How to Install and Configure Zabbix 3.4 on RHEL 7

This article explains how to deploy Zabbix 3.4 on a RHEL 7 system, covering repository addition, installation of server, proxy and web‑frontend packages, MySQL database setup, PHP tuning, service activation, and basic firewall configuration.

1. Add the Zabbix repository

Run the following command to install the Zabbix release package:

rpm -ivh http://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/3.4/rhel/7/x86_64/zabbix-release-3.4-2.el7.noarch.rpm

2. Install server, proxy and web‑frontend

Install the Zabbix server with MySQL support:

yum install zabbix-server-mysql

Install the Zabbix proxy (MySQL version):

yum install zabbix-proxy-mysql

Install the Zabbix web frontend (MySQL version):

yum install zabbix-web-mysql

3. Prepare the MySQL database

Create a MySQL root password and a dedicated Zabbix database:

mysqladmin -u root password 123456

mysql> create database zabbix character set utf8 collate utf8_bin;

mysql> grant all privileges on zabbix.* to zabbix@localhost identified by '123456';

mysql> quit;

Import the initial schema and data:

zcat /usr/share/doc/zabbix-server-mysql*/create.sql.gz | mysql -uzabbix -p zabbix

4. Configure Zabbix server/proxy to use the database

Edit /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf or /etc/zabbix/zabbix_proxy.conf and set the database password:

DBPassword=123456

5. Adjust PHP settings for the web interface

Edit the Apache Zabbix configuration file:

vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/zabbix.conf

php_value max_execution_time 300
php_value memory_limit 128M
php_value post_max_size 16M
php_value upload_max_filesize 2M
php_value max_input_time 300
php_value always_populate_raw_post_data -1
# php_value date.timezone Europe/Riga
php_value date.timezone Asia/Shanghai

6. Start Zabbix services

Start the Zabbix server and enable the HTTP daemon:

service zabbix-server start

vim /etc/selinux/config   # set SELINUX=disabled

service httpd restart

Install and start the Zabbix agent:

yum install zabbix-agent

service zabbix-agent start

7. Adjust firewall rules

Flush existing iptables rules:

iptables -F

iptables -X

iptables -Z

8. Verify installation

Check example configuration files or other installed files as needed, e.g.:

rpm -ql zabbix-web | grep example.conf

After completing these steps, the Zabbix monitoring system should be accessible via the web interface.