Remote monitor question

[bluelinq]

I have a remote windows server that I was able through a lot of guessing getting it to report to back to the server. I am not sure even what did it after all the things I did but basically something like this.

Created the Host, put the public ip address of their firewall, however this server is not accesible by the zabbix server. Set it up as not monitored by now, did not link to any template and left port as 10050 even though there is no way to connect to it.

Then I created Items like this one.
Description: Free disk space on $1
Type: Zabbix agent (active)
Key: vfs.fs.size[c:,free]
Type of information: Numeric Int 64
Unit: B
Use Multiplier: Custom Multiplier
Custom Multiplier: 1
Update interval: 30
Status: Active
Store value: As is
Sow Value: As is

Now, I cannot categorise any of them. The only option inside the Applications list is none. :-(

That gets me information on the remote server OK. Don't know if is the proper way of doing it.

Now, a few issues. The server should be part of the Windows servers and is not and I cannot make it be. If I go to Monitoring, Graphs, Group: all, Host: all, then the server is not listed.

And last, if I go to Configuration, Host then the remote server exist, but is has Availability: Not available and Error: cannot connect to [208.65.94.79:10050] [Connection refused]

I am sure I am doing something wrong, but cannot find clear documentation on monitoring agent push servers only or whatever the name is.

Regards,

Paul

[bill.unger]

Now, I cannot categorise any of them. The only option inside the Applications list is none. :-(

This may be because there is no template associated (most of the pre-defined template items are passive, which won't work for you anyway) as I think the Applications listing is out-of-the-box associated with various templates. Check out Configuration... Host... and then select Applications from the top right drop-down (the one that defaults to displaying "hosts"). You may need to add your own for your host (or template... see blurb at bottom)

The server should be part of the Windows servers and is not and I cannot make it be. If I go to Monitoring, Graphs, Group: all, Host: all, then the server is not listed.

If you go into Configuration... Hosts... and select your host, is "Windows Servers" checked in the groups section?

And last, if I go to Configuration, Host then the remote server exist, but is has Availability: Not available and Error: cannot connect to [xx.xx.xx.79:10050] [Connection refused]

This is because your Zabbix server cannot connect the agent, which your business rules dictate. If you were to open the monitoring port on the remote machine, the Availability would be accurately reflected.


Now for a couple of short blurbs...

I am by no means a Zabbix expert, but really like the product and am willing to hang in there. This board is a good source, though can be frustrating at times as there is not a consistent response to questions (ie., sometimes it is difficult to get anyone to answer a question). My point... hang in there, it will be worth it.

Regarding your overall configuration, you may want to create some templates of your own to contain your Active check items for Windows and Linux servers. I think most of the default templates are passive, which won't work for you. If you create your own templates containing active checks, then you can just assign the template to new remote hosts as you add them - you won't have to recreate the items each time. You can also define Applications and assign them to the templates, which will fix your first problem from above.

Regarding communicating with remote servers: I know you had mentioned in other posts that you cannot open ports on firewalls for your clients. Is this for security reasons or for other reasons? If for security reasons, you could open the port on the remote firewall, but restrict the port forward rule to your Zabbix server's public IP address. That is how I have ours implemented: remote firewalls pass agent ports through, but only if the request is coming from our IP; otherwise, the request gets dropped. I also have the firewall in our office (the one protecting our Zabbix server) locked down by IP; in other words, 10051 port is passed through to our Zabbix server but only if the requesting IP belongs to one of our clients.

Just a few thoughts to get you going...

good luck!
Bill

[bluelinq]

Bill, thanks for the links. It is starting to make sense now. It will be nice to at the host definition to have an option for passive and if that is the case, then to have another parameter to raise a flag if after lets say 5, 10 or 15 minutes the agent has not reported back to the server to then show the alarm, otherwise it should be OK.

Again, thanks for the links and the information . I will stick around, it looks like a nice product and good features.

Regards,

Paul