zabbix_agent

This role installs zabbix agent and configures them for services, apps and platform autodiscovery on Zabbix Server side.

Preamble

Zabbix server can detect applications, services, platforms and virtualization by a special hash value (see autodiscovery hashes) predefined in a Zabbix agent configuration file. For example:

UserParameter=hostmetadata,echo 'Linux ff6e6f6e65 dd6a617661'

When Zabbix Server tries to discover hosts like this one, the next step is following: add the host to a specified group (like Web servers, Cloud nodes, etc) and apply template to monitoring filesystems (ZFS, btrfs, mdadm), application (nginx, etc), virtualization or containerization and other hardware and software platforms.

Requirements

Zabbix version. Written for Zabbix 5.0 automation, but probably works for other versions of Zabbix agent. Before you setup please confirm a package version is available for your version of Linux distribution visiting Zabbix download page or directly repository.
Supported Linux distribution. Works only with x86_64 architecture:
- Ubuntu: 14.04, 16.04, 18.04, 20.04, 22.04. Perhaps this role also works on Non-LTS or older versions, but wasn't tested.
- Debian: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Perhaps this role also works on another version of Debian distro, but wasn't tested.
- RHEL: 6, 7, 8, 9. Perhaps this role also works on older versions of RHEL distro, but tested on CentOS and Oracle Linux distributions.
- Alpine Linux: 3.18. Perhaps this role also works on another version of distro, but wasn't tested.
- Other Linux distributions, Windows, Solaris, FreeBSD, AIX and armv7/aarch64 architectures aren't supported.
Zabbix agent configuration. Platforms discovery uses additional packages (like ipmitool), other platforms and services detects by binary files search, but the most of the services detects by their enabled systemd daemons (systemctl is-enabled command) or rc-service (Alpine linux). So daemons autodiscovery works only on linux distros with systemd. Already installed Zabbix agent re-configuration (check customize_agent_only in Role Variables using this role also possible).

Dependencies

pacman module from community.general;
xxd or vim-common, wget and policycoreutils-python packages (will be automatically installed on supported Linux distributions, otherwise install them manually);
sudo package on Debian systems installed via 'netinstall' source or docker images.

Role Variables

Main parameters:

Variable	default	Comment
`zabbix_release`	5.0	Zabbix release (not effective for Alpine)
`install_v2_agent`	True	Install Zabbix agent v2 when possible, otherwise install v1
`customize_agent`	True	Configure agent for automatic services discovery and templates add
`clean_install`	True	Perform clean install (re-install agent with clean-up)
`conf_with_dir_clean`	True	Configure or perform clean installation with config directory clean-up
`debug_mode`	True	More outputs
`customize_agent_only`	False	Re-configure agent without Zabbix install
`zabbix_repo_url`	http://repo.zabbix.com	Zabbix repo URL
`archlinux_repo_url_prefix`	https://archive.archlinux.org/packages	Archlinux repo URL prefix
`repo_dl_validate_certs`	False	Check certificates on Zabbix repo package download (required on
		outdated virtual machines snapshots)

Zabbix agent settings:

Parameter	Default	Comment
`remote_cmd_key`	EnableRemoteCommands	Enable remote commands key name
`remote_cmd_value`	1	Enable remote commands value
`logfile_size_key`	LogFileSize	Logfile size key name
`logfile_size_value`	100	Logfile size value
`zabbix_servers_passive`	10.0.0.1,10.0.0.2	Zabbix server IP passive checks
`zabbix_servers_active`	10.0.0.1:10051,10.0.0.2:10051	Zabbix server IP active checks
`zabbix_host_metadata`	Linux	Zabbix host metadata

There are also agent settings related variables like zabbix_agent_conf_name orzabbix_agent_binary, but changing them is useless. This is for Zabbix agents versions differences discovery.

Autodiscovery hashes:

Variable	hex hash	Comment
openvpn_bin	dd6f76706e	Openvpn binary discovery
java_bin	dd6a617661	Java platform binary discovery
mysql	dd6d7973716c	MySQL daemon discovery
postgresql	dd706773716c	PostgreSQL daemon discovery
openvpn	dd6f76706e	Openvpn daemon discovery
bareos_fd	dd6272736664	Bareos File Daemon discovery
bareos_dir	dd627273646972	Bareos Director Daemon discovery
bareos_sd	dd6272737364	Bareos Storage Daemon discovery
memcached	dd6d6d63636864	Memcached daemon discovery
nginx	dd6e676e78	Nginx daemon discovery
php_fpm	dd7066706d	php-fpm daemon discovery
apache	dd61706368	Apache web serve daemon discovery
named	dd6e646e73	Named (dhcpd) daemon discovery
dhcpd	dd69736364686370	isc-dhcp-server daemon discovery
dnsmasq	dd646e736d	dnsmasq daemon discovery
fail2ban	dd663262	fail2ban daemon discovery
vsftpd	dd7673667470	vstftpd daemon discovery
gitlabrunner	dd6774726e	Gitlab runner daemon discovery
nfs	dd6e6673	NFS Server daemon discovery
zabbix_agent	dd7a626131	Zabbix agent v1 daemon discovery
zabbix_agent2	dd7a626132	Zabbix agent v2 daemon discovery
	ff6e6f6e65	baremetal server discovery
	ff6b766d	KVM virtualization dicovery
	ff6c7863	LXC container discovery
	ff646f636b6572	Docker container discovery
	ee69706d69	IPMI discovery
	ee53757065726d6963726f	Sumermicro(tm) hardware platform disovery
	ee416476616e74656368	Advantech(tm) hardware platform disovery
	ee<other_vendor_hash>	hardware platform disovery

Example Playbook

Install and configure Zabbix v1 agent(s):

- hosts: all
  become: True
  become_method: sudo
  roles:
    - role: alexanderbazhenoff.linux.zabbix_agent
      install_v2_agent: False

Install and configure Zabbix v2 agent(s):

- hosts: all
  become: True
  become_method: sudo
  roles:
    - role: alexanderbazhenoff.linux.zabbix_agent
      install_v2_agent: True

Perform re-configuration of already installed Zabbix agent(s):

- hosts: all
  become: True
  become_method: sudo
  roles:
    - role: alexanderbazhenoff.linux.zabbix_agent
      customize_agent_only: True

Setup on Zabbix Server side

To make services, platforms and apps discovery working on Zabbix Server side, you should perform additional settings:

Open Configuration -> Discovery on Zabbix Server Web UI. Select your discovery rule for network IP range then add Zabbix agent "hostmetadata" to "Checks". After successful Zabbix agent reconfiguration using this role you'll see hostmetadata column in the "Status of discovery" (Monitoring -> Discovery on Zabbix Server Web UI). Just wait for some minutes for IP range scan.
Open Configuration -> Actions -> Dicovery actions in Zabbix Server Web UI and create your rule for hostmetadata tag. You wish to create "MySQL - discovery on linux for Zabbix agents v1" for example:

Action:

(A and B and C) and D and E and F

Conditions:
A   Received value contains Linux
B   Received value contains dd7a626131
C   Received value contains dd6d7973716c
D   Uptime/Downtime is greater than or equals 3600
E   Discovery status equals Up
F   Service type equals Zabbix agent

Operations:

Run remote commands on current host
Add to host groups: Services/MySQL servers
Link to templates: Template DB MySQL by Zabbix agent

Remote Command (Zabbix agent for current host):

wget -N -O /tmp/mysql_selinux.sh http://yourzabbbix.domain/downloads/mysql/mysql_selinux.sh
bash /tmp/mysql_selinux.sh
echo "[client]" > $(getent passwd zabbix | cut -d : -f 6)/my.cnf
echo "user='zbx_monitor'" >> $(getent passwd zabbix | cut -d : -f 6)/my.cnf
echo "password='Yourpassword'" >> $(getent passwd zabbix | cut -d : -f 6)/my.cnf
chown zabbix:zabbix $(getent passwd zabbix | cut -d : -f 6)/my.cnf
wget -N -O /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.d/template_db_mysql.conf http://yourzabbbix.domain/downloads/mysql/template_db_mysql.conf
wget -N -O /tmp/restart_daemon.sh http://yourzabbbix.domain/downloads/restart_daemon.sh
echo "none" > /tmp/zabbix-agent-restart.log
bash /tmp/restart_daemon.sh zabbix-agent
echo "ok" > /tmp/zabbix-agent-restart.log

where you should change yourzabbbix.domain URL and 'Yourpassword' password.

The following steps are for the command execution to add template configurations and settings on Zabbix-agent side after the service discovery. It means you didn't put them in /etc/zabbix or whatever before discovery on Zabbix Server. Otherwise, skip the next steps.

Put your template available to download from Zabbix Server, e.g. /usr/share/zabbix/downloads/mysql/template_db_mysql.conf:

UserParameter=mysql.ping[*], mysqladmin --defaults-extra-file='/var/lib/zabbix/my.cnf' ping
UserParameter=mysql.get_status_variables[*], mysql --defaults-extra-file='/var/lib/zabbix/my.cnf' -sNX -e "show global status"
UserParameter=mysql.version[*], mysqladmin --defaults-extra-file='/var/lib/zabbix/my.cnf' version
UserParameter=mysql.db.discovery[*], mysql --defaults-extra-file='/var/lib/zabbix/my.cnf' -sN -e "show databases"
UserParameter=mysql.dbsize[*], mysql --defaults-extra-file='/var/lib/zabbix/my.cnf' -sN -e "SELECT SUM(DATA_LENGTH + INDEX_LENGTH) FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA='$3'"
UserParameter=mysql.replication.discovery[*], mysql --defaults-extra-file='/var/lib/zabbix/my.cnf' -sNX -e "show slave status"
UserParameter=mysql.slave_status[*], mysql --defaults-extra-file='/var/lib/zabbix/my.cnf' -sN -e "show slave status"

Put your script to change Zabbix-agent selinux policies available to download from Zabbix Server (skip this step for non-RedHat Linux distros), e.g. /usr/share/zabbix/downloads/mysql/mysql_selinux.sh:

#!/usr/bin/env bash


if [[ -f /etc/redhat-release ]] && [[ $(sestatus | head -1 | awk '{print $3}') == "enabled" ]]; then

cat <<EOF > zabbix_home.te
module zabbix_home 1.0;

require {
        type zabbix_agent_t;
        type zabbix_var_lib_t;
        type mysqld_etc_t;
        type mysqld_port_t;
        type mysqld_var_run_t;
        class file { open read };
        class tcp_socket name_connect;
        class sock_file write;
}

#============= zabbix_agent_t ==============

allow zabbix_agent_t zabbix_var_lib_t:file read;
allow zabbix_agent_t zabbix_var_lib_t:file open;
allow zabbix_agent_t mysqld_etc_t:file read;
allow zabbix_agent_t mysqld_port_t:tcp_socket name_connect;
allow zabbix_agent_t mysqld_var_run_t:sock_file write;
EOF
checkmodule -M -m -o zabbix_home.mod zabbix_home.te
semodule_package -o zabbix_home.pp -m zabbix_home.mod
semodule -i zabbix_home.pp
restorecon -R /var/lib/zabbix

fi

Put your script to restart zabbix-agent daemon (to apply config change) available to download from Zabbix Server, e.g. /usr/share/zabbix/downloads/restart_daemon.sh:

#!/usr/bin/env bash


SERVICE_NAME=$1
echo "Restarting ${SERVICE_NAME}..."

if [[ -f /bin/systemctl ]]; then
    set -x
    systemctl restart ${SERVICE_NAME}
else
    if [[ -f /usr/sbin/service ]]; then
        set -x
        service ${SERVICE_NAME} restart
    else
        if [[ -f /etc/init.d/${SERVICE_NAME} ]]; then
            set -x
            /./etc/init.d/${SERVICE_NAME} restart
        else
            echo "Fatal error: no systemctl, or service or init.d script found for ${SERVICE_NAME}"
            exit 1
        fi
    fi
fi

You can also make your custom restart script based on config changes (using diff or whatever). This is just a concept.

License

MIT-0

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README.md

README.md

zabbix_agent

Preamble

Requirements

Dependencies

Role Variables

Example Playbook

Setup on Zabbix Server side

License

Files

README.md

Latest commit

History

README.md

File metadata and controls

zabbix_agent

Preamble

Requirements

Dependencies

Role Variables

Example Playbook

Setup on Zabbix Server side

License