Zabbix agent windows server 2019

In this tutorial, I will show you how to install Zabbix agent for Windows server using an MSI Installer package and how to monitor Windows server with Zabbix monitoring system.

Using this guide you can monitor almost the entire Windows OS family: Windows server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Windows 10, Windows 8 and Windows 7.

Installation is quite simple, just download and install the Zabbix agent MSI installer following steps 1 and 2, but if you want to learn more, read the full guide.

In short, Zabbix agent is a lightweight application that can collect various performance data from the operating system – such as CPU, memory, disk, and network interface utilization – and forward it to a central point (server) for storage and visualization. It runs on any modern operating system and is very flexible because its functionality can be extended with scripts and modules.

You can read more about the Zabbix agent on the Zabbix official site and if you stumbled on this tutorial by accident and you never heard of the Zabbix monitoring system, then stop whatever you doing and install it on your favorite Linux distribution in less than 10 minutes: CentOS/RHEL, Ubuntu, Debian, Rasberry Pi.

Need help with installing Zabbix agent on Linux OS? Check out this guide:
Zabbix Agent (Linux): Install on Ubuntu, CentOS, RHEL, Debian, etc.

Step 1: Download Zabbix Agent Installer for Windows (msi)

In this tutorial, I will use the latest Zabbix agent 5.0.2 LTS version, that version is compatible with Zabbix server 5.x or newer.

Windows Zabbix Agent v1 LTS v6.0.x	Download: 64-bit or 32-bit
Windows Zabbix Agent v2 LTS v6.0.x (recommended)	Download: 64-bit or 32-bit

I always recommend using the latest LTS version to take full advantage of new features and improved performance so make sure to download installer zabbix_agent2-6.0.7-windows-amd64-openssl.msi for 64-bit Windows or zabbix_agent2-6.0.7-windows-i386-openssl.msi for 32-bit Windows.

And don’t try to install a 32-bit package on 64-bit Windows because it won’t work!

Step 2: Install Zabbix Agent on Windows using MSI installer

I will install Zabbix Agent on Windows server using installation wizard but if you prefer command-line based installation check out section “Install Zabbix agent via Windows command-line (CMD)”

Just to make clear, in this tutorial I will use Zabbix server with IP address 192.168.5.43 to monitor Windows machine called w01services with IP address 192.168.5.22.

Double click on Zabbix MSI installer that you have downloaded in the previous step and click “Next” just as shown in the image below.

Accept the terms and click the “Next” button.

Define custom “Host name” or use fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the Windows machine in the “Host name” field. Then enter IP address of the Zabbix server under “Zabbix server IP/DNS” and “Server or Proxy for active checks” field and you are done.

Select “Add agent location to the PATH” and go through the rest of the installation by clicking “Next“, “Install” and “Finish“.

You don’t need to configure Windows firewall manually because the MSI installer will automatically add a firewall rule to permit Zabbix TCP port 10050.

Finally, we need to check that the Zabbix agent is up and running.

Hold down the “Windows key” and press “R” on the keyboard, type “services.msc“, press “OK” and check the “Status” column for “Zabbix Agent” service exactly as shown in the picture below. Status should be “Started” if the installation was successful.

WELL DONE!
You have successfully installed and configured Zabbix agent on Windows OS!
Now it’s time to add that Windows host to Zabbix monitoring system.

Step 3: Add Windows host to Zabbix monitoring system

You can add a host to existing host group or you can create a new host group for your Windows servers. I will create host group “Devices/OS/Windows“ using “Host groups” option under “Configuration” section on the Zabbix frontend. Click “Create host group” button, define “Group name” and click “Add” (you only need to create host group once):

Navigate to “Host” menu under “Configuration” tab and then click “Create host” option to create a host in Zabbix:

Define “Hostname” and set “Groups” using your newly created host group. Then set the IP address of the Windows server under “Agent interfaces” section

Switch to tab “Templates” and choose the “Template OS Windows by Zabbix agent” template under section “Link new template” by typing “OS Windows …”.

And you’re done! If you are interested in automating this whole process of adding Windows hosts to Zabbix see the section “Configure auto registration for Windows Zabbix agents“

Note that in this tutorial I m using a template “Template OS Windows by Zabbix agent” that can only monitor passive Zabbix agents. However, if you want to monitor your host using Zabbix agents in active mode use a template called “Template OS Windows by Zabbix agent active“. Check out the section “Understanding Active vs Passive Zabbix Agent mode” to learn more about the differences between the active and passive agent mode.

Step 4: Check if Zabbix Agent is working correctly

You can check that the Zabbix agent is working properly by using the “Latest Data” option on the Zabbix frontend. Wait up to 5 minutes after you have installed and started Zabbix agent to allow for data to be collected. Look at columns “Last check” and “Latest value” and if they are updating then the agent is working.

Your agent should be working and collecting data by now, but if you experience any problems, restart Zabbix agent service and check the log “C:\Program Files\zabbix\zabbix_agentd.log“. And if there is nothing unusual in the log file then check the firewall – make sure that TCP port 10050 on the host (where Zabbix agent is installed) and TCP port 10051 on the Zabbix server side are open.

Step 5: Restart Zabbix Agent service on Windows

In the previous steps, we learned how to check the status of Zabbix agent service using the “services.msc” option, and now we will learn how to use the command line interface (CMD) to stop or start the agent and check its status.

Click on “Windows Start” button and type “cmd” in the search bar, right-click on “cmd” icon and select option “Run as administrator” and use these commands to start/stop the agent:

net stop "Zabbix Agent"
net start "Zabbix Agent"

And to check Zabbix agent service status use the command:

sc query "Zabbix Agent" | findstr /i "STATE"

You should get status “RUNNING” if the Zabbix agent is up and running!

Step 6: Configure auto registration for Windows Zabbix Agents

Adding one or two hosts to Zabbix manually is not a big problem. However, what if you need to add more servers to Zabbix? Or you just want to automate that tedious process of adding Windows hosts to Zabbix and linking them with the correct template and host group?

Don’t worry, you don’t have to write the script because Zabbix has a tool called “Auto registration”.

Before we configure Zabbix frontend, make sure that all of your Zabbix agents have “HostMetadata=Windows” line in their configuration file (default path: “C:\Program Files\zabbix\zabbix_agentd.conf“). And if that line does not exist, add it and restart the Zabbix Agent afterward. You can automate that via CLI like this:

echo HostMetadata=Windows >> C:\"Program Files"\zabbix\zabbix_agentd.conf
net stop "Zabbix Agent"
net start "Zabbix Agent"

In the future always install the Zabbix agent on Windows with the “HostMetadata=Windows” parameter if you are planning to use the auto-registration feature!

Now that we’ve clarified that let’s configure auto-registration on the Zabbix frontend.

Go to the “Actions” tool under the “Configuration” section, then select “Auto registration” from the dropdown menu and click the “Create action” button.

On the “Action” tab define the “Name” of the action and add a “New condition” that will check if the “Host metadata” contains the word “windows”.

Then, change tab to “Operations” and add new operation.

Define “Operation type” as “Add to host group” and then select to which “Host groups” will Windows hosts be added when discovered. In my case, I will use my custom host group called “Devices/OS/Windows“.

After that, you need to add a new operation by setting “Link to the template” as “Operation type” and then select which templates will be linked with the newly discovered Windows hosts. In my example, I will use template “Template OS Windows by Zabbix agent” (passive checks)

Well done! Auto-registration is configured. Wait a few minutes and your Windows server should appear in Zabbix. From now on, every time you install a Zabbix agent on a Windows server, it will automatically be added to the Zabbix and linked with the appropriate host group and template.

Note, that you can add anything you want to the “HostMetadata” parameter. For example, you can have a host that has in Zabbix agent configuration file defined “HostMetadata=Windows:Tomcat:Prod” or another with “HostMetadata=Windows:MSSQL:Test“. For the first host, you can configure auto-registration to add to host groups: “Windows”, “Web servers” and “Production servers” and to link templates that can monitor Windows and Tomcat server. And the second host can be added to host groups: “Windows”, “Databases”, and “Test servers” and linked with templates that can monitor Windows server and Microsoft SQL database.

Using PSK encryption on the Zabbix agents? Then there is one more step left, you need to add your PSK identity and PSK key using the “Auto Registration” option under the “Administration“→”General” section just as shown in the image below:

From now on, during the auto registration process, Zabbix will configure provided PSK identity and key on each registered host.

Step 7: Configure PSK encryption on Zabbix Agent (Windows)

Zabbix supports encrypted communications between Zabbix server and Zabbix agent using Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol v.1.2. You can use certificate-based and pre-shared key-based encryption (PSK), but in this tutorial we will configure PSK encryption.

In this step, I will show you how to configure PSK encryption on an already installed Zabbix agent, but keep in mind that all of these configurations can be configured during the installation

a. Generate PSK key

Generate 256-bit (32 bytes) PSK key with openssl command on Zabbix server (or use some other tool on Windows):

$ openssl rand -hex 32
1b38eac9d870a319f201fb1da989c081faba993e3d91940193224a100cdcdb86

On Windows server, create a new text file “ZabbixAgentPSK.txt” in the default Zabbix agent installation folder (“C:\Program Files\zabbix“) and put that PSK key in the first line of the file. Don’t forget to save the file before closing.

b. Configure Zabbix agent to support PSK encryption

Open “C:\Program Files\zabbix\zabbix_agentd.conf” file with text editor (Notepad++) and add this configuration anywhere in file:

TLSConnect=psk
TLSAccept=psk
TLSPSKFile=C:\Program Files\zabbix\ZabbixAgentPSK.txt
TLSPSKIdentity=ZBX-AGENT-PSK-ID

Save and exit file. Keep in mind that “TLSPSKIdentity” can be anything, so for security reasons set something else – don’t use mine!

Don’t forget to restart Zabbix agent service after changing the configuration file!

c. Enable PSK encryption on the agent in Zabbix frontend

Communication between Zabbix agent and server is not yet encrypted because we have enabled PSK encryption on the agent side but not on the server side. 

We need to enable encryption on the server side so go to web frontend and select your “Hosts” tab under the “Configuration” section and find and click on your Windows hosts.

On the “Encryption” tab set PSK under “Connections from hosts” option and copy/paste “PSK identity” and “PSK” (key) that is configured on the Zabbix agent.

When you are done with configuration click the “Update” button just as shown in the image below. 

Keep in mind, that you can automate the configuration of the host encryption (PSK) on the frontend using the Zabbix auto registration process.

Step 8: Install Zabbix agent via Windows command-line (CMD)

This step is for those who prefer command-line based installation instead of wizard-based installation.

a. Run CMD as administrator

Click on “Windows Start” button and type “CMD” in the search bar, right-click on “cmd” and select option “Run as administrator“:

b. Download Zabbix agent

Download installer zabbix_agent2-6.0.7-windows-amd64-openssl.msi for 64-bit Windows or zabbix_agent2-6.0.7-windows-i386-openssl.msi for 32-bit Windowsand save it on a “C:\” disk or somewhere else.

c. Change directory and set installation folder

Change directory to the path where you have downloaded the MSI file and set the installation folder with commands:

cd C://
SET INSTALLFOLDER=C:\Program Files\zabbix

d. Install Zabbix agent using msiexec

Here is an example of Zabbix agent installation that will work for most people, just change parameteres “SERVER“, “SERVERACTIVE” and “HOSTNAME” to suit your enviroment.

msiexec /l*v log.txt /i zabbix_agent2-6.0.7-windows-amd64-openssl.msi /qn^
LOGTYPE=file^
LOGFILE="%INSTALLFOLDER%\zabbix.log"^
SERVER=192.168.5.156^
LISTENPORT=10050^
SERVERACTIVE=192.168.5.156^
HOSTNAME=w01fileservice^
ENABLEPATH=1^
INSTALLFOLDER="%INSTALLFOLDER%"

Check “Zabbix agent” service status with the command:

sc query "Zabbix Agent" | findstr /i "STATE"

If the Zabbix agent is up and running then the status should be “RUNNING“.

Note, if you are planning to use the auto-registration feature don’t forget to add “HostMetadata=Windows” parameter to “zabbix_agentd.conf” and restart Zabbix agent afterward because Zabbix CLI installation doesn’t support “HostMetadata” parameter:

echo HostMetadata=Windows >> C:\"Program Files"\zabbix\zabbix_agentd.conf
net stop "Zabbix Agent"
net start "Zabbix Agent"

e. Example of Zabbix agent installation with additional options

You can set almost any Zabbix agent parameter during installation, here is one example of an installation where many parameters are used.

SET INSTALLFOLDER=C:\Program Files\zabbix

msiexec /l*v log.txt /i zabbix_agent2-6.0.7-windows-amd64-openssl.msi /qn^
LOGTYPE=file^
LOGFILE="%INSTALLFOLDER%\zabbix.log"^
SERVER=10.10.10.162^
LISTENPORT=10055^
SERVERACTIVE=10.10.10.162^
HOSTNAME=cmr_server^
TLSCONNECT=psk^
TLSACCEPT=psk^
TLSPSKIDENTITY=CompanyPSKID^
TLSPSKFILE="%INSTALLFOLDER%\company_key.psk"^
TLSCAFILE="c:\temp\file1.txt"^
TLSCRLFILE="c:\temp\fil2.txt"^
TLSSERVERCERTISSUER="Company CA"^
TLSSERVERCERTSUBJECT="Company Cert"^
TLSCERTFILE="c:\temp\file4.txt"^
TLSKEYFILE="c:\temp\file5.txt"^
ENABLEPATH=1^
INSTALLFOLDER="%INSTALLFOLDER%"
SKIP=fw

Parameter “SKIP=fw” means that the firewall exception rule will not be added. Explanations of other parameters can be found in the official Zabbix documentation section Zabbix Agent (Windows).

Step 9: Understanding Active vs Passive Zabbix Agent mode

When using a Zabbix agent in active mode, it will connect to the Zabbix server via port 10051 to retrieve configuration and send data. This is a great feature that allows an active Zabbix agent to work behind the firewall and to offload the Zabbix server in large environments.

On the other hand, if you use a Zabbix agent in passive mode Zabbix server will initiate a connection via port 10050 and retrieve data from the agent. The Zabbix server will do this for every metric (item) every few minutes – which is very inefficient! Because of this, active mode is more recommended.

An additional advantage of the Zabbix agent in active mode is that it can read logs from the device and that is not possible if the Zabbix agent is used in passive mode.

You can detect on Zabbix host if the agent is working in active or passive mode. Passive mode will show red or green “ZBX” icon in the agent status bar and active mode will show grey “ZBX” icon:

Learn how to setup Zabbix email notifications and escalations in a few minutes!

Table of Contents

• 1 How do I install Zabbix agent on Windows Server 2019?
• 2 How do I install the latest Zabbix agent?
• 3 Can zabbix run on Windows?
• 4 How do I know if Zabbix agent is running on Windows?
• 5 Is zabbix free of cost?
• 6 Is Nagios no longer free?
• 7 How do you pronounce Nagio?
• 8 How do you pronounce icinga?

How do I install Zabbix agent on Windows Server 2019?

1. Step 1: Download Zabbix Agent Installer for Windows (msi)
2. Step 2: Install Zabbix Agent on Windows using MSI installer.
3. Step 3: Add Windows host to Zabbix monitoring system.
4. Step 4: Check if Zabbix Agent is working correctly.
5. Step 5: Restart Zabbix Agent service on Windows.

How do I install the latest Zabbix agent?

Installation is very simple and includes 3 steps:

1. Create configuration file. Create configuration file c:/zabbix_agentd.
2. Install agent as a Windows service. zabbix_agentd.exe –install.
3. Run agent. Now you can use Control Panel to start agent’s service or run: zabbix_agentd.exe –start.

How do I add a Zabbix agent to Zabbix server?

How to Add Windows Host to Zabbix Server for Monitoring

1. Step 1) Download Zabbix Agent for Windows Server.
2. Step 2) Edit the Zabbix configuration file.
3. Step 3) Install and start Zabbix Agent on Windows server.
4. Step 4) Configure Windows firewall for Zabbix Agent.
5. Step 5) Add a Windows host on Zabbix Server.

How do I start a Zabbix agent service?

How to Install Zabbix Agent on CentOS/RHEL 7/6

1. Step 1 – Add Required Repository. Before installing Zabbix Agent first configure Zabbix yum repository using following commands as per your required version and operating system.
2. Step 2 – Install Zabbix Agent.
3. Step 3 – Zabbix Agent Configuration.
4. Step 4 – Open Port.
5. Step 5 – Restarting Zabbix Agent.

Can zabbix run on Windows?

Zabbix agent runs as a Windows service. You can run a single instance of Zabbix agent or multiple instances of the agent on a Microsoft Windows host. A single instance can use the default configuration file C:\zabbix_agentd.

How do I know if Zabbix agent is running on Windows?

After you’ve finished the setup, open a windows Command Prompt with Administrator privileges, run services. msc command in order to open Windows Services utility and locate Zabbix Agent service to check if the service is running and automatically started after reboot.

Is zabbix a tool?

Zabbix is an open source monitoring software tool for diverse IT components, including networks, servers, virtual machines (VMs) and cloud services. Zabbix provides monitoring metrics, such as network utilization, CPU load and disk space consumption.

What does zabbix cost?

$1600.00 per year

Is zabbix free of cost?

Zabbix is the ultimate enterprise-level software designed for real-time monitoring of millions of metrics collected from tens of thousands of servers, virtual machines and network devices. Zabbix is Open Source and comes at no cost.

Is Nagios no longer free?

Yes! Nagios XI is available free of charge for monitoring small environments. Nagios XI installations with a free license are limited to monitoring up to seven (7) hosts (nodes) and up to 100 total host and service checks.

What can you monitor with Nagios?

Currently it provides: Monitoring of network services (SMTP, POP3, HTTP, NNTP, ICMP, SNMP, FTP, SSH) Monitoring of host resources (processor load, disk usage, system logs) on a majority of network operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, using monitoring agents.

How does Nagios XI work?

An agent lives on a network element like a Linux server. Nagios reaches out to the agent to check various stats (e.g. drive space, RAM, CPU usage, etc.). The agent collects the requested information and responds back to Nagios XI.

How do you pronounce Nagio?

The “Na” sounds like “Nah”, “gi” sounds like the first part of “geese”, and “os” sounds like the last part of “verbose”. You can pronounce it however the heck you’d like.

How do you pronounce icinga?

You say “Eee-Chingaa”, I say “Aye-Singa” – but how do the Zulus say it? We consulted a couple Zulu speakers and even received a pronunciation guide from Megan Wells to help us all out.

What is icinga tool?

Icinga is an open-source computer system and network monitoring application. It was originally created as a fork of the Nagios system monitoring application in 2009. The name Icinga is a Zulu word meaning “it looks for”, “it browses” or “it examines” and is pronounced with a click consonant.

Опубликовано: 06.10.2020

Используемые термины: Zabbix, Windows.

В нашем примере мы установим агент для Zabbix на Windows в качестве службы, а также сделаем минимальную настройку для отправки данных на сервер.

Загрузка агента

Переходим на страницу загрузки агента Zabbix и выбираем платформу операционной системы (x32 или x64) и версию агента, например:

* помимо этого, мы можем выбрать вариант дистрибутива: с использованием шифрования или нет, а также файл установки — msi пакет или архив. В данном примере мы выбрали версию 5.

В зависимости от выбранных критериев поиска агента, ниже мы можем увидеть несколько вариантов для загрузки. Находим нужный и кликаем по DOWNLOAD для скачивания файла:

Ждем окончания загрузки и переходим к установке.

Установка агента

В зависимости от загрузки типа пакета (MSI или архив) будут разные методы установки. Рассмотрим оба.

Установка из MSI-пакета

Это удобный вариант, который позволит установить агента с помощью мастера. Чтобы начать, кликаем дважды по скачанному пакету и в окне приветствия нажимаем Next:

Принимаем лицензионное соглашение, установив галочку I accept the terms in the License Agreement и нажимаем Next:

В следующем окне оставляем имя компьютера, на который устанавливается агент и вводим имя или IP-адрес сервера zabbix, после кликаем по Next:

* в данном примере имя нашего компьютера Windows PC, а сервера — zabbix-server.dmosk.local.

Выбираем компоненты, которые хотим установить — можно просто оставить все по умолчанию и нажимаем Next:

Подтверждаем установку, кликая по Install:

Ждем завершения процесса — агент установлен.

Установка из архива

Данный метод требует дополнительных манипуляций, но с его помощью можно автоматизировать процесс. Мы рассмотрим только установку.

Распаковываем содержимое скачанного архива в каталог, где будут находиться файлы программы, например в C:\Program Files\Zabbix Agent. В итоге, у нас получится:

Открываем WordPad от администратора и в нем открываем конфигурационный файл conf/zabbix_agentd.conf и правим опцию для сервера zabbix — находим строку:

Server=127.0.0.1

… и меняем ее на:

Server=zabbix-server.dmosk.local

* где zabbix-server.dmosk.local — имя сервера Zabbix.

Теперь открываем командную строку от администратора и выполняем команду для установки агента:

«C:\Program Files\Zabbix Agent\bin\zabbix_agentd.exe» —config «C:\Program Files\Zabbix Agent\conf\zabbix_agentd.conf» —install

* где C:\Program Files\Zabbix Agent — папка, куда мы распаковали архив.

Мы должны увидеть что-то на подобие:

zabbix_agentd.exe [468]: service [Zabbix Agent] installed successfully
zabbix_agentd.exe [468]: event source [Zabbix Agent] installed successfully

Теперь открываем службы Windows и находим «Zabbix Agent» — кликаем по ней правой кнопкой мыши и выбираем Запустить:

Установка завершена.

Настройка брандмауэра

Если в нашей системе работает брандмауэр Windows, необходимо разрешить порт 10050 или приложение zabbix agent.

Для этого переходим в Панель управления — Система и безопасность — Брандмауэр Windows (или вводим команду control /name Microsoft.WindowsFirewall). Кликаем по ссылке Разрешение взаимодействия с приложением или компонентов в брандмауэре Windows — добавляем наше приложение zabbix_agentd в исключение.

Это же действие можно выполнить в powershell — запускаем ее от администратора и вводим команду:

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName «Разрешить приложение Zabbix Agent» -Direction Inbound -Action Allow -EdgeTraversalPolicy Allow -Program «C:\Program Files\Zabbix Agent\bin\zabbix_agentd.exe»

Или мы можем добавить в исключение порт. Это можно сделать также из командной строки poweshell:

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName «Разрешить порт 10050 для Zabbix» -Direction Inbound -Action Allow -EdgeTraversalPolicy Allow -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 10050

Проверка работы

Чтобы убедиться в работоспособности агента, мы можем зайти на сервер zabbix и выполнить подключение по telnet, например, командой:

telnet 192.168.1.15 10050

* где 192.168.1.15 — IP-адрес компьютера с установленным Zabbix.

Мы должны увидеть 

Connected to nr-fs-06.
Escape character is ‘^]’.

.. и через небольшой интервал времени:

Connection closed by foreign host.

Но если агент не запущен или не работает, мы увидим ошибку:

telnet: connect to address …: Connection refused

В панели сервера в узлах сети при корректной установке и настройке, мы также должны увидеть доступность компьютера по агенту:

Читайте также

Другие инструкции по Zabbix:

1. Установка и настройка Zabbix-агента на CentOS

2. Установка и начальная настройка сервера мониторинга Zabbix на Ubuntu Server

3. Настройка сервера Zabbix 5 на CentOS 8

Following previous tutorials concerning the Zabbix series, this article describes how to install and set up an instance of a Zabbix agent to run as a service on Microsoft Windows systems in order to monitor your infrastructure windows environments, especially server machines.

Requirements

• How to Install Zabbix on RHEL/CentOS and Debian/Ubuntu – Part 1
• How to Configure Zabbix to Send Email Alerts to Gmail Account – Part 2
• How to Install and Configure Zabbix Agents on Remote Linux – Part 3

Step 1: Download and Install Zabbix Agent on Windows

1. The pre-compiled zip agents for Windows environments can be obtained from the official Zabbix download page and manually installed and started on the system using windows Command Prompt as in the following example:

C:\Users\caezsar><full system path to zabbix_agentd.exe> --config <full system path to zabbix_agentd.win.conf> --install

For example, suppose you’ve downloaded and extracted the Zabbix agent zip archive to D:\Downloads\zabbix_agents-5.4.7\, run the following command to install the service:

C:\Users\caezsar>D:\Downloads\zabbix_agent-5.4.7\bin\win32\zabbix_agentd.exe --config D:\Downloads\zabbix_agent-5.4.7\conf\zabbix_agentd.conf --install

2. After the service has been installed on your Windows host, open zabbix_agentd.win.conf file and manually edit the following parameters:

zabbix_agentd.win.conf

Server=IP of Zabbix Server
ServerActive=IP of Zabbix Server
Hostname=use the FQDN of your windows host

3. To start the service just type:

C:\Users\caezsar>D:\Downloads\zabbix_agents-5.4.7\bin\win32\zabbix_agentd.exe --start

To stop the service run the same command as above with --stop argument and to uninstall the service use the --uninstall argument.

C:\Users\caezsar>D:\Downloads\zabbix_agent-5.4.7\bin\win32\zabbix_agentd.exe --stop
C:\Users\caezsar>D:\Downloads\zabbix_agent-5.4.7\bin\win32\zabbix_agentd.exe --uninstall

4. A second and more convenient method to install and automatically configure the Zabbix agent on Windows environments is by downloading the Zabbix Agent installer MSI package specific to your system architecture.

5. Once the Zabbix agent MSI file has been downloaded on your system, run it and supply the required information in order to configure and install the agent on the target monitored host as it follows:

Hostname: use the FQDN of your windows host (the hostname value should match the “Full Computer name” configured for your machine)
Zabbix server Name: use the IP of the Zabbix Server
Agent Port: 10050 
Remote Command: check this value
Active Server: IP of Zabbix Server

If you need to modify the Zabbix configuration file with other custom values at a later date, the conf file can be found on the %programfiles%\Zabbix Agent\ path.

6. After you’ve finished the setup, open Windows Command Prompt with Administrator privileges, run services.msc command in order to open Windows Services utility, and locate Zabbix Agent service to check if the service is running and automatically started after reboot.

services.msc

From this console, you can manage the service (start, stop, pause, resume, enable or disable).

Step 2: Configure Windows Firewall and Test Zabbix Agent

7. Almost all Windows-based systems have Windows Firewall active and running, therefore Zabbix agent port must be opened in the firewall in order to communicate with the Zabbix server.

In order to open the Zabbix agent port in the windows firewall, open Control Panel -> System and Security – > Windows Firewall and hit on Allow an app through Windows Firewall.

8. Next, click on Allow another app button and a new window should open. Use the Browse button to navigate and add Zabbix agent executable file (usually found in %programfiles%\Zabbix Agent\ if you installed it using MSI program), then hit on Add button to add the service.

9. Next, make sure you check and open the firewall rule on the network segment where the Zabbix server is located in your network and hit the OK button to finish and apply the configuration.

10. In order to test if the Zabbix agent running on windows is reachable from the Zabbix server-side, use telnet or netcat command on Zabbix server against windows agent IP-Port and a Connected message should appear. Hit Enter key to generate an error message and automatically disconnect from the agent:

telnet <Windows_agent IP Address> 10050

Step 3: Add Zabbix Agent Monitored Windows Host to Zabbix Server

11. Once the windows agent has been tested from the command line and everything looks fine, go to Zabbix Server web interface, move to Configuration tab -> Hosts, and hit on Create Host button in order to add the Windows monitored host.

12. On the Host window add the FQDN of your windows agent machine in Hostname filed, add an arbitrary name to Visible name filed in order to easily identify the monitored machine on Zabbix panel, make sure the host is included in a Group Servers, and add the IP Address of your windows host in Agent interfaces filed. The Port value leaves it unchanged.

13. Next, go to the Template tab and hit on Select button. A new window with Zabbix Templates should appear. Navigate through this window, check Template OS Windows, and hit on Select button to add the template.

14. Once the Template OS Windows appears on Link new templates filed, hit on Add button in order to link this template to the windows host configuration.

Finally, after the Template OS Windows is visible in Linked Templates filed hit on the below Add button to complete the process and add the entire Windows host configuration.

15. After your monitored windows machine has been added return to Configuration -> Hosts and the windows Host should now be present in this window as illustrated below screenshot.

That’s all! Just assure that your windows host Status is set to Enabled and wait a few minutes in order for the Zabbix server to contact the windows agent side and process the received remote data.

As an example, to get a graphical inside of the CPU load on the monitored Windows machine go to Zabbix web console Monitoring tab -> Graphs, select the windows machine host name and CPU load Graph and all the collected data so far should be presented into a nice graphical chart.