auto group/template with EC2

[thecord]

I am wondering if there's anyway I can set something on the Zabbix agent, probably in the conf file, that when a machine fires up will have the Zabbix Server auto assign a group and template for monitoring? This seems to me the last mile for Zabbix, full automation. Is this possible?

[eskytthe]

Use auto registration or discovery. Auto registration is more limited then discovery.
http://www.zabbix.com/wiki/howto/config/autoregister
/Erik

[thecord]

I have been using that, but I am not able to see the functionality where I can auto assign a machine into a particular template/group. I can see where I can assign all autodiscovered/registered machines into a template, but I want to use different templates for different groups of machines.

[thecord]

clarification

To clarify, I guess I'm wondering how a machine running Zabbix Agent can, auto register, and based on some set of characteristics (hostname, configuration line in the zabbix-agent.conf file, etc) have the Zabbix server assign the appropriate template to be used for monitoring and put the new machine in the appropriate group.

[thecord]

May have answered my own question...

Under Configurations -> Actions then selecting Auto Registration as suggested above, which I was using before. However I didn't notice the conditions tab which can be a hostname with wildcard and potentially regex, not sure about the latter though.

[eskytthe]

I suppose you also have seen that you have even more options with discovery...
(Auto delete hosts etc.)
/Erik

[thecord]

Discovery seems very interesting, however how does one do this in the cloud, specifically ec2. I obviously cannot search through a range of ips. Can I do discovery through launching a zabbix agent then registering? Second, is there any authentication I can set so foreign hosts can't register?

[eskytthe]

I have no experience with cloud and discovery.

Just an idea: You could make you own extention to the auto registration, if it do not fit your needs. Eg. could do som api or zapcat manipulation after the auto reg. - move hosts to other groups etc
You can find api/zapcat/php/bach/perl interfaces etc. in the forum. One exsample:

http://www.zabbix.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22398

As I see it discovery is started from zabbix server. Auto reg. is started from agent side.

Auth: I only know of the action operations and condition you specify (you may not call this auth.)

Hope this help.
Br
Erik

[thecord]

Definitely helps. Thank you.

I can do nearly everything I want except auto delete servers after auto-reg. That's all I have left to do, if there's a good way, I'd love to know it.