Install Zabbix 8 with Nginx on Ubuntu 26.04 with SSL

If you are into server administration, you definitely need a good monitoring tool to monitor various things running on a server. I would suggest using Zabbix for this. I personally use it and, frankly speaking, it’s awesome.

What is Zabbix?

Zabbix is an open-source GUI-based tool to monitor almost everything running on your server. It offers enterprise-level monitoring features. You can use it to monitor server resources, networks, applications, services and many others. You can also configure notifications and alerts according to your needs.

In this tutorial, i will guide you to install Zabbix 8 with Nginx on Ubuntu 26.04.

Prerequisites

• A server with Ubuntu 26.04 installed
• A user with sudo privileges

Step 1 – Update the system

Before proceeding with the installation, Let’s first update our system

sudo apt update -y
sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 2 – Install, Secure and Configure MariaDB

We will use MariaDB as the database for this setup. Let’s first install MariaDB and then secure it.

sudo apt install mariadb-server -y

Now let’s secure our database

sudo mariadb-secure-installation

Enter current password for root (enter for none): (Just hit enter key)
Switch to unix_socket authentication [Y/n]: (Press N and hit enter key)
Change the root password? [Y/n]: (Press Y and hit enter key)
Enter New Password:
Confirm New Password: 
Note: Make sure to enter a strong and memorable password here

Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: (Press Y and hit enter key)
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: (Press Y and hit enter key)
Remove test database and access? [Y/n]: (Press Y and hit enter key)
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: (Press Y and hit enter key)

Now let’s configure our Database

sudo mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE zabbix CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_bin;
CREATE USER zabbix@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'Your_Strong_Password_Here';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON zabbix.* TO zabbix@localhost;
SET GLOBAL log_bin_trust_function_creators = 1;
QUIT;

Note:- Make sure to change "Your_Strong_Password_Here" to you the password you want to have for your database

Step 3 – Install PHP 8.5

Next Let’s install PHP 8.5 for our setup

sudo apt install php8.5-fpm php8.5-mysql php8.5-cli php8.5-common php8.5-curl php8.5-xml php8.5-mbstring php8.5-zip php8.5-gd php8.5-bcmath php8.5-sockets -y

Now update the php parameters in PHP.INI file

sudo nano /etc/php/8.5/fpm/php.ini

Update the parameters as below

memory_limit = 128M
post_max_size = 16M
upload_max_filesize = 2M
max_execution_time = 300
max_input_time = 300

save and exit

Now restart php8.5-fpm

sudo systemctl restart php8.5-fpm

Step 4 – Install and Configure Zabbix

Next we will download, install and configure Zabbix. To download execute the following

wget https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/8.0/release/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zabbix-release/zabbix-release_latest+ubuntu26.04_all.deb

Now let’s install the downloaded package

sudo dpkg -i zabbix-release_latest+ubuntu26.04_all.deb

Now, update the local package repository

sudo apt update -y

Now let’s install Zabbix frontend, Zabbix server and Agent

sudo apt install zabbix-server-mysql zabbix-frontend-php zabbix-nginx-conf zabbix-sql-scripts zabbix-agent2

Now Let’s import the Zabbix database schema

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

When prompted, enter your database password that you have created in step 2

Now that the Zabbix database schema has been imported, disable “log_bin_trust_function_creators”.

sudo mysql -u root -p
SET GLOBAL log_bin_trust_function_creators = 0;
QUIT;

Now we will configure Zabbix server’s database. To do this, we will have to edit the Zabbix server configuration file

sudo nano /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf

Now scroll and find “DBPassword” and update it with the database password you have created in Step 2

DBPassword=Your_Password_Here

Step 5 – Configure Nginx

Next let’s configure Nginx

sudo nano /etc/zabbix/nginx.conf

Uncomment the listen and server_name directive. Make sure it looks like this

listen 80;
server_name example.com;

Note: Change "example.com" to your real domain name

Step 6 – Updating the firewall rules

Let’s update the firewall to allow incoming requests from port 80 and 443 as we will setup SSL too.

sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp
sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw reload

Step 7 – Securing with Let’s Encrypt SSL

Now, Let’s secure out setup with Let’s Encrypt SSL. To install and manage SSL certificate, we will use certbot. To add more security to your server, you can configure fail2ban and change SSH port.

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y

Now let’s obtain and configure the SSL certificate.

sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com

Note: Make sure to change example.com with your real domain

Follow the interactive prompts and SSL certificates will be installed

Note:- Certbot will automatically update the Nginx configuration and configure HTTPS for your domain.

You can try a test renewal of SSL certificates by executing the command below

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Step 8 – Restart and Enable the services

Now, let’s just restart the Zabbix server, Nginx and Php8.5-fpm

sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart zabbix-server zabbix-agent2 nginx php8.5-fpm
sudo systemctl enable zabbix-server zabbix-agent2 nginx php8.5-fpm

Let’s check the status of all the services

sudo systemctl status zabbix-server zabbix-agent2 nginx php8.5-fpm

Step 9 – Finalize the setup from web interface

Now open any browser and enter your domain as below

https://example.com

Note: change example.com to your real domain.

Now enter the details as per the above steps in the web based setup.

Conclusion

With this we have configured Zabbix on Ubuntu 26.04 with SSL.