In today’s digital era, information is an asset and most of it is obtained from websites. The ability to automatically monitor website content changes has become a crucial competitive advantage, as even small changes on a website can affect business strategies, security postures, and data-driven decision-making. Accordingly, Zabbix 7.0 saw the introduction of a new feature called Browser Item, which allowed users to perform advanced website monitoring using a browser.
The Browser Item feature includes the ability to:
● Capture screenshots of the current website state
● Measure website performance and availability metrics
● Extract and analyze data from web pages
● Generate automatic alerts based on detected changes or errors
This means Zabbix is no longer limited to traditional IT infrastructure monitoring. It can now also serve as a tool for monitoring strategic external information.
Key use cases for website change monitoring with Zabbix
The Zabbix Browser Item opens up many valuable use cases for organizations that want to proactively track website changes. Below are some key examples:
Monitoring release notes
Tracking vendor release notes is essential for IT teams. With Zabbix, we can automatically detect new releases, extract relevant information, and notify the appropriate team members so they can respond faster.
Tracking security advisories
Security advisories are critical for maintaining a strong security posture. By monitoring websites that publish vulnerability information using Zabbix, security teams can be promptly alerted about new threats and take timely actions to reduce risks.
Monitoring competitor websites
In a competitive market, staying informed about competitor activities is vital. Zabbix allows users to monitor competitor websites for pricing updates, new product offerings, marketing campaigns, or news announcements, while providing valuable business intelligence to support strategic decisions.
Monitoring tender announcements
Zabbix can also monitor websites for new tender announcements from government portals or business partners, ensuring our organization stays aware of the latest business opportunities.
Ensuring internal website integrity
Beyond external sites, we can also use the Browser Item to ensure the integrity and availability of our own websites. It helps detect unexpected content changes, broken links, or performance degradation that may affect the user experience or signal potential issues. Proactive monitoring helps maintain a high-quality user experience and protect our brand reputation.
Getting started with website change monitoring in Zabbix
Solution overview architecture
This diagram shows how Zabbix uses a WebDriver to capture and analyze website content.
The collected data is stored in Zabbix for visualization and alerts when changes are
detected.
Step-by-step configuration
In this example, we’ll monitor changes on the Nginx Security Advisories webpage.
Step 1: Prepare the Web Driver
Zabbix requires a Web Driver to perform browser-based monitoring. One commonly used option is Selenium, which can be deployed using the following Docker image:
https://hub.docker.com/r/selenium/standalone-chrome
Step 2: Configure WebDriverURL on Zabbix server or proxy
Update the WebDriverURL parameter in your Zabbix Server or Zabbix Proxy configuration to point to the Selenium service you deployed.
Step 3: Create a Browser Item in Zabbix
1. Create a host if it doesn’t already exist.
2. Add a new item with the following settings:
- Type: Browser
- Type of information: Text
The key part is the script section. Below is the example script.
The script uses two methods:
- browser.navigate method defines the URL to be monitored
- browser.findElements method specifies the page section where changes should be detected
Note: The StartBrowserPollers parameter must be enabled on the Zabbix server or proxy configuration for browser items to work. It is enabled by default with the value StartBrowserPollers=1.
Step 4: Create dependent items
The Browser Item produces a JSON result containing website data. This item serves as the master item for dependent items such as:
- Extracting the latest security advisories
- Capturing a website screenshot
Step 5: Create a trigger for change alerts
Create a trigger that compares the current and previous values of the “latest security advisories” item. If any change is detected, Zabbix will automatically send an alert notifying your team of the update.
Step 6: Display data on the dashboard
To visualize the monitored data, we can use the Item History widget on a Zabbix dashboard to show both the latest security advisories and the corresponding screenshot, for example.
Conclusion
The Browser Item feature in Zabbix 7.0 elevates website monitoring beyond simple availability checks. It enables comprehensive monitoring of website changes, unlocking a variety of use cases such as tracking release notes, security advisories, competitor activity, and more.
If you’re interested in implementing this capability, feel free to contact us. Bangunindo is a Zabbix Premium Partner in Indonesia, ready to help you design, implement, and optimize your Zabbix monitoring solution to fit your specific needs.
