– Tested with Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial) LTS and Zabbix Server 4.0 beta 1 on September 2018 –

Add Zabbix 4 repository (beta is version still numbered as 3.5)

echo "deb http://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/3.5/ubuntu xenial main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/zabbix4.list > /dev/null

Add the missing public key for repository with

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 082AB56BA14FE591

and update the apt package list with

sudo apt-get update

Install the Zabbix server (if mysql has not been installed before, please note down the root password!)

apt-get install mysql-server zabbix-server-mysql zabbix-release

Secure your Mysql/MariaDB installation with

sudo mysql_secure_installation

default answers (see below) are fine for a normal setup

Enter current password for root (enter for none): --> should be empty, just press Enter
Set root password? [Y/n] --> Y
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] --> Y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] -->  Y
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] --> Y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] --> Y

Now login on mysql as root with the password just choosen

$ mysql -uroot -p

and create a database (and a user) for Zabbix

MariaDB [(none)]> create database zabbix character set utf8 collate utf8_bin;
MariaDB [(none)]> grant all privileges on zabbix.* to zabbix@localhost identified by '<mysql-zabbix-password>';
MariaDB [(none)]> flush privileges;
MariaDB [(none)]> quit;

Import initial schema and data for the Zabbix server with:

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

(when asked, type the <mysql-zabbix-password>)

Edit /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf and set

DBPassword=<mysql-zabbix-password>

Now install Zabbix web frontend

sudo apt-get install zabbix-frontend-php zabbix-get

Set the right timezone for you (mine is Europe/Rome)

echo -e "<Directory \"/usr/share/zabbix\">\n   php_value date.timezone Europe/Rome\n</Directory>" | sudo tee /etc/apache2/conf-available/zabbix-local.conf
sudo a2enconf zabbix-local

and restart Apache and Zabbix Server

sudo systemctl restart apache2
sudo systemctl restart zabbix-server

This step it is not mandatory, but really useful for monitoring the server itself through Zabbix. Follow the instructions posted here to install the Agent. Then, proceed with this guide.

Now point your browser to

http://your-webserver/zabbix/

and follow the wizard to configure Zabbix frontend and its access to the Mysql database .

Finally, when presented the Zabbix “Welcome” screen, enter the user name 'Admin' with password 'zabbix' to log in as a Zabbix superuser for the first time(then change immediately the password!)