Integrate with Phidgets

[topkoa]

Hi everyone,

I hope I am posting this thread in the correct place- anyhow...

I am a new user of Zabbix and have been slowly integrating it, however I wanted to extend Zabbix into the realm of physical monitoring.

So...

I found an interesting gadget called the Phidget Interface Kit (http://www.phidgets.com) where you can get USB devices that monitor anything from a simple analog switch to a temperature/magnetic/force/IR distance.. etc sensors. They have a C programming SDK so I went to work on integrating it with Zabbix.

I have completed the first release of a Linux daemon that polls the phidget interface kit and feeds the data to the Zabbix linux agent:

http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/ikd

If anyone is interested go have a look (I've released the daemon under the GPL).

So far its working great for me with the door to my server room... I am thinking of putting it to use at my home as a security system. (i.e. doors, windows, basement temperature alerts before pipes burst from freezing while I'm on vacation, etc...)

Cheers!
-topkoa

[welkin]

I've looked around a bit on the phidgets site and found very interesting things.
So i can go buy the 8/8/8 Card and e.g. 4 Temperature and 4 IR Sensors and have this Data drawn by an Agent into Zabbix? So how is your Daemon working together with Zabbix? Is there a client to the Daemon which can pull the Data from it, so Zabbix get it's Data via UserParameter (and any other Program could also get it's Data from this Client?)
If this works as expected this is really great.

mfg
welkin

[topkoa]

By way of explanation...

Hey there,

To essentially answer your question- yes.

The way my daemon works is as follows:

The daemon runs and listens to the phidget interface 8/8/8 controller- I use the C++ library they provide on their site to compile it on linux.

Get it here: (just use "make && make install", with sudo ofcourse)

http://www.phidgets.com/downloads.php?os_id=3&fw_id=3&fw_file_id=3

Since their library works on a "trigger" basis, all the daemon does is wait for a state change from the physical device and it simply writes a numerical value to the corresponding text file.. the format is [serial number of kit]_[input/sensor]_[index].txt (input is DIGITAL input, SENSOR is analog) analog would be your temperature sensor...

i.e.: /var/phidgets/1234_sensor_0.txt

so then, you put something like this into the UserParameter= on the zabbix_agentd.conf:

UserParameter=Phidget_Sensor_0,cat /var/phidgets/1234_sensor_0.txt

Then in the Zabbix server:

Make a new ITEM:

(Note: Options to change below: all others default)

Description: "Phidget Sensor 0"
Type: "ZABBIX agent"
Key: "Phidget_Sensor_0"
Type of information: "Numeric (integer 64bit)"
Update Interval: "..your preference.."

(and then clone for all the other interfaces...)

And then make triggers/graphs/actions/add to screens.. etc...

On a side note, if you want to monitor a door or window, you can use any magnetic sensor. I baught one of these for my test rig: (attached to a digital input)

http://www.homecontrols.com/cgi-bin/main/co_disp/displ/carfnbr/174/prrfnbr/2226/United-Security-Micro-Mini-Stick-On-Contact-3-5-Inch-Gap-NC-White

....

Let me know if you need any assistance setting it up.

Cheers

[welkin]

A great thing, thanks for the info. I will inform you up with my impressions , but i don't know if this setup is going to be used because i'm not the one who decides it
mfg
welkin

[topkoa]

to answer your second question

(and any other Program could also get it's Data from this Client?)

I just wanted to clarify, by way of answering your second question..

Absolutely- any program that can look at a text file and aggregate data can use this program.

So for instance, you could use cacti for example- or anything that uses rrdtool or equiv....

There is no specific hard link between my daemon and zabbix.. As I stated above, all my program does is make the physical status of attached hardware available for reading by the zabbix agent or any other interested program.