Self-Hosting Zabbix with Docker Compose

What Is Zabbix?

Zabbix is an enterprise-grade open-source monitoring platform for networks, servers, VMs, cloud services, and applications. It monitors everything from CPU load on a Raspberry Pi to thousands of network switches via SNMP. Auto-discovery finds devices on your network, templates provide out-of-box monitoring for hundreds of platforms, and the alerting system escalates through email, Slack, PagerDuty, and custom scripts. If you’ve outgrown Uptime Kuma or Gatus and need to monitor actual infrastructure — not just HTTP endpoints — Zabbix is the tool enterprises use.

Official site: zabbix.com | GitHub

Prerequisites

• A Linux server (Ubuntu 22.04+ recommended)
• Docker and Docker Compose installed (guide)
• 4 GB of RAM minimum (8 GB recommended for 100+ hosts)
• 10 GB of free disk space
• A domain name (optional, for remote access)

Docker Compose Configuration

Zabbix has multiple components. This configuration uses the PostgreSQL backend with the Nginx web frontend:

services:
  zabbix-server:
    image: zabbix/zabbix-server-pgsql:alpine-7.4-latest
    container_name: zabbix-server
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - DB_SERVER_HOST=zabbix-db
      - DB_SERVER_PORT=5432
      - POSTGRES_USER=zabbix
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=changeme_db
      - POSTGRES_DB=zabbix
      - ZBX_CACHESIZE=128M
      - ZBX_STARTPOLLERS=5
      - ZBX_STARTDISCOVERERS=2
    ports:
      - "10051:10051"
    volumes:
      - zabbix-server-data:/var/lib/zabbix
    depends_on:
      zabbix-db:
        condition: service_healthy
    networks:
      - zabbix-net

  zabbix-web:
    image: zabbix/zabbix-web-nginx-pgsql:alpine-7.4-latest
    container_name: zabbix-web
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - DB_SERVER_HOST=zabbix-db
      - DB_SERVER_PORT=5432
      - POSTGRES_USER=zabbix
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=changeme_db
      - POSTGRES_DB=zabbix
      - ZBX_SERVER_HOST=zabbix-server
      - ZBX_SERVER_PORT=10051
      - ZBX_SERVER_NAME=Zabbix Monitoring
      - PHP_TZ=UTC
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    depends_on:
      - zabbix-server
    networks:
      - zabbix-net

  zabbix-agent:
    image: zabbix/zabbix-agent2:alpine-7.4-latest
    container_name: zabbix-agent
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - ZBX_HOSTNAME=zabbix-server
      - ZBX_SERVER_HOST=zabbix-server
      - ZBX_SERVER_PORT=10051
    ports:
      - "10050:10050"
    depends_on:
      - zabbix-server
    networks:
      - zabbix-net

  zabbix-db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    container_name: zabbix-db
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=zabbix
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=changeme_db
      - POSTGRES_DB=zabbix
    volumes:
      - zabbix-pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    networks:
      - zabbix-net
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U zabbix"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5

volumes:
  zabbix-server-data:
  zabbix-pgdata:

networks:
  zabbix-net:

Change POSTGRES_PASSWORD in both zabbix-server and zabbix-web to a strong password that matches zabbix-db.

Start the stack:

docker compose up -d

The first start takes a minute — the Zabbix server initializes database schema and imports default templates.

Initial Setup

Access the web UI at http://your-server-ip:8080.

Default credentials:

• Username: Admin
• Password: zabbix

Change the admin password immediately: Administration → Users → Admin → Change password.

Adding Your First Host

1. Go to Monitoring → Hosts → Create host
2. Set the hostname and select a host group (e.g., “Linux servers”)
3. Add an agent interface: IP address of the machine running the Zabbix agent, port 10050
4. Link a template: Templates/Operating systems → Linux by Zabbix agent
5. Click Add

Within minutes, Zabbix starts collecting CPU, memory, disk, and network metrics from the agent.

Key Components

Component	Docker Image	Purpose
Zabbix Server	zabbix-server-pgsql	Core monitoring engine — polls agents, processes data, triggers alerts
Zabbix Web	zabbix-web-nginx-pgsql	Web dashboard and API
Zabbix Agent 2	zabbix-agent2	Runs on monitored hosts, collects metrics
PostgreSQL	postgres:16-alpine	Stores configuration, history, and trend data

Monitoring Methods

Zabbix supports multiple data collection methods:

Method	Use Case
Zabbix Agent	Linux/Windows hosts — CPU, memory, disk, processes, logs
SNMP	Network devices — switches, routers, printers, UPS
IPMI	Server hardware — BMC, DRAC, iLO for temperature, fans, power
JMX	Java applications — heap, threads, GC stats
HTTP checks	Website and API monitoring
SSH/Telnet	Remote command execution for custom checks
Calculated items	Derived metrics from other items

Configuration

Auto-Discovery

Zabbix can scan IP ranges and automatically add discovered devices:

1. Go to Data collection → Discovery → Create discovery rule
2. Set the IP range (e.g., 192.168.1.1-254)
3. Choose checks: Zabbix agent, SNMP, ICMP ping
4. Set discovery interval (e.g., every hour)
5. Create discovery actions to auto-link templates and add to host groups

Alerting

Set up email notifications:

1. Administration → Media types → Email — configure SMTP settings
2. Administration → Users → Admin → Media — add your email address
3. Create a trigger action: Alerts → Actions → Trigger actions → Create action
4. Set conditions (e.g., severity ≥ Warning) and operations (send email)

Zabbix supports escalation — if a problem isn’t acknowledged within 30 minutes, notify a manager.

Templates

Templates are Zabbix’s biggest strength. Each template defines what to monitor for a specific platform:

• Linux by Zabbix agent — CPU, memory, disk, network, processes
• Windows by Zabbix agent — same plus Windows services, event log
• Docker by Zabbix agent 2 — container stats, images, volumes
• Network generic device by SNMP — interfaces, traffic, errors
• PostgreSQL by Zabbix agent 2 — connections, queries, replication lag

Hundreds of templates are included by default. Community templates cover everything from Proxmox to Unraid.

Reverse Proxy

For HTTPS access, point your reverse proxy at port 8080. See Reverse Proxy Setup.

Backup

Back up the PostgreSQL database:

docker compose exec zabbix-db pg_dump -U zabbix zabbix > zabbix-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql

For a full backup strategy, see Backup Strategy.

Troubleshooting

”Zabbix server is not running”

Symptom: Web UI shows “Zabbix server is not running” in red.

Fix: The server may still be initializing. Wait 60 seconds and refresh. Check logs:

docker compose logs zabbix-server

If you see database connection errors, verify POSTGRES_PASSWORD matches across all services.

Agent Shows “Unavailable”

Symptom: Host status shows a red “ZBX” icon.

Fix: Verify the agent can reach the server. The agent’s ZBX_SERVER_HOST must match the server’s container name. Check agent logs:

docker compose logs zabbix-agent

High Database Disk Usage

Symptom: PostgreSQL volume grows rapidly.

Fix: Zabbix stores historical data by default for 90 days and trends for 365 days. Reduce retention in Administration → General → Housekeeping, or per-item in template configuration.

Resource Requirements

• RAM: ~500 MB idle (server + web + agent + PostgreSQL), grows with monitored hosts
• CPU: Low at rest, spikes during discovery and large polling intervals
• Disk: ~500 MB base, 1-10 GB per year depending on monitored host count and data retention

Verdict

Zabbix is the most capable open-source monitoring platform, period. Nothing else matches its breadth — SNMP, IPMI, JMX, agent-based, agentless, calculated metrics, log monitoring, and auto-discovery in one tool. The trade-off is complexity. Setting up Zabbix properly takes hours, not minutes. Templates help, but tuning alert thresholds and dashboards for your environment is an ongoing process. For simple HTTP endpoint monitoring, Uptime Kuma or Gatus are far simpler. For full infrastructure monitoring at homelab or enterprise scale, Zabbix is the gold standard. LibreNMS is the closest alternative for network-focused monitoring.

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