Recently, we reached out to the members of our global community with an invitation to share their dashboards and give us a quick tour of what they do with our product. The response was so incredible that we have decided to highlight a few of the most interesting submissions here on our blog.
First up is Cesar Caceres, an independent IT consultant with nearly 10 years of experience in critical system monitoring within the banking sector. Cesar enjoys being alerted to changes within his home network so much that he composed a custom song to let him know when a new alert arrives!
My environment
My environment includes ping monitoring for multiple devices (Google Nest, Smart LEDs, Smart Lights, and TV). I also track home network devices: one personal MikroTik router and two belonging to my colleague Alejandro Velasquez, along with the temperature of these devices. Additionally, I monitor WAN consumption from my internet provider, as well as the bandwidth consumption of a connected client, my colleague, and the VPN.
I have a MikroTik and TP-Link router. When I connect the TP-Link to a port on the MikroTik, I can capture information about any devices connected to my home network. Using SNMP v2, I can then retrieve detailed information from these devices. From the WinBox console of the MikroTik router, I can navigate to IP > DHCP Server to locate the active hostnames to monitor.
In WinBox, I navigate to IP > SNMP Settings. Here, assign a community name for identification, select SNMP version 2, and enter the IP address of the MikroTik device.
Once configured, I verify from the Zabbix server that communication has been successfully established through the SNMP v2 protocol.
On the Zabbix server, I verify the host name of the device to make sure it’s visible. Since version 6.0, Zabbix includes a template specifically for the RB4011GS device, which simplifies the monitoring process.
Temperature monitoring for my location (Maracaibo, Venezuela) is integrated with OpenWeatherMap. I also monitor my phone using an agent from the Android Play Store. The template for this is available on this GitHub repository, but customization will always depend on individual needs.
The temperature of my Zabbix Server is monitored using a repository available on GitHub. It’s important to know the operating temperature of the Zabbix server.
If possible, I adjust the default parameters to suit the specific environment.
I also monitor the performance of our Zabbix server and database using the MySQL integration with the Zabbix agent, focusing on key elements like buffer usage.
I track the behavior of my portfolio (ccaceresoln.com) with web scenarios , including certificate monitoring. When querying SSL for my portfolio, I make a folder in the Zabbix server and create a script called checkssl.sh inside it. Then, I grant execution permissions chmod +x to the checkssl.sh script.
In the configuration of these items, the call will be made to the URL. Each hosting provider may automatically generate a new SSL certificate periodically. In my case, I don’t use a trigger for certificate renewal.
On the right side, there is a new widget for navigating based on alerts, which allows me to view more details about these issues.
Alerts
Alerts are delivered through WhatsApp, using a repository available on GitHub. This repository is based on the WhatsApp Web + Multi-Device API library. It’s important to ensure that the Mudslide libraries are up-to-date. Step-by-step instructions can be found in the Zabbix forums.
The assistant is based on a custom GitHub repository, customizing the language model using the Gemini 1.5 API. I chose this because it’s free to use and doesn’t require installation on the server. With the emergence of artificial intelligence, I’m hopeful that this could act as a proof of concept and an idea to help people understand how to resolve such alerts and learn from them. It’s more than just having everything in one place! Why MARIA? MARIA stands for:
M: Machine
A: Assistant
R: Reasoning
I: Intelligence
A: Artificial
Additional features
I had the idea to create a Zabbix song in order to have a sound that greets me every morning. Just a reminder that it’s a new day and Zabbix is here for alerts.
Song with sunoai:
Conclusion
Having a home network monitoring environment offers advantages such as receiving alerts about device status or specific equipment behavior even when you’re away from home. This allows for continuous supervision and proactive issue resolution.
