What can be Zabbix Weakness ?

[kloczek]

That's a good example, another I have relate to interfaces. I'd prefer to see item-prototype-specific filters on LLD iteration as a way to get around this, rather than multiple iterations (you can do multiple iterations, I do it now as an ugly workaround).

I'd like to see LLD discovery filters on the item prototypes where, if a particular item is not returned, or is returned with a specific value, I can just skip a specific item prototype. So if a particular interface type lacks some metrics or descriptive value, I can avoid getting an error (or conversely, avoid having to jump through hoops to avoid generating it).

FYI: it is one well know woraroud for this issue but it is only dirty hack :/
You can add alias key over which you can add second instance of the same for example agent key to be able use it in other LLD iterator.
Like:

Alias=vfs.fs.discovery.inioes:vfs.fs.discovery

In zabbix_agentd.conf. However this requires fiddling in agent cfg which I'm always trying to avoid by any cost.

With SNMP LLDs already is possible to have multiple LLDS with iterator the same key.
i have version of my IF-MIB template which has more than one LLD which is using "discovery[{#IFDESCR},IF-MIB::ifDescr,{#IFOPERSTATUS},IF-MIB::ifOperStatus]| and it works.
I should say that zabbix has no issue with such LLDs but it causes to much SNMP timeouts (as it makes snmp agent more busy and exposed on internal locking known issues) so I've decided to not push this template with such such adaptation to my git repo :-/
I've been trying to use this approach as kind of workaround on not be able to disable populating graphs and triggers in cases like using only if{in,Out}Octets without ifHC{In,Out}Octets or vice versa on some devices.
As I said on this occasion I've hit wall of the zabbix limitation to be able (transparently) aggregate some agent or agent less items when physically over interface like jmx, odbc or even agent type is possible to query multiple points in single request (in case SNMP using bulk queries).
Only IF-MIB has so many possibilities that some mechanism to stop populating some IF-MIB OIDs is needed to have flexible/universal MIB based template which only partially always will be used on most of the devices.

Nevertheless looks like more or less it is only limitation of the configuration.import() zabbix API rules and/ur rules which are used on create/modify LLD iterator keys.

[telder]

A large enterprise weakness is the lack of any really usable reporting. The reports that are included with Zabbix are pretty basic and aren't really what enterprise users are looking for. Ad-Hoc reporting would be a big boon instead of having to try to jerry-rig different reports together using the info contained in the database.

[scuba]

It's been a good and explanatory conversation thank you all and the Zabbix team for their efforts.

[kloczek]

A large enterprise weakness is the lack of any really usable reporting. The reports that are included with Zabbix are pretty basic and aren't really what enterprise users are looking for. Ad-Hoc reporting would be a big boon instead of having to try to jerry-rig different reports together using the info contained in the database.

Just please define what you want to have in reports.
Whatever you want to report you can define as set of metrics + presentation layer.
Just define your reporting metrics and define few screens which if someone from management want to see in zabbix is possible to sample periodically and for example over email.
Zabbix has possibility to define such reports as screens.
If you have hundreds of thousands raw metrics + alarming layer definition you cannot define automatically formed reports without define what needs to be on such reports.

PS. Zabbix is real time reporting tool.

[telder]

Just please define what you want to have in reports.
Whatever you want to report you can define as set of metrics + presentation layer.
Just define your reporting metrics and define few screens which if someone from management want to see in zabbix is possible to sample periodically and for example over email.
Zabbix has possibility to define such reports as screens.
If you have hundreds of thousands raw metrics + alarming layer definition you cannot define automatically formed reports without define what needs to be on such reports.

PS. Zabbix is real time reporting tool.

I'm sorry but it seems that you don't fully realize what Enterprise executives expect regarding reporting. Screens ARE NOT reports. Executives expect black and white statistics and reports in their hands on either a weekly or quarterly basis and we've gone the route of using screens to try and gather that data and it is a tedious and time consuming process where having a report creation mechanism that could have pulled the in the specified data and formatted it the way we needed for either a PDF or Excel export would have been a big plus. All other ENTERPRISE monitoring solutions do this...DataDog, New Relic, etc. You name it they all have a reporting function. Zabbix is a great tool and you can try to defend it's shortcomings however even you cannot deny that it is missing a true reporting system that should have been delivered from the outset before it was called an Enterprise Monitoring Solution.

[kloczek]

I'm sorry but it seems that you don't fully realize what Enterprise executives expect regarding reporting. Screens ARE NOT reports. Executives expect black and white statistics and reports in their hands on either a weekly or quarterly basis and we've gone the route of using screens to try and gather that data and it is a tedious and time consuming process where having a report creation mechanism that could have pulled the in the specified data and formatted it the way we needed for either a PDF or Excel export would have been a big plus. All other ENTERPRISE monitoring solutions do this...DataDog, New Relic, etc. You name it they all have a reporting function. Zabbix is a great tool and you can try to defend it's shortcomings however even you cannot deny that it is missing a true reporting system that should have been delivered from the outset before it was called an Enterprise Monitoring Solution.

If you want to have pdf document there is at least few tools which are able snapshot web page as pdf document. Colours? yep you can use b/w theme and use only two colours in all graphs/screens/maps.
The same about using excel format. Format it is only a box .. not a content of the box.

In other words: using none of those formats defines thing like "reporting tool".
Everywhere people are defines daily/weekly/monthly reports differently because those reports are about state of completely different set of metrics.
As long as you have those metrics you are at home.
And no. Zabbix cannot magically define those metrics. Definitely not now .. maybe in next century

[telder]

If you want to have pdf document there is at least few tools which are able snapshot web page as pdf document. Colours? yep you can use b/w theme and use only two colours in all graphs/screens/maps.
The same about using excel format. Format it is only a box .. not a content of the box.

In other words: using none of those formats defines thing like "reporting tool".
Everywhere people are defines daily/weekly/monthly reports differently because those reports are about state of completely different set of metrics.
As long as you have those metrics you are at home.
And no. Zabbix cannot magically define those metrics. Definitely not now .. maybe in next century

You still don't get it. That may work for you across the pond but executives here want comprehensive reports. We simply aren't going to create a different screen for every report. Also your suggestion of taking a screenshot is utterly ridiculous on face value. Why don't you try using the Notebook feature of DataDog which can be exported to a PDF, Create an Executive Report in Nagios, or use New Relic Insights to create your custom reports which can also be exported to PDF and you'll find out that their report mechanisms are 10x better than what is included inside of Zabbix. I didn't come here with the intention of bashing Zabbix however there is a definitive weakness when it comes to reporting. Executives don't want to have to search through a screen for what they are looking for. They want reports that give them concise answers as quickly as possible. This is why Zabbix not having an ad-hoc report generator or a tool where statistics can be combined, annotated, exported to PDF, etc is a glaring weakness. Having SLA reports, trigger reports, etc doesn't cut it and serves no real purpose for most real Enterprise companies.

[Linwood]

You still don't get it. That may work for you across the pond but executives here want comprehensive reports. We simply aren't going to create a different screen for every report. Also your suggestion of taking a screenshot is utterly ridiculous on face value.

What level or type of executive are you speaking of.

Before semi-retirement, I was CIO of several companies from about $300m to $2.6b. I never wanted reports on network performance, period. What I wanted reports on where summaries of responses to support issues, which included (as a small part) network issues, and these tended to flow up from problem management / help desk / etc management systems.

And if I did want reporting of stuff in zabbix I think I'd be competent to browse around and find what I needed, and prefer it that way as when I see something unusual I can drill down (hard to do on paper).

But I have never had a non-I.T. executive want ANY kind of report on network performance. They want budgets and performance to budgets, staffing plans, regulatory compliance reports and status, but basically if the network ever became something that rose to their attention they expect me sitting in their office explaining what went wrong, because it's supposed to just work.

Now maybe that's different if it's a company where the network IS the company.

Maybe it's different on whatever side of whichever pond you are on.

As to reporting in general for executives, I think you are right in a sense -- for matters that they do want to know, they expect a custom package be prepared for them, and if they are like every executive I've met, its target will change periodically. But that's a minor detail - most executives today ALSO want a dashboard of items of interest, ones they can drill down from. Zabbix meets neither of those needs very well, but honestly... I can't think of any time I would have needed either feature.

Maybe there are CIO's out there who are prima donnas who want fancy paper reports delivered to them on a tray with their morning coffee and scone, because they don't know how to use a computer. i did know one back in the 80's -- he had his secretary print out his email, marked it up with paper for her to respond. But is there really much of a call for that in 2018?

[AdrianG001]

We are using Zabbix since past 3 years and it seems to be flawless to us compared to the Nagios and Pandora. Its all about the organization`s point of view.

Regards,
Adrian Gates
Sr. System Admin