1. Introduction to zabbix
1.1 What is zabbix
Zabbix was created by Alexei Vladishev and is currently under continuous development and support by Zabbix SIA. Zabbix is an enterprise-grade distributed open source monitoring solution. Zabbix is a software capable of monitoring various network parameters as well as server health and integrity. Zabbix uses a flexible notification mechanism that allows users to configure email-based alerts for almost any event. This allows for quick feedback on server problems. Zabbix provides excellent reporting and data visualization capabilities based on stored data. These features make Zabbix an ideal solution for capacity planning. Zabbix supports active polling and passive capture. All Zabbix reports, statistics and configuration parameters can be accessed through a web-based front-end page. The web-based front-end page ensures that you can assess your network status and server health from any aspect. When properly configured, Zabbix can play an important role in IT infrastructure monitoring. The same is true for small organizations with only a few servers and larger companies with a large number of servers. Zabbix is free. Zabbix is written and released under the GPL General Public License Version 2. This means that its source code is freely distributed and available to the public at will.
1.2 zabbix overview
Zabbix consists of several main software components that function as follows:
- Server Zabbix server is the core component of monitoring agent reporting system availability, system integrity and statistics. Zabbix Server is the core store for all configuration information, statistics and operational data.
- Database Storage All configuration information and data collected by Zabbix are stored in the database.
- Web Interface For easy access to Zabbix from anywhere and on any platform, Zabbix provides a web-based interface. This interface is part of Zabbix Server, usually (but not necessarily) running on the same physical machine as Zabbix Server. If using SQLite, the Zabbix web interface must be running on the same physical machine as the Zabbix Server.
- Proxy proxy server Zabbix proxy can collect performance and availability data for Zabbix Server. Proxy server is an optional part of Zabbix software deployment; of course, Proxy server can help a single Zabbix Server share the load pressure.
- Agent monitoring agent Zabbix agents monitoring agent is deployed on the monitoring target, can actively monitor local resources and applications, and report the collected data to Zabbix Server.
- Data Flow In addition, it is important to understand the data flow inside Zabbix. In order to create an item for collecting data, a host must be created first. Transitioning to other parts of Zabbix functionality, you must first have an item to create a trigger, and you must have a trigger to create an action. So, if you want to be alerted that the CPU load of the X server is too high, you must first create a host entity for the X server and associate an item for monitoring the CPU, and then activate the trigger if the CPU load is too high , which will then execute an action that sends you an alert email. While it may seem like a lot of steps, it can be quite simple using templates. At the same time, this design can create a very flexible configuration.