Mac OS X – Install Zabbix Agent from Source

This isn’t too complicated, so let’s try to keep this short and sweet. In my case, I was installing version 2.4.7 of the Zabbix Agent at the time, but I’ve made it to where you can download the current version of the source if you want.

• From the Apple developer website, download and install both the XCode and Command Line Tools package for your exact version of Mac OS.
• If you don’t already have this directory or somewhere you want to build the software, create it at the terminal and change into the directory.

  sudo mkdir /usr/local/src
  sudo cd /usr/local/src

• You can download the latest version of the Zabbix source like this:

  sudo curl -L "https://sourceforge.net/projects/zabbix/files/latest/download?source=files" -o "zabbix-cur.tar.gz"

• Untar and change into directory substituting your directory name here

  sudo tar -zxvf zabbix-2.4.7.tar.gz
  sudo cd zabbix-2.4.7

• Build it

  sudo ./configure --prefix=/usr/local --enable-agent --enable-ipv6 && sudo make install

• Edit the config file and insert the IP Address of your Zabbix server and set your Hostname

  sudo nano /usr/local/etc/zabbix_agentd.conf

• Create user account

  sudo dscl . -create Users zabbix

• Append next available UniqueID to account

  sudo dscl . -append Users/zabbix UniqueID $(dscl . -list /Users UniqueID | awk 'BEGIN{i=0}{if($2>i)i=$2}END{print i+1}')

• I’m not sure if this was always the case, but in older versions of Mac OS, I think the PrimaryGroupID was automatically created, but maybe I am wrong. At least on Mac OS version 10.10.5 Yosemite and above, it doesn’t create a PrimaryGroupID key automatically. If you don’t do this step, you will get an “illegal username” error when you try to set ownership on files later.

  sudo dscl . -append Users/zabbix PrimaryGroupID $(dscl . -read Users/zabbix UniqueID | awk '{ print $2 }')

• Hide the user account

  sudo dscl . -append Users/zabbix IsHidden 1

• Create the group

  sudo dscl . -create Groups zabbix

• Get the next available PrimaryGroupID
  Please see my comment at the end of the post about this line.

  sudo dscl . -append Groups/zabbix PrimaryGroupID $(dscl . -list /Groups PrimaryGroupID | awk 'BEGIN{i=0}{if($2>i)i=$2}END{print i+1}')

• Add group membership

  sudo dscl . -append Groups/zabbix GroupMembership zabbix

• Set directory permissions

  sudo chown zabbix:wheel /usr/local/bin/zabbix*
  sudo chown zabbix:wheel /usr/local/etc/zabbix*
  sudo chown zabbix:wheel /usr/local/sbin/zabbix*

• Create the following file

  sudo nano /Libray/LaunchDaemons/com.zabbix.zabbix_agentd.plist

• Paste this into the file

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC
      "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
      "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
      <plist version="1.0">
      <dict>
              <key>Label</key>
              <string>com.zabbix.zabbix_agentd</string>
              <key>RunAtLoad</key>
              <true/>
              <key>KeepAlive</key>
              <dict>
                      <key>SuccessfulExit</key>
                      <false/>
              </dict>
              <key>ProgramArguments</key>
              <array>
                      <string>/usr/local/sbin/zabbix_agentd</string>
                      <string>-c</string>
                      <string>/usr/local/etc/zabbix_agentd.conf</string>
              </array>
      </dict>
      </plist>

• Launch the daemon

  sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.zabbix.zabbix_agentd.plist

• Check and make sure the daemon is running

  ps aux | grep zabbix