Three tiny sites, is distributed monitoring advised?

[djwhyte]

Hi,

I have setup zabbix at home to monitor my mythTV network of 1 backend and ~6 frontends. It is only a small setup to basically monitor things like disk-usage whether the mythtvbackend process is running, is mysql running etc etc.

I am about to setup a mythTV network at my brothers house (i.e. another site) but I am unsure whether I should setup a completely different zabbix network or if I should make it a remote node. I am going to do the same for my other brother eventually too, which makes three distinct sites.

Ideally, I am hoping that I can have a one page overview of all networks, so I can see at a glance if there are any issues. This sounds like an ideal instance for distributed monitoring but I am not too sure from my reading if you can get this view or if you have to select nodes individually.

I guess I could make all agents report back to one server, but there could be occasions when the network link between the sites goes down.

What are peoples thoughts?

Regards,
Whytey

[cstackpole]

Personally, here is what I do.
I use MythWeb running on the backend ( I really like it ). Since the backend already has a MySQL databse, apache, and everything else needed I just throw Zabbix on top of it. Then again, my setup is 1 backend, 2 frontends, and 2 other computers. Zabbix uses so little resources in that setup that it isn't worth it to me to split it off onto another system (eliminates another computer which means less administration, less power usage, less networking, less configuration, less systems on battery backup [more uptime without power], ect. Then again, the downside is that you have one system should things break...still worth it for me though)

I understand why you would want to have a single page for all three systems but, in my opinion, dealing with network outages, tunneling, security, ect for a single page isn't worth it.

I personally would have a zabbix setup on each backend.


BTW, I LOVE having Zabbix monitor my MythTV setup. I can see when the updates run, status of the different parts, hard drive usage, and the best part is being able to see and dectect trends when the system is under heavy load...just all kinds of useful things.

Anyway, good luck!
Have Fun!