Call for discussion on ZABBIX 1.8

[Alexei]

Thank you all for participating in the discussion on features of 1.6! This thread includes many thoughts and ideas, some of which have already been implemented and some of which will be evaluated and possibly realised in the next releases.

Since 1.6 is already out, it seems to be the right time to start such a discussion on 1.8.

What do you think has to be improved? What functionality is missing?

Please let's talk about big things, new modules, concepts, etc, not just small bits.

[Tenzer]

My biggest wish would be an API, which have been discussed in this thread: http://www.zabbix.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10251

[jean]

- Icons colours in map relative to severity and not to trigger value
- Command Line/Script to import hosts, templates, groups,...

[den_crane]

1. agents (for all platforms) need support all items
2. may be web-service api ?

      
                    zabbix_server
                          |
                         db
                          |
                web-service (wsdl)
               /          |       \
 www-front-end     cli-interface   gui-desktop-interface

[xs-]

Great to see new development is starting so fast.

• +1 for the API
• 'redisign' of the permission system
  (http://www.zabbix.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10539)
• Permission evaluation for 'message routing'
  (http://www.zabbix.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9493)
• Shorter release cycle
  1.4 -> 1.6 took quite some time.
• Maintenance
  Maintenance plans (periodic/planned times for hosts and/or hostgroup maintenance). Maintenance mode, unplanned maintenance (boolean?).
  (http://www.zabbix.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10561)
• Host dependancies
  Trigger dependencies is nice, but if you want to create host based dependencies (e.g. switch->host) this is not workable when everything is templated.
  (perhaps this is easily combined with the functionality used for maintenance stuff)
• trigger flag for host unavailable.
  In short, that you can flag a trigger that when it's active, the host gets treated as down. All checks will be stopped for this host (and this new trigger events are as well) until this host is 'up' again. (very handy to prevent unnecessary simple check based triggers.
• Cross template item/trigger relations.
  Actually i can only think of 2 specific situations for this, snmp traps and logs.
  Right now it's not possible to have a templated item in template 1 (generic/os) and templated triggers based on that items (specific/applications) in other templates
  For example, snmptraps or syslog as item in a os based template and triggers in specific application templates (application using snmp traps for part of the event generation).

--edit
forgot one item

[stalker]

Wizard for simple SNMP devices!

It removes necessarity of maintenance various SNMP templates and accelerates initial installation period.

Idea: Input [IP, community] -> Select interfaces and set checkboxes: Input, Output, Graph (in/out), in/out Errors, Admin-status, Cpu usage -> Added host.

Good starting point is http://www.zabbix.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10606

[Jason]

Ummm.... proxies made available for windows based systems.

Agents to be capable of performing snmp checks against localhost. (very much needed for active agents on remote sites)

[richlv]

well, i'd love to see most of the features listed http://www.zabicom.com/english/index-01.html#pro0503 to propogate back upstream

(though i'm unsure what "NTT ComTechnology License" at some items implies)

excerpt from that page :

・Acknowledge function for events (Acknowledge function)

・Trigger creation support function for log monitoring (Log Wizard function)?
...Tracing the wizard screen provides support to create the required triggers. This is an important tool which supports the combination of logic operators and the creation of difficult POSIX-conforming regular expressions.

・Trigger creation support function for trigger settings (Trigger conditional expression support function)
There is a need to combine multiple conditions using logic operators (such as AND and OR) for fine conditional settings of triggers serving as the core of intellectual functions.
With ZABICOM-J, displaying the logical formula in a tree format helps creating triggers with clear prospects. This is also useful for preventing input mistakes such as omitting the closing bracket, etc.
A test function for checking the validity of conditional expressions has been added. This reduces the time consuming verification task in actual use, thereby reducing the load of system administrators.

・ Drag & Drop Map create function (Dynamic MAP creation function)

・ Advanced support of regular expressions on Agent filter (highly functional Agent filter)
In log monitoring by agent, extracting only the parts required with filtering will reduce Agent-Server traffic and the consumption of the disk by data accumulation.
ZABICOM-J's highly functional agent filter allows the fine setting of the filter function, thereby further reducing the load.
Normally, when complicated regular expressions (filtering conditions) are described in parameters of log collecting items, lists and prospects at the editing screen become unclear. A new editing screen has therefore been added to ZABICOM-J.
This screen not only allows conditional expressions to be created easily, but is also very useful to reuse the same conditions at multiple locations with storing filter conditions.

・Sync function of the configuration for backup (replication function )【NTT ComTechnology License】
Config information storing configuration settings of the ZABICOM server can be replicated to the backup server.
Use of this replication function allows config settings to be returned to stable state in the event faults occurred at the ZABICOM server.

・Supports MIB import from SNMP-mounted equipment (standard MIB import function) 【NTT ComTechnology License】
When monitoring equipment mounting SNMP, there is a need to register each monitoring item. This means that additional work is required for each port in the registration of Switch, etc. which have many ports. Even if the Clone (Copy) function is used, this is a very complicated task.
With ZABICOM-J, the load of various information setting work can be sharply reduced by importing MIB information from SNMP-mounted equipment, and creating template XML including the items, trigger, and graph settings for the concerned equipment based on the interface information obtained.

・Information Extract Function for Report Creation

ZABICOM's simple information extracting function reduces your time and workload to create a report, minimizing the impact from network administration, allowing time to be dedicated to more important business.
Resource information, such as CPU usage and disk space usage can be extracted and imported into a report. This report can be also used as an emergency report for your clients or supervisor in the event of a failure.

[ghislain]

Api, Api , Api

+1 fro the API, we cannot manage hosts by hand

regards,
Ghislain.

[alixen]

Hi,

I'd love to see thoses features :

- Reporting tool / extract Functions (see nareto : a reporting/extraction tool for nagios : http://www.nareto.org/ )

- Host dependancies

- trigger flag for host unavailable.

- Maintenance plans

- a rewrite Services IT available

- Screen Template ?

[teferi]

Yet another post about API =) It would be great to have it.

Besides that I'd like to note a couple of suggestions I made here before, such as:

1) nodata and proxies, the problem was discussed here http://www.zabbix.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10476
2) grouping screens (with API it would be very easy to create all sorts of screens and managing all of them in a single checkbox would become a headache)
3) server aliasing as discussed here http://www.zabbix.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10299

[Zebedee0026]

SNMP Wizard Please
Proxy for Windows Based OS

[alixen]

Yet another post about API =) It would be great to have it.

Besides that I'd like to note a couple of suggestions I made here before, such as:

1) nodata and proxies, the problem was discussed here http://www.zabbix.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10476

Nodata for External scripts would be a nice thing to http://www.zabbix.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10689

[alfiere]

Intelligent agent that could help to forge graph.

For example.

I wish to create a dynamic graph that can plot "disk used partitions" for all those hosts which it is applyed.

host 1 -> df -h

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 4.9G 255M 4.4G 6% /
/dev/sda6 3.9G 2.6G 1.2G 70% /home


host 2 -> df -h

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 142G 72G 64G 54% /
tmpfs 1013M 0 1013M 0% /dev/shm


An agent that can understand how many partitions I have and plot the associate graphs.

Cheers,
Alf

[cjwallace]

I would like to see

SNMP Wizards

Better and more clear documentation.

A how to guide. How to setup simple ping checks all the way to monitoring logs, etc etc

Better Notification system

a way of importing MS VISIO Documents

Maybe an auto updater to automatically update your Zabbix install in sort of the same way as Windows Update

I am sure i will have more but thats all i can think of for now.

Cheers

Craig