The Enterprise-class Monitoring Solution for Everyone

20 April 2012

Zabbix SIA is proud to announce the availability of Zabbix 2.0.0rc3 (Third Release Candidate of 2.0.0).

Zabbix is an enterprise-class open source distributed monitoring solution. Zabbix is released under the GPL, thus it is free of charge for both commercial and non-commercial use. A complete text of the license is available at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.txt.

This document contains the release notes for Zabbix 2.0.0rc3. Download it from http://www.zabbix.com/download.php.

This release introduces major features along with numerous improvements and bug fixes. Please give it a try in non-production environment and report any issues to our bug tracking system at https://support.zabbix.com

This release is not for production use. It is a Release Candidate!

It is feature complete release but the default set of templates is not complete. More templates will be available in stable Zabbix 2.0.0.

The following sections describe the release in details and provide late-breaking or other information that supplements its main documentation. A brief overview of new functionality is available in Zabbix Wiki.

New SNMP trap monitoring provides high performance way of collecting traps, pre-processors such as SNMPTT could be used as well.

Maps and map elements could be optionally configured to automaticall select icons depending on element type (for example: host, network device, switch, etc).

Added new option in map configuration which enables macros expanding.

Host profiles were renamed to a more standard "host inventory".

Trigger related data is cached to reduce number of database requests, it improves overall performance of Zabbix Server.

Existing default templates were improved to take advantage of low level discovery, also added new templates.

Information about hardware and software details can be automatically retrieved by Zabbix Agent and extended using user-defined parameters.

Added discovery based on HTTPS and Telnet checks, discovery configuration form is redesigned.

WEB scenarios could be monitored by remote proxies. It allows monitoring of WEB applications from various geographical locations.

In addition to standart host name, visible host name can be set to be displayed everywhere in the front-end. Additional macros for visible host name are also introduced.

Remote commands (Agent, IPMI and SSH based) can be configured in a more flexible yet easier way.

Zabbix JMX monitoring allows native secure remote monitoring of Java applications and popular middlewares such as JBoss, WebSphere and WebLogic.

Boolean data type can be used for monitoring of two state metrics and JMX counters having boolean type.

New set of map icons is available for creation of great looking maps.

Added support for {IPADDRESS}, {HOST.DNS} and {HOST.CONN} macros in trigger names. Macros {ITEM.ID} and {TRIGGER.EXPRESSION} can be used for notifications.

Normal and extended host profiles merged. Macros for referencing all profile fields introduced.

Multiple network interfaces can be assigned to a single host, therefore one host may have several IP addresses with different checks for each IP.

Zabbix interface translations are handled by GNU gettext module.

Added support of monitoring auto-registered hosts with passive checks. It is very handy for monitoring of Cloud-like environments.

Unknown triggers and events will no longer be displayed in Zabbix WEB interface, a special flag will be shown if Zabbix is not confident about status of triggers or events.

Zabbix is able to discover your file systems, network interfaces and SNMP interfaces automatically with no manual work. One template can be used for hosts having different devices. Lost resources could be automatically deleted based on configurable retention period.

Processing of escalations has been improved to work more efficiantly.

Graph legend can be optionally disabled.

Templates may contain screens for easy maintenance and quick access to a set of performance graphs. The screens are available via host popup available when clicking on a host.

There are significant improvements in the database schema for better consistency and security of configuration and historical data.

Zabbix supports nanosecond resolution for historical data. If you are migrating from 1.8.x the option will be off by default. It is on for fresh setups.

A map element may have multiple links (URLs) to external resources.

User scripts can be used to execute any command on a monitored host using Zabbix or IPMI agents.

Standard trigger severities can be customized to have a different names and colors for displaying in Zabbix front-end.

The login screen was re-designed to have a better look.

The new forms has much better look and usability.

Label formats can be individually configured for different types of map elements on map level.

Zabbix front-end will save grid-options for each map. Map import/export is extended to support new grid-related attributes.

Zabbix will automatically fill in DNS names of newly discovered and auto-registered devices.

Events visible in Zabbix front-end can be exported to a CSV file with a mouse click.

SQLite3 can be used on Zabbix Server side and works also with Zabbix front-end. Might be useful for embedded environments and low profile hardware.

Two new options (ALL, ANY) can be used to control filtering on API level.

All host group elements can be displayed in a map area.

Media types can be optionally disabled.

The item is now supported for various platforms including BSD.

The processing was improved so that proxies will report to the server about not supported items.

Dependency from template to host is supported.

• [ZBXNEXT-973] redesign of existing templates
• [ZBX-4869] added support for nested screens import
• [ZBXNEXT-1161] implemented the service API
• [ZBXNEXT-1126] redesign Script execution
• [ZBXNEXT-584] added support of multiple server in active check mode; thanks to Takanori Suzuki
• [ZBX-3721] design improvements
• [ZBXNEXT-908] redesign Configuration->Host->Graphs
• [ZBX-4738] improved the host interface select in the item mass update form
• [ZBX-4635] added support for optional first parameter to vfs.dev.* on Solaris
• [ZBXNEXT-1153] added support for nested templates in import
• [ZBX-1357] updated Czech, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Turkish translations; thanks to Zabbix translators
• [ZBX-4890] fixed creating hosts by administrators
• [ZBXNEXT-1161] fixed multiple IT service validation issues
• [ZBX-4793] fixed processing of quoted strings in dynamic SNMP indexes
• [ZBX-4709] fixed processing of quoted strings in SNMP items
• [ZBX-4882] fixed processing of quoted strings in SNMP lld rules
• [ZBX-3219] added newlines to script execution error messages
• [ZBX-4348] fixed graph values not displayed for regular user
• [ZBX-4698] fixed selected host group forgotten if "remember selected" is disabled
• [ZBX-4871] fixed templates listed when adding log items in history
• [ZBX-4862] fixed Error when trying to remove additional templates in the host mass update form
• [ZBX-3929] removed deprecated Switch module from gen_schema.pl and get_data.pl scripts
• [ZBX-4738] fixed several checkboxes state not being saved after an unsuccessful item mass update
• [ZBX-4865] fixed error bar in case of error with words longer than screen
• [ZBX-4840] improved slow SQL queries in processing of {ITEM.VALUE} and {ITEM.LOG.*} macros
• [ZBX-4572] fixed incorrect value input in GUI configuration form raising critical error
• [ZBX-4841] fixed inability to select other but the first of the discovery checks for a discovery rule in popup.php
• [ZBX-4110] renamed 'Password' to 'Key passphrase' in action form
• [ZBX-4686] fixed the "Change" link not being accessible for graph type screen items in embedded screens
• [ZBX-4836] fixed undefined variables in actionconf.php when trying to add maintenance status; fixed some random ordering for conditions
• [ZBX-4829] fixed incorrect redirect in 'insert trigger' popup in trigger expression builder
• [ZBX-4784] fixed inherited triggers being updated on any host update
• [ZBX-4824] fixed memory leak while switching item to not supported status
• [ZBX-4830] fixed error when trying to create item without host
• [ZBX-4676] fixed link to triggers from dashboard 'system status' widget not reseting host filter
• [ZBX-4568] fixed new host groups not populated with selected group when 'remember selected' is disabled in GUI settings
• [ZBX-4583] fixed possible processing of null as object in CUIwidget
• [ZBX-4740] fixed host filter when switching to 'configuration of items' from another host configuration page
• [ZBX-4195] fixed memory leak while processing unsupported performance counters by Windows agent
• [ZBX-4780] removed vfs.fs.discovery returned value limit when processed by proxy
• [ZBX-4802] improved memory de-allocation code clarity
• [ZBX-4739] fixed mass update failing with many items selected
• [ZBX-4821] fixed flexible interval update using item mass update form
• [ZBX-4806] fixed "New flexible interval" not shown in item form
• [ZBX-4790] fixed *ERROR*s in trigger expressions in items.php; fixed undefined variables when filtering without host
• [ZBX-3725] added check for xml file size exceeds upload_max_filesize php setting
• [ZBX-3991] forbid passive proxy interfaces with ip 0.0.0.0
• [ZBX-3152] fixed messages are shown even if all severities are unchecked
• [ZBXNEXT-397] removed records from "ids" table to prevent SQL errors while adding a new item
• [ZBX-4811] added 'filter' and 'lifetime' fields to discovery rules export
• [ZBX-4801] fixed processing of proc.num[] and proc.mem[] checks with name of processes more than 15 characters
• [ZBX-4792] fixed missing field "Allowed hosts" when item type Zabbix trapper
• [ZBX-4038] fixed warnings for incorrect input values
• [ZBX-4781] fixed error message when copying items to multiple hosts

See Zabbix Manual for full details.

Recompile Zabbix binaries and update front-end PHP files. Execute a database patch if migrating from Zabbix 1.8.x. See Zabbix Manual for a detailed upgrade procedure.

Zabbix Server has been tested on the following platforms:

• Ubuntu Linux, AMD64, kernel 2.6.11, MySQL 5.x
• Ubuntu Linux, Intel, kernel 2.6.15, MySQL 5.0.22, PostgreSQL 8.3
• RedHat EL 5.3, Intel, kernel 2.6.18, Oracle 11gR2
• Slackware Linux, x86, kernel 2.6.29.6, MySQL 5.1.x

Zabbix Agents have been compiled and tested on the following platforms:

• AIX 5.2
• FreeBSD 4.x, 5.x, 6.x
• HP-UX 10.x, 11.x
• Linux 2.4.x, 2.6.x
• Linux CentOS
• NetBSD 2.0
• OS/X 10.2
• Solaris 8, 9, 10
• Tru64 5.1B
• Windows XP, 2000, 2003, 2008, Vista

Note that agents are available pre-compiled from http://www.zabbix.com/download.php for a limited number of versions and platforms.

Zabbix Company provides a full range of professional services. We also provide trouble-free upgrade service for easy migration from earlier versions to Zabbix 1.8.x. Please contact Sales for pricing and more details.

• Zabbix 1.8 Manual
• Zabbix Forums (http://www.zabbix.com/forum)
• Zabbix Support (http://www.zabbix.com/support.php)