Automate Your Zabbix Reporting with Scheduled Reports: A Step-by-Step Guide

Hey everyone, Dimitri Bellini here from Quadrata, your go-to channel for open source and IT insights! It’s fantastic to have you back with me. If you’re enjoying the content and haven’t subscribed yet, now’s a great time to hit that button and help me bring you even more valuable videos. 😉

Today, we’re diving deep into a Zabbix feature that’s been around for a while but is now truly shining – Scheduled Reports. Recently, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about this from clients, and it made me realize it’s time to shed light on this often-overlooked functionality. So, let’s talk about automating those PDF reports from your Zabbix dashboards.

Why Scheduled Reports? The Power of Automated Insights

Scheduled reports might not be brand new to Zabbix (they’ve been around since version 5.2!), but honestly, I wasn’t completely sold on them until recently. In older versions, they felt a bit… incomplete. But with Zabbix 7 and especially 7.2, things have changed dramatically. Now, in my opinion, scheduled reports are becoming a genuinely useful tool.

What are we talking about exactly? Essentially, scheduled reports are a way to automatically generate PDFs of your Zabbix dashboards and have them emailed to stakeholders – think bosses, team leads, or anyone who needs a regular overview without logging into Zabbix directly. We all know that stakeholder, right? The one who wants to see a “green is good” PDF report every Monday morning (or Friday afternoon!). While dashboards are great for real-time monitoring, scheduled reports offer that convenient, digestible summary for those who need a quick status update.

Sure, everyone *could* log into Zabbix and check the dashboards themselves. But let’s be real, sometimes pushing the information directly to them in a clean, professional PDF format is just more efficient and impactful. And that’s where Zabbix Scheduled Reports come in!

Key Features of Zabbix Scheduled Reports

Let’s break down the main advantages of using scheduled reports in Zabbix:

• • Automation: Define parameters to automatically send specific dashboards on a schedule (daily, weekly, monthly) to designated users.

• • Customization: Leverage your existing Zabbix dashboards. The reports are generated directly from the dashboards you design with widgets.

• • PDF Format: Reports are generated in PDF, the universally readable and versatile format.

• • Access Control: Control who can create and manage scheduled reports using user roles and permissions within Zabbix (Admin and Super Admin roles with specific flags).

For more detailed information, I highly recommend checking out the official Zabbix documentation and the Zabbix blog post about scheduled reports. I’ll include links in the description below for your convenience!

Setting Up Zabbix Scheduled Reports: A Step-by-Step Guide

Ready to get started? Here’s how to set up scheduled reports in Zabbix. Keep in mind, this guide is based on a simplified installation for demonstration purposes. For production environments, always refer to the official Zabbix documentation for best practices and advanced configurations.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure you have the following:

• • A running Zabbix server (version 7.0 or higher recommended, 7.2+ for the best experience).

• • Configured dashboards in Zabbix that you want to use for reports.

• • Email media type configured in Zabbix for sending reports.

Installation of Zabbix Web Service and Google Chrome

The magic behind Zabbix scheduled reports relies on a separate component: Zabbix Web Service. This service handles the PDF generation and needs to be installed separately. It also uses Google Chrome (or Chromium) in headless mode to take screenshots of your dashboards and convert them to PDF.

Here’s how to install them on a Red Hat-based system (like Rocky Linux) using YUM/DNF:

1. 1. Install Zabbix Web Service:

      sudo yum install zabbix-web-service

      Make sure you have the official Zabbix repository configured.

1. 1. Install Google Chrome Stable:

      sudo yum install google-chrome-stable

      This will install Google Chrome and its dependencies. Be aware that Chrome can pull in quite a few dependencies, which is why installing the web service on a separate, smaller machine can be a good idea for cleaner Zabbix server environments.

Configuring Zabbix Server

Next, we need to configure the Zabbix server to enable scheduled reports and point it to the web service.

1. 1. Edit the Zabbix Server Configuration File:

      sudo vi /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf

1. 1. Modify the following parameters:
      • • StartReportWriters=1 (Change from 0 to 1 or more, depending on your reporting needs. Start with 1 for testing.)
      • • WebServiceURL="http://localhost:10053/report" (Adjust the IP address and port if your web service is running on a different machine or port. 10053 is the default port for Zabbix Web Service).

1. 1. Restart Zabbix Server:

      sudo systemctl restart zabbix-server

1. 1. Start Zabbix Web Service:

      sudo systemctl start zabbix-web-service

1. 1. Enable Zabbix Web Service to start on boot:

      sudo systemctl enable zabbix-web-service

Configuring Zabbix Frontend

One last crucial configuration step in the Zabbix web interface!

1. 1. Navigate to Administration -> General -> GUI.

1. 1. Modify “Frontend URL”: Set this to the full URL of your Zabbix frontend (e.g., http://your_zabbix_server_ip/zabbix). This is essential for Chrome to access the dashboards correctly for PDF generation.

1. 1. Click “Update”.

Creating a Scheduled Report

Now for the fun part – creating your first scheduled report!

1. 1. Go to Reports -> Scheduled reports.

1. 1. Click “Create scheduled report”.

1. 1. Configure the report:
      • • Name: Give your report a descriptive name (e.g., “Weekly Server Health Report”).
      • • Dashboard: Select the dashboard you want to use for the report.
      • • Period: Choose the time period for the report data (e.g., “Previous week”).
      • • Schedule: Define the frequency (daily, weekly, monthly), time, and start/end dates for report generation.
      • • Recipients: Add users or user groups who should receive the report via email. Make sure they have email media configured!
      • • Generated report by: Choose if the report should be generated based on the permissions of the “Current user” (the admin creating the report) or the “Recipient” of the report.
      • • Message: Customize the email message that accompanies the report (you can use Zabbix macros here).

1. 1. Click “Add”.

Testing and Troubleshooting

To test your setup, you can use the “Test” button next to your newly created scheduled report. If you encounter issues, double-check:

• • Email media configuration for recipients.

• • Zabbix Web Service and Google Chrome installation.

• • Zabbix server and web service configuration files.

• • Frontend URL setting.

• • Permissions: In the video, I encountered a permission issue related to the /var/lib/zabbix directory. You might need to create this directory and ensure the Zabbix user has write permissions if you face similar errors. sudo mkdir /var/lib/zabbix && sudo chown zabbix:zabbix /var/lib/zabbix

Why Zabbix 7.x Makes a Difference

I really started to appreciate scheduled reports with Zabbix 7.0 and 7.2. Why? Because these versions brought significant improvements:

• • Multi-page Reports: Finally, reports can span multiple pages, making them much more comprehensive.

• • Enhanced Dashboard Widgets: Zabbix 7.x introduced richer widgets like Top Hosts, Top Items, Pie charts, and Donut charts. These make dashboards (and therefore reports) far more visually appealing and informative.

• • Custom Widgets: With the ability to create custom widgets, you can tailor your dashboards and reports to very specific needs.

These enhancements make scheduled reports in Zabbix 7.x and above a truly valuable tool for delivering insightful and professional monitoring summaries.

Conclusion

Zabbix Scheduled Reports are a fantastic way to automate the delivery of key monitoring insights to stakeholders. While they’ve been around for a while, the improvements in Zabbix 7.x have made them significantly more powerful and user-friendly. Give them a try, experiment with your dashboards, and start delivering automated, professional PDF reports today!

I hope you found this guide helpful! If you did, please give this post a thumbs up (or share!) and let me know in the comments if you have any questions or experiences with Zabbix Scheduled Reports. Don’t forget to subscribe to Quadrata for more open source and IT tips and tricks.

And if you’re in the Zabbix community, be sure to join the ZabbixItalia Telegram channel – a great place to connect with other Zabbix users and get your questions answered. A big thank you for watching, and I’ll see you in the next video!

Bye from Dimitri!

P.S. Keep exploring Zabbix – there’s always something new and cool to discover!

Keywords: Zabbix, Scheduled Reports, PDF Reports, Automation, Dashboards, Monitoring, IT Reporting, Zabbix Web Service, Google Chrome, Tutorial, Guide, Dimitri Bellini, Quadrata, Zabbix 7.2, Zabbix 7.0, Open Source, IT Infrastructure, System Monitoring