Cannot start docker container of zabbix-server: cannot use database "zabbix": its "users" table is empty (is this the Zabbix proxy database?)

Question

I'm developing a docker cluster of Zabbix server (a container based in mysql with the database, and zabbix-server and zabbix-front containers).

The running line to mysql server is:

docker run --name zabbix-db --network zabbixnet -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD="password" -e MYSQL_USER="zabbix" -e MYSQL_PASSWORD="zabbix" -e MYSQL_DATABASE="zabbix" -d mysql

And the lines to zabbix containers are:

docker run --name zabbix-server --network zabbixnet -e DB_SERVER_HOST="zabbix-db" -e MYSQL_USER="zabbix" -e MYSQL_PASSWORD="zabbix" -d zabbix/zabbix-server-mysql

docker run --name zabbix-front --network zabbixnet --link zabbix-server -p80:8080 -e DB_SERVER_HOST="zabbix-db" -e MYSQL_USER="zabbix" -e MYSQL_PASSWORD="zabbix" -e PHP_TZ="Europe/Madrid" -d zabbix/zabbix-web-apache-mysql

When I start the zabbix-server container, the log is:

** Preparing Zabbix server
** Using MYSQL_USER variable from ENV
** Using MYSQL_PASSWORD variable from ENV
********************
* DB_SERVER_HOST: zabbix-db
* DB_SERVER_PORT: 3306
* DB_SERVER_DBNAME: zabbix
********************
** Database 'zabbix' already exists. Please be careful with database COLLATE!
** Creating 'zabbix' schema in MySQL
** Preparing Zabbix server configuration file
** Updating '/etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf' parameter "ListenIP": ''...removed
** Updating '/etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf' parameter "ListenPort": ''...removed
** Updating '/etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf' parameter "ListenBacklog": ''...removed
** Updating '/etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf' parameter "SourceIP": ''...removed
** Updating '/etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf' parameter "LogType": 'console'...updated
** Updating '/etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf' parameter "LogFile": ''...removed
** Updating '/etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf' parameter "LogFileSize": ''...removed

[...]
** Updating '/etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf' parameter "ProxyDataFrequency": ''...removed
** Updating '/etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf' parameter "SSLCertLocation": '/var/lib/zabbix/ssl/certs/'...updated
** Updating '/etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf' parameter "SSLKeyLocation": '/var/lib/zabbix/ssl/keys/'...updated
** Updating '/etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf' parameter "SSLCALocation": '/var/lib/zabbix/ssl/ssl_ca/'...updated
** Updating '/etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf' parameter "LoadModulePath": '/var/lib/zabbix/modules/'...updated

** Updating '/etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf' parameter "HANodeName": ''...removed
** Updating '/etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf' parameter "NodeAddress": ''...removed
** Updating '/etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf' parameter "User": 'zabbix'...updated
Starting Zabbix Server. Zabbix 6.2.2 (revision 3545586).
Press Ctrl+C to exit.

     7:20220913:082616.221 Starting Zabbix Server. Zabbix 6.2.2 (revision 3545586).
     7:20220913:082616.221 ****** Enabled features ******
     7:20220913:082616.221 SNMP monitoring:           YES
     7:20220913:082616.221 IPMI monitoring:           YES
     7:20220913:082616.221 Web monitoring:            YES
     7:20220913:082616.221 VMware monitoring:         YES
     7:20220913:082616.221 SMTP authentication:       YES
     7:20220913:082616.221 ODBC:                      YES
     7:20220913:082616.221 SSH support:               YES
     7:20220913:082616.221 IPv6 support:              YES
     7:20220913:082616.221 TLS support:               YES
     7:20220913:082616.221 ******************************
     7:20220913:082616.221 using configuration file: /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf
     7:20220913:082616.223 cannot use database "zabbix": its "users" table is empty (is this the Zabbix proxy database?)

Effectively, the table is empty:

mysql> select * from users;
Empty set (0.00 sec)

Am I doing something wrong? Am I missing any important steps? Isn't zabbix-server -as seen in the log- supposed to create the entire database schema?

Iron Bishop · Answer

This is a working code i use during tests: the only difference is the collation/set, and using the mariadb image instead of mysql. I also use a docker volume for the mysql data.

docker run --name zabbix-db -t \
    -p 3306:3306 \
    -e MYSQL_DATABASE="zabbix" \
    -e MYSQL_USER="zabbix" \
    -e MYSQL_PASSWORD="zabbix_pwd" \
    -e MYSQL_ROOT_HOST="%" \
    -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD="root_pwd" \
    --network=zabbixnet \
    -v mysql-data22:/var/lib/mysql \
    --restart unless-stopped \
    --cap-add=sys_nice \
    -d mariadb \
    --character-set-server=utf8 \
    --collation-server=utf8_bin \
    --default-authentication-plugin=mysql_native_password \
    --disable-log-bin

Cannot start docker container of zabbix-server: cannot use database "zabbix": its "users" table is empty (is this the Zabbix proxy database?)

1 Answers