ZABBIX documentation

[zombiehunter]

well done!

A lot of great input from this forum. I think this forum and it's users should be complimented for the sharing of their knowledge and experience. I have found a lot of great information searching the forums. That has it's draw backs though. It can take about a week to figure out zabbix. I think a quick start guide, a little more thorough documentation and ton's of examples.

I know there is a wiki associated with this site. We use a wiki page within our organization (a county within Minnesota) to organize our data on systems, status and general information. Has anyone expanded that idea to further the wiki concept to the zabbix movement?

I have been documenting the zabbix work I have done in our wiki for all to read. Not that anyone has time to leisurely read wiki entries, but in this scenario, it might help with the documentation effort and provide a great starting point. The cookbook is great, but I think it is lacking some direction. Is the cookbook what is intended to share information?

Just my $0.02 worth.

Any chance we can peruse the wiki or is it available only to internal users?

[dratliff]

sorry zombie, it is for internal use only on a private network. I can try to export the information maybe.

I guess what I am getting at with using a wiki-based knowledge base is just that. Instead of having to hunt through the forums for information, allow users to post it there. Or have a manager moderate the information and post the data there in a format that is quick and easy to understand.

I would never want to take away the usefulness of the forums though. That is what must be debated, I guess.

[zombiehunter]

yep

I think it's a fantastic idea. With the issues there are right now with the documentation, searching the forums for knowledge to get this up and running and configured properly takes an awful lot of time. The wiki is perfect for this issue. Hopefully getting everyone to use it won't be hard. It's sparse now.

[dratliff]

The goal I think should be to get the documentation load off the developers and put it mainly on the implementors. When new features come out, obviously, the developers will have to document it. This philosophy allows the people who are using zabbix to document solutions and how-to's.

The only problem is that we are going to get 50 wiki pages on how to install it. Therefore there needs to be a moderator for it. Otherwise, it is useless. It would be easier to search the forums.

[Bharathu]

I made my own documentation

I struggled a lot in zabbix. I still have a long way to go. I need to setup active checks. Then I need to monitor tomacat, web logic, web spehre. I have no idea how to do it.

But iwas successful in setting up passive checks and I was able to monitor windows and Solaris boxes. I made my own 60page document specifically aimed at newbies like me in the field on Unix.

Alexei, if you are interested in viewing my document plz PM me ur email ID as I will send u a copy of it. I even attached all the web page downloads I have come across with my document. There by i want to make this document as one stop solution for UNIX newbies.

[Andreas Bollhalder]

"sytem.localtime" on Windows

In contrast to the documentation in the ZABBIX Manual v1.4 rev 7 on page 84, the item parameter "sytem.localtime" is working for Windows too.

Andreas

[orla]

Working time

Hi
Just startet using Zabbix - still testing.
Installation went pretty much smoothly on CentOS 5 following the Wiki.

Defining working time following the manual, could be more clear, that you have to use
1-2,08:00-16:00;3-3,08:00-18:00;4-5,08:00-16:00;
(3-3 for just one day)
Tried with 1-2,08:00-16:00;3,08:00-18:00;4-5,08:00-16:00;
which is not accepted.

You could in the example list, that one day is 3-3 - or whatever day.

Looking forward to testing the product.

Orla

[Crazy Marty]

Need More Specific Examples

One I'd like to see is just exactly how to set up a multi-server arrangement, step by step. I have 5 sites to monitor local machines at, and several (not all) are interconnected via VPNs. I am currently monitoring them all from just 1 server, and I'm very pleased so far, but that server's site is bandwidth limited, so I'd prefer to take advantage of one of the features that does make Zabbix stand out.

I would expect that my starting point isn't terribly different from how others have gone about it, so I would think that a complete guide to converting from a single site to distributed data collection. And then adding all the magic to see that all the links are up.

[cstackpole]

My question is, why is the documentation not readily available for users to easily contribute to? If it is on the Wiki and I missed it, I apologize. However, last I looked, i couldn't find it; if it is on the Wiki it should be more prominent.

The documentation (aka the PDF) should be there for the community to edit and improve. Several times I have seen posts that say "I just found a problem with the documentation. Heres what it should be." I have even made posts like this myself. Sometimes these posts have an acknowledgment and sometimes I look at the latest PDF and find that the change was not made (yet).

Other frustrating posts go something like "I really need to do this. Why isn't it in the PDF documentation?" or "Why does the documentation just say to be filled in / coming soon?" If someone find the answers that should go in those place holders, they should be able to submit that information for the next person who reads the documentation.

Personally, I think that the PDF versions should be snapshots of what is on the wiki. It is already set up for us to edit pages and see who made what changes; so why not just put everything on there? If person A finds a mistake, then they can fix it. If person B thinks that something is missing, they can add it.

I do understand that someone should be in charge of the 'final' PDF snapshot that is taken every x days; that way there are not duplicate entries and everything is kept in proper order. In that regard a wiki may make things a bit more difficult for that person who does the PDF. But at the very least, can there be a forum that is dedicated to user documentation? That way we can make a post and know for certain that the update/edit/fix is going to be implemented in the next version or at least going to be looked at and acknowledged with a reason why the change was not made. A separate forum for documentation would help distinguish between 'i have a problem and I don't know whats wrong' and 'i had a problem, here is the solution and information that may help the next person and should be included in the next PDF'.

The only other improvement that I REALLY want is a better search function on the forums. It is extremely annoying when a search is made and nothing of value is returned (or worse you get the "The following words are either very common, too long, or too short and were not included in your search" message with every term you searched for). Yet the _/exact/_ same search on Google with the site:zabbix.com added to the query returns pretty much exactly what is needed. I guarantee that this hinders newcomers and practicality encourages repeat questions. I try really really hard not to ask repeat / stupid questions that have been answered many times but there are times in which I just can't find the information easily because it isn't in the PDF and I can't find it on the forum. We have all seen those questions submitted and they are greeted with "this was answered here , here, and here". The poster with the problem responds with "Dang. Sorry. That didn't come up in my search and I couldn't find that in the documentation. Oh well. Thanks!"

Maybe its just me and my opinion, but if the same questions keep being asked, then it should be well documented and easily found.

I understand that doing documentation can be a pain in the neck (and lower regions as well) but it is a necessity. Especially since I would rather the developers be working on new features then answering the same questions over and over again.

Anyway, those are my opinions at least
Thanks guys! Keep up the good work!
cstackpole

[Alexei]

Give me Wiki style editor having ability to create high quality PDFs (printer ready, references, images in right places, etc) and I will be happy! Any ideas?

[Niels]

Give me Wiki style editor having ability to create high quality PDFs (printer ready, references, images in right places, etc) and I will be happy! Any ideas?

Write it from scratch? ;-)

I think the official (pdf) documentation should be written by developers, and the wiki should be for us users. The official documentation must be consistent and as error-free as possible, and that's not easy with a public wiki. Hopefully the wiki will grow so that it can be a help in writing the manual.

[Alexei]

The official documentation must be consistent and as error-free as possible, and that's not easy with a public wiki. Hopefully the wiki will grow so that it can be a help in writing the manual.

What I would like to avoid is a duplicate effort when synchronizing official documentation with the Wiki. I just do not want to maintain and synchronize two sources of information, the Wiki and the official docs.

[Niels]

What I would like to avoid is a duplicate effort when synchronizing official documentation with the Wiki. I just do not want to maintain and synchronize two sources of information, the Wiki and the official docs.

A wiki is usually made by the community, generally speaking. If you (the developer) want the information there to be ultra correct, up to date and under your control, then you'll have to do the work yourself. But, again, that's not what a wiki is for.

Another solution is to focus on the wiki, helping the community maintain and improve it. Remove the pdf and point to the wiki for information. Use your time and knowledge to manage the wiki.

[cstackpole]

What I would like to avoid is a duplicate effort when synchronizing official documentation with the Wiki. I just do not want to maintain and synchronize two sources of information, the Wiki and the official docs.

I agree. Maintaining two sources would be difficult. Increasing the difficulty is the last thing I want to do to the Zabbix team. My suggestions are there only to inspire some thoughts to improve the documentation and make it easier for the Developers and Users. I may not be familiar enough with the code to help produce patches, but I can certainly read through the documentation and point out potential problems/errors as well as bits of information that can be useful to others. There are many of us like that.

I suggested the wiki because it is already in place ready for users to edit and contribute and those were the best ideas I had at the time. I just want to ensure that the community has the ability to contribute to the documentation and know that the contribution is going to be used or know why the contribution was rejected.

If the wiki is going to be difficult to manage (which I could see being a possibility as I don't have a foolproof plan yet), what about opening another forum? Then any user can post "I have an addition to make to section X.xx" and the document maintainer can post a reply "accepted" or "denied, duplicate information" or "correction has been made". Then every user can make a suggestion, addition, or correction and know that they are being heard by the Zabbix team member in charge of the official documentation.

Again, I don't have a perfect solution. I am just trying to spur on some ideas / debate to help the Zabbix team with documentation. We want to eliminate problems and increase usefulness, right? Any one have thoughts, ideas, potential problems with these ideas that they would like to share?

[fatiha]

Documentation for php code

Hi,

Why don't you comment php code so that I can generate documentation with phpdocumentor?

Thanks to reply,
Fatiha