I am totally lost in configuration of Zabbix.

[kanour]

Hi.
I just installed ZABBIX on my Debian. Everything seems to be going ok.

My problem is that I am not able to find a way how to operate this surely greate monitor. I am not able to see the logic in it.

My goal is to simply setup ping check for few machines on the internet. Create a map and graph for each machine.
As I read all documentation it should be posible to do it without installing of an agent.
Would anyone give me help with this? I would like to get only the idea how it works.

Thank you

[just2blue4u]

Which version do you have installed?
I Suppose you're read the manual?
- http://www.zabbix.com/manual/v1.1/config_initial.php (for v1.1beta)
- http://www.zabbix.com/manual_config_initial.php (for v1.0)

[kanour]

Yes I read whole manual. I would like to start from simple tasks like I explained above but I cannot understand the procedure.

As I mentioned I would like to setup 4 hosts for ping only and watch them in map and some graph of conectivity. This time without installing any client agent (if it is possible).

When I will start to uderstand the princip I will start to do more difficult rules.

Thank you for help.

[bdub]

Ping checks

Mr. James Wells has an excellent tutorial on setting up pinch checks here:

http://www.zabbix.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1325

Graphing is much more simple, but be warned, if you want to do a graph off the ping check described in that post, you'll end up with a flat line that reads 1. A better idea might be to use the item icmppingsec, which will give you a much prettier graph as it measures the latency, and not whether or not the machine is simply alive. To graph that, all you'll need to do is add your host, add the item and trigger as described by Mr. Wells. Then, create a graph and assign the item to it. Your graphing will be taken care of from there. I am also assuming, btw, that you have gd installed and configured and working. If not, seach the forums, there is plenty of info out there regarding getting it working.

Zabbix can seem overwhelming at first, but stick with it for a couple of hours and you'll soon be overwhelmed by the ammount of information you're collecting instead.

hope this helps,

brian

[kanour]

I surely want to stick with it. I already can see the possibilities. The disadvantage is that there is not some simple step by step tutorial for new users.

I will check the link.

My last question. Does AGENTD need to be installed in all cases? I would sometimes prefer to monitor something like ping without AGENT.

Thank you.

[bdub]

no, you do not need to install the agent for simple checks, like making sure a web server is running, or ping checks.

You do need the agent to collect OS or Application specific data, like MySQL threads, or memory utilization.

[Db0]

Also, check my blog. It's a step by step how-to of my own zabbix installation and setup. It might prove useful to you

[kanour]

I have got idea now :-) I already setup few hosts.

The only thing which I cannot get is setting up and view the graph. Let say graph for ping only.

I have got template Host.Ping and I have only one host in that template.

Could someone help with this, please.

[kanour]

Graphs did not work because php4-gd was not installed.