SUB-groups? and few questions for Zabbix team.

[QuakENT]

Hello, I have a little difficulties with groups, perhaps I miss something... I want create system of groups which will by copying actual location topology of my infrastructure.
For example: Europe -> Brusel -> Street 20 -> server group
-> pc group
-> etc. group
but what I get now is only Europe -> Brusel | end... so whats the catch?

Another thing with groups is their unfreindly management. It will by nice having drag and drop group(subgroups) feature.

Im new here, I just smoofing around and I trying deside if zabbix is up to task for monitoring large enviroment with many remote sites. I read some threads on this forum and looks like few folks run this sw on big sites. But from their own reactions on this forum I see, that their must develop a big effort not only with zabbix app management, but also with developing another - for some basic- features, which may and certainly cost a time and money. So, together with my own little testing expirience of installing and monitoring 30 servers, I have a few questions for zabbix developers and managers(if their exists):
1. looks like development period is stable, but from my point of view I see a very small amount of new features or changes. New version repair some old bugs, but new features comming very slow. So this relatively slow progress is because small development team or team behind zabbix have some another activities?
2. Do you consider co-operation with professional graphic designer? Zabbix have a functional desing, but as many "production managers" knows, product is often sold by appearance, no its functionality. So when my boos or director of organization where I work will see basic look of zabbix and for example centreON, what do you thing, what they choose?...they have no idea about technical things, they just see more professional interface or more colors...so money for technical support wont comming to zabbix team.

Please dont get my question as offense. Im just curious about next progression of this interesting sw. I know, zabbix is open source and you get money only from support etc., but if I give you my money for you suppoort, you must support a product which will be adequate, up to date in terms of features - user friendly expirience, professional look interafce ... -. There always by a specific amount of users, who will use zabbix no matter what, because their own reasons. But if zabbix want step up from shaddow of mainstream monitoring systems, he definitely will needs more focus on users and speed up development.
Sry for my eng.

[richlv]

Hello, I have a little difficulties with groups, perhaps I miss something... I want create system of groups which will by copying actual location topology of my infrastructure.
For example: Europe -> Brusel -> Street 20 -> server group
-> pc group
-> etc. group
but what I get now is only Europe -> Brusel | end... so whats the catch?

not sure what the "now" schematic represents, but currently there is no support for nested elements (like groups) in zabbix. would be great to have, and there have been several writeups on this topic, but that's a complex task. it would require reengineering of several core principles, so there would have to be some large push for that to happen in near future.

Another thing with groups is their unfreindly management. It will by nice having drag and drop group(subgroups) feature.

ah, yes. usability could be improved here and there in the zabbix frontend. but you have to keep in mind that it should work in quite some amount of different browsers, including some pretty old versions. it's more improving gradually, though, not in huge jumps.

1. looks like development period is stable, but from my point of view I see a very small amount of new features or changes. New version repair some old bugs, but new features comming very slow. So this relatively slow progress is because small development team or team behind zabbix have some another activities?

huh-uh. let's see... looking at last 3 minor versions only.
http://www.zabbix.com/documentation/...at_s_new_1.8.1
http://www.zabbix.com/documentation/...at_s_new_1.8.2
http://www.zabbix.com/documentation/...at_s_new_1.8.3

and 1.8.3 is not yet finished. and that's minor versions only. and development is accelerating. if anything, i'd agree with those users who would prefer more stabilising work - and that seems to be current focus in 1.8 branch as well.

so... for 1.8 branch, i would certainly not agree with slow introduction of features

2. Do you consider co-operation with professional graphic designer? Zabbix have a functional desing, but as many "production managers" knows, product is often sold by appearance, no its functionality. So when my boos or director of organization where I work will see basic look of zabbix and for example centreON, what do you thing, what they choose?...they have no idea about technical things, they just see more professional interface or more colors...so money for technical support wont comming to zabbix team.

that would be nice - but imagine users seeing time being spent on "shiny", while technical side is neglected
or - what's also mighty important - actual usability.
obviously - visuals are important. the question lies in priorities. but hey, if somebody comes up with a financing for a shiny & cute iconset, for example, i'm sure that would be appreciated

Please dont get my question as offense. Im just curious about next progression of this interesting sw. I know, zabbix is open source and you get money only from support etc., but if I give you my money for you suppoort, you must support a product which will be adequate, up to date in terms of features - user friendly expirience, professional look interafce ... -. There always by a specific amount of users, who will use zabbix no matter what, because their own reasons. But if zabbix want step up from shaddow of mainstream monitoring systems, he definitely will needs more focus on users and speed up development.
Sry for my eng.

hey, there's your shadow

http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1010972

[QuakENT]

thx for you reply.

well in 1.8.3 is going some progress on ... in web interface. But...I still dont get answer, how many people working on this project in real , which could give me some idea, how fast development of this project could go. I ask, because I see many request from zabbix users and seems like response from devs arent just fast. Maybe as you say, devs are focused on strictly technical side of project and some "fancy" feature requested from users arent just enough "push" for make to hapen. I know..if I dont liked, I can go somewhere else...well not yet . Maybe im just impatient...or not?

[richlv]

well in 1.8.3 is going some progress on ... in web interface.

did you mean that it's only web interface receiving improvements, or that it's finally the web interface ?
in any case, i wouldn't agree with both. there are significant, if not huge, improvements to server and proxy as well (performance, passive proxies...). and web frontend has been improved a lot in recent releases as well.

But...I still dont get answer, how many people working on this project in real , which could give me some idea, how fast development of this project could go. I ask, because I see many request from zabbix users and seems like response from devs arent just fast.

zabbix is being backed by the zabbix company, which has 12 or so fulltime employees (not all just coders, of course)
admittedly, new features will appear faster if somebody finances the development - the resources, as always, are limited.

Maybe as you say, devs are focused on strictly technical side of project and some "fancy" feature requested from users arent just enough "push" for make to hapen. I know..if I dont liked, I can go somewhere else...well not yet . Maybe im just impatient...or not?

i'm strongly opposed to the attitude one might see elsewhere with "if you don't like it, go away" or "code it yourself". that's something i hope to never see in zabbix.

it's always interesting to receive feedback - so maybe zabbix should work more on popularising new features.