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Cloud server with Zabbix

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Zabbix is an open source software solution for distributed monitoring of network parameters, as well as the status and health of servers.

You can create a cloud server with a ready-made Zabbix application.In Russia, the application runs on a cloud server with a customized SelectOS 1.1 operating system .In other countries — Ubuntu 22.04.

Create a cloud server with Zabbix

In order for Zabbix to work, the cloud server must be accessible from the Internet. To do this, when creating the server, you need to create a private subnet and connect a public IP address.

To configure Zabbix, also when creating the server, you must specify user data — user configuration parameters of the operating system.You can specify one of two sets of parameters:

  • with the issuance of a TLS network certificate;
  • without issuing a TLS network certificate.

After you create a server with Zabbix, a free TLS certificate from Let's Encrypt® is automatically issued for the domain you specify.To issue the certificate, you must add an A-record for the domain and specify the public IP address of the server in the record value.The domain can be added to Selectel's DNS hosting (actual).

  1. Create a public IP address.

  2. Add an A-record for the domain.

  3. Create a cloud server with Zabbix.

1. Create a public IP address

Create a public IP address so that the cloud server with Zabbix can be accessed from the internet.

Use the Create a public IP address subsection of the Public IP Addresses instruction.

2. Add an A-record for the domain

Add a resource record to access Zabbix by domain.

Specify:

3. Create a cloud server with Zabbix

  1. In the Dashboard, on the top menu, click Products and select Cloud Servers.

  2. Click Create Server.

  3. Fill in the blocks:

  4. Check the price of the cloud server.

  5. Click Create.

Name and location

  1. Enter the server name. This will be set as the host name in the operating system.

  2. Select the region and pool segment in which the server will be created.The list of available server configurations and resource costs depends on the pool segment.Once the server is created, you cannot change the pool segment.

Source

  1. Open the Applications tab.

  2. Select Cloud Zabbix.

  3. Optional: if you need another current or archived version of the application, select the desired version in the Version field.

Configuration

Select a configuration from 2 vCPU, RAM от 8 ГБ and размером загрузочного диска от 20 ГБ.Two types of configurations are available for the server:

The configurations use different processors depending on the line and pool segment.After the server is created, you can change the configuration.

  1. Click Fixed.

  2. Open the tab with the desired ruler.

  3. Select a configuration.

  4. If both local and network disks are available in the selected configuration, select the disk to be used as the boot disk:

    • local disk — check the box Local SSD NVMe disk. A server with a local disk can only be created from images and applications;
    • network drive — do not check the checkbox.

    The amount of RAM allocated to the server may be less than the amount specified in the configuration — the operating system kernel reserves some RAM depending on the kernel version and distribution. You can check the allocated amount on the server with sudo dmesg | grep Memory.

Disks

  1. If you did not check the Local SSD NVMe disk checkbox when setting up the configuration. the first specified network drive will be used as the server boot disk.To configure it:

    1.1 Select the type of network boot disk.

    1.2 Specify the size of the network boot disk in GB or TB. Observe the maximum size limits of network disks.

    1.3 If you selected the Universal v2 disk type, specify the total number of read and write operations in IOPS. After creating a disk, you can change the number of IOPS — decrease or increase.The number of IOPS changes is unlimited.

  2. Опционально: добавьте дополнительный network disk server :

    2.1 Click Add.

    2.2 Select the type of network drive.

    2.3. Укажите размер сетевого диска в ГБ или ТБ. consider the maximum size limits of network drives.

    2.4 If you selected the Universal v2 disk type, specify the total number of read and write operations in IOPS. After creating a disk, you can change the number of IOPS — decrease or increase. There is no limit to the number of IOPS changes.

    After the server is created, you can connect new additional disks.

Network

The server can be added to a new private subnet or to an existing one.

Private — A subnet without access from the Internet or with a single static public IP address.The public IP address connects to a server that will be accessible from the Internet.

  1. Click Private Subnet.

  2. In the Public IP address for Internet access field, select the public IP address you created earlier or create a new one.

  3. Expand the block with private subnet settings.

  4. In the Subnet field, select an existing subnet.

  5. In the Private IP field, specify the private IP address of the server. The public IP address will be automatically connected to the private address.

Safety

Select security groups to filter traffic on server ports. Without security groups, traffic will not be allowed. If there is no block, port security is disabled on the server network . With traffic filtering disabled, all traffic will be allowed.

Access

  1. Place an SSH key for the project on the server for secure connection:

    1.1 If the SSH key for the project is not added to the cloud platform, click Add SSH Key, enter the key name, insert the public key in OpenSSH format, and click Add.

    1.2. If an SSH key for the project is added to the cloud platform. select the existing key in the SSH key field.SSH key is available only in the pool in which it is hosted.

  2. Optional: in the Password field for "root":

    2.1 Copy the password of the root user — a user with unlimited rights to all actions on the system.

    2.2 Save the password in a safe place and do not transmit it in public.

Additional settings

  1. If you plan to create multiple servers and want to improve the fault tolerance of your infrastructure, add the server to a placement group:

    1.1 To create a new group, in the Placement Group field, click New.

    1.2. Select New Group and enter a group name.

    1.3 Select a policy for hosting on different hosts:

    • preferably soft-anti-affinity. The system will try to place servers on different hosts. If there is no suitable host when creating a server, it will be created on the same host;
    • anti-affinity is mandatory. Servers in a group must be located on different hosts. If there is no suitable host when creating a server, the server will not be created.

    1.4 If a group has been created, select the placement group in the Placement Group field.

  2. To add additional information or filter servers in the list, add server tags. Operating system and configuration tags are automatically added. To add a new tag, enter a tag in the Tags field.

  3. To add a script that will be executed by the cloud-init agent when the operating system first starts up, in the Automation block in the User data field:

    • open the Text tab and paste the script with text;
    • or open the File tab and upload the file with the script.

Additional parameters can be added to the script:

#cloud-config

write_files:
- path: "/opt/gomplate/values/user-values.yaml"
  permissions: "0644"
  content: |
    pg_password: "<postgres_user_password>"
    zabbixDomain: <example.com>
    leEmail: <name@example.com>
    httpsMethod: redirect

Specify:

  • <postgres_user_password> — database user password. The password must contain:
    • more than eight characters;
    • at least one capital letter;
    • at least one lowercase letter;
    • at least one digit;
  • <example.com> — the domain to access Zabbix that you added earlier;
  • <name@example.com> — email to create an account and receive Let's Encrypt® notifications.

Parameters

To configure a cloud server with Zabbix, you can specify parameters from the table in the User data field.

NameTypeDefault valueDescription
pg_passwordstring✗Database user password. Must be more than eight characters, contain at least one uppercase and one lowercase letter and at least one digit. If the field is left blank, the generated password will be used
zabbixDomainstring✗The domain to access Zabbix, for which a TLS certificate from Let's Encrypt® will be automatically issued.
leEmailstring✗Email to create an account and receive Let's Encrypt® notifications
httpsMethodstringnoredirectParameter for automatic issuance of TLS certificate from Let's Encrypt®: redirect — certificate will be issued; noredirect — certificate will not be issued

Connect local computer to monitoring

Zabbix agents are used to monitor local computers and applications.

The Zabbix agent collects operational information locally and sends the data to the Zabbix server for processing.

The information collection for the Zabbix server depends on the type of validation:

  • passive checks — Zabbix server (or proxy) sends a request. The agent sends the result to the request;
  • active checks — The agent first receives a list of data items to process from the Zabbix server.Then it will send new values to the server on a schedule.

Zabbix server notifies the server administrator when problems occur, e.g. a service process crashes on the local computer or free disk space runs out.

  1. Install the Zabbix agent on the local computer.

  2. Customize the checks.

1. Install Zabbix agent on the local computer

There are two ways to install Zabbix agent locally:

See the list of supported operating systems in the Supported platforms section of the Zabbix agent manual in the official Zabbix documentation.

2. Set up checks

  1. Open the Zabbix agent configuration file zabbix_agentd.conf in a text editor.

  2. Enable local computer verification. To do this, specify the IP address or hostname of the Zabbix server:

    • in the Server parameter to enable passive checks on the local computer;
    • in the ServerActive parameter to enable active checks on the local computer.

  3. To configure the frequency of the checks, specify the time interval in seconds in the RefreshActiveChecks parameter.

  4. Exit the text editor with your changes saved.