DB monitoring approach

[oramonmon]

Hi everyone,
I have about 100 hosts running only Oracle databases, nothing more. What would be the best approach for monitoring them with Zabbix: install Zabbix Agent 2 on each host, run only one Zabbix Agent 2 on the same server where Zabbix Server is installed, or use ODBC?
I would also like to add a few custom queries. As I understand it, this is much easier with ODBC since you can configure them directly in the web interface. With Zabbix agents, it requires SQL files, which can be more complicated.
Will be grateful for any advice.

[cyber]

Agent2 with oracle plugin allows you to configure custom queries also..

oracle.custom.query[connString,<user>,<password>,<service>,queryName,<args...>]

https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/7.0/en/manual/config/items/itemtypes/zabbix_agent/zabbix_agent2#oracle.custom.query

[oramonmon]

Yeah, I know that. But connecting to the host, locating the SQL file, modifying it, and then updating the item in Zabbix obviously takes longer than just changing the ODBC query in the Zabbix web interface.
I’d like to understand what the advantages of using an agent are. Or should I just stick with ODBC after all?

[cyber]

Right... Overlooked it a bit.. it still requires prepared queries..
But then again, how often you plan to change those queries? ..

[oramonmon]

Of course, I don’t plan to change them often. But the very fact that I’ll have to connect to the servers and tweak something there is a bit concerning.

[cyber]

I guess you choose, what is easier for you to manage... installing ODBC and all config on server/proxy plus FW holes to connect to DB-s. Or having agent poll everything locally and not care about one additional fw hole.. you have 100 hosts (at least), you sure have some tool to keep them updated and config in place.. can be used to deploy agent plugin configs aswell...

[vad-valrc]

I would have prefer using agent2 on all oracle hosts as mentionned by cyber. hope you have a tool to easily deploy your custom sql scripts.
I am wondering how one host with agent2 will manage 100 hosts. It is more a proxy behavior to do that using ODBC template ?

[oramonmon]

The option with a single agent was just an example of how the setup could work. Obviously, I should be looking at either ODBC or 100 agents.

What I’m more interested in is the following question: how much will the load on the Zabbix server increase if I use ODBC, since in that case all the agent’s work will fall directly on the server?

[cyber]

The option with a single agent was just an example of how the setup could work. Obviously, I should be looking at either ODBC or 100 agents.

What I’m more interested in is the following question: how much will the load on the Zabbix server increase if I use ODBC, since in that case all the agent’s work will fall directly on the server?

You dont have to run it from server. Dedicated proxy would be a solid option here. If possible keep absolutely any polling out of server and let it deal with only data manipulations and trigger calculations and actions etc.