# What is Zabbix?

Zabbix is an enterprise-class open source distributed monitoring solution.

Zabbix is software that monitors numerous parameters of a network and the health and integrity of servers. Zabbix uses a flexible notification mechanism that allows users to configure e-mail based alerts for virtually any event. This allows a fast reaction to server problems. Zabbix offers excellent reporting and data visualisation features based on the stored data. This makes Zabbix ideal for capacity planning.

For more information and related downloads for Zabbix components, please visit https://hub.docker.com/u/zabbix/ and https://zabbix.com

# What is Zabbix agent 2?

Zabbix agent 2 is deployed on a monitoring target to actively monitor local resources and applications (hard drives, memory, processor statistics etc).

# Zabbix agent 2 images

Images are updated when new releases are published.

# How to use this image

## Start `zabbix-agent2`

Start a Zabbix agent 2 container as follows:

    podman run --name some-zabbix-agent -e ZBX_HOSTNAME="some-hostname" -e ZBX_SERVER_HOST="some-zabbix-server" --init -d zabbix/zabbix-agent2:tag

Where `some-zabbix-agent2` is the name you want to assign to your container, `some-hostname` is the hostname, it is Hostname parameter in Zabbix agent 2 configuration file, `some-zabbix-server` is IP or DNS name of Zabbix server or proxy and `tag` is the tag specifying the version you want.

## Connects from Zabbix server or Zabbix proxy in other containers (Passive checks)

This image exposes the standard Zabbix agent 2 port (`10050`) to perform passive checks, so container linking makes Zabbix agent 2 instance available to Zabbix server and Zabbix proxy containers. Start your application container like this in order to link it to the Zabbix agent 2 container:

    $ podman run --name some-zabbix-server --link some-zabbix-agent:zabbix-agent2 --init -d zabbix/zabbix-server:latest

## Connect to Zabbix server or Zabbix proxy containers (Active checks)

This image supports perform active checks, so container linking makes Zabbix server and Zabbix proxy containers available to Zabbix agent 2 instance. Start your application container like this in order to link Zabbix agent 2 to Zabbix server or Zabbix proxy containterns:

    $ podman run --name some-zabbix-agent --link some-zabbix-server:zabbix-server --init -d zabbix/zabbix-agent2:latest

## Container shell access and viewing Zabbix agent 2 logs

The `podman exec` command allows you to run commands inside a Podman container. The following command line will give you a bash shell inside your `zabbix-agent2` container:

    $ podman exec -ti some-zabbix-agent /bin/bash

The Zabbix agent 2 log is available through Podman's container log:

    $ podman logs some-zabbix-agent

## Privileged mode

By default, Podman containers are "unprivileged" and do not have access to the most of host resources. Zabbix agent 2 is designed to monitor system resources, to do that Zabbix agent 2 container must be privileged or you may mount some system-wide volumes. For example:

    $ podman run --name some-zabbix-agent --link some-zabbix-server:zabbix-server --privileged --init -d zabbix/zabbix-agent2:latest

    $ podman run --name some-zabbix-agent --link some-zabbix-server:zabbix-server -v /dev/sdc:/dev/sdc --init -d zabbix/zabbix-agent2:latest

## Environment Variables

When you start the `zabbix-agent2` image, you can adjust the configuration of the Zabbix agent 2 by passing one or more environment variables on the `podman run` command line.

### `ZBX_HOSTNAME`

This variable is unique, case sensitive hostname. By default, value is `hostname` of the container. It is `Hostname` parameter in `zabbix_agent2.conf`.

### `ZBX_SERVER_HOST`

This variable is IP or DNS name of Zabbix server or Zabbix proxy. By default, value is `zabbix-server`. It is `Server` parameter in `zabbix_agent2.conf`. It is allowed to specify Zabbix server or Zabbix proxy port number using `ZBX_SERVER_PORT` variable. It make sense in case of non-default port for active checks.

### `ZBX_PASSIVE_ALLOW`

This variable is boolean (`true` or `false`) and enables or disables feature of passive checks. By default, value is `true`.

### `ZBX_PASSIVESERVERS`

The variable is comma separated list of allowed Zabbix server or proxy hosts for connections to Zabbix agent 2 container.

### `ZBX_ACTIVE_ALLOW`

This variable is boolean (`true` or `false`) and enables or disables feature of active checks. By default, value is `true`.

### `ZBX_ACTIVESERVERS`

The variable is comma separated list of allowed Zabbix server or proxy hosts for connections to Zabbix agent 2 container. You may specify port of Zabbix server or Zabbix proxy in such syntax: `zabbix-server:10061,zabbix-proxy:10072`.

### `ZBX_DEBUGLEVEL`

The variable is used to specify debug level. By default, value is `3`. It is `DebugLevel` parameter in `zabbix_agent2.conf`. Allowed values are listed below:

- `0` - basic information about starting and stopping of Zabbix processes;
- `1` - critical information
- `2` - error information
- `3` - warnings
- `4` - for debugging (produces lots of information)
- `5` - extended debugging (produces even more information)

### `ZBX_TIMEOUT`

The variable is used to specify timeout for processing checks. By default, value is `3`.

### Other variables

Additionally the image allows to specify many other environment variables listed below:

    ZBX_ENABLEPERSISTENTBUFFER=false # Available since 5.0.0
    ZBX_PERSISTENTBUFFERPERIOD=1h # Available since 5.0.0
    ZBX_ENABLESTATUSPORT=
    ZBX_SOURCEIP=
    ZBX_HEARTBEAT_FREQUENCY=60 # Available since 6.2.0
    ZBX_ENABLEREMOTECOMMANDS=0 # Deprecated since 5.0.0
    ZBX_LOGREMOTECOMMANDS=0
    ZBX_STARTAGENTS=3
    ZBX_HOSTNAMEITEM=system.hostname
    ZBX_METADATA=
    ZBX_METADATAITEM=
    ZBX_REFRESHACTIVECHECKS=120
    ZBX_BUFFERSEND=5
    ZBX_BUFFERSIZE=100
    ZBX_MAXLINESPERSECOND=20
    ZBX_LISTENIP=
    ZBX_LISTENPORT=10051
    ZBX_UNSAFEUSERPARAMETERS=0
    ZBX_TLSCONNECT=unencrypted
    ZBX_TLSACCEPT=unencrypted
    ZBX_TLSCAFILE=
    ZBX_TLSCRLFILE=
    ZBX_TLSSERVERCERTISSUER=
    ZBX_TLSSERVERCERTSUBJECT=
    ZBX_TLSCERTFILE=
    ZBX_TLSKEYFILE=
    ZBX_TLSPSKIDENTITY=
    ZBX_TLSPSKFILE=
    ZBX_DENYKEY=system.run[*] # Available since 5.0.0
    ZBX_ALLOWKEY= # Available since 5.0.0

Default values of these variables are specified after equal sign.

The allowed variables are identical of parameters in official `zabbix_agent2.conf` configuration file. For example, `ZBX_REFRESHACTIVECHECKS` = `RefreshActiveChecks`.

Please use official documentation for `zabbix_agent2.conf` to get more information about the variables.

## Allowed volumes for the Zabbix agent 2 container

### `/etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.d`

The volume allows include `*.conf` files and extend Zabbix agent 2 using `UserParameter` feature.

### `/var/lib/zabbix/enc`

The volume is used to store TLS related files. These file names are specified using `ZBX_TLSCAFILE`, `ZBX_TLSCRLFILE`, `ZBX_TLSKEY_FILE` and `ZBX_TLSPSKFILE` variables.

### `/var/lib/zabbix/buffer`

The volume is used to store the file, where Zabbix Agent2 should keep SQLite database. To enable the feature specify `ZBX_ENABLEPERSISTENTBUFFER=true`. Available since 5.0.0.

# User Feedback

## Documentation

Documentation for this image is stored in the `agent2/` directory of the `zabbix/zabbix-docker` GitHub repo. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the repository's `README.md` file before attempting a pull request.

## Issues

If you have any problems with or questions about this image, please contact us through a GitHub issue.

### Known issues

Currently it is not allowed to specify `ZBX_ALIAS` environment variable. Please use `/etc/zabbix/zabbix_agent.d` volume with additional configuration files with `Alias` options.

## Contributing

You are invited to contribute new features, fixes, or updates, large or small; we are always thrilled to receive pull requests, and do our best to process them as fast as we can.

Before you start to code, we recommend discussing your plans through a GitHub issue, especially for more ambitious contributions. This gives other contributors a chance to point you in the right direction, give you feedback on your design, and help you find out if someone else is working on the same thing.