Advanced topics
Click on the “MAPS” link to set up a network map. A map will help you quickly identify any problems
with your monitored machines.
Click on the “GRAPHS” link to set up a graph. A graph provides quick historical statistics on one or more monitored statistics.
Finally, do not forget to set up IT Services to get high level view of servers and applications.
Once you have an initial configuration created, run zabbix_server on the server machine:
shell> /opt/zabbix/bin/zabbix_server
and run zabbix_agentd on all monitored machines
shell> /opt/zabbix/bin/zabbix_agentd
You should not run zabbix_agentd if you have chosen to use zabbix_agent!
Graphs
User-defined graphs allow the creation of complex graphs. These graphs can be easily accessed
via the menu item “Graphs”.
Media
Media is a delivery channel for ZABBIX alerts. None, one or more media types can be assigned to user.
- EMAIL
Email notification
- SCRIPT
Custom script. ZABBIX passes three command line parameters to the script: Recipient, Subject and Message.
Actions
Action may be defined for the following events:
1. Trigger changes status from FALSE to TRUE
2. Trigger changes status from TRUE to FALSE
Note:Status change FALSE->UNKNOWN->TRUE is treated as FALSE->TRUE, and TRUE->UNKNOWN->FALSE as TRUE->FALSE.
Each action has a scope and severity.
| Scope | Severity | Description |
|---|
| This trigger | - (ignored) | Action is performed for this trigger only |
|---|
| All triggers of this host | X | Global action. Action performed for all triggers of all hosts
related to this trigger if trigger severity is equal or more than severity of this action. |
|---|
| All triggers | X | Global action. Action performed for all triggers if trigger severity is
equal or more than severity of this action. |
|---|
Triggers
Trigger is defined as a logical expression. See section 14.3 [LINK] for details about syntax of trigger expressions.
Expression is recalculated every time ZABBIX server receives new value, if this value is part of this
expression. The expression may have the following values:
| Value | Description |
|---|
| TRUE | If trigger is in TRUE state, something wrong is happened. |
|---|
| FALSE | This is normal state of trigger. |
|---|
| UNKNOWN | In this case, ZABBIX cannot evaluate expression. This may happen because of several reasons:
- server is unreachable
- trigger expression cannot be evaluated
|
|---|
Screens
ZABBIX screens allow grouping of various information for quick access and display on
one screen. Easy-to-use screen builder makes creation of the screens easy and intuitive.
The following elements can be used for screen building:
- simple graphs
- user-defined graphs
- maps
Number of elements in each screen is unlimited.
IT Services
IT Services are intended for those who want to get a high-level (business) view of
monitored infrastructure. In many cases, we are not interested in low-level details, like lack of
disk space, high processor load, etc. What we are interested is availability of service provided by
our IT department. We can also be interested in identifying weak places of IT infrastructure,
SLA of various IT services, structure of existing IT infrastructure, and many other information of higher level.
ZABBIX IT Services provides answers to all mentioned questions.
IT Services is hierarchy representation of monitored data.
A very simple IT Service structure may look like:
IT Service
|
|-Workstations
| |
| |-Workstation1
| |
| |-Workstation2
|
|-Servers
Each node of the structure has attribute status. The status is calculated and propagated to upper
levels according to selected algorithm. Triggers create lowest level of the IT Services.
[To be finished...]
User permissions
All ZABBIX users access the ZABBIX application through the Web-based front end. Each ZABBIX user is
assigned a unique user identity and a password. All user passwords are encrypted and stored on the
ZABBIX database. Users can not use their user id and password to log directly into the UNIX server
unless they have also been set up accordingly to UNIX. Communication between the Web Server
and the user’s browser can be protected using SSL.
Access permissions on screen within the menu may be set for each user. By default, no permissions are
granted on a screen when user is registered to the ZABBIX.
Note that the user is automatically disconnected after 30 minutes of inactivity.
[To be finished...]
Development Environment
Debian 3.0, RedHat 8.0 and SuSe 8.2 Linux (all on Intel hardware) are used as primary development platform for ZABBIX.
Two servers are used for test purposes:
- Debain Linux 2.1, Intel PII/350Mhz, 192MB, IDE
- SuSe 8.1, Intel P4/1.6Mhz, 512MB, IDE
If you have difficulties choosing between Linux and other OS, go for Debian
(http://www.debian.org),
RedHat (http://www.redhat.com) or SuSe (http://www.suse.com)
- you will get better support.
ZABBIX 1.0beta4 was developed and tested on FreeBSD 4.4. Thus, FreeBSD (http://www.freebsd.org) is also safe choice.
[Add information about versions of test HP-UX, AIX, Solaris boxes]
Platform specific notes
ZABBIX operates on all supported UNIX platforms. However use of some platforms introduces issues that need
to be considered.
- FreeBSD
Default FreeBSD settings (at least, FreeBSD 4.4) cannot handle the amount of TCP connections ZABBIX is able
to generate. To solve this issue, define NoTimeWait parameter in zabbix_server.conf.
This will greatly decrease number of sockets in TIME_WAIT state. As an alternative solution,
kernel parameters can be tuned using sysctl mechanism.
| 
Extending ZABBIX