Dockerized Zabbix agent for host and containers monitoring

• Zabbix Agent patched for host monitoring via volume mounts
• Docker container monitoring items included
• CoreOS specific monitoring items included (you can use them if the host is CoreOS)
• Enables host and container monitoring in all Linux-based hosts

Zabbix Agent patching and CoreOS monitoring template is based on bhuisgen's work at https://github.com/bhuisgen/docker-zabbix-coreos.

docker run -d \
  --restart=always \
  --name zabbix-agent \
  -p 10050:10050 \
  -v /proc:/host/proc:ro \
  -v /sys:/host/sys:ro \
  -v /dev:/host/dev:ro \
  -v /etc:/host/etc:ro \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/host/var/run/docker.sock \
  --env ZABBIX_SERVER=<zabbix server ip> \
  --env METADATA=<host metadata> \
  --env HOST=<host name> \
  --env PSKKey=<PSK TLS key> \
  --env PSKIdentity=<PSK identity> \
  digiapulssi/docker-zabbix-agent

• Port mapping -p 10050:10050 is optional and required only for passive agent checks.
• Metadata METADATA environment variable is optional and required only if auto registration is used in Zabbix Server.
• If host HOST environment variable is omitted, the container generates a host name <host metadata>-<machine id>, where machine id is read from /etc/machine-id
• PSK environment variables PSKKey and PSKIdentity are optional and required only if TLS PSK key is used for encryption and authentication with Zabbix Server
• To view Zabbix agent log, run docker logs <container id>

Standard Linux OS Template items are supported for host monitoring.

Items known NOT to work properly:

• Number of logged in users (Zabbix uses who command inside docker container which shows the number of loggers users inside the container, not inside the host)
• Filesystem discover does not work but host filesystems can still be monitored with vfs.fs items
• To get Checksum of /etc/passwd to work, you need to update item key to vfs.file.cksum[/host/etc/passwd]

The following items support host CoreOS monitoring. You can use them if the host is CoreOS.

A template file for Zabbix server is included: template_coreos.xml. The template items use active agent checks.

Supported items:

• Etcd client port status
• Etcd server port status
• Memory used by processes etcd
• Memory used by processes fleetd
• Number of processes etcd
• Number of processes fleetd
• Number of processes locksmithd
• Number of processes update_engine

Two template files for Zabbix server are included:

• Passive checks: docker.xml.
• Active checks: docker_active.xml.

The template items monitor docker containers based on their names. Sometimes it's handier to do monitoring image-wise, eg. when container names are auto-generated. See Docker monitoring usage for a detailed documentation.

The following items support monitoring Docker containers running in the host:

• Number of containers running in host
• Discovery of docker containers running in the host
• Monitoring of docker containers with the following items:
  • Status (0: exited with error or no such container, 1: running, 2: not started)
  • Uptime
  • CPU usage
  • Disk usage
  • Memory usage
  • Incoming network traffic (eth0)
  • Outgoing network traffic (eth0)

Note that network traffic monitoring is based only on eth0 interface.

• It doesn't work if --net=host option is used for the monitored container
• Network monitoring does not show all traffic if additional network interfaces are used for the monitored container

The patched Zabbix Agent version is here and packaging scripts here.