it from the virtual IP I setup, and not the server’s individual IP addresses.

First, I went to the virtual IP address I configured.

http://10.33.99.105/

First page will be the language select.

I verified everything was ‘OK’.

Then I configured the database connection.

Then I named it after zabbix-ha1.

Summary page.

Then clicked ‘Finish’.

I then stopped Nginx on zabbix-ha1.

sudo systemctl stop nginx

Then went back to the virtual IP address.

http://10.33.99.105/

And did everything the same as earlier.

The only difference is that I made sure to name it after zabbix-ha2.

Then I went back to zabbix-ha1 and started Nginx.