Benefits of Using the Wizard

• Rapid Deployment: Automated setup saves configuration time.
• Customizable Metrics: Monitor only what matters.
• Flexible Alerting: Set warning and critical thresholds per metric.
• Intuitive Interface: Fully integrated into Nagios XI’s Monitoring Wizard.
• Metrics Monitored: CPU usage & load, memory availability, disk usage, system uptime, network traffic, running processes, and hostname information.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure:

• Nagios XI 2024R2.0+ installed (the Zabbix Agent Wizard is included by default).
• Zabbix agent running on the target host (port 10050/tcp open).
• Administrator credentials for XI and the host.

Security Note: Always use trusted sources for downloads. Ensure secure communication (e.g., TLS encryption) is configured for the agent.

Step 1: Launch the Wizard

• In the XI web UI, go to Configure > Configuration Wizards.
• Select Zabbix Agent Wizard, then click Next.
• Enter the host’s IP address or FQDN when prompted.

Step 2: Configure Host Monitoring

• Enter Host Name: Provide a unique display name for the host.
• Select Metrics: Tick the metrics you want to monitor (CPU, memory, disk, network, uptime, processes).
• Define Thresholds: Set warning and critical values for each metric.

• Make selections for your other monitoring settings in Steps 3-5, defining key aspects such as the check interval, notification settings, host and service groups, and parent-child relationships.
• Click Finish and Apply to apply your settings and finish the wizard.

The wizard automatically creates and applies the necessary configurations.

Step 3: Verify Monitoring and View Results

3.1 Manual Testing (Optional)

You can run the following command from the command line of your Nagios XI server to verify things are working:

/usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_zabbix_agent.py \ -H 192.168.1.50 --check cpu -w 80 -c 90

/usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_zabbix_agent.py \ -H 192.168.1.50 --check cpu -w 80 -c 90

Example output:

OK: CPU usage 22.3% | cpu_usage=22.3;80;90
CRITICAL: Available memory 72MB | available_memory=72MB;200;100

OK: CPU usage 22.3% | cpu_usage=22.3;80;90
CRITICAL: Available memory 72MB | available_memory=72MB;200;100

3.2 Service Status

Go to Home > Details > Service Status, then search for and locate your new host to view the status of it’s services.

Performance Graphs

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Conclusion

By following these three steps, you’ll have Zabbix-agent metrics in Nagios XI in under 10 minutes, eliminating manual setup and boosting monitoring efficiency.

Additional Resources

• Nagios Support Forum
• Nagios XI Documentation
• Nagios XI Admin Guide

Prerequisites

• Linux: root or sudo access
• Windows Server 2019/2022: local administrator
• Internet connectivity
• Zabbix server/proxy IP (e.g., 192.168.1.100)

Part 1: Install Zabbix Agent on Linux

1. Update system.

sudo dnf update -y

sudo dnf update -y

2. Add Zabbix repository.

Choose your distribution/version here: Zabbix Linux downloads.

sudo rpm -Uvh https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/7.0/rhel/9/x86_64/zabbix-release-7.0 1.el9.noarch.rpm 
sudo dnf clean all

sudo rpm -Uvh https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/7.0/rhel/9/x86_64/zabbix-release-7.0 1.el9.noarch.rpm 
sudo dnf clean all

3. Install agent.

sudo dnf install -y zabbix-agent2

sudo dnf install -y zabbix-agent2

4. Configure agent.
Edit /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agent2.conf and set:

Server=192.168.1.100 
ServerActive=192.168.1.100 
Hostname=LinuxServer01

Server=192.168.1.100 
ServerActive=192.168.1.100 
Hostname=LinuxServer01

5. Start and enable service.

sudo systemctl enable --now zabbix-agent2

sudo systemctl enable --now zabbix-agent2

6. Open firewall.

sudo firewall-cmd --add-port=10050/tcp --permanent 
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

sudo firewall-cmd --add-port=10050/tcp --permanent 
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Part 2: Install Zabbix Agent on Windows

1. Download agent.

• Visit the Zabbix downloads page and get the latest Windows installer here: Zabbix Windows agents

2. Run installer.

• Double-click the downloaded .exe to launch the Wizard
• Click Next to continue

3. Accept License Agreement.

4. Choose installation folder.

5. Configure during setup.

• Server IP: 192.168.1.100
• Active checks: 192.168.1.100
• Hostname: WindowsServer01
• Enable the check box for Add agent location to the PATH
• Click Install, then Finish

6. Verify service.

sc query "Zabbix Agent 2"

sc query "Zabbix Agent 2"

7. Allow firewall.

• Open Windows Defender Firewall → Inbound Rules → New Rule → Port → TCP 10050 → Allow → All profiles → Name: Zabbix Agent 2

Verification & Troubleshooting

You’re all set! Your system is now ready to be monitored with Nagios XI. To learn more about the Zabbix Agent Wizard, take a look at this article: How to Use the Zabbix Agent Wizard in Nagios XI.

Prerequisites

• You have Internet or Ethernet access
• Your host is running Linux or Windows

Installing the Windows Exporter from Prometheus Community GitHub onto a Windows Host

1. Download the latest version from GitHub

• Go to https://github.com/prometheus-community/windows_exporter
• Look for the latest release and download the amd64.msi file

2. Run the installer

• In the initial Custom Setup section, choose Entire feature will be installed on local hard drive under Firewall Exception. This will add an inbound permission for the Exporter listening port.

• Click all the options that say Next or Proceed in the installer
  • You do not need to change or add any other information to use the Prometheus Wizard in Nagios XI, you can simply keep the defaults.

• It will say it is installed
• (Optional): Confirm it is up and running by entering http://<HOST_IP>:9182/metrics

With all the above steps completed, your Windows system is now properly configured for Prometheus monitoring, and you’re ready to move on to integrating it with Nagios XI.

Installing and Running the Prometheus Node Exporter on a Linux Host

1. Download the latest version using command line

• Go to https://prometheus.io/docs/guides/node-exporter/
• Right click the Linux download link and select Copy Link to get exactly what you need to enter in the below wget command.
• On your Linux host, open the terminal
• Run the following command:
  

# wget https://github.com/prometheus/node_exporter/releases/download/v<VERSION>/node_exporter-<VERSION>.<OS>-<ARCH>.tar.gz

This will download the Node Exporter to your Linux host.

2. Run Node Explorer

• Run the following commands:
  • tar xvfz node_exporter-*.*-amd64.tar.gz
  • cd node_exporter-*.*-amd64
  • ./node_exporter

With these above steps completed, your Linux host is ready for Prometheus monitoring, and we are ready to move on to integrating with Nagios XI.

Conclusion

With this, we’ve set it up the data exporters and are ready to configure monitoring in Nagios XI, enabling us to gather all of the same data the same way that Prometheus does, giving us access to the detailed information it provides while showing the data in XI in a clear way.

Prerequisites

• Know the IP address of your host
• Your Host is Linux or Windows
• You have the Linux Exporter or Windows Exporter installed on your host
  • If you need help with this, you can refer to this article and come back

Configuring Hosts using the Prometheus Wizard

As long as you are using the premium version of Nagios XI, you will automatically have the Prometheus wizard. If you are not using premium, you will need to upgrade to access the wizard.

• Go to Configure (gear icon) > Configuration Wizards
• Find and select Prometheus

• Enter the host IP Address
• Select the Operating System (Windows or Linux)
• Do not change the host port, it will select the default for both Windows and Linux

By default, the wizard will be set up to perform services for the CPU usage, memory usage and the disk usage.

You can add more services that the exporter grabs by scrolling a little lower, should you wish to also monitor any of these services simply click them or hit select all.

Verify Monitoring

On the homepage find your new host and check its services. You’ll be able to see all the services and depending on how long they have been running you can see a graph showing the changes over time.

As you can see with our new host, it has started to monitor all services that we had selected.

Conclusion

Integrating the Prometheus Wizard with Nagios XI streamlines performance monitoring, greatly improving the efficiency and responsiveness of your infrastructure oversight. With this intuitive tool, administrators can easily tap into key metrics, quickly detect issues, and maintain the health and stability of their systems.

To learn more about using monitoring wizards in Nagios XI, you can take a look at this document:

Understanding and Using Configuration Wizards in Nagios XI