Radix Technologies SA present how they use Zabbix to monitor their infrastructure and tail it to the customers needs.

1. Slide 1
Zabbix and You
Martin Markovski / System administrator
martin@radixcloud.com
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014

2. Slide 2
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014
Topics
1. Introduction
2. Comparison : Nagios v/s Zabbix
3. Zabbix : Architecture Overview
4. Zabbix : Browser based GUI
5. RadixCloud : Open-source Value-Add
Agents & Consulting Services

3. Slide 3
Introduction
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014

4. • Needed to monitor IT systems - 24x7
► Are applications, web servers, databases
and other services up?
• Needed insight into performance
► Visibility into current and historical
performance and load
► Quantifying, charting and trending of load,
performance and utilization
• Tool for HelpDesk (Level 1-3 Support)
Slide 4
How it all started…
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014

5. Slide 5
Choices: Commercial
Players
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014

6. www.groundworkopensource.com
Slide 6
Choices: Nagios &
Derivaties
www.shinken-monitoring.org
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014

7. Choices: Other Open Source
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/xorg/nmtf/nmtf-tools.html#contents
Slide 7
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014

8. Top Contenders:
Nagios & Zabbix
Slide 8
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014

9. ► Popular and well-known
► Basis for many other open source systems
► Template-based and object oriented
inheritance
► Based out of Minneapolis, US
► Boost (?) by RedHat announcement
http://www.nagios.org/news/77-news-announcements/230-nagios-is-redhats-standard-alerting-
Slide 9
Nagios: Brief
Overview
• Pros
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014
system

10. ► Requires significant effort for setup
► Setup, admin and configuration = text file
based
► Monitoring data stored in single flat file
(or via pipe into database)
► High I/O on data file from monitoring and UI
► Configuration change require reload
► “Primitive” graphing and monitoring UI
Slide 10
Nagios: Brief
Overview
• Cons
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014

11. ► Agent and agent-less monitoring
► SNMP support
► Template based
► Scalable, distributed architecture trough proxies
► Built-in UNIX, log-file, SNMP and URL monitoring
► Easy to extend with plug-ins or agents
► Active development
► Database based monitoring data storage
► Thresholds and alerting separate from monitoring
Slide 11
Zabbix : Brief
Overview
• Pros
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014

12. ► Can define alerts based on comparison of current
► Can build dependencies between monitored entities
► Pre-canned (template-based) graphs as well as ad-hoc
Slide 12
Zabbix : Brief
Overview
• Pros
► Multiple items or attributes per monitored entity
► Different items of an entity can be monitored by
different mechanisms
item value with historical values, averages, etc.
graphs on any monitored item
► User-defined maps, screens and slide-shows
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014

13. Slide 13
Zabbix
Architecture
Overview
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14. Slide 14
Zabbix Distributed
Architecture
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Zabbix Node (Central)
Zabbix Server
Zabbix Database
Zabbix OS
Agents
Zabbix
Distributed
Nodes
Proxy Servers or
Proxy Agents
Web Server
External monitoring data collectors
External Scripts

15. Slide 15
Inside the Zabbix
Server
Zabbix Server Processes
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014
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Poller Parloercteesrses
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16. ► GNU/Linux
► AIX, HP-UX, Solaris
► MacOS
► Windows
• OS agents can run external programs
to complement / enhance monitoring
Slide 16
Zabbix OS Agent
• OS-level agents for most popular
platforms
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014

17. ► Define new or modify existing templates
► Contains monitoring data elements called items
► Contains thresholds (triggers) and actions on item
► Collection of pre-defined graphs using items
• Hosts
► Define new hosts and link to template
► Customize triggers and actions if necessary
• Data Collection – by Server, Agent or Proxy
Slide 17
Zabbix Monitoring
Approach
• Templates
► Hosts = monitored entity
e.g. hosts, applications, databases, etc.
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014

18. Slide 18
Zabbix: Built-in
Templates
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19. Slide 19
Zabbix: Template
Items
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20. Slide 20
Zabbix: Item
Configuration
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21. Slide 21
Zabbix
Browser based
GUI
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014

22. Slide 22
GUI: Login Page
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23. Slide 23
GUI: Dashboard
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24. Slide 24
GUI: Dashboard –
Favorites
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25. Slide 25
GUI: Menu Options
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26. Slide 26
GUI: Monitoring Data Display -
Tabular
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27. GUI: Monitoring Data Display -
Tabular
Slide 27
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28. Slide 28
GUI: Monitoring Data Graphs -
Adhoc
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29. Slide 29
GUI: Data Graphs
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30. Slide 30
GUI: Data Graphs –
Custom
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31. Slide 31
GUI: Templates and
Triggers
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32. GUI: Trigger Definitions
Slide 32
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33. Slide 33
GUI: SLA calculation
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34. Slide 34
GUI: Alert Listing
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35. Slide 35
GUI: Alert Emails
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36. Slide 36
GUI: Discovery results
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37. Slide 37
GUI: Actions
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38. Slide 38
GUI: User & Group
Administration
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014

39. Slide 39
GUI: Group Security
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014

40. Slide 40
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014

41. Slide 41
Zabbix Architecture
Zabbix
Monitoring
Agents
Services
Zabbix Monitoring Framework
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014
&
Support

42. ► Appliance = virtual machine template
► Contains Zabbix + CentOS + best practices
► Zabbix = Best open source monitoring
► CentOS = One of the best Linux variants
► Quick, easy & flexible to deploy
► Up and running in less than 60 minutes
Slide 42
Radix Products -
Appliance
• Radix Monitoring Appliance
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014

43. application servers, software components, custom
apps
Slide 43
Radix Products –
Agents
• Zabbix Monitoring Agents
► Add-on monitoring capabilities for databases,
► Embed deep product-specific expertise and
monitoring best practices
► Covers key health and performance data
► Open-source makes them extensible
► Minimally “intrusive” on monitored entity
► Java JVM and DB2 released
► MsSQL, AD, DNS metrics
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014

44. Slide 44
Radix Services
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014
• Services
► Deployment, implementation and training
► Consulting & custom development
► Develop custom monitoring for customers to
help operations and monitoring of their
operations
► Alerting by email, sms, phone call

45. Slide 45
Radix Services
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014
• Proxies
► Available as a package trough EPEL
► Custom built Docker image
( https://hub.docker.com/u/mart1n/zabbix-proxy-
mysql/ )
► Runs in either passive or active mode behind
firewall
► Automatically discovers servers and services
and adds them to the master node

46. Slide 46
Questions?
Martin Markovski / System administrator
martin@radixcloud.com
© Radix Technologies SA, 2014