The problem of duplicated NICs in windows vs Zabbix

[roberdaniel]

Hi all
As it is usual nowadays to work with virtualization environments like Azure, vmware, etc. in some cases there is a problem with phantom NICs adapters in Windows hosts that starts increasing in number.
What I’m talking about is this



So the problem here is Zabbix maps all these network adapters and when they become inactive (windows says that the hardware is not connected),

But Zabbix still tries to collect data from them and this has a negative impact to performance

[roberdaniel]

I've been seeing this behavior in many servers, the only workaround is to delete one by one the phantom nics in windows as explained here http://www.extropy.com/forums/knowle...twork-adapters (or use a kind of script) but from Zabbix perspective the Nic is not auto deleted as far I could see.
So, what we can do from our Zabbix side?
Can Zabbix auto-stop to collect data from devices that Windows accuses as not connected to computer?

[roberdaniel]

Update
In order to mitigate this issue, I've made these two actions

1. Manual delete nics like in previous comment or user some script like this https://gallery.technet.microsoft.co...an-up-bbdebf15
2. Configure your discovery rules to cleanup with no delay (Keep lost resources period=0)

Notice the big difference in poller processes utilization after cleanup of phantom nics and phantom services were made.




So, for those who have a high poller process utilization, don't' forget to check this topic.

[roberdaniel]

Updata #2

I've found that those windows services whose name ended in a random string, when user logs out the service is deleted, but it remains remembered by Zabbix for a period of time.
In our particular environment, more than a hundred users connect to each server every day and for each user windows create at least two of these services...