Category: Technical

How to Install CentOS 6 for Zabbix

The very first alpha versions of long-awaited Zabbix 3.0 were available for testers already some time ago. Now we are getting much closer to the final release of Zabbix 3.0 with the new 3.0 beta available for everyone. Many people would like to give it a try, but sometimes a nice tutorial helps to understand all concepts involved in this process.

In this tutorial a basic Zabbix 3.0 instance will be installed on a virtual testing environment hosted on a laptop, but with some modifications all steps can be applied to an environment of any size.

This tutorial might look a bit out of context regarding Zabbix, but we do hope that it will be useful for at least a few people that are having their first steps in Linux world and would like to give Zabbix a try.

Continue reading “How to Install CentOS 6 for Zabbix”

Zabbix 2.4 features, part 9 – Ad-hoc graphs

There have been two types of graphs in Zabbix until now:

Simple ones were available for any numeric item, but could only display that one item. Custom graphs could have multiple items on them, but could only be created by users with administrator privileges.

Zabbix 2.4 adds a capability to graph any items on the same graph, at any time, by any user – essentially, creating ad-hoc graphs.

Continue reading “Zabbix 2.4 features, part 9 – Ad-hoc graphs”

Zabbix 2.4 features, part 8 – Debugging web and VMware monitoring

In the previous two blog articles we looked at really great improvements in Zabbix 2.4 to help with debugging/troubleshooting – ability to change loglevel for a running daemon (any sub-process, even) and various smaller validation and error reporting improvements. There is yet another improvement in this area, though – improved debugging capabilities for the built-in web and VMware monitoring for the cases when you really have to dig deep.

Continue reading “Zabbix 2.4 features, part 8 – Debugging web and VMware monitoring”

Zabbix 2.4 features, part 7 – Improved troubleshooting

We already looked at one incredibly useful feature, available in 2.4 – ability to change log level while Zabbix daemons are running. Zabbix 2.4 also provides several other improvements that should help a lot with problem troubleshooting.

Continue reading “Zabbix 2.4 features, part 7 – Improved troubleshooting”

Zabbix 2.4 features, part 6 – Runtime loglevel changing

Historically, issues that might arise when using Zabbix have not been easy to troubleshoot. Not everything that would be useful is always logged. Log level can be increased, but those who still remember the first time they saw what DebugLevel=4 can do will understand why that option usually helped more advanced users. Besides, changing the log level required restart of the daemon, which in many cases would obscure the problem or introduce various other problems like delaying data on proxies in larger installations.

In what could be claimed to be one of the greatest improvements in 2.4 and maybe even beyond that, ability to change log level for a running daemon is coming.

Continue reading “Zabbix 2.4 features, part 6 – Runtime loglevel changing”

Zabbix 2.4 features, part 5 – Custom action condition formula

In Zabbix versions before 2.4, notification (action) conditions were limited to three predefined options – “AND”, “OR”, “AND/OR”. Zabbix 2.4 adds a new option – Custom expression. This results in full freedom when deciding how all the different conditions should be handled.

Continue reading “Zabbix 2.4 features, part 5 – Custom action condition formula”

Zabbix 2.4 features, part 4 – Web monitoring URL limit increased to 2048

Also known as that minor improvement some people just love. We already discussed most web monitoring related improvements for Zabbix 2.4, but there’s this one tiny thing left… an increase for the maximum URL length.

Continue reading “Zabbix 2.4 features, part 4 – Web monitoring URL limit increased to 2048”

Zabbix 2.4 features, part 3 – SSL verification and authentication controls

In these Zabbix 2.4 feature series we have already seen some improvements for the built-in web monitoring – the ability to specify custom headers and control redirects. Web monitoring got improved further – let’s explore the new options regarding SSL authentication. There are two of them:

  • Verifying SSL certificates
  • Supplying client certificate

Continue reading “Zabbix 2.4 features, part 3 – SSL verification and authentication controls”

Zabbix 2.4 features, part 2 – Controlling redirects and header retrieval for web monitoring

Continuing with the improvements for the upcoming Zabbix 2.4, there are several improvements for the web monitoring. In previous versions Zabbix always followed redirects and retrieved the full page – now both of these things can be controlled.

 

Continue reading “Zabbix 2.4 features, part 2 – Controlling redirects and header retrieval for web monitoring”

Zabbix 2.4 features, part 1 – Multiple LLD filters

Zabbix 2.4 is the upcoming major Zabbix version. While initially scheduled to be released in May 2014, it will be slightly delayed – Zabbix team is working hard, but there’s still a lot they would like to include in this release. While the new version is being baked, we can already start looking at the new features that will arrive with it. The first one will be a feature that Zabbix Conference 2013 participants voted on – multiple filters for the low level discovery. Continue reading “Zabbix 2.4 features, part 1 – Multiple LLD filters”