ZABBIX 1.5.3 (beta) released
ZABBIX SIA is proud to announce the availability of ZABBIX
1.5.3, fourth release in a series of pre-1.6 betas.
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 release notes for ZABBIX 1.5.3.
Do not use this release in production! It is for early beta
testing only.
The following sections describe the release in detail and
provide late-breaking or other information that supplements
its main documentation.
What's New in 1.5.3 (beta)
The following functionality is introduced in this release
and will be available in stable ZABBIX 1.6.
:: New functionality and improvements
* added support of directories for Include in configuration file
* added support of escalations
* added support of macros {EVENT.DATE},{EVENT.TIME},{EVENT.AGE} and {ESC.HISTORY}
* added support of Apache authentication
* improved charts period & start time selection
* added support of perf_counter[path<,period>]
* improved msg functionality in GUI
* added hosts mass update functionality
* added support of Host Template=<template> in actions
* added more supported items in FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
* changed greeting message
* added fullscreen icon to monitoring screens
* other bug fixes and minor improvements
What's New in 1.5.x (beta)
The following functionality is introduced in 1.5.x releases
and will be available in stable ZABBIX 1.6.
:: Support of IPv6
All ZABBIX modules support IPv6.
:: Better Distributed Monitoring
ZABBIX distributed monitoring has been improved for a more
efficient Node synchronisation protocol. See also details on
ZABBIX Proxy.
:: ZABBIX Proxy process
ZABBIX proxy is a lightweight process, which performs data
collection on behalf of ZABBIX Server. The proxies can be
used to create distributed centralised monitoring of remote
locations all reporting to a central server or one of ZABBIX
nodes.
ZABBIX Proxy significantly simplifies deployment and
maintenances of large ZABBIX setups in a distributed
environment.
:: Dashboard
The Dashboard provides high level personalized details about
monitored environment. Now this is a central part of ZABBIX
front-end.
:: Dynamic screens
A screen element can be made dynamic. In this case,
information displayed in the element will depend on a host
selected by user.
:: Nice zoom for graphs
Zoom period can be selected by mouse for drill-down
analysis.
:: Database cache module
Database cache module can be enabled to improve performance
of busy ZABBIX servers.
:: Pie charts
Pie charts (both 2D and 3D) are supported.
:: Basic management functions
Traceroute and Ping can be executed from the Status of
Triggers screen. More scripts can be added and configured.
The scripts are executed on a local ZABBIX server or one of
ZABBIX nodes.
:: More efficient communication with agents
ZABBIX Agent supports data buffering, which can be tuned by
new configuration parameters, BufferSize and BufferSend.
Communication protocol has been improved to support sending
of multiple values by one TCP connection.
:: More efficient ZABBIX sender
ZABBIX Sender has been improved to support sending of
multiple values by one TCP connection.
:: Improved view of trigger statuses
The screen will display information about triggers and
associated events.
:: Support of SNMP data having dynamic index
A new syntax can be used to monitor SNMP data with a dynamic
index. See SNMP section for more details.
:: Special processing of well known SNMP OIDs
Simple SNMP OIDs, like ifDescr, ifInOctets, ifInOctets, and
other can be used in ZABBIX and will be translated
automatically into correct numeric representation by ZABBIX
itself.
:: Added printable view for all screens
Any screen can be printed in a nice way by pressing the
Print link.
:: Disabling of login rights for a group of users
Whole user group can be configured not to have access to
ZABBIX front-end.
:: Added support of UTF-8
ZABBIX front-end is UTF-8 ready. Note that ZABBIX database
and ZABBIX server and agent processes are still not ready
for correct processing of UTF-8 data.
:: Added screen for better management of translations
The screen can be used to add new translations of ZABBIX
front-end.
:: Added maintenance mode
ZABBIX Maintenance mode can be activated to disable ZABBIX
front-end.
:: Unlimited number of map link styles
Any number of triggers can be linked to map link. The
triggers will define how the link is displayed.
:: Database monitoring
ZABBIX could retrieve data directly from an external
database by executing a SQL request.
:: Other improvements
* Queue moved into Administration
* Link to Maps, Screens and Graphs moved to the Dashboard
* Option to remember user authorisation
* More efficient communication protocol
* Support of themes for ZABBIX front-end
* User 'guest' can be disabled
* Disabling group of users
* Database down screen
* Duplicated Login removed
* Added sorting for all screens
* Added support of zabbix[proxy,<proxyname>,lastaccess]
* Screen actions moved to Audit, added filter for Audit
* Added autodiscovery by ICMP pings
* Improved icmpping* processing. added "-c3" to fping
* Improved "Events" screen, added "Event Details" screen
* Added transaction functionality to frontend
* Added support of update interval in icmpping* simpe checks
* Increased default max number of log file lines sent per second to 100
* Added protection against brute force login attack
* Added standart sorting to screens
* Added more flexibility to scripts
* Fixed problem with node syncing
* Added Ldap authentication
* Added support network and disk stats under OpenBSD
* Added required server performance info to Status of ZABBIX
* Added time filter in "Availability report"
* Added automatic selection first group and host in WEB monitoring
* Added support of DisablePassive parameter for agent
* Improved support of numeric performance counters for Windows agents
* Numerous bug fixes and minor improvements
* other improvements
What's not ready yet but expected in 1.5
* Encryption
* Backup/restore of configuration data
Installation and Upgrade Notes
Installation
See ZABBIX Manual for full details.
Upgrade
See ZABBIX Manual for a detailed upgrade procedure.
Pre-release testing
ZABBIX Server
ZABBIX Server has been tested on the following platforms:
* Ubuntu Linux, AMD64, kernel 2.6.11, MySQL 4.x
* Ubuntu Linux, Intel, kernel 2.6.15, MySQL 5.0.22
ZABBIX Agents
ZABBIX Agents have been compiled and tested on the following
platforms:
* AIX 5.2
* FreeBSD 4.11, 5.4
* HP-UX 11.00
* Linux 2.6.11 (Ubuntu)
* Linux 2.6.15 (Ubuntu)
* Linux CentOS
* NetBSD 2.0
* OS/X 10.2
* Solaris 10
* Tru64 5.1B
* Windows XP
Commercial support
ZABBIX Company provides a full range of professional
services. Please contact our sales department for pricing
and more details.
References
* ZABBIX 1.6 Manual
* ZABBIX Forums (http://www.zabbix.com/forum)
* ZABBIX Support (http://www.zabbix.com/support.php)
1.5.3, fourth release in a series of pre-1.6 betas.
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 release notes for ZABBIX 1.5.3.
Do not use this release in production! It is for early beta
testing only.
The following sections describe the release in detail and
provide late-breaking or other information that supplements
its main documentation.
What's New in 1.5.3 (beta)
The following functionality is introduced in this release
and will be available in stable ZABBIX 1.6.
:: New functionality and improvements
* added support of directories for Include in configuration file
* added support of escalations
* added support of macros {EVENT.DATE},{EVENT.TIME},{EVENT.AGE} and {ESC.HISTORY}
* added support of Apache authentication
* improved charts period & start time selection
* added support of perf_counter[path<,period>]
* improved msg functionality in GUI
* added hosts mass update functionality
* added support of Host Template=<template> in actions
* added more supported items in FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
* changed greeting message
* added fullscreen icon to monitoring screens
* other bug fixes and minor improvements
What's New in 1.5.x (beta)
The following functionality is introduced in 1.5.x releases
and will be available in stable ZABBIX 1.6.
:: Support of IPv6
All ZABBIX modules support IPv6.
:: Better Distributed Monitoring
ZABBIX distributed monitoring has been improved for a more
efficient Node synchronisation protocol. See also details on
ZABBIX Proxy.
:: ZABBIX Proxy process
ZABBIX proxy is a lightweight process, which performs data
collection on behalf of ZABBIX Server. The proxies can be
used to create distributed centralised monitoring of remote
locations all reporting to a central server or one of ZABBIX
nodes.
ZABBIX Proxy significantly simplifies deployment and
maintenances of large ZABBIX setups in a distributed
environment.
:: Dashboard
The Dashboard provides high level personalized details about
monitored environment. Now this is a central part of ZABBIX
front-end.
:: Dynamic screens
A screen element can be made dynamic. In this case,
information displayed in the element will depend on a host
selected by user.
:: Nice zoom for graphs
Zoom period can be selected by mouse for drill-down
analysis.
:: Database cache module
Database cache module can be enabled to improve performance
of busy ZABBIX servers.
:: Pie charts
Pie charts (both 2D and 3D) are supported.
:: Basic management functions
Traceroute and Ping can be executed from the Status of
Triggers screen. More scripts can be added and configured.
The scripts are executed on a local ZABBIX server or one of
ZABBIX nodes.
:: More efficient communication with agents
ZABBIX Agent supports data buffering, which can be tuned by
new configuration parameters, BufferSize and BufferSend.
Communication protocol has been improved to support sending
of multiple values by one TCP connection.
:: More efficient ZABBIX sender
ZABBIX Sender has been improved to support sending of
multiple values by one TCP connection.
:: Improved view of trigger statuses
The screen will display information about triggers and
associated events.
:: Support of SNMP data having dynamic index
A new syntax can be used to monitor SNMP data with a dynamic
index. See SNMP section for more details.
:: Special processing of well known SNMP OIDs
Simple SNMP OIDs, like ifDescr, ifInOctets, ifInOctets, and
other can be used in ZABBIX and will be translated
automatically into correct numeric representation by ZABBIX
itself.
:: Added printable view for all screens
Any screen can be printed in a nice way by pressing the
Print link.
:: Disabling of login rights for a group of users
Whole user group can be configured not to have access to
ZABBIX front-end.
:: Added support of UTF-8
ZABBIX front-end is UTF-8 ready. Note that ZABBIX database
and ZABBIX server and agent processes are still not ready
for correct processing of UTF-8 data.
:: Added screen for better management of translations
The screen can be used to add new translations of ZABBIX
front-end.
:: Added maintenance mode
ZABBIX Maintenance mode can be activated to disable ZABBIX
front-end.
:: Unlimited number of map link styles
Any number of triggers can be linked to map link. The
triggers will define how the link is displayed.
:: Database monitoring
ZABBIX could retrieve data directly from an external
database by executing a SQL request.
:: Other improvements
* Queue moved into Administration
* Link to Maps, Screens and Graphs moved to the Dashboard
* Option to remember user authorisation
* More efficient communication protocol
* Support of themes for ZABBIX front-end
* User 'guest' can be disabled
* Disabling group of users
* Database down screen
* Duplicated Login removed
* Added sorting for all screens
* Added support of zabbix[proxy,<proxyname>,lastaccess]
* Screen actions moved to Audit, added filter for Audit
* Added autodiscovery by ICMP pings
* Improved icmpping* processing. added "-c3" to fping
* Improved "Events" screen, added "Event Details" screen
* Added transaction functionality to frontend
* Added support of update interval in icmpping* simpe checks
* Increased default max number of log file lines sent per second to 100
* Added protection against brute force login attack
* Added standart sorting to screens
* Added more flexibility to scripts
* Fixed problem with node syncing
* Added Ldap authentication
* Added support network and disk stats under OpenBSD
* Added required server performance info to Status of ZABBIX
* Added time filter in "Availability report"
* Added automatic selection first group and host in WEB monitoring
* Added support of DisablePassive parameter for agent
* Improved support of numeric performance counters for Windows agents
* Numerous bug fixes and minor improvements
* other improvements
What's not ready yet but expected in 1.5
* Encryption
* Backup/restore of configuration data
Installation and Upgrade Notes
Installation
See ZABBIX Manual for full details.
Upgrade
See ZABBIX Manual for a detailed upgrade procedure.
Pre-release testing
ZABBIX Server
ZABBIX Server has been tested on the following platforms:
* Ubuntu Linux, AMD64, kernel 2.6.11, MySQL 4.x
* Ubuntu Linux, Intel, kernel 2.6.15, MySQL 5.0.22
ZABBIX Agents
ZABBIX Agents have been compiled and tested on the following
platforms:
* AIX 5.2
* FreeBSD 4.11, 5.4
* HP-UX 11.00
* Linux 2.6.11 (Ubuntu)
* Linux 2.6.15 (Ubuntu)
* Linux CentOS
* NetBSD 2.0
* OS/X 10.2
* Solaris 10
* Tru64 5.1B
* Windows XP
Commercial support
ZABBIX Company provides a full range of professional
services. Please contact our sales department for pricing
and more details.
References
* ZABBIX 1.6 Manual
* ZABBIX Forums (http://www.zabbix.com/forum)
* ZABBIX Support (http://www.zabbix.com/support.php)