Its incredible how hard to set up Zabbix is

[nibb]

People offen say Nagios is complicated. Thats because they never used Zabbix. Zabbix looks nice, but thats all, besides the nice interface I can after days not configure 1 single web check. All I get is data from the local server.
Not 1, 0 website can be monitored. I could also not manage to set up 1 notification that works. I tried to configure this for hours and nothing i do it makes this thing work. I managed to install and configure nagios in 3 hours and Zabbix I cant do it in days. I blame on the documentation. Its pure technicall without any real life examples. The screen on the manuals are worthless, there is not a howto on making simple and stupid things like sending an email when a website is down. I configured and managed Hyperic, Nagios, etc and never had so much problems.

The community seems also to be very lacking in solutions. I send an email to Zabbix themselfs to see If i could pay them for setting this up and after 1 week nothing. I liked the fact this only consumes 256 RAM and the agents only 2 MB but i think im going back to Hyperic which consumes 1 GB ram mininum for the server and 256 MB ram per agent. Thats very costly in terms off resources but at least setting that up is like a toy you just have to clic. Zabbix is so complicated it seems you need to a programmer to make a simple web check, beside the getting 200 code you need to program a whole code just so it tells you up and down. So the time this takes you loose is just the same as getting back to a costly solution but that makes your invested time worth.

I have searched the forum for hours for answers and nothing. People dont even reply on how to do very simple things, and if they do there from posts from the year 2005 and dont apply to this version anymore. I have errors which i found other people had as well, those topics are open for months without answers. Sure, maybe its my fault, but im not alone it seems. And if someone cant make after hours a simple set up he just frustrates and goes back to google to find something more simple.

Im frustrated but im also sad since I think I could make this work. Its just useless and the time its making me lose is not someone running an IT departament wants. I have read the whole manual twice and still dont know how this works regarding notification, triggers, etc. I have set up several configs and not 1 works. IT just doesnt get data or says Unknow. I tried windows, linux, it doesnt matter all I can get to monitor is the local host.

I dont understand why people say Nagios is so hard on the configuration, comparing to Zabbix it works after the second try.

If someone can point out there is documentarion on how to set up things after installation it would be great. Starting by really simple things, like escalations, notifications, etc.

[Aly]

IMO:

Someone likes it, someone not. For example another opinion. By georgew words, he managed to install and configure zabbix in less than 4 hours.

I agree that ZABBIX should be improved in many ways, and we are working on it.

[krimson]

I disagree with the OP. Been using Nagios for 3+ years now in a pretty large environment. It is rockstable and does the job well but it's a pain in the ass to configure. Editing .cfg files ? Sigh.

The things I have setup in Nagios I am now setting up in Zabbix, I immediately noticed how easy it is and how much time it saves me. That, and all the goodies Zabbix has that Nagios does not makes it a very good and usable product.

Now Zabbix IS relatively young and this is sometimes noticable in bugs, or lack of documentation. The developers are doing a good job though on making it better.

[nibb]

Yes but Nagios comes with ready config files you just edit to match your options and it works.

Of course Zabbix is allot easier to use and configure but it isnt for me If dont have examples.

Lets start by doing something simple.

I now how to make a web check or network port check in Zabbix. That means I know where to create them, but the fields you need to input doesnt make any sense for me. I looked for examples and did not found them. On the manual for example there is only 1 example of web checking the Zabbix interface response time.

Its pretty easy not to know what to input in each field, specially because I dont know what i means. If I did I would what to input there and I would know what it does and with which other trigger or function it works.

Im drowning on a glass of water...

[Tenzer]

Yes but Nagios comes with ready config files you just edit to match your options and it works.

Of course Zabbix is allot easier to use and configure but it isnt for me If dont have examples.

Have you tried to take a look at the templates which are included in Zabbix? There are tons of items you can check in order to see how they are set up.

[nibb]

Have you tried to take a look at the templates which are included in Zabbix? There are tons of items you can check in order to see how they are set up.

Linxu/Windows yes

but not simple web checks or network checks. Could not find them.

[nibb]

OK I think i found almost all things. I was just tyred and overlooked things. I got most things to work. I also tried to copy the web check example from the manual. It works but only the login page step 1 since the other images in the PDF for step 2 have to bad quality to see what variables there where put in there.

I think most things works except some minor things. I still would wish some example variables that could be used to make things more customizable.

[jeenam]

search the forums

Search the forums. Most of the answers you seek are in there. Stop being lazy.

One thing that really makes zabbix easy to configure is the amount of feedback from the community in these forums. For pretty much anything I've wanted to do, a simple search turns up step by step directions from someone on how to configure what I need.


Now regarding web checks...

Did you compile zabbix with the 'libcurl' option? If not go back and recompile and reinstall the server binary.


(Drumroll) To create a web check...

1. Click on Configuration
2. Click on Web
3. Click Create Scenario
4. Application = Type in a unique name
5. Name = I set this same as the name of Application
6. Update Interval = how often to run this check
7. Agent = which browser to impersonate. Defaults to IE.
8. Status = Active (default, do not change unless you want to disable)
9. Variables = Read the manual. You can send lots of HTTP POST info through here such as usernames and passwords. Or of course, search the forums
10. Click 'Steps' button
11. Name = Type in unique name for this step (e.g. Check http://somesite.com/path/)
12. URL = Type in address that you want zabbix to verify the connectivity of
13. Timeout = number of seconds to wait for response from web server
14. Required = This is optional. If you want zabbix to parse for a string on a web page type it here. It is CASE SENSITIVE.
15. Status codes = Enter status code the web server should return. 200 means 'OK' in web browser/server terms. If you don't know what these are just search google for 'http status codes'. There are a bunch of them.
16. Click Save
17. Click Save

Now the Web Scenario is created, but you must also create a TRIGGER for this scenario if you want to be alerted if the web check fails. So do this:

1. Click Configuration
2. Click Triggers
3. From the drop down box in the upper right, select the host you created the Web Scenario under
4. Click 'Create Trigger' in the upper right corner
5. Name = What you please
6. Across from 'Expression', click the 'Insert' button. In the box that appears, across from 'Item', click the 'Select' button.
7. In the next box that appears, select the host the Web Scenario was created under and click on the name of the item to perform the logical evaluation upon (e.g. Response code for step 'SCENARIO' of scenario 'WEBSITE')
8. Function = This is where you need to actually have a brain to do some math. In the case that you're using the Response Code value, I would set 'Last Value NOT N' for the Function. Then set N = 200 since in HTTP terms a 200 response code means OK. In other words, the trigger is only active if the server does not return an OK/200 response code during the check.
9. Click Insert
10. Severity = High (pick whatever you want)
11. Comments are optional
12. URL just appears to be some reference so you can quickly view which URL was being checked
13. Click Save


Now you have a Web Scenario along with a trigger to go along with it. I'll leave it up to you to search the forum to figure out how to create an action.

[nibb]

Sorry to make you lose time. But I configured Zabbix just after some hours of posting this. If you search my other posts you will see I actually having running and most thing are configured correctly.

Im doing some tweaks to it to fix my install but I have it running for sometime now.

[Vide]

So it would be nice from you to post a reply to this very thread, saying you'd been a little lazy and bitchy in your first post of this thread, and close the thread.

[richlv]

The community seems also to be very lacking in solutions. I send an email to Zabbix themselfs to see If i could pay them for setting this up and after 1 week nothing.

hmm. you mean, no answer at all ?
that's a bit weird. are you sure you sent the message, not closed it accidentally or something ?

So it would be nice from you to post a reply to this very thread, saying you'd been a little lazy and bitchy in your first post of this thread, and close the thread.

now that was unnecessary rude.

[Vide]

now that was unnecessary rude.

Indeed, but I'm always rude with people so ungrateful to people like the zabbix devs which are doing a great work and giving it free (as in speech and as in beer) to everyone