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Zabbix  Network Monitoring
Zabbix  Network Monitoring

Zabbix Network Monitoring: Discover a smarter way to monitor your network , Second Edition

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Zabbix Network Monitoring

Chapter 2. Getting Your First Notification

We have now installed Zabbix, but it's not doing much—this is what we'd expect. Software that starts doing something on its own would probably be a bit undesirable, at least for now. The promise of Zabbix is to inform you about problems as soon as possible, preferably before your users and management notice them. But how do we get data, where do we place it, and how do we define what a problem is? We will try to quickly get Zabbix working and alerting us on a single monitored item, which is the most common scenario. Before we can tell Zabbix who to send notifications to, we will have to explore and use some basic Zabbix concepts. They are as follows:

  • Navigating around the frontend
  • Creating a host and item (the Zabbix term for a monitored metric)
  • Looking at the gathered data and finding out how to get it graphed
  • Defining a problem threshold with a trigger
  • Telling Zabbix that it should send an e-mail when this threshold is exceeded...

Exploring the frontend

Although we have already looked at some data provided by the frontend, we should get a bit more familiar with it before attempting some more configuration tasks.

Configuration steps will be followed by verifying results in the Monitoring section. We will then explain some generic item terms used in Zabbix and their uses. Items, being the basis of information gathering, have a fair amount of configuration possibilities.

In your browser, open Zabbix's root URL (http://<server_ip_or_name>/zabbix), and log in again if you have been logged out. You should now see a pretty empty dashboard with little information:

Exploring the frontend

Click on the entries of the top menu bar and observe how the lower menu bar shows subentries of the chosen category. Click on Configuration, and then click on Host groups in the second-level menu—here, all configured host groups are shown. You will be using these menus a lot, so in the future, we'll refer to the action we just performed as...

Monitoring quickstart

Now that we have a basic understanding of the frontend navigation, it's time to look at the basis for data gathering in Zabbix—items. In general, anything you want to gather data about will eventually go into an item.

Note

An item in Zabbix is a configuration entity that holds information on gathered metrics. It is the very basis of information flowing into Zabbix, and without items, nothing can be retrieved. An item does not hold any information on thresholds—that functionality is covered by triggers.

If items are so important in Zabbix, we should create some. After all, if no data retrieval is possible without items, we can't monitor anything without them. To get started with item configuration, open Configuration | Hosts. If it's not selected by default, choose Zabbix servers in the Group drop-down menu (in the top-right corner). This is a location we will visit quite a lot, as it provides easy access to other entity configurations, including...

Information flow in Zabbix

We have now configured various things in the Zabbix frontend, including data gathering (Item), threshold definition (Trigger), and instructions on what to do if a threshold is exceeded (Action). But how does it all work together? The flow of information between Zabbix entities can be non-obvious at first glance. Let's look at a schematic showing how the pieces go together:

Information flow in Zabbix

In our Zabbix server installation, we created a host (A test host), which contains an item (CPU load). A trigger references this item. Whenever the trigger expression matches the current item value, the trigger switches to the PROBLEM state. When it ceases to match, it switches back to the OK state. Each time the trigger changes its state, an event is generated. The event contains details of the trigger state change: when it happened and what the new state is. When configuring an action, we can add various conditions so that only some events are acted upon. In our case, we did not add any...

Let's create some load

Right, so we configured e-mail sending. But it's not so interesting until we actually receive some notifications. Let's increase the load on our test system. In the console, launch this:

$ cat /dev/urandom | md5sum

This grabs a pseudorandom, never-ending character stream and calculates its MD5 checksum, so system load should increase as a result. You can observe the outcome as a graph—navigate to Monitoring | Latest data and click on Graph for our single item again:

Let's create some load

Notice how the system load has climbed. If your test system can cope with such a process really well, it might not be enough—in such a case, you can try running multiple such MD5 checksum calculation processes simultaneously.

Allow 3 minutes to pass and there should be a popup in the upper-right corner, accompanied by a sound alert:

Let's create some load

There is one of the frontend messages we enabled earlier in our user profile. Let's look at what is shown in the message window:

  • The small grey...

Basic item configuration

We rushed through the configuration of our simple item, so you might have gotten curious about the parameters we didn't change or talk about. Let's take a quick look at what can be monitored and what we can configure for each item.

Zabbix can monitor quite a wide range of system characteristics. Functionally, we can split them into categories, while technically, each method used corresponds to an item type.

Monitoring categories

Let's take a look at the generic categories that we can keep an eye on. Of course, this is not an exhaustive list of things to monitor—consider this as an example subset of interesting parameters. You'll soon discover many more areas to add in your Zabbix configuration.

Availability

While the simplified example we started with (the unlucky administrator in a party—remember him?) might not frighten many, there are more nightmare scenarios available than we'd want to think about. Various services can die without...

Exploring the frontend


Although we have already looked at some data provided by the frontend, we should get a bit more familiar with it before attempting some more configuration tasks.

Configuration steps will be followed by verifying results in the Monitoring section. We will then explain some generic item terms used in Zabbix and their uses. Items, being the basis of information gathering, have a fair amount of configuration possibilities.

In your browser, open Zabbix's root URL (http://<server_ip_or_name>/zabbix), and log in again if you have been logged out. You should now see a pretty empty dashboard with little information:

Click on the entries of the top menu bar and observe how the lower menu bar shows subentries of the chosen category. Click on Configuration, and then click on Host groups in the second-level menu—here, all configured host groups are shown. You will be using these menus a lot, so in the future, we'll refer to the action we just performed as Configuration | Host...

Monitoring quickstart


Now that we have a basic understanding of the frontend navigation, it's time to look at the basis for data gathering in Zabbix—items. In general, anything you want to gather data about will eventually go into an item.

Note

An item in Zabbix is a configuration entity that holds information on gathered metrics. It is the very basis of information flowing into Zabbix, and without items, nothing can be retrieved. An item does not hold any information on thresholds—that functionality is covered by triggers.

If items are so important in Zabbix, we should create some. After all, if no data retrieval is possible without items, we can't monitor anything without them. To get started with item configuration, open Configuration | Hosts. If it's not selected by default, choose Zabbix servers in the Group drop-down menu (in the top-right corner). This is a location we will visit quite a lot, as it provides easy access to other entity configurations, including Items and Triggers. Let...

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Key benefits

  • Monitor your network and deploy impressive business solutions with Zabbix 3.0
  • Manage hosts and system maintenance to keep your network performing for the people who use it
  • A step-by-step guide to smarter network monitoring

Description

This book is a perfect starting point for monitoring with Zabbix. Even if you have never used a monitoring solution before, this book will get you up and running quickly, before guiding you into more sophisticated operations with ease. You'll soon feel in complete control of your network, ready to meet any challenges you might face. Beginning with installation, you'll learn the basics of data collection before diving deeper to get to grips with native Zabbix agents and SNMP devices. You will also explore Zabbix's integrated functionality for monitoring Java application servers and VMware. Beyond this, Zabbix Network Monitoring also covers notifications, permission management, system maintenance, and troubleshooting - so you can be confident that every potential challenge and task is under your control. If you're working with larger environments, you'll also be able to find out more about distributed data collection using Zabbix proxies. Once you're confident and ready to put these concepts into practice, you'll find out how to optimize and improve performance. Troubleshooting network issues is vital for anyone working with Zabbix, so the book is also on hand to help you work through any technical snags and glitches you might face. Network monitoring doesn't have to be a chore - learn the tricks of the Zabbix trade and make sure you're network is performing for everyone who depends upon it.

Who is this book for?

If you're new to Zabbix look no further than this book. It will show you how to put your sysadmin knowledge to work with Zabbix 3.0 so you can experience the full impact of this useful and increasingly popular tool.

What you will learn

  • Get to grips with the fundamentals of Zabbix
  • Find out how Zabbix s features let you monitor your network with confidence and precision
  • Learn how to monitor SNMP devices
  • Manage hosts, users, and permissions while acting upon monitored conditions
  • Visualize data with the help of ad-hoc graphs, custom graphs, maps, and reports
  • Simplify complex configurations and learn to automate them
  • Monitor everything from web pages to IPMI devices and Java applications to and VMware stats
  • Troubleshoot any network issue - fast
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Publication date : Aug 10, 2016
Length: 754 pages
Edition : 2nd
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781782161288
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Tools :

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Product Details

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Length: 754 pages
Edition : 2nd
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781782161288
Vendor :
Zabbix
Languages :
Tools :

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Table of Contents

25 Chapters
1. Getting Started with Zabbix Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Getting Your First Notification Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Monitoring with Zabbix Agents and Basic Protocols Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Monitoring SNMP Devices Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Managing Hosts, Users, and Permissions Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Detecting Problems with Triggers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Acting upon Monitored Conditions Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Simplifying Complex Configurations with Templates Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Visualizing Data with Graphs and Maps Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Visualizing Data with Screens and Slideshows Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
11. Advanced Item Monitoring Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
12. Automating Configuration Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
13. Monitoring Web Pages Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
14. Monitoring Windows Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
15. High-Level Business Service Monitoring Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
16. Monitoring IPMI Devices Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
17. Monitoring Java Applications Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
18. Monitoring VMware Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
19. Using Proxies to Monitor Remote Locations Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
20. Encrypting Zabbix Traffic Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
21. Working Closely with Data Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
22. Zabbix Maintenance Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
A. Troubleshooting Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
B. Being Part of the Community Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.6
(5 Ratings)
5 star 80%
4 star 0%
3 star 20%
2 star 0%
1 star 0%
William S. Story Nov 14, 2019
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Wonderful book on an incredibly cool open source monitoring tool! It may be a little behind the current version now, but would still be educational enough to help you grasp the concepts and the IRC channel, #zabbix, has some wonderful people as well.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Matthew Feb 14, 2017
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I recommend
Amazon Verified review Amazon
にるる Oct 11, 2017
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
「仕事の本を自費で買うのだから好きにさせて」というわけで、英語の本を買ってみた。日本語のように斜め読みはできないけど、ちゃんと読めば理解はできるので良いのではないかと思っている。内容的には実用書兼入門書として申し分ないと思う。
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Werner Aug 18, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This is a very good book on Zabbix. Its a little bit bigger than I used to see from Pack Pub, but everything about Zabbix is discussed in this book. This book goes really into the details of like everything in Zabbix. From installing the Agent or the Server to creating and adjusting templates to complete your own monitoring setup. Or configuring Zabbix for monitoring VMware hosts/guests and don't forget the Proxy, all is discussed in detail. Also this book is written for the newly released Zabbix 3.0. All the new things like the encryption between the Agent and Server is discussed in this book to, so you won't have to use google for these new features.This book will not only help the sysadmins who are new to Zabbix, even the more experienced sysadmins who work daily with Zabbix will learn from it.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
CaptainSlappy May 27, 2017
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
One of the better and more current books on the subject, at least for use and customization of your existing Zabbix installation.Very thin on the version 3.0 and the current version is already to 3.2 so expect some online work to get current.In places it has what amount to recipes instead of teaching the reasoning behind the steps. The section on installation is a minimalistic step by step nearly copied from the product official web docs. It is very light on the WHY of doing the installation in the manner described, it just gives a step by step for a basic install.A welcome addition to the next edition would be a coverage of the various methods for high availability, backup and restore procedures and explanation of WHY certain things are configured the way they are recommended.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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