Installing the database ----------------------- The Zabbix server needs an SQL database to run. As you chose to install this zabbix-server-mysql package you apparently want to use a MySQL server as a storage backend. Set up a MySQL database server on any system - you are not forced to run it on the same computer as the Zabbix server: -> apt-get install mysql-server Create a new database (let's call it "zabbix"): -> mysql -p -e "create database zabbix character set utf8" Create a MySQL user that has access rights to the database (please use another password than 'SECRETPASSWORD'): -> mysql -p -e "grant all on zabbix.* to 'zabbix'@'localhost' identified by 'SECRETPASSWORD'" Create the database schema: -> zcat /usr/share/zabbix-server-mysql/{schema,images,data}.sql.gz \ | mysql -uzabbix -pSECRETPASSWORD zabbix Now enter the database access credentials into your /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf, enable the startup in the /etc/default/zabbix-server-mysql file and start the Zabbix server. See also: http://www.zabbix.com/documentation/2.0/manual/appendix/install/db_scripts