Zabbix for Beginners- 06- Monitoring Tips

In this tutorial video, I want to show you how you can use Zabbix to monitor your network! by introducing some feature and giving several tips. This tutorial video includes:

Dashboard, Triggers , Events, Graphs, Maps, Screens, Slide show

You can watch the video here: http://youtu.be/_c8CO4XW2xs

Download the slides here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7Qqqz58v3OKWEV0V0xIY25FSlU/view?usp=sharing

Dashboard: Displays a summary of all the important information:
Favorites (graphs, screens, maps)
Status of Zabbix
System status
Host status
Last 20 issues

More information: https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/2.4/manual/web_interface/frontend_sections/monitoring/dashboard


Triggers: Displays the status of triggers
Events: Displays latest events includes: trigger events, discovery events, auto registration events, internal events
Graphs

More information: http://www.cbt4all.com/2015/01/zabbix-for-beginners-01-installing.html


MAP: Helps to have an overview of your infrastructure You can check all of your connectivity in one screen. Needs to be configured. Steps:

  1. TAP: Think and plan (my term!). Think about the criteria you need to relay on. As I want to check only the availability, so I would ping the hosts.
  2.  Add the Template ICMP Ping to your hosts.
  3. Create new map or like me use the exist map (Configuration → Maps)
  4. Add the hosts and change the symbol if you want to
  5. Create a link between your hosts and Zabbix Server and add the trigger you want
More information: https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/2.4/manual/config/visualisation/maps/map


Screen: Helps to have quick overview on a single screen. Easy to configure (Configuration →Screen). Steps:
  1. Create new screen
  2. Select row and columns
  3. Choose what do you want to show
More information: https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/2.4/manual/web_interface/frontend_sections/monitoring/screens

Slide show: You can configure that a number of screens are displayed one after another at set intervals. Easy to configure. (Configuration→ Slide shows). Steps:
  1. Select the interval time in second
  2. Select the screens you want to show
More information: https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/2.4/manual/config/visualisation/slides





Other Zabbix videos:

00-Introduction:
 http://www.cbt4all.com/2014/12/zabbix-for-beginners-00-introduction-of.html

01-Installing Zabbix:
 http://www.cbt4all.com/2015/01/zabbix-for-beginners-01-installing.html

02-Working with Zabbix-Part 1
http://www.cbt4all.com/2015/01/02-zabbix-for-beginners-working-with.html

03-Working with Zabbix-Part 2- Templates- SNMP
http://www.cbt4all.com/2015/02/zabbix-for-beginners-03-working-with.html

04-Working with Zabbix-Part 3-Templates-ZabbixAgent
http://www.cbt4all.com/2015/02/zabbix-for-beginners-04-working-with.html

05- Auto Discovery
http://www.cbt4all.com/2015/04/zabbix-for-beginners-05-working-with.html

06- Monitoring
http://www.cbt4all.com/2015/08/zabbix-for-beginners-06-monitoring-tips.html

All these videos are free and if you find them useful, share and copy them for other guys who may need them. I would welcome the opportunity to have your ideas, feedback and questions! at my blog, www.cbt4all.com


60 comments:

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

thank you for your another tutorial
i hope you get you website up and running
and may we get zabbix for advanced users asap.
and i am really looking forward to learn about zabbix proxy and more in your up coming videos

fa-golangtraining said...

@Ka,
Thanks for your comment. To be honest, I am planning to do some network stuff first.
Let see what happens

Unknown said...

How to send email when system error. In Media Type i don'k know and i don't understand how to config server send mail when in Media Type setup don't have smtp server, port server, username/password?. Where port of mail server? where username/ password to config.Please help me about it

fa-golangtraining said...

@Video Hướng Dẫn
Hi,
Thanks for your comment. I think you should spend more time and watch my previous videos. Because in some of them I have shown the process of installing and configuring the server.

Have fun

Stefano said...

Hi mr. Alireza,

first of all, thank you for your amazing work, this can help a lot of people like me ;-)

Only one question: i'm trying to check a link down with snmp, if a detach a cable between two switch , the link indicator trigger connected highlight the warning with red color but after a short period of time became newly green (the cable is unplugged...) and in the zabbix's log appear "temporarily disabling SNMP agent checks on host "cisco-2960": host unavailable". I need to check this with icmp or I'm losting somethings?

Thanks a lot
Regards

Stefano

Calvin said...

Hi Alireza,

Thanks for your training, it help me a lot.

here has a question hope you can help me, I am trying to buildup a auto discovery and add all my VMs in my network, i use the default "template Linux OS" to those VMs. it works but can not auto create "screen" to those VMs, i also try to build a template myself to do that but also doesn't work.

what i need is each host has their screen to show the system performance, the default template has a screen in the list but i am not idea why it doesn't work.

Thanks,
Calvin CHENG

fa-golangtraining said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
fa-golangtraining said...

@Calvin
Sorry mate I did not get what you need. What do you mean of screen? In Auto discovery we dont have screen or maybe I am confused

By the way, sorry for delayed response. Google used to email to me when some one write here but it seems I have changed some thing which it dose not it any more

fa-golangtraining said...

@Stefano
Hi. Sorry for delayed response. Google used to email to me when some one write here but it seems I have changed some thing which it dose not it any more

Any way... 

Let me first to be sure I got the question. You have unpluged the cable of a port on a Cisco SW and Zabbix dose not find it out?

Are you using the SNMP template device to monitor it or what? It is strange

Using ICMP cannot monitor a layer 2 interface while a port , physical port, on the 2960 SW is a Layer 2 port

But if you want to check the SW itself, you can use ICMP to check interface VLAN

Please clarify to me what is the scenario exactly

Anonymous said...

Dear Alireza,

Thank you for sharing very informative videos. yes it help me very well!!!!

God bless you.

Muhammad Qazafi.
mqazafi0@gmail.com

fa-golangtraining said...

@Muhammad
Hi,
Thank you for your comment. I am happy you like them :-)

Pawel said...

Hello and many thanks for great tutorial.
I'm wondering if there is a possibility to attach many values to trigger or just have some kind of value changed images.
What I would like to achieve is a image of switch port that based on value have different color like:
port connected without any error - green image
port connected with in/out errors -red image
port not connected - white image
Is it possible to have such value image mapping with different source of values ?

Regards,
Pawel

fa-golangtraining said...

@Pawel

Hi,
Actually I see your point as I think you are probably following other monitoring softwares like Solarwinds ,etc.

I am not sure this version of Zabbix supports this but I recommend you to ask this advanced question on https://www.zabbix.com/forum/

nodo2003 said...

Hi Alireza,

Could you tell me please do you use macros for host groups? Is it possible?

I need little bit suggestions, thank you in advance.

Unknown said...

Hi Alireza,

Can you make a video creating items and triggers?

Regards,
Adrian.

fa-golangtraining said...

@nodo2003

Hi, I don't know what you meed exactly. Could you clarify it for me please?

fa-golangtraining said...

@Adrian

Hi, I think I have done. Please check all videos, first. Thanks

nodo2003 said...

Hi Alireza,

I would like to create MACROS for MAPs, which will be show information from HOST GROUP to the main MAP, as I read manual of Zabbix it isnt possible yet, but I think any work around is possible, and I think maybe you have any idea how is possible to do that.

For example:

I have many host groups of servers, in the every host group I have from 3 to 10 servers (hosts), in the network around 15-20 host groups, its not possible to create MAP with all hosts, according that I think will be possible to create MAP with HOST GROUPs which will be linked to submaps with hosts.

Thank you in advance.

fa-golangtraining said...


@nodo2003
Hi, I dont know it is really advanced question. I think the best place for this question is https://www.zabbix.com/forum. Also, I was wondering if you could put the solution, or the link of the solution, here if you find it
Thanks

nodo2003 said...

Hi Alireza,

I`ve already asked it on the zabbix forum, but unfortunately no one didnt answer yet :(

In case if I`ll find any solution I`ll post.

Unknown said...

how can i monitor tomcat server through zabbix.Please help me with this problem.

fa-golangtraining said...

@sourav
Hi,
what do you want to monitor exactly? In general there are two ways: Monitor the performance (SNMP and agent) and monitor the services
for both you can use template. Have you watch the videos related in?

Unknown said...

Hi Alireza,
I have cisco ASA 5510 and 5505.
I need to monitor IPSec tunnels bandwidth one by one
I ran a perl script that is working fine. However, something strange is that the graph illustrating bandwidth is discontinuous.
we have a graph and after 1 or two minutes we have nothing like there is no data received.
the graph appears again after 10 minutes. So I can't have an idea about the bandwidth evolution of IPSec Tunnels.

Could you please help me? Do you have any idea about what could be the issue.

Kind Regards

fa-golangtraining said...

@Zied
Hi... Good question and to be honest I have never tried it so I have no idea but if I found the solution, I will create another video

Gong said...

Please, can you make a video on how to set up SNMP trap On Zabbix and also explain the concept pf MIB in the simplest way possible? additionally, you can also introduce from scratch how to create a "community" using Linux OS as a scenarios.......maybe Redhat Linux or CentOS.

fa-golangtraining said...

@Gong
Hi,
I have done what I know in videos:

http://www.cbt4all.com/2015/01/zabbix-for-beginners-01-installing.html
http://www.cbt4all.com/2015/01/02-zabbix-for-beginners-working-with.html

At this stage as I am busy for some exams, I cannot capture any new videos. Also I am planning to create some networking videos and little by little go to Linux and Security which may take time. Any way thank you for your comments. When I comeback to create new videos about Zabbix, I will consider your comments and interests :-)

Unknown said...

Hi Dear Mr Rezvani

Thanks For great Teaching That Makes me Glad.
I searched your blog to find Zabbix course Slides ,unfortunately Can't Find them, is it possible to i have them? if yes how can i?

thanks a lot
with great respect
mehdi asadi

fa-golangtraining said...

@Mehdi
Thanks for you comment. Actually you can download the slides on the page of each post. For example in the first post:
http://www.cbt4all.com/2014/12/zabbix-for-beginners-00-introduction-of.html

you can find the like below for the post slide:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7Qqqz58v3OKZ2hjX3gyVzNXNW8/view?usp=sharing

And so on, you can find slides link on the same post page.

Thanks

Emmanuel said...

Hello Mr Alireza,
I'm trying to do the monitoring of an operator backbone and I choose zabbix. I've seen your movies and I like it thank you very much. I want to implement the backbone architecture on GNS3 and the zabbix server on Raspberry pi 2. I want to connect the Raspberry to my computer and so monitor servers and devices of gns3. So I try today with just one router and I try to ping the raspberry to the router and it works. But if I connect the raspberry to my computer the raspberry couldn't be so connected to internet. But I would like to send email alert and sms alert why not? So I wondered if there is a solution? If you can help me? I want to ask you if you could do a movie for sms alert it would be great :).
Thank you a lot for your good job
PS: I'm a french speaker so my english isn't good and I hope you understand what I wrote? :)

fa-golangtraining said...

@Emmanuel
Hi, thank for your comment and sorry for the delayed responds.

Well, I understand that :
1- You have an external computer called Raspberry and you have installed Zabbix on it.
2- You have created a GNS3 topology and you want to connect it to Raspberry

If my understanding is correct, it is not Zabbix issue it is a GNS3 problem. In GNS3 you should use cloud to connect GNS3 to real worlds. Also you need to connect that cloud to the real network interface on your computer which you are connecting to the internet or other network.

Please let me know if it helps or not

Emmanuel said...

Yes I see what you want to say but now I install it in virtualbox like you did in your video. Now my only problem is the mail notification. I followed all the steps in your video but when I do the mail test it doesn't work I don't know if something have changed? Have you an idea? I have this error: (Host or domain name not found. Name service error for name=smtp.gmail.com type=AAAA: Host not found, try again)
Thank you

fa-golangtraining said...

@Emmanuel
Honestly, as far as I know, what I have captured work properly because I have checked it several times. But your question is more Linux question that Zabbix question and I think you should ask the question from Linux guy.

Emmanuel said...

Hello Alizreza,
I've resolved the problem with my smtp server. But now I want to monitors servers on my network. For example the monitoring of my active directory or my web server. If the controler domain or the web server doesn't work send a mail. Now I just monitor the windows server with the zabbix agent. it's mean for now I just monitor the CPU, Memory and the bandwith. But I want to do the monitoring of services on this servers. So I wondered if you could help for it?
Thank you a lot.
Emmanuel

bardichTech said...

Hi Emmanuel please i want to ask you about the problm that you face in your smtp server and how you resolved it.also i have same problem and i install smtp but if i test to delete for example a file the server give me a warnning but i didn't receive email.

Emmanuel said...

Hi abdelaziz. For the mail alert I don't use the smtp server anymore. I found a script for gmail on a site and I use it.

bardichTech said...

Ah that's ok i resolved also the problem with this site :

http://www.tecmint.com/configure-zabbix-to-send-email-alerts-to-gmail/

Thanks for all

fa-golangtraining said...

@ Emmanuel

Hi, Sorry for the delayed response. I was on holidays

Well, you would need to monitor the services. For example IIS services for the Web Servers (for example Template App HTTP Service).

For the active directory, I think you can check this link for more information: https://www.zabbix.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22203

I personally haven not done it before

bardichTech said...

How can I ever thank you enough for all you've done Mr Alireza Rezvani ?

Realy this the awsome tuto that i followed it's very clear and very simple

Thanks you So much brother and go ahead don't hestate to do other tuto we will wait you.

have a good carrer

Abdelaziz From morocco

fa-golangtraining said...

@ Abdelaziz

Hi bro,

I am happy you like the videos. Thank you so much for your comment :-)

Unknown said...

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THIS VIDEOS!!! y just saw all of them, learn and practices because your cool explanations and have fun. Please keep it up with more zabbix features or practices. Thank you so much again for your excellent material.

fa-golangtraining said...

@Hagenrick 86,

Hi, Thanks for your comment. I am happy you like the videos. I have planned several times to make more videos but, to be honest, the time does not let me :P!

saleh said...

سلام
با عرض تشکر و سپاس از زحمات بی شائبه شما، و پوزش بخاطر نوشتار فارسی، آقای رضوانی من سرور زبیکس را با کمک ویدئوهای بسیار زیبا و کامل شما چندین بار نصب و استفاده کردم، شبکه ای که دارای بیش از 1500 دستگاه و بالای 350000 آیتم بعد از چندین روز آلارمهای سرور شروع میشوند و تمامی گراف ها بصورت مقطع (از هر چند دقیقه یک نقطه یا یک خط چند میلیمتری) برداشته میشود.برای تیون آن بسیار تلاش کردم در فایل های کانفیگ مقادیر پیش فرض را زیاد کردم مشکل حل نشد.البته مقادیر فایل های کانفیگ را نتوانستم هر چقدر بخاهم اضافه کنم ظاهرا با همدیگر در ارتباطند در هر حال مجبور به جمع آوری شدم. برای بنده محیط زیبا و کارآیی بالای زبیکس میتواند بسیار کارگشا باشد، اگر وقت و شرایط شما اجازه بدهد ممنون خواهم بود از راهنماییهای شما بهره مند شوم.

fa-golangtraining said...

@Saleh
Hi. If the question is why the graphs are not completely shown, to be honest I dont know. I have not seen this problem before.
Please note that at the level of the videos I have captured, you don't need to change the config files. You just need to change the values on the Web GUI.

Yngvi Thorfinnsson said...

HI, have you configured snmptrap sending to the zabbix server?
This is the opposite compared to polling with snmpagent from the zabbix server...
best regards
Yngvi

Anonymous said...

سلام جناب آقاس رضوانی عزیز
بنده هم علیرضا هستم از تهران
ممنون بابت آموزش های خوبتون
بنده یک دستگاه فایروال سیسکو دارم و دارم مانیتورش میکنم
اما مشکلی هست در ترافیک کردن IPSec
cikeTunOutOctets.( what index in )
in dastoor ro ba snmpwalk to zabbix server ejra mikonam va behem index interface ro mide , monteha vaghti ke IPSec ghat o vasl mishe , index IPSec avaz mishe va nemishe barash Key sabet tarif kard va monitoring az kar miofte.
ممنون میشم پاسخ بدین

fa-golangtraining said...

@Yngvi

Sorry for the delayed respond.

I did not understand the question exactly. Can you please clarify that for me?

fa-golangtraining said...

@Anonymous (Alireza from Tehran)

Sorry for the delayed respond. To be honest I have not tried monitoring Cisco ASA with Zabbix, I dont know the answer. I would recommend you to ask the question here: https://www.zabbix.com/forum

When you get the answer, please let us know too :)

Anonymous said...

hi mr rezavani
thanks for answer
the problem is not solved because cisco changed the ipsec connection index and you dont use static index of ipsec connections.
just use this key , that refer to number of ipsec connections :
cipSecGlobalActiveTunnels , 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.171.1.3.1.1
for example i have 3 ipsec connection, this key return 3 to me, and i create a trigger like :
cipSecGlobalActiveTunnels.last(0)<3
thanks a lot

Anonymous said...

or you can set discovery rule to discover your asa ipsec tunnel with LLD
thx

deeman said...

Ali,

I'm new to zabbix and I watched your videos on youtube. I'd have a few questions regarding forwarding of SNMP traps to Netcool.

How to forward SNMP Traps from Zabbix to Netcool?
Which variables can be sent in the TRAP to Netcool? Is there a list available for Zabbix server internal variables?

I would appreciate if you could shed some light on this setup.

Thanks in advance.
deeman

Unknown said...

Hello Alireza,

at first great turorials you have about zabbix. THey are very clear and helpt me a lot to implement Zabbix in our environment.

I have a question about monitoring vlans.
Is it possible to seperatly monitor traffic that goes between vlans?

for example

vlan 10 is servers
vlan 12 workstations
vlan 11 printers
vlan 13 wireless
vlan 14 wireless mobile devices like phones, tablets.

I like to get a view on how much traffic is going between vlan 10 and 14 and 13.

Is this possible with zabbix?

Thanks in advance for your answer.

Greatz John




john said...

merci pour ces tutos !!!

john from France

Sithu San said...

hi ali
zabbix can run over ssl ?, https instead of http
pls

Prashanth said...

Hi All,

can we monitor the windows logs which are specific to application , not the event logs .I have logs in c:\novell\abc.log ..Here in the abc.log i want to monitor particular string .

Any help on this is much appreciated .
Thank you :)

Unknown said...

Hi,

Is there any way to monitor Biztalk server using Zabbix?

Unknown said...

Hi,
Its a really good tutorial,
Thank you for sharing

Best Regards,

Franko

Anwar said...

Its really a very good initiative, sir.And you have done a pretty good . thank you so much.(Anwar-Bangladesh)

mubeen shahjahan said...

Many thanks for the exciting blog posting! Simply put your blog post to my favorite blog list and will look forward for additional updates. Simply wanted to write down a word in order to say thanks to you for those wonderful tips. price monitoring software

Unknown said...

Hello! Thank you a lot. All your stuff on Zabbix is helping me so much. Stay blessed.