Few zabbix questions

[stalione]

Hello,
I had successfully setup zabbix as a standalone server and after I had perfected the configuration, I decided to convert it into a proxy with the master node connected over openvpn. During this migration I have ran into a lot of strange issues, and I am not sure how much of it is my doing

On the master server web interface:
1) (proxy) configuration >> Hosts >> group drop down, all the group names are the same (proxy name). I am not sure if this is a side effect of me importing the xml file from the standalone instance. Btw, under host groups, I have unique names for each host group.


2) How long should it take for me to make changes to the proxy on the master web interface, and the change to reflect on the proxy. Change propagation.

3) When i create a proxy host, do I create it under the master node or proxy node? It would make sense that I create it under master node, but I am not sure.

4) When I added the hosts to be monitored, I imported the xml file (from the standalone configuration) under the proxy node. Should I have imported it under master node and assigned the proxy node as the proxy server?


Zabbix daemon questions
1) Is there a difference between zabbix_server and zabbix_proxy binary? There was very little difference between the zabbix_proxy.conf and zabbix_server.conf (nodeid).

2) What is the difference between SourceIP and ListenIP?
Thanks,
VVK

[ataylo13]

On the master server web interface:
1) Not sure what version you are using, but there were a few web interface bugs in 1.6.4. Download the latest build to get the updated frontend.
2.) There is a line for this in the proxy config file
3.) I am assuming you mean adding a host to be monitored by the proxy, if so then you do that from the master.
4.) I would have imported to master and assigned the proxy to them

Zabbix daemon questions
1.) Not to sound condescending, but you should take a look at the docs to get a better understanding of the proxy vs server and when to use which.
2.) ListenIP can be specified if you have multiple interfaces and you want to specify which one you want zabbix to listen to.
SourceIP (I am assuming) is if you have a server with multiple IP addresses that you would specify which IP the server is talking from.

[stalione]

ataylo13,
Thanks for your responses. I should have come back and posted an update. I did get everything working.

1) I am using version 1.6.4 and i will consider using the latest build after I review the changelog.

2) Reading my post now, I can see I was not very clear. Yes, I did see the frequency of updates can be controlled by the parameters in the config file, but since I was adding all the monitors at a proxy level in the master web interface, I wasn't really seeing any updates.

3) This seems to be the root of all the confusion for me. I did not see anywhere in the manual specifically stating that all monitors should be added at the master and then the proxy should be assigned. This seems very strange because now when I use the drop down menu and select the proxy, I do not see any monitors attached to it. All the monitors show up under the master. This is very counter intuitive IMHO. If I had numerous proxies, and all the monitors continued to show up under the master, it would be very messy. Instead to me it makes more sense that any monitors I have added and assigned a proxy to, should show up under the proxy in the web interface.

4) I learned that the import needs to be done at the master node and then the proxy need to be assigned. Also I should mention that the import function is somewhat broken because it failed to create a lot of the host-groups I had created. Additionally, import also broke all my template linkage and essentially duplicated the parent template to all the child templates. Not a big deal, except when I started to make updates to the parent, expecting it would apply to all the monitors using the child template, I was caught off guard.

Zabbix daemon questions
1) Once again my mistake, I should have been more clear. I was a bit tired after spending a lot of time troubleshooting, so my post came across quite ignorant. The reason why I asked this question was, running the zabbix_server daemon with zabbix_proxy.conf seemed to display behaviors no different than running zabbix_proxy daemon. Of course now that I look back, it all goes back to the fact I was adding the monitors at the proxy level and not the master.

On page 191 of the manual, it instructs you to run zabbix_server to do the node conversion and then on page 193 (end) it just instructs you to start the child node, without ever mentioning the zabbix_proxy needs to be used. Since it instructed earlier to use zabbix_server, I just assumed it wants me to use it again to start the proxy. Also, I find it strange that zabbix_server need to be run to do the node ID conversion in the database, why not just implement the same feature in zabbix_proxy, so when I do deployments there are two distinct packages, one for server and one for proxies. If an admin notices the zabbix_server in the proxy package, there is a change he/she will get confused and start the server daemon.

2) "SourceIP (I am assuming) is if you have a server with multiple IP addresses that you would specify which IP the server is talking from." - talking to who? Talking to the clients it is monitoring, talking to the master node? This was not clear in the documentation.


Thank you very much for your reply, I was starting to fear I have commited to a project with somewhat dormant community. Zabbix is working great and doing a great job at monitoring. It seems the core (zabbix_daemon, proxy, agentd etc.) are pretty solid, but the php front-end and the documentation needs a lot of attention. I am hoping to help the dev's with issues I am noticing and suggest solutions.

Thanks,
VVK

[ataylo13]

Quick Replies:

2.) not sure what you mean by "I was adding all the monitors at a proxy level in the master web interface"
3.) I think you are confusing Proxy and Nodes, because only Nodes appear in the drop down, not proxies. Check under administration -> nodes and make sure your proxy is not listed there. Proxies are added under Configuration -> Hosts -> Proxies


2.) SourceIP - Talking to who? When the server is talking to the agents the agents will receive the event from the IP specified in the SourceIP.

HTH