Managing Zabbix configuration from a centralized placed.

[[email protected]]

I am looking for good way of managing Zabbix configuration. What I want is:

1. All configuration should be stored in a centralized place. I should be able to manually view and modify configuration files. For example in future, path of a monitored log file has changed. I just search and replace all occurrences of that file in my configuration and everything starts working.

2. I should be able to version control my configurations.

3. Instead of going to the web interface and setting configuration manually, I would like write a script which reads configurations (preferably from files), loads them into Zabbix and Zabbix starts monitoring accordingly.

I am exploring Zabbix but don't see a satisfactory way of configuration management. Please help.

[richlv]

sounds like you would want to store config in some version controlled location, then populate/update it in zabbix using the api.
this is rather common when integrating zabbix with system management tools like puppet/cfengine/chef/bcfg2 etc

[[email protected]]

Hi,

Thanks for your quick reply.

The API was introduced recently (in Zabbix 1.8) and the API documentation page says:
Currently Zabbix API specification is in draft state. All objects marked as 'draft' are experimental and should be used with a great care. We do not guarantee compatibility with future releases.

* Is the API mature enough to use in production environment?
* Are all features provided by the web interface, availabe through API?
* Are there any established tools in market which make use of the API?
My organization's philosophy says "Go with proven and solid technologies when you can". In such a situation should I consider using the Zabbix API route?

[richlv]

Hi,

Thanks for your quick reply.

The API was introduced recently (in Zabbix 1.8) and the API documentation page says:
Currently Zabbix API specification is in draft state. All objects marked as 'draft' are experimental and should be used with a great care. We do not guarantee compatibility with future releases.

* Is the API mature enough to use in production environment?

mostly

* Are all features provided by the web interface, availabe through API?

no. for example, you can not manage proxies or it services over the api in 1.8 (this will be available in 2.0)

* Are there any established tools in market which make use of the API?

yes, there's commandline tool zabcon (http://trac.red-tux.net/wiki/zbx_api/zabcon), multiple libraries for php (http://andrewfarley.com/php/zabbix-1...php-class-v1-0), python (http://www.zabbix.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15218) and other languages

My organization's philosophy says "Go with proven and solid technologies when you can". In such a situation should I consider using the Zabbix API route?

it definitely is the way to go forward. whether it is suitable for you right now - best to try it yourself and see whether all the functionality you need is there. make sure to use the latest zabbix version, though - api has received a large amount of fixes since the early 1.8 releases