Overview

A host in Zabbix is a networked entity (physical, virtual) that you wish to monitor. The definition of what can be a “host” in Zabbix is quite flexible. It can be a physical server, a network switch, a virtual machine or some application.

Adding host

Information about configured hosts in Zabbix is available in Configuration → Hosts. There is already one pre-defined host, called ‘Zabbix server’, but we want to learn adding another.

To add a new host, click on Create host. This will present us with a host configuration form.

All mandatory input fields are marked with a red asterisk.

Host name

Groups

• Select one or several existing groups by clicking Select button or enter a non-existing group name to create a new group.

All access permissions are assigned to host groups, not individual hosts. That is why a host must belong to at least one group.

IP address

• Enter the IP address of the host. Note that if this is the Zabbix server IP address, it must be specified in the Zabbix agent configuration file ‘Server’ directive.

Other options will suit us with their defaults for now.

The Availability column contains indicators of host availability per each interface. We have defined a Zabbix agent interface, so we can use the agent availability icon (with ‘ZBX’ on it) to understand host availability:

• - host is available, a metric check has been successful

• - host is unavailable, a metric check has failed (move your mouse cursor over the icon to see the error message). There might be some error with communication, possibly caused by incorrect interface credentials. Check that Zabbix server is running, and try refreshing the page later as well.