Server order for agent distributed environment questions

[alexiel]

Hello,


I'm currently testing zabbix for distributed environment (with proxy)

And I have 2 questions:
- my agent (behind the proxy) is looking for its active checks on the first server is "servers list" (agent configuration) but only on the first server (which is the main server the second one is the proxy)!

My problem is: my agent is behind the proxy so it has to looking for its actives checks configuration on its proxy (defined in the frontend) not directly on the server.

I can't imagine I have to change my configuration (server order) of each agents depending of their assigned proxy.



My second question is : is it possible to have only one configuration file for all agents (like nagios) because I would like to deploy only one package on all servers or should I have a puppet configuration tool to manage all my servers specific configuration (the hostname)?.... (not the optimal way..) or maybe I missed something?

Thanks a lot!

[richlv]

yes, the first entry must point to the server or proxy that is supposed to monitor that agent.

how could the agent know which host to connect to otherwise ?

[alexiel]

Richlv, Thanks for your reply.

It should at least test all server in the ip address list one by one if the first one isn't responding....But ok why not.. it's just if you want to add one proxy to distribute the load you will have to change the configuration of all host you want to be monitored by the new proxy. Not only on the interface (like centreon for example). Sounds complicated for me for the long term management...

This way of configuration solve some traditionnal problematic of passive active supervision communication but create others ones

I'm not well with the system of hostname. It's very restrictive in the interface (for example if I want to have 3 virtual hosts with differents items and triggers I can't run only one agent on the physical host! Right?
(could be useful for ACLs and hostgroups in case of mutualized server)


But ok I get it. It's just for configuration managment, package deployment without puppet like tool it is the hell...

What do you use to manage the configuration: shell script, chef, puppet or other tool (as I said maybe I missed something)?


Maybe have a puppet or chef module on the zabbix server and agent to manage configuration of all agent would be perfect for zabbix admin. Could be automatically generate the configuration depending of the proxy configured, the hostname eg.


So to resume :
- If I want to use 3 host in zabbix without having to run 3 agents (and manage ports configuration) is there a way?

- What do you usually use to manage agent configuration in big environment?

- Tips I should be aware of ?


Thanks a lot !

[richlv]

It should at least test all server in the ip address list one by one if the first one isn't responding....

but what if multiple servers are allowed to query the same agent, but have different items for it ?
what if first server goes down, agent then contacts the other one and gets a list of active items. should i retry connecting to the first server repeatedly ? what to do if the first server comes back up - try to push collected values to it, ignore it, drop values and get a new list of active items ?

- If I want to use 3 host in zabbix without having to run 3 agents (and manage ports configuration) is there a way?

didn't understand the question

- What do you usually use to manage agent configuration in big environment?

that seems to be quite a different topic...

- Tips I should be aware of ?

do not create moster threads with multiple individual topics ?