6.0
CERTIFIED SPECIALIST TRAINING
DAY 1
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
© 2022 by Zabbix. All rights reserved
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Rules
It is prohibited to make any video and/or audio recordings during the whole period of this course.
This course is intended only for the officially enrolled student. Subject to the Copyright Notice below, the student is not allowed to
share his credentials for attending this course, to allow others to join and take part, or otherwise make use of these Materials.
Copyright notice
© Zabbix, 2022. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, Zabbix owns the copyright and other intellectual property rights in the text, graphics, information,
designs, data, verbal/audio/video presentations and files, comments, drawings, exam questions and exam answers, and other
training content, lab manuals and practical tasks, and training courses themselves (further – Materials).
The Materials are protected by watermarks, copyright statements, and other means. It is prohibited to remove any of watermarks
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Any unauthorized reprint, publication, reproduction, sharing, or use of the Materials is prohibited. No part of the Materials may be
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or by any information storage and retrieval system without the express signed written permission from Zabbix.
All course Materials made available to the student during the course of the training may be used solely by the student enrolled in
the relevant course for personal and educational purposes only. Materials provided to the student should be treated as
confidential information shared with the student only for the purpose of the student performing Zabbix Certified training.
The student acknowledges that damages alone would not be an adequate remedy for the breach of this copyright and the student
shall be entitled to the granting of equitable relief concerning any threatened or actual breach of any of the provisions of this
Copyright notice.
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
© 2022 by Zabbix. All rights reserved
Theory
2
GETTING STARTED
Introduction
Background/company
Experience with CLI Unix-like systems
Experience with Zabbix or other monitoring solutions
Current Zabbix deployments
All students are required to turn on their web cameras and use the name provided during
training registration for the trainer to track your attendance.
Questions at any moment are encouraged!
We suppose that attendees of this course have basic Linux knowledge.
For the practical tasks use the "Lab manual" - it provides all required details.
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
3
DAILY SCHEDULE
Time
Monday - Thursday
09:00 - 10:30
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist
10:30 - 10:45
Coffee break
10:45 - 12:00
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist
12:00 - 13:00
Lunch break
13:00 - 14:30
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist
14:30 - 14:45
Coffee break
14:45 - 16:00
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist
16:00 - 16:15
Coffee break
16:30 - 18:00
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
© 2022 by Zabbix. All rights reserved
Friday
Certification
Theory
4
AGENDA
Introduction
Components
User interface
Zabbix architecture
Zabbix interfaces
Data collection
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Installation
Hosts and
Host groups
Zabbix agent
5
Introduction
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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15 minutes
6
FUNCTIONALITY
Zabbix is the ultimate enterprise - class monitoring
platform
IPMI monitoring
Web monitoring
Event correlation
User roles and permissions
Tags
Java monitoring
SNMP monitoring
Pro-active monitoring
Agent auto registration
Network discovery
Visualization
Real-time monitoring
Low Level Discovery
Trend prediction
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
Flexibility
AD authentication
Database monitoring
Inventory
Pre-processing
API
Native agents
Encryption
Aggregate monitoring
Alerting
Bulk metric collection
IPv6
Problem detection
SLA monitoring
Templates
Distributed monitoring
© 2022 by Zabbix. All rights reserved
Theory
7
WHAT TO MONITOR
Zabbix offers solutions for different application areas and use cases:
Hardware monitoring
Infrastructure resources
Sensors
Industrial serial devices
CLOUDS
CONTAINERS
OS level monitoring
VIRTUAL MACHINES
Available resources
Service statuses
Log file entries
SERVICES
HARDWARE
Virtual machine and container monitoring
Guest VM, hypervisors and datastores
Docker, Podman, etc.
Cloud monitoring
APPLICATIONS
DATABASES
Application monitoring
Business service monitoring
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
8
METRIC COLLECTION
Zabbix supports wide range of metric collection:
Using Zabbix agents
Simple ping and port checks
SNMP(v1, v2c, v3), SNMP traps
HTTP checks and Web monitoring
IPMI and SSH checks
Database monitoring via ODBC
Java applications monitoring
Aggregation and calculated checks
VMware monitoring of VM's, Hypervisors and Datastores
Custom metrics/scripts and more
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
9
ABOUT ZABBIX
Zabbix 1.0 was released 23 March 2004
Every 1.5 years a new LTS (long time support) version is released
A major version with new and hot features is released every 6 months
Patches/bugfixes are released monthly
Zabbix is used by the world's biggest telco, finance, educational, retail, and
healthcare companies
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Theory
10
ZABBIX COMPANY
The Zabbix LLC was established in 2005
There are developers, test engineers, integrators, technical consultants, HR, sales,
marketing, and partnership departments working all around the globe
Zabbix company offices are open worldwide:
Europe
USA
Japan
Latin America
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
11
DEVELOPMENT
Zabbix is Open Source and comes at no cost:
Released under the GPL (General Public License) version 2
Free for commercial and non-commercial use
No limitations on the number of monitored devices
The entire source code is fully open and available for everyone
Key principles of development:
Develop very high performance and high-quality product
Have a low number of third-party dependencies
Be efficient - use as few system resources as possible
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
12
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
Different programming languages are used for the source code
C language - to provide the best performance
Zabbix server
Zabbix proxy
Zabbix agent
Go language - to provide more options for plugin developers
Zabbix agent 2
Zabbix web services
PHP language - to provide platform independent frontend
Zabbix frontend
Java language - to communicate with Java applications natively
Zabbix Java gateway
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
13
COMMERCIAL SERVICES
Zabbix LLC and Zabbix certified partners offers commercial services:
Technical support
different tiers, 24x7 support
Remote troubleshooting
quickly get a solution
Consulting
get advice from Zabbix experts
Upgrade
minimize downtime and risks
Training programs
obtain valuable knowledge
Turn-Key solutions
deploy your instance professionally
Integration
interconnect Zabbix with other tools
Template building
effortlessly start monitoring your specific device
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
14
Zabbix components
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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30 minutes
15
MAIN COMPONENTS
Zabbix has three main components:
Zabbix server
Data collection
Problem detection
Notification
Zabbix frontend
Configuration management
Visualization
Zabbix database
Configuration data
Historical values
Frontend
Database
Server
Configuration
Collected metrics
Internal communications
All components can be installed on the same or separate machines
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
16
ADDITIONAL COMPONENTS
Additional Zabbix components:
Zabbix Proxy
Monitor remote locations
Distribute load between proxies
Zabbix Java gateway
Monitor Java applications
Can be attached to Zabbix server or Zabbix proxy
Java
gateway
Zabbix web service
Generate scheduled reports
Zabbix web service
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Server
Proxy
Theory
17
ZABBIX SERVER
Zabbix server is the central process of Zabbix software
Central component to which Zabbix agents and proxies report data
The server can collect data from networked devices by itself
Zabbix server processes all collected data:
Pre-processes received values (if required)
Detects problems and sends out alerts
Transfers collected values into a database
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Theory
18
ZABBIX SERVER COMPONENTS
Zabbix server has several components:
Data collectors (pollers, trappers, pingers, etc.)
Multiple instances of data collectors can be started (poller #1, poller #2, poller #3, etc.)
Internal processes (history syncer, task manager, etc.)
Some of the processes are divided into manager and worker processes
Multiple instances of the same process can be started (alerter #1, alerter #2, alerter #3, etc.)
Caches (Configuration cache, history cache, value cache, etc.)
26011 /usr/sbin/zabbix_server -c /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf
26012 /usr/sbin/zabbix_server: configuration syncer [synced configuration in 3.18 sec, idle 60 sec]
26013 /usr/sbin/zabbix_server: preprocessing manager #1 [queued 0, processed 56 values, idle 5.06 sec]
26018 /usr/sbin/zabbix_server: preprocessing worker #1 started
26019 /usr/sbin/zabbix_server: preprocessing worker #2 started
26024 /usr/sbin/zabbix_server: housekeeper [deleted 0 hist/trends, 165 items/triggers, 56474 events, 0 sessions, 0
alarms, 4 audit items, 0 records in 7.567507 sec, idle for 1
26025 /usr/sbin/zabbix_server: timer #1 [updated 0 hosts, suppressed 0 events in 0.004086 sec, idle 59 sec]
26026 /usr/sbin/zabbix_server: http poller #1 [got 0 values in 0.000625 sec, idle 5 sec]
26028 /usr/sbin/zabbix_server: history syncer #1 [processed 0 values, 0 triggers in 0.000028 sec, idle 1 sec]
26029 /usr/sbin/zabbix_server: history syncer #2 [processed 3 values, 1 triggers in 0.002814 sec, idle 1 sec]
26036 /usr/sbin/zabbix_server: poller #1 [got 12 values in 0.031888 sec, getting values]
26037 /usr/sbin/zabbix_server: poller #2 [got 3 values in 0.023746 sec, idle 1 sec]
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
19
ZABBIX SERVER INTERNAL ARCHITECTURE (SIMPLIFIED)
Configuration cache
Data
collectors
Preprocessing
History cache
Configuration
syncer
History
syncers
Value cache
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
20
DATABASE ENGINES
The following database engines are supported:
MySQL / Percona (8.0.x)
MariaDB (10.5.x - 10.8.x)
PostgreSQL (13.x,14.x)
TimescaleDB (2.0.1- 2.7.x)
Oracle (19c-21c)
SQLite3 (for proxies and agent2 only)
Use recommended versions if possible:
Offers the best performance, stability, and reliability
Older versions may be no longer supported by the database developers
Elasticsearch is supported as an alternative history storage (experimental)
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
21
SERVER/PROXY REQUIREMENTS
Zabbix server/proxy can be installed on any *nix operational system:
Linux
RedHat / CentOS / Oracle Linux
Debian / Ubuntu / Raspbian
SUSE Linux
Solaris,
AIX, HP-UX
FreeBSD, OpenBSD
MacOS
Other
Some additional libraries will be required:
Functionality
Library
Preprocessing
libpcre
Bulk metrics
libevent
Traffic compression
zlib
IPMI checks
OpenIPMI
SSH checks
libssh
SNMP checks
net-snmp
ICMP ping
fping
Web monitoring
libcurl
VMWare monitoring
libxml2
Encryption
openssl-libs
libpcre, libevent and zlib libraries are always required
Other libraries are optional if Zabbix is built from sources without some of the functionality
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
22
ZABBIX FRONTEND
Zabbix frontend is used to:
Display and modify Zabbix monitoring configuration
Display collected values using dashboards, graphs, maps etc.
Display problems detected by Zabbix server
Changes made in the frontend are saved into Zabbix database:
Frontend will display latest configuration immediately
Zabbix server reads monitoring configuration changes once per minute (by default)
It is possible to force Zabbix server read configuration with a runtime command
immediately
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
1 minute
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Theory
23
ZABBIX AGENT
Zabbix agent is a process deployed on monitoring targets:
May run on various supported platforms (Linux, UNIX, macOS, Windows, etc.)
Collects data from a device or an application
Has very low memory footprint and resource usage
Can work in the passive or active mode (simultaneously)
Supports native communication encryption
Passive
mode
Active
mode
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Theory
24
ZABBIX COMMUNICATION
All Zabbix components use TCP communication (JSON RPC protocol)
Zabbix agent listens on port 10050 (in passive mode)
Server and proxy listens on port 10051
Zabbix Java gateway listens on port 10052
Zabbix web service listens on port 10053
10052
10051
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
10050
10051
© 2022 by Zabbix. All rights reserved
10053
Theory
25
Zabbix proxies
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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15 minutes
26
ZABBIX PROXY
Zabbix proxy collects data on behalf of Zabbix server:
Proxies will get monitoring configuration from Zabbix server automatically
Collected data is sent to Zabbix server every second by default
All data is stored into a local proxy database for a limited amount of time
The data is still collected by the proxy in case of network issues between the server and proxy
Proxies preprocess data (if required) to offload Zabbix server resources
Zabbix proxy
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
27
PROXY BENEFITS
Very useful to monitor hosts/devices behind firewalls or in remote locations
Communication is faster between proxies and monitored hosts
Collected data is sent in bulk in a single transmission
Only single TCP port is required for communication between server and proxy
Supports native communication encryption
One firewall
rule
Multiple firewall
rules
With Zabbix proxy
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
Without Zabbix proxy
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Theory
28
PROXY MODES
Zabbix proxies can operate in one of the two modes:
Active mode
proxy is connecting to server
Passive mode
server is connecting to proxy
Preferred proxy mode depends on the network configuration
Proxies in both modes can be used by the same Zabbix server instance
Monitored
hosts
Active
Proxy
Active
mode
Server
Passive
mode
Remote site A
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
Passive
Proxy
Monitored
hosts
Remote site B
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Theory
29
PROXY COMPATIBILITY
Zabbix proxy major version must match Zabbix server major version:
Zabbix proxy 6.0.0 and Zabbix server 6.0.1 are compatible
Zabbix proxy 5.0.9 and Zabbix server 6.0.1 are not compatible
An unlimited number of proxies can be deployed per Zabbix server instance:
Proxies may be placed in different time zones, it will not affect monitoring
London GMT +0
New York GMT -5
San Francisco GMT -8
Paris GMT +1
Tokyo GMT +9
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
30
Zabbix installation
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30 minutes
31
OS PREPARATIONS
It is recommended to prepare OS before installing Zabbix:
Setup an NTP client:
It is mandatory to have precise time on all systems with Zabbix components
Unsynchronized time may lead to false problem detection, missing data and other issues
Set up appropriate time zone on Zabbix server:
Zabbix server time zone will be used for some of the functionality (repeating maintenance
periods, time-based functions, reports, etc.)
Zabbix log file entries will have timestamps in this time zone
Setup firewall rules:
Zabbix server will have a lot of outgoing/incoming connections to different network devices
A firewall must be configured to allow this interaction
Built-in access control systems may block Zabbix server components
SELINUX, AppArmor
Other security tools
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Theory
32
DOWNLOAD ZABBIX
There are multiple ways of getting Zabbix:
Install it from the official packages
Use Zabbix Cloud images
Deploy from container images
Download the virtual appliance
Download the latest source archive and compile it yourself
i
https://www.zabbix.com/download
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Theory
33
ZABBIX PACKAGES
Choose the correct package for your OS:
Zabbix version
OS distribution
OS version
Database type
Web server
Instructions on the web page will change according to the selected options
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Theory
34
ZABBIX CLOUD IMAGES
Select the preferred cloud provider:
Zabbix will be deployed on cloud using predefined settings
Latest versions may not be available on some cloud providers
i
https://www.zabbix.com/cloud_images
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Theory
35
DOCKER CONTAINERS
Select and download the docker component:
Choose between Zabbix docker hub or GitHub
These are official docker files built by Zabbix LLC
i
https://www.zabbix.com/container_images
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Theory
36
ZABBIX APPLIANCE
Download the official Zabbix appliance:
Zabbix software is pre-installed and pre-configured for a trouble-free deployment
Evaluate Zabbix using your preferred virtualization platform
The Appliance can be used for test environments
i
https://www.zabbix.com/download_appliance
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Theory
37
ZABBIX SOURCE CODE
Deploy Zabbix from the original source code:
The latest source code is available in Zabbix Git repository or on the download page
Zabbix binaries can be built using your preferred libraries and options
The only way to deploy Zabbix server with Oracle database
Building Zabbix from sources is included in the Zabbix Certified Expert course!
i
https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/6.0/manual/installation/install
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Theory
38
MAIN ZABBIX PACKAGES
Packages required for Zabbix installation (RHEL package name examples):
zabbix-release-6.0
Zabbix 6.0 repository
zabbix-server-mysql
Zabbix server for MySQL database
zabbix-server-pgsql
Zabbix server for PostgreSQL database
zabbix-sql-scripts
Zabbix database schema
zabbix-web-mysql
Zabbix frontend for MySQL database
zabbix-web-pgsql
Zabbix frontend for PostgreSQL database
zabbix-apache-conf
Configuration settings for Apache web server
zabbix-nginx-conf
Configuration settings for Nginx web server
!
Choose the correct OS, database engine, and web server when installing Zabbix!
i
https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/6.0/
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Theory
39
ADDITIONAL ZABBIX PACKAGES
Additional packages provided by Zabbix:
Functionality
Package name
Zabbix agent
zabbix-agent
zabbix-agent2
Zabbix proxy
zabbix-proxy-mysql
zabbix-proxy-postgresql
zabbix-proxy-sqlite3
Zabbix Java gateway
zabbix-java-gateway
Zabbix web service
zabbix-web-service
Command-line utilities
zabbix-get
zabbix-sender
zabbix-js
SELINUX policies
zabbix-selinux-policy
Some OS distributions may provide their own Zabbix packages:
This is more common to the Debian-based distributions
Such packages are not supported by Zabbix, they are typically out-of-date
It is recommended to use only official packages from https://repo.zabbix.com
!
Zabbix web service is used only to generate scheduled reports!
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
40
Zabbix server installation
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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20 minutes
41
ZABBIX SERVER INSTALLATION
Installing Zabbix server from packages is the easiest way:
Pre-built packages are available for most OS families, web servers and databases
Debian
Raspbian
RHEL (Red Hat, Centos, Oracle Linux, AlmaLinux etc.)
SLES
Ubuntu
Simple to install using package manager
Zabbix can be automatically updated to the latest version
Steps to deploy Zabbix server from packages:
Install Zabbix official repository (use latest 6.0 release version)
Use package manager (dnf, apt, zypper, etc.) to install required Zabbix components
# dnf install https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/6.0/rhel/8/x86_64/zabbix-release-6.0-2.el8.noarch.rpm
# dnf install zabbix-server-mysql zabbix-sql-scripts
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Theory
42
DATABASE INSTALLATION
Zabbix server can not work without a preconfigured database:
Install and start preferred database engine
Create Zabbix database with proper parameters:
Zabbix requires a Unicode database character set and a UTF8 national character set
Database which is created with incorrect settings will require downtime later to fix the issue
Create database user with full access to the database:
If a remote database is used, make sure zabbix user can access the database over the network
MySQL
# mysql
mysql> create database zabbix character set utf8mb4 collate utf8mb4_bin;
mysql> create user 'zabbix'@'localhost' identified by 'P455w0RD';
mysql> grant all privileges on zabbix.* to 'zabbix'@'localhost';
mysql> quit;
PostgreSQL
# sudo -u postgres createuser --pwprompt zabbix
# sudo -u postgres createdb -O zabbix -E Unicode zabbix
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Theory
43
ZABBIX DATABASE SCHEMA
Zabbix database schema is required:
Schema is delivered in a separate package zabbix-sql-scripts
Database schema (Tables)
Initial configuration (Zabbix server host, official templates, users, etc.)
Pictures
MySQL
# cd /usr/share/zabbix-sql-scripts/mysql
# zcat server.sql.gz | mysql -uzabbix -p zabbix
PostgreSQL
# cd /usr/share/zabbix-sql-scripts/postgresql
# zcat create.sql.gz | sudo -u zabbix psql zabbix
Zabbix will not start without the initial database schema
084221.231 using configuration file: /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf
084221.237 query failed: Table 'zabbix.users' doesn't exist [select userid from users limit 1]
084221.237 cannot use database "zabbix": database is not a Zabbix database
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Theory
44
ZABBIX SERVER CONFIGURATION
Minimum requirements in the configuration file to start Zabbix server:
Database host address
Database name
Database schema (only if a specific PostgreSQL schema is used)
Database user
Database password
### Option: DBHost
DBHost=mysql.example.com
### Option: DBName
DBName=zabbix
### Option: DBSchema
# DBSchema=
### Option: DBUser
DBUser=zabbix
### Option: DBPassword
DBPassword=P455w0RD
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
zbx.example.com
© 2022 by Zabbix. All rights reserved
mysql.example.com
Theory
45
SERVER COMMANDS
Zabbix server binary supports command-line parameters:
More information (help)
# zabbix_server -h
# zabbix_server --help
Zabbix server version
# zabbix_server -V
# zabbix_server --version
Start with a different configuration file
# zabbix_server -c /tmp/test_zabbix_server.conf
# zabbix_server --config /tmp/test_zabbix_server.conf
Run in the foreground
# zabbix_server -f
# zabbix_server --foreground
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Theory
46
ZABBIX SERVER RUNTIME COMMANDS
Zabbix server supports runtime controls:
Runtime control syntax
zabbix_server -R <option>
zabbix_server --runtime-control <option>
Reload configuration cache on demand
# zabbix_server -R config_cache_reload
Execute housekeeper
# zabbix_server -R housekeeper_execute
Reload SNMP cache
# zabbix_server -R snmp_cache_reload
Reload Vault secrets
# zabbix_server -R secrets_reload
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Theory
47
DIAGNOSTIC INFORMATION
Diagnostic information can be collected and displayed in shell:
For all processes
# zabbix_server -R diaginfo
For a single process or cache
# zabbix_server -R diaginfo=historycache
== history cache diagnostic information ==
Items:0 values:0 time:0.000011
Memory.data:
size: free:16776832 used:0
chunks: free:1 used:0 min:16776832 max:16776832
buckets: 256+:1
Memory.index:
size: free:4176368 used:17440
chunks: free:2 used:5 min:48 max:4176320
buckets: 48:1 256+:1
.........................................
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
48
LOG LEVELS
Zabbix components have 6 debug (log) levels:
0 - basic information about starting and stopping of Zabbix processes
1 - critical information
2 - error information
3 - warnings (default level - recommended)
4 - for debugging (produces lots of information)
5 - extended debugging (produces even more information)
Default debug level is set in the Zabbix server configuration file:
3 is the recommended level for production environment
### Option: DebugLevel
#
Specifies debug level:
DebugLevel=3
!
A Zabbix server restart is required if changing log level in the configuration file
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
49
LOG CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
It is possible to adjust log options in Zabbix server configuration file:
Where to write the log file
### Option: LogType:
#
system - syslog
#
file
- file specified with LogFile parameter
#
console - standard output
LogType=file
Log file location
### Option: LogFile
#
Log file name for LogType 'file' parameter.
# Mandatory only if LogType is set to file
LogFile=/var/log/zabbix/zabbix_server.log
Log rotation options
Log file is moved to zabbix_server.log.old when the maximum size is exceeded
### Option: LogFileSize
#
Maximum size of log file in MB.
#
0 - disable automatic log rotation.
LogFileSize=512
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
50
ZABBIX SERVER LOG LEVEL
Log level for Zabbix server can be increased using the runtime controls:
Increase/decrease the log level for all processes
# zabbix_server -R log_level_increase
# zabbix_server -R log_level_decrease
It is possible to specify for which process to change the log level
Increase the log level for a process type
# zabbix_server -R log_level_increase=poller
Increase the log level for a single process
# zabbix_server -R log_level_increase="history syncer,2"
Decrease the log level using process number (will not work with the 6-digit PID)
# zabbix_server -R log_level_decrease=54362
Always set the log level back to the recommended (3 - warnings) after troubleshooting !
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
51
LOG FILE FORMAT
Zabbix components have a strict log file format:
It is easy to track which process created the log entry at what time
<Process id>:<Date yyyymmdd>:<Time hhmmss.ms> <information>
PID
Date
Time
Information
6621:20210927:143601.621 server #29 started [poller #4]
6622:20210927:143601.785 server #30 started [poller #5]
6623:20210927:143601.787 server #31 started [unreachable poller #1]
6624:20210927:143601.256 server #32 started [icmp pinger #1]
6625:20210927:143601.788 server #33 started [trapper #2]
6626:20210927:143601.802 server #34 started [availability manager #1]
6627:20211005:143601.903 server #35 started [housekeeper #1]
6621:20210927:143602.747 Zabbix agent item "system.cpu.util" on host "Zabbix server" failed: ...
6622:20210927:143617.789 Zabbix agent item "system.cpu.switches" on host "Zabbix server" failed: ...
6622:20210927:143632.791 Zabbix agent item "system.cpu.load on host "Zabbix server" failed: ...
6621:20210927:143641.892 item "zabbix[process,ipmi poller,avg,busy]" became not supported: ...
6622:20210927:143642.899 item "zabbix[process,java poller,avg,busy]" became not supported: ...
6624:20210927:143618.841 fping failed: dev-server.example.com: Name or service not known
6627:20210927:150601.670 server #14 started [housekeeper #1]
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
52
PRACTICAL SETUP
1) Setup operational system for Zabbix installation:
Setup the correct time zone for operating system
Check that SELinux and firewall are disabled
2) Create Zabbix database:
Install the latest MySQL 8.0 server package and start the database engine
Create a Zabbix database and set up database user
Install Zabbix 6.0 official repository
Upload Zabbix DB scheme to MySQL database, check for correct upload
3) Install Zabbix server 6.0:
Set up required Zabbix settings in the configuration file
Start Zabbix server. Check Zabbix server log file and service status
Check Zabbix server version
Check the process list for Zabbix processes
Increase/decrease Zabbix log level for history syncer #3
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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45 minutes
Practical task No: 1
53
Zabbix frontend installation
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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30 minutes
54
FRONTEND REQUIREMENTS
Zabbix frontend can be installed on any operational system:
Web server
Apache (1.3.12 or later)
Nginx
Other with PHP support (IIS, Tomcat etc.)
PHP Version 7.4.0 or later is required
PHP 8.x is supported since Zabbix 6.0.6
Some additional PHP libraries will be required:
php-gd(2.0.28 or later), php-bcmath, php-ctype, php-xml(2.6.15 or later), php-xml,
php-xmlreader, php-xmlwriter,​ php-session, php-net-socket, php-mbstring, php-gettext,
php-mysql, php-pgsql or php-sqlora for database support
php-ldap if LDAP authentication is used in the frontend
php-openssl if SAML authentication is used in the frontend
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
55
WEB SERVER AND DATABASE
Choose the correct database engine and web server package combination:
zabbix-web-mysql or zabbix-web-postgresql
zabbix-apache-conf or zabbix-nginx-conf
Database engine
Web server engine
zabbix-web-mysql
zabbix-apache-conf
zabbix-web-postgresql
zabbix-nginx-conf
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
56
ZABBIX FRONTEND INSTALLATION
Zabbix frontend installation has two parts:
Web server installation (from command line)
Frontend setup wizard (GUI-based installation)
Install the correct combination of frontend packages
Start the web server when the packages are installed:
Zabbix uses php-fpm (FastCGI Process Manager) by default on RHEL
Additional PHP configuration is not required to start Zabbix frontend
Web server and PHP parameters can be tuned later to match your environment
After the web server and php-fpm are started, launch the setup wizard
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
57
BROWSER REQUIREMENTS
The latest stable Zabbix versions are supported for the following browsers:
Google Chrome
Mozilla Firefox
Microsoft Edge
Apple Safari
Opera
Other browser requirements:
Cookies and JavaScript must be enabled
The minimum supported screen width for Zabbix frontend is 1200px
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
58
FRONTEND SETUP WIZARD
Open http://<DNS or IP>/zabbix address in a web browser:
Choose the default user interface language
Check prerequisites (all must be OK)
Configure Zabbix DB connection
Enter Zabbix server name
Choose the default time zone
Review summary
Finish the setup
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
59
FRONTEND LANGUAGE
Zabbix frontend language:
Default locale is defined in the setup wizard
Additional locales need to be installed on the OS of a web server
Language can be redefined per user in the user profile
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Theory
60
FRONTEND PREREQUISITES
All prerequisites must be OK:
Installation can not continue with any failed pre-requisites:
If a prerequisite is not met, fix the problem and restart php-fpm service
Memory limit too low
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
61
ZABBIX DATABASE DETAILS
Enter Zabbix database details:
Choose the correct database type
Enter the database host name and credentials
The database connection can be encrypted (optional)
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Theory
62
ZABBIX SERVER DETAILS
Enter additional settings:
Zabbix server name
Default time zone for Zabbix frontend
Default theme for all users
Zabbix server
name
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Theory
63
ZABBIX THEMES
Zabbix offers four built-in themes:
Blue (standard)
Dark
High contrast light
High contrast dark
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Theory
64
PRE-INSTALLATION SUMMARY
Summary page is displayed with all parameters:
Database connection settings
Zabbix server name
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Theory
65
FRONTEND CONFIGURATION FILE
Frontend settings are stored in the configuration file:
Located at /usr/share/zabbix/conf/zabbix.conf.php
Symlink created in /etc/zabbix/web/zabbix.conf.php
// Zabbix GUI configuration file
$DB['TYPE']
$DB['SERVER']
$DB['PORT']
$DB['DATABASE']
$DB['USER']
$DB['PASSWORD']
= 'MYSQL';
= 'mysql.example.com';
= '3306';
= 'zabbix';
= 'zabbix';
= 'P455w0RD';
// $ZBX_SERVER
// $ZBX_SERVER_PORT
$ZBX_SERVER_NAME
= '';
= '';
= 'Zabbix Production';
The setup can be started again by opening http://<DNS or IP>/zabbix/setup.php
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
66
LOGIN SCREEN
Default login credentials for a new Zabbix setup:
Username:
Admin
Password:
zabbix
Cookie can be saved
!
Default credentials are very unsafe and need to be changed!
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
67
PRACTICAL SETUP
1) Setup Zabbix frontend:
Install Apache web server and Zabbix Web frontend
Enable autostart for Apache and PHP-FPM manager and check service status
2) Complete the frontend setup wizard:
Open http://<Training-VM-XX IP>/zabbix in your browser (use correct IP address)
Check the prerequisites
Setup all required parameters for a DB connection
Use UTC as a default time zone
Provide instance name as "Zabbix server XX" where XX corresponds to the number of your VM
3) Log into Zabbix web interface:
Username:
Password:
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
Admin
zabbix
© 2022 by Zabbix. All rights reserved
15 minutes
Practical task No: 2
68
Zabbix interface
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
© 2022 by Zabbix. All rights reserved
15 minutes
69
INTERFACE OVERVIEW
Links
Main menu
Main window
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
70
MENU FUNCTIONALITY
Menu functionality:
Menu can be collapsed to small icons or hidden completely:
Global search is used to find hosts, host groups and templates
In the Monitoring section, frontend can be switched to kiosk mode by pressing
To exit kiosk mode, point to the upper right corner and press
Collapse or Hide
Instance name
Global search
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Theory
71
GLOBAL SEARCH
Type any string:
If there is a host that includes the string, dropdown will appear, listing all such hosts
Hosts
Host Groups
Templates
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Theory
72
MENU SECTIONS
Main menu has six sections:
Monitoring:
Dashboards, problems, latest data, etc.
Services:
Services and SLA settings
Inventory:
Overview of inventory data
Reports:
Predefined reports, scheduled reports and audit log
Configuration:
Monitoring setup
Administration: Global settings, proxies, user management, scripts, etc.
Links:
Zabbix technical support information page
Zabbix official integrations page https://www.zabbix.com/integrations
Zabbix documentation https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/
Current user profile settings
Log out current session
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Theory
73
USER TYPES
Zabbix has three built-in user types:
Zabbix user
limited user with access to collected data only
Zabbix admin
can change monitoring configuration
Zabbix super admin
provides access to global Zabbix settings and all hosts
Access to the frontend menu sections depends on the user type:
Zabbix User
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
Zabbix Admin
© 2022 by Zabbix. All rights reserved
Zabbix Super Admin
Theory
74
FILTERS
Zabbix frontend pages may contain filters:
Filter fields use AND logic to combine field values
Some filter sections may have multiple fields with "AND/OR" or "OR" logic
Or will use OR logic for all fields
AND/OR will use OR logic for similar types and the And logic for different types
Tags section with And/Or logic
Show or hide
filter by
clicking on
the filter icon
Host group = Linux servers and Name contains "Database server" and
Tags = ((component equals cpu or component equals memory) and database does not contain mssql)
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
75
NAMED FILTERS
Some Zabbix frontend pages can save, and later reuse named filters:
Pages with named filters will have multiple tabs:
A tab with filter icon for the main filter
Tabs for saved filters with a filter name
Number of hosts can be displayed (optionally) on the tabs
Filters are saved in the profile of current user, they are not available to other
users
Currently named filters are implemented for:
Monitoring > Hosts
Monitoring > Problems
Monitoring > Latest data
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
76
TAB DISPLAY OPTIONS
Zabbix configuration pages may have multiple tabs:
Information on multiple tabs may be filled at once before adding / updating settings
The currently active tab is highlighted
For tabs which may contain multiple entries the number of entries is displayed
If a tab has some settings enabled, it has a green dot
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
77
User profile
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15 minutes
78
USER SETTINGS
User settings menu has two sections:
Profile
User tab
Media tab
Messaging tab
API tokens
User profile settings with three tabs
General settings
Media settings (Admins and SuperAdmins)
Problem popup displaying options
Tokens created to access Zabbix API
Media tab is accessible to Admin and Super Admin users:
Media is used to send out alerts
Zabbix supports email, SMS, webhooks and other media types
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
79
USER SETTINGS
Every Zabbix user has access to the following settings:
Change own password
Choose display language (from installed languages)
Adjust the time zone
Choose Zabbix theme
Enable auto-login
Logout after an inactivity period
Auto refresh interval
Used for Monitoring section
0 disables auto refresh
Maximum rows per page
Redirect after login
Absolute or relative path
supported
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
80
ZABBIX TIME FORMAT
Zabbix always stores timestamps for all values in UNIXTIME:
Number of seconds that have elapsed since the Unix epoch, 00:00:00 UTC, 1 Jan 1970
UNIXTIME is stored using UTC (GMT +0) time zone
Frontend displays collected data using a time zone from the User profile:
The date and time for collected value may be displayed differently for different users
John
Alice
UNIXTIME 1629724769
Mon Aug 23 2021 15:19:29
Riga GMT +2
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
UNIXTIME 1629724769
Mon Aug 23 2021 13:19:29
UNIXTIME 1629724769
Mon Aug 23 2021 09:19:29
UTC (GMT +0)
New York GMT -4
© 2022 by Zabbix. All rights reserved
Theory
81
GLOBAL NOTIFICATIONS
Global notifications are a way of displaying current problems:
They will be displayed regardless of where you are in the Zabbix frontend
Global notifications involve both showing a message and playing a sound.
Only problems visible to the current user will be displayed
Problems are displayed in a floating section on the right-hand side:
This section can be repositioned freely by dragging the section header
Several controls are available:
Silence all currently active alarm sounds
Mute/Unmute current and future alarm sounds
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
82
MESSAGING TAB
Global notifications are configured in the Messaging section:
Enable notifications
Message display duration
Play sound once, for 10 seconds or for the message timeout duration
Define problem severities for which to play the sound:
Select severities that are important
Test the sounds from the frontend
no_sound will disable the audio alert,
but still display the message
Display options for "suppressed" problems
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
83
PRACTICAL SETUP
1) Create a user group with the name "Training users"
2) Create a new Zabbix user for yourself with Super administrator role:
You can use your name and surname to create login
Set up user parameters: time zone, password, URL
Use your local time zone
Specify custom URL to open Monitoring > Hosts page after login
3) Change the default Admin password to P455w0RD
4) Log in with your username and password
5) Check your user profile settings
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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10 minutes
Practical task No: 3
84
Zabbix data flow
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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20 minutes
85
DATA FLOW
Zabbix data flow has multiple stages:
Data collection
Data are gathered from monitoring targets called Hosts
Each host can collect hundreds of metrics using Items
Data preprocessing
Data are transformed if needed using Preprocessing steps defined in the item configuration
Problem detection
Each collected value is checked against problem conditions called Triggers and saved to DB
On problem detection a trigger-based Event is created
Alerting
If a problem is detected, it is processed by Action if matched by its conditions
Actions may perform multiple sequential commands called Operations
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
86
DATA FLOW DIAGRAM
ACTION
HOST
ITEM
TRIGGER
EVENT
CONDITIONS
OPERATION
ITEM
ITEM
OPERATION
TRIGGER
EVENT
OPERATION
ITEM
Event may not
match any action
HOST
ITEM
TRIGGER
ACTION
CONDITIONS
OPERATION
EVENT
ITEM
ITEM
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
OPERATION
ACTION
Trigger may belong
to multiple hosts
Event may match
multiple actions
© 2022 by Zabbix. All rights reserved
CONDITIONS
OPERATION
Theory
87
ACTIONS
An action is a set of operations which are executed when an event is created:
Action is executed only if the event conditions met
Operations are executed in the numbered order called operation steps
Each operation step execution time can be scheduled
Scheduled execution of operation steps is called escalation
Operation steps can:
Send messages (email, SMS, etc.)
Execute remote commands
ACTION
TRIGGER
EVENT
CONDITIONS
OPERATION 1
OPERATION 2
OPERATION 3
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Theory
88
TEMPLATES
A template is a set of entities that can be applied to multiple hosts:
Items, triggers and other entities can be created on a template
This template can be linked to multiple similar hosts, which will inherit these entities
Templates cannot be linked to a host group
TEMPLATE
HOST X
HOST Y
HOST Z
ITEM A
ITEM A
ITEM A
ITEM A
ITEM B
ITEM B
ITEM B
ITEM B
ITEM C
ITEM C
ITEM C
ITEM C
TRIGGER 1
TRIGGER 1
TRIGGER 1
TRIGGER 1
Linkage
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Theory
89
TAGS
Tags are used to mark various entities in Zabbix:
Hosts
Templates
Items
Triggers
Tagging is implemented as a pair of case sensitive tag name and value:
You can use just the name or pair it with a value
An entity may be tagged with the same name, but different values
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Theory
90
TAG INHERITANCE
If entities are tagged, the corresponding new events will inherit all tags:
Host tags will be inherited by all items and triggers on the host
An event will inherit all the host, item and trigger tags
HOST
Legend
Host tag
ITEM
Item tag
TRIGGER
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
Event
© 2022 by Zabbix. All rights reserved
Trigger tag
Theory
91
MACROS
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20 minutes
92
MACROS
Macros resolve to a specific value depending on the context:
Save time and make Zabbix configuration more flexible
Can be used in item names, trigger expressions, operation steps, etc.
Macros have specific syntax:
The name must be written in UPPERCASE
A macro must be included in curly brackets {MACRO}
Zabbix supports four types of macros:
Built-in macros
{MACRO}
User defined macros
{$MACRO}
Low-level discovery macros
{#MACRO}
Expression macros
{?MACRO}
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
93
BUILT-IN MACROS
Built-in macros are predefined names which will resolve to a value:
Syntax: {MACRO}
A full list of macros and supported locations is available in the documentation
Must be used in a proper location, otherwise they will not resolve
If a macro value is not resolved the macro name will be displayed instead
Macro
i
Description
Example output
{HOST.HOST}
Host name
Zabbix server
{HOST.IP}
Host IP address
192.168.12.5
{ITEM.LASTVALUE}
Last received metric for an item
3.523
{EVENT.NAME}
Name of the problem event
CPU load too high
{MY.MACRO}
Wrong macro name
{MY.MACRO}
https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/6.0/manual/appendix/macros/supported_by_location
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
94
USER MACROS
User macros are user-defined variables:
Syntax: {$USER.MACRO}
If a macro value is not resolved the macro name will be displayed instead
User macro values have three types:
Text
value is displayed in a plain text
Secret text
value is replaced with ******* in the frontend
Vault secret
only vault path is displayed in the frontend
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
95
USER MACRO LEVELS
User macros can be defined on three levels:
Global
GLOBAL MACRO
Administration > General > Macros
Overridden by Template and Host macro values
Template
(recommended)
TEMPLATE MACRO
Configuration > Templates > {template} > Macros
Overridden by Host macro values
Host
(change template macro value if needed)
HOST MACRO
Configuration > Hosts > {host} > Macros
Macro
{$CPU.LOAD.HIGH}
Global
Template
Host
Result
2
3
1
1
qwerty123!
pa$$w0rd
pa$$w0rd
{$SSH.PASSWORD}
{$SNMP.COMMUNITY}
{$MEMORY.UTIL.MAX}
public
public
90
{$MY.MACRO}
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90
{$MY.MACRO}
© 2022 by Zabbix. All rights reserved
Theory
96
INHERITED MACROS
Inherited macros are not displayed by default:
Only macros defined (or redefined) on the host level are visible by default
Switch to "Inherited and host macros" to display all macros in effect
Template
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Global
Theory
97
Host groups
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15 minutes
98
HOST GROUPS
Hosts and Templates may have one or multiple Host groups:
Host groups are used for logical grouping of hosts and templates
A host group can contain both hosts and/or templates
Each host or template must have at least one host group assigned
Host or Template may belong to multiple host groups
Each host group may have multiple hosts or templates assigned
Host A
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
Host B
Host C
Template X
© 2022 by Zabbix. All rights reserved
Template Y
Template Z
Theory
99
HOST GROUP PAGE
Host group page contains:
Host group name
Number of hosts and templates in the group
Clicking on Hosts or Templates will display the entries which belong to a group
List of host group members
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
100
HOST GROUPS AND PERMISSIONS
In Zabbix all access rights are based on user groups and host groups:
read only
User group
Host group
Users
Hosts
Even if a single user needs access to a single host it is done through groups:
read write
Admin
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
User group
Host group
© 2022 by Zabbix. All rights reserved
Host
Theory
101
NESTED HOST GROUPS
Zabbix supports nested host groups:
Nested representation is accomplished by using the '/' forward slash
It is not required to create the "parent" group to create nested groups
Nested host groups can inherit access permissions from parent groups
Logical representation
Location
Europe
North
America
South
America
Representation in Zabbix
London
Paris
New York
Los Angeles
Chicago
Japan
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Location
Location/Europe
Location/Europe/London
Location/Europe/Paris
Location/North America/New York
Location/North America/Los Angeles
Location/North America/Chicago
Location/South America
Location/Japan
Theory
102
CREATE HOST GROUP
It is possible to create a Host group using one of the two options:
Use Configuration > Host Groups > "Create Host group" button
Create a host group on demand from the host configuration form
Create a new
host group
Create a host group
from the host
configuration form
!
Only Zabbix super admins can create host groups!
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
103
DELETE HOST GROUP
Delete Host group button:
Located at the bottom of Host groups configuration form
Will delete an existing host group
Deleting a host group will only delete the logical group, not hosts in the group
Hosts included in this
host group will be not
deleted
It is not possible to delete a host group if this is the only group for some hosts
A warning will be displayed with names of hosts who have this as a last host group
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ENABLING OR DISABLING HOSTS
Enable/Disable hosts button:
Located at the bottom of Host groups configuration form
Will enable or disable all hosts belonging to the selected groups
Hosts are
disabled
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Theory
105
Hosts
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106
HOST DEFINITION
Typical Zabbix hosts are the devices you wish to monitor:
Host can be a physical device (server, workstation, switch, etc.)
Host can be a virtual services (virtual machine, docker container, etc.)
Host can also be just an application (Database, Java application, Web page, etc.)
A host contains multiple entities used for monitoring:
Items
data collectors
Triggers
problem conditions
Graphs
predefined graphs
Web scenarios
monitor web pages
Discovery rules
automatically create items, triggers and graphs from prototypes
Host functions as a container for metrics and entities related to them
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CONFIGURING HOSTS
Configuration > Hosts is the section where users can create and configure hosts:
Filter area allows to find specific hosts based on a host group, a host name, etc.
The filter can be displayed or hidden by clicking on the filter sign
Configuration area allows to change host properties
Clicking on a host name will open the host configuration popup form
Clicking on an entity type will open its configuration page
Filter
area
Configuration
area
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HOST TAB
The Host tab contains general host attributes:
Host name and at least one host group must be defined
All other fields are optional
Configuration tabs
General attributes
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CONFIGURATION TABS
Host configuration page has a multi tab interface:
Information on more than one tab can be updated at once
Host configuration tabs:
Host
general host properties (name, interfaces etc.)
IPMI
settings for IPMI authentication (algorithm, credentials)
Tags
host-level tags
Macros
inherited and host macros
Inventory
host inventory data (disabled, automatic or manual)
Encryption
encryption settings (unencrypted, PSK, certificates)
Value mapping mapping between numeric/string values and string representations.
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HOST OBJECT
Host properties
Host entities
User macros
Items
Tags
Value maps
Triggers
Graphs
Web scenarios
Low-level discovery rules
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111
HOST NAME
Host name must be defined:
{HOST.HOST}
Is case sensitive and must be unique
This is the "technical" name of the host
Alphanumeric characters, spaces, dots, dashes and underscores are allowed
Leading and trailing spaces are not allowed
Visible name is optional:
{HOST.NAME}
Can be empty – a "Host name" will be used instead
If defined, it is also case-sensitive and must be unique
If a "Visible name" is set, it will be used in all frontend sections for visualization
Has UTF-8 MB4 support, local languages can be used
Testing server in a local language
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112
HOST GROUP
A host must have at least one host group:
Select button allows to select one or more existing groups
Groups input field can also be used:
Type a part of the existing group name and select the correct group name
Type a non-existing group name and click on the name followed by (new)
Create a new host group
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113
HOST TAGS
Tags can be created on a host level:
Defined using the Tags tab interface
Host tags will be inherited by all items and triggers on the host
HOST
ITEM
TRIGGER
Item
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114
PRACTICAL SETUP
1) Create the following host groups:
Training
Training/Servers
2) Use filter to filter out only host groups with Training in the name
3) Create a new host training.lan:
Name:
training.lan
Visible name: Training resources
Host group:
Training/Servers
Description: Training server with common resources
Do not create any interfaces
4) Specify tags for the new host:
location
environment
<use your location>
training
5) Use filter to display only hosts in the "Training/Servers" host group
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20 minutes
Practical task No: 4
115
Interfaces
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116
HOST INTERFACES
Zabbix needs host interfaces to monitor different network objects:
Zabbix agents
Network devices
Hardware sensors
Java applications
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117
INTERFACE TYPES
Interface defines an IP address or a DNS name of the monitoring target
Four host interface types are supported:
ZBX
Zabbix agent in passive mode
SNMP
Simple Network Management Protocol
IPMI
Intelligent Platform Management Interface
JMX
Java Management Extensions
IP address
is ignored
in this case
SNMP interface type has additional settings:
Bulk mode
SNMP parameters
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118
HOSTS WITHOUT INTERFACES
No interfaces are defined on the host by default:
Interfaces required for monitoring must be created manually
Interface can use IP or DNS address
Interfaces that are in use by any existing items cannot be removed
Interface of the correct type is always required for following item types:
Zabbix agent passive items
SNMP agent items
JMX agent items
IPMI agent items
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119
ITEMS WITHOUT INTERFACES
Some item types do not require any interface:
Zabbix agent in active mode
Zabbix trapper
Internal items
Calculated checks
Database monitor
HTTP agent
Script
Some item types require any interface, but may use it or not:
Simple check
External check
Telnet and SSH
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120
HOST INTERFACES
Each host may have multiple interfaces defined:
Interfaces of different types on the same host is a typical scenario:
Multiple interfaces of the same type also can be used on a single host:
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121
INTERFACE MACROS
Built-in macros can be used to get the interface parameters:
{HOST.CONN}
{HOST.IP}
{HOST.DNS}
{HOST.PORT}
If multiple interfaces exist:
Macros used in trigger expressions will address the interface used by the item
Macros used in items without interfaces or scripts will use the following priority:
Zabbix agent
SNMP
JMX
IPMI
Will resolve to *UNKNOWN* if no interfaces are defined at all on the host
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AVAILABILITY ICON
Each interface type has the availability icon:
Green
all interfaces of this type are available
Yellow
at least one interface of this type is available and at least one unavailable
Red
all interfaces of this type are unavailable
Gray
at least one interface has unknown status and none unavailable
Clicking on the availability icon will display detailed status and error messages:
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123
AVAILABILITY ICON
If an interface type is not defined, availability icon not displayed at all:
Zabbix agent interface is defined but not used (can be removed)
Zabbix agent interface is not defined
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UNKNOWN STATUS
Zabbix server will set the interface availability to unknown if:
The host is disabled
There are no enabled items on the corresponding interface:
All items for this interface are disabled
This interface is not used in any item at all
The host is monitored by a proxy that appears to be offline
The host has been switched to be monitored by other server or proxy (until the config
cache updates)
Unknown
availability
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125
AVAILABILITY ICON
For multiple interfaces, the status of every interface will be displayed:
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126
UNREACHABLE POLLERS
Unreachable pollers are responsible for the failed checks on interfaces:
The data is gathered by the data collectors (usually some poller process)
When a data collection error occurs, unreachable pollers will be utilized:
### Option: StartPollersUnreachable
#
Number of pre-forked instances of pollers for unreachable hosts (including IPMI and Java).
# Range: 0-1000
StartPollersUnreachable=5
Unreachable pollers will start checking the interface based on Unreachable and Unavailable
settings after the first data collection failure
Start more unreachable pollers if a lot of network errors happen frequently
### Option: UnreachableDelay
#
How often host is checked for availability during the unreachability period, in seconds.
UnreachableDelay=15
### Option: UnreachablePeriod
#
After how many seconds of unreachability treat a host as unavailable.
UnreachablePeriod=45
### Option: UnavailableDelay
#
How often host is checked for availability during the unavailability period, in seconds.
UnavailableDelay=60
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127
INTERFACE AVAILABILITY
Interface availability is calculated by Zabbix server internally:
First 45 seconds after the item check fails, the interface is unreachable:
Different item keys are checked each time every 15 seconds
The interface is still marked as available
After 60 seconds, the interface is marked as not available
From this moment, the item keys are checked only every 60 seconds
Status changes can be tracked in Zabbix server log file
12:20220824:103500 Zabbix agent item "system.localtime" failed: first network error, wait for 15 sec
15:20220824:103515 Zabbix agent item "system.sw.arch" failed: another network error, wait for 15 sec
15:20220824:103530 Zabbix agent item "kernel.maxproc" failed: another network error, wait for 15 sec
15:20220824:103545 disabling Zabbix agent checks on host "PROD Server": interface unavailable
15:20220824:103745 enabling Zabbix agent checks on host "PROD Server": interface became available
15 sec 15 sec 15 sec
Monitored
Unreachability period
60 sec
60 sec
Unavailability period
Monitored
Unreachable poller
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128
PRACTICAL SETUP
1) Link template "Zabbix agent" to "Training resources" host:
Add Zabbix agent interface with a DNS name training.lan
Check interface status
Link template "Zabbix agent"
Check interface status
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10 minutes
Practical task No: 5
129
Data collection
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130
DATA COLLECTION
Zabbix supports multiple ways of data collection:
Using Zabbix agent
Zabbix agent is installed on monitoring targets
Monitoring can be done in active or passive mode directly or using Zabbix proxies
Agentless
Monitoring is performed directly from Zabbix server or Zabbix proxy
To monitor Java applications Zabbix Java gateway can be deployed
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131
ITEM FORM
Data is gathered from a host using Items:
Create a new host or use an existing one
Create a new item and set parameters:
Name
Type
Key (must be unique on a host)
Interface (if required)
Data type
Units
Update interval
History and trends storage period
Other (based on item type)
The form changes according to the selected Type
!
Multiple items with the same name can be created on a host if their keys are unique
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ITEM NAME
Item name is used to display information in the other frontend sections:
Naming guide:
Choose a simple, descriptive name for each item
Prefix item names (metric) with the object name (metric location):
<metric location>: <metric name>, for example:
Interface eth0: Bits in
Interface eth0: Bits out
You may use the # if the metric location is just a number or index:
#0: CPU utilization
#1: CPU utilization
Consider adding suffixes such as “per second”, “per hour”, etc., to describe the metric
better.
i
https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/guidelines/doc
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ITEM TYPE
Item type describes how the metric will be collected:
Passive (Polling)
Zabbix agent
Simple check
SNMP agent
IPMI agent
JMX agent
HTTP agent
SSH agent
Telnet agent
Database monitor
External check
Script
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Active (Trapping)
Zabbix agent (active)
SNMP trap
Zabbix trapper
HTTP agent if "Enable trapping" is set
Other (processed internally)
Zabbix internal
Calculated
Dependent item
© 2022 by Zabbix. All rights reserved
Theory
134
ITEM KEY
Item key has the following syntax: key[parameters,<optional parameters>]
Key
Predefined for some item types (Zabbix agent, Internal item, Simple check, etc.)
Free form string for other types (SNMP, Zabbix trapper, HTTP agent, etc.)
Only item key must be unique per host/template
Parameters
If parameters are specified, they are mandatory. Some item keys do not have parameters
Key parameters may be a quoted string, an unquoted string or a list
Macros can be used in parameters
<Optional parameters>
The "<>" means optional parameter, which may be left empty
Optional parameters will use default values if not specified
i
https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/6.0/manual/config/items/item/key
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135
ITEM KEY EXAMPLES
Without parameters:
agent.ping
agent.variant
system.boottime
With mandatory parameters:
net.tcp.listen[port]
net.tcp.listen[631]
net.tcp.listen[22]
With mandatory and optional parameters:
net.if.in[interface,<mode>]
net.if.in[eth0]
net.if.in[eth0,]
net.if.in[eth0,errors]
net.tcp.port[<ip>,port]
net.tcp.port[,80]
net.tcp.port[www.example.com,80]
The appropriate number of commas must be added if any further parameters
are specified:
proc.cpu.util[<name>,<user>,<type>,<cmdline>,<mode>,<zone>]
proc.cpu.util[zabbix_agentd]
proc.cpu.util[,root]
proc.cpu.util[,,,nginx]
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PARAMETER QUOTING
Item key parameters may require quoting:
To quote item key parameters, use double quotes only
A key parameter must be quoted if it contains:
Comma
Square brackets
Quotation mark (must be escaped with a backslash \ )
,
[]
\"
Incorrect use of quoting may lead to unsupported or incorrectly working items
If the key parameter is a quoted string, any Unicode character is allowed
Correct
Wrong
net.if.in["eth0",errors]
net.if.in["eth0,errors"]
log[/var/log/messages,"Error: [A-Za-z,.]"]
log[/var/log/messages,Error: [A-Za-z,.]]
vfs.file.exists[/tmp/application.pid,"file,dir"]
vfs.file.exists[/tmp/application.pid,file,dir]
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137
TYPE OF INFORMATION
Zabbix item may have one of the following data types:
Numeric unsigned
64-bit unsigned integer
Numeric float
double precision floating point
Character
255 characters of text
Text
64 kilobytes of text
Log
data with log related properties: timestamp, source, etc. (64 KB)
If a wrong data type is selected, the item may become unsupported
Example: data 0.0125 (float) and type Numeric (unsigned)
Text values will be truncated to match the database value type limit
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138
AUTOMATIC SUGGESTION OF TYPE
Frontend will suggest "Type of information" automatically for some item types:
Zabbix agent
Simple checks
Correct type is automatically suggested
If not suggested type is selected, a yellow warning sign will be displayed
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Theory
139
HISTORY STORAGE
History and trends are two ways of storing collected data in Zabbix:
History keeps each collected value with a UNIX timestamp and nanoseconds
Trends keep aggregated information on hourly basis and are less resource-hungry:
Minimum
Maximum
Average
Number of values
You can set for how many days history or trends will be kept:
Per item in the item configuration form (or by mass updating)
Globally by using override in Housekeeping settings
If History is set to "Do not keep history":
Problems will not be detected for such items
Trends still can be calculated
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140
TRENDS
Trends are very efficient to store data for longer time periods:
Recalculated automatically with every new value and stored every hour
Can be calculated only for numerical item types
1 Hour
Timestamp
Value
2020-04-21 18:00:02
2365456
2020-04-21 18:01:02
2889365
2020-04-21 18:03:02
3275493
2020-04-21 18:04:02
3923523
....................................
...............
2020-04-21 18:58:02
8743255
2020-04-21 18:59:02
4223525
Timestamp
MIN
2020-04-21 19:00:00
2365456
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History
60 values
5400 bytes
MAX
AVG
COUNT
8743255 5343356 60
© 2022 by Zabbix. All rights reserved
Trends
4 values
80 bytes
Theory
141
EXPIRED DATA
Expired data is removed from Zabbix database by the housekeeper process:
Only historical data is removed:
Item history and trends
Expired events and problems
Expired audit logs, sessions, etc.
Housekeeper can be executed manually
zabbix_server -R housekeeper_execute
Housekeeper is executed automatically every hour by default
### Option: HousekeepingFrequency
#
How often Zabbix will perform housekeeping procedure (in hours).
#
Housekeeping is removing outdated information from the database.
#
To lower load on server startup housekeeping is postponed for 30 minutes after Zabbix start
# Range: 0-24
HousekeepingFrequency=1
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142
CLEAR HISTORY
Collected values can be deleted on demand by pressing
Clear history
Both history and trends data will be cleared
Command can be issued for one or multiple items
Cleanup will start immediately using SQL DELETE statements (the housekeeper is not used)
This can cause significant load on database if large amount of data must be erased
Confirmation window will be displayed
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143
TIMEOUT
Data collection is affected by the timeout setting on Zabbix server or proxy:
### Option: Timeout
#
Specifies how long we wait for agent, SNMP device or external check (in seconds).
# Range: 1-30
# Default:
Timeout=10
I will wait only 10
seconds for an
answer!
This is a "general" timeout, which is not used in some situations:
Active checks are not affected by the timeout on Zabbix server side
HTTP checks have their own timeout
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Theory
144
Simple checks
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145
SIMPLE CHECKS
Simple checks are used for remote agent-less checks of services:
They are executed from Zabbix server or proxy without any agent
Timeout in Zabbix server / proxy configuration file affects simple checks
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146
USING INTERFACE ADDRESS
The address of any interface can be used as a destination address (optionally):
If <target> is not specified in the item parameters, the address from the selected interface
is used
Interface address
is used
If <target> is specified in the item parameters, the interface address is not used at all
Interface address
is not used
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147
SIMPLE CHECKS AND INTERFACES
Simple checks may use interface address, but they do not rely on the availability:
Interface availability status does not affect simple checks
Simple checks are not affecting any of the interface availabilities
Zabbix agent is not
responding, but simple check
will ping the host
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148
ICMP PING
It is possible to use ICMP packets to test host accessibility:
fping utility is used for sending ICMP packets:
fping binary file must have correct suid/permission settings (executable by Zabbix)
fping defaults can differ depending on the platform and version
### Option: FpingLocation
#
Location of fping.
#
Make sure that fping binary has root ownership and SUID flag set.
FpingLocation=/usr/sbin/fping
Zabbix pinger process performs ICMP checks
Start more pingers if lots of ICMP checks are used
### Option: StartPingers
#
Number of pre-forked instances of ICMP pingers.
# Range: 0-1000
StartPingers=5
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Theory
149
ICMP ITEMS
Zabbix supports the following ICMP items:
icmpping[<target>,<packets>,<interval>,<size>,<timeout>]
icmppingloss[<target>,<packets>,<interval>,<size>,<timeout>]
icmppingsec[<target>,<packets>,<interval>,<size>,<timeout>,<mode>]
fping -C5 -i10 dev-server.example.com
dev-server.example.com : [0], 84 bytes, 0.06 ms (0.06 avg, 0% loss)
dev-server.example.com : [1], 84 bytes, 0.08 ms (0.07 avg, 0% loss)
dev-server.example.com : [2], 84 bytes, 0.06 ms (0.06 avg, 0% loss)
dev-server.example.com : [3], 84 bytes, 0.06 ms (0.07 avg, 0% loss)
dev-server.example.com : [4], 84 bytes, 0.06 ms (0.06 avg, 0% loss)
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Theory
150
TCP AND UDP CHECKS
Availability and performance of remote TCP or UDP services:
Syntax
net.tcp.service[service,<ip>,<port>]
net.tcp.service.perf[service,<ip>,<port>]
net.udp.service[service,<ip>,<port>]
net.udp.service.perf[service,<ip>,<port>]
It is possible to check any TCP service by using tcp as a service name and a port
Only ntp is supported as a UDP service currently
Examples:
net.tcp.service[ssh]
net.tcp.service.perf[http,,8080]
Services that have predefined default ports and responses (except http) to check for:
ssh, ldap, smtp, ftp, pop, nntp, imap, http, https, telnet
i
https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/6.0/manual/appendix/items/service_check_details
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Theory
151
PRACTICAL SETUP
1) Create two simple check items on the "Training resources" host using the host interface:
ICMP ping status with tag "component : icmp ping"
Web service performance with tag "component : http"
2) Create a simple check without using the host interface:
NTP service availability using DNS address: training.lan and with tag "component : ntp"
3) Check that all items are receiving data:
Use Latest data view
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20 minutes
Practical task No: 6
152
Zabbix agent
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20 minutes
153
ZABBIX AGENT
Zabbix agent is a process deployed on monitoring targets:
May run on various supported platforms (Linux, UNIX, macOS, Windows, etc.)
Collects data from a device or an application
Has very low memory footprint and resource usage
Can work in the passive or active mode (simultaneously)
Supports native communication encryption
Passive
mode
Active
mode
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Theory
154
ZABBIX AGENT INSTALLATION
Zabbix agent can be installed from packages for most Linux distributions:
Use Zabbix repository and package manager to install
Pre-compiled agents are available for other systems:
Go to https://www.zabbix.com/download_agents
Choose the correct OS distribution, hardware and encryption support
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Theory
155
ZABBIX AGENT GENERATIONS
Two agent types are currently developed in parallel:
Zabbix agent
The "classic" Zabbix agent
Written in C language
Can be executed on all platforms
Still will be developed for future versions of Zabbix
Zabbix agent 2
The next generation of Zabbix agent
Written in Go Language
Requires monitored platform to have Go language support
Easily extendable with plugins
Supports all the functionality of Zabbix agent
Agent generation can be detected by using agent.variant item key
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Theory
156
AGENT VS AGENT 2
Parameter
i
Agent
Agent 2
Programming language
C
Golang
Linux daemonization
Yes
By systemd only
Run as Windows service
Yes
Yes
Supported extensions
Loadable modules
Plugins
Supported platforms
All (Including BSD, HP-UX, Solaris, etc.)
Linux, Windows
Concurrency
Active checks are executed sequentially
All checks can be executed concurrently
Scheduled/flexible intervals
Passive checks only
Active and passive checks
Persistent storage
No
Yes (SQLite3)
Timeout settings
On agent level only
Plugins can override timeout
https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/6.0/en/manual/appendix/agent_comparison
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Theory
157
ZABBIX AGENT ITEM TYPES
Only two item types are using Zabbix agent for data collection:
Zabbix agent
Zabbix agent (active)
The item key must be known to Zabbix agent:
Built-in into the agent (older versions may not support all keys from Zabbix 6.0)
Defined as a UserParameter in the agent configuration (discussed later)
Some item keys are OS-specific
The type of information must match the value type returned by the agent, for
example:
system.cpu.load
numeric (float)
system.uptime
numeric (unsigned)
agent.version
character
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Theory
158
FRONTEND REFERENCE
Frontend has a quick reference to all built-in item keys:
Press the Select button next to the Key field to bring up the list of supported item keys
If an agent version differs from a frontend version, some keys may not work
It is recommended to read Zabbix documentation to fully understand the potential of an
item
Read documentation
i
https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/6.0/manual/config/items/itemtypes/zabbix_agent
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Theory
159
ZABBIX AGENT ON LINUX
Zabbix agent on Linux / *NIX systems:
Runs from a limited zabbix account by default
User = zabbix; Group = zabbix
Additional privileges may be required to launch scripts or monitor files
Configuration file is located at /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.conf by default
/etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.d directory is included by default
Log file is located at /var/log/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.log by default
20220103:095804.178 Starting Zabbix Agent [Production server]. Zabbix 6.0.0 (revision d3db14ccb5).
20220103:095804.178 **** Enabled features ****
20220103:095804.178 IPv6 support:
YES
20220103:095804.178 TLS support:
YES
20220103:095804.178 **************************
20220103:095804.178 using configuration file: /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.conf
20220103:095804.179 agent #0 started [main process]
20220103:095804.186 agent #2 started [listener #1]
20220103:095804.189 agent #3 started [listener #2]
20220103:095804.191 agent #1 started [collector]
20220103:095804.191 agent #4 started [listener #3]
Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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Theory
160
RUNNING AGENT AS ROOT
Running Zabbix agent as root is not recommended but possible:
Systemd service settings must be modified:
/etc/systemd/system/zabbix-agent.service.d/override.conf
[Service]
User=root
Group=root
Only for C-based Zabbix agent additional configuration settings are required:
A user must be specified
### Option: User
#
Drop privileges to a specific, existing user on the system.
#
Only has effect if run as 'root' and AllowRoot is disabled.
User=root
AllowRoot agent configuration parameter must be enabled
### Option: AllowRoot
#
Allow the agent to run as 'root'. If disabled and the agent is started by 'root', the agent
#
will try to switch to the user specified by the User configuration option instead.
AllowRoot=1
!
Run Zabbix agent as root only if there are no other options! Sudo is a much safer choice.
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Theory
161
COMMAND-LINE PARAMETERS
Zabbix agent supports command-line options and runtime commands:
Get help information
zabbix_agentd --help
zabbix_agentd -h
Change log level (increase/decrease, change for one process only, etc.)
zabbix_agentd -R log_level_increase="listener"
List all built-in items:
zabbix_agentd --print
zabbix_agentd -p
Test an item key
The test is performed using currently logged in user (not zabbix user by default)
zabbix_agentd -t system.cpu.load
system.cpu.load
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Theory
162
SAME KEY, DIFFERENT RESULTS
Different item types may have the same item key, which will perform differently:
Simple check is executed from Zabbix server or proxy
Simple check
www.example.com
Zabbix agent check is executed using Zabbix agent
Zabbix agent
Agent service item checks may be used to check connectivity between hosts
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Theory
163
PRACTICAL SETUP
1) Install Zabbix agent (C-based) on your virtual machine:
Use Zabbix official repository to install agent package
Start Zabbix agent and enable auto-start
Check Zabbix agent log file
Make sure that host "Zabbix server" is available and collecting data
2) Check Zabbix agent version using frontend and command line
3) Test few agent keys using the command line:
The agent generation
Memory used by zabbix_server process
4) Test agent key using Zabbix frontend test functionality:
Zabbix log files directory size
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15 minutes
Practical task No: 7
164
Zabbix agent on Windows
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10 minutes
165
ZABBIX AGENT INSTALLATION
On Windows, there are two ways to install Zabbix agent:
Use precompiled binaries and command-line commands
zabbix_agentd.exe --install --config C:\Program Files\Zabbix\zabbix_agentd.conf
zabbix_agentd.exe --start
Use MSI packages provided by Zabbix (recommended)
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Theory
166
ZABBIX AGENT ON WINDOWS
By default, Zabbix agent on MS Windows:
Runs from the "Local system" account with full access to everything on the OS
Is installed as a standard Windows service
For all modern x64 systems 64-bit agent is recommended
64-bit agent cannot access 32-bit performance counters and vice versa
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Theory
167
WINDOWS SPECIFIC AGENT KEYS
Some Zabbix item keys are Windows specific:
Windows service monitoring
service.info[service,<param>]
services[<type>,<state>,<exclude>]
monitors Windows service state
lists all services that match specified parameters
Windows process monitoring
proc_info[process,<attribute>,<type>]
returns various information about specific process(es)
Virtual memory monitoring
vm.vmemory.size[<type>]
Virtual memory size in bytes or in percentage from total
Event log monitoring
Performance counters monitoring
WMI query monitoring
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Theory
168
EVENT LOG MONITORING
Windows event logs can be monitored by Zabbix
eventlog[name,<regexp>,<severity>,<source>,<eventid>,<maxlines>,<mode>]
name of the event log (System, Security etc)
regexp - regular expression describing the required pattern
severity - regular expression describing severity (“Information”, “Warning”, “Error”, “Critical”, etc.)
source - regular expression describing source identifier
eventid - regular expression describing the event identifier, for example (529|680)
Additional settings for event log items:
Item must be configured as an active check
Type of information: Log (retrieves the timestamp of an original event)
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Theory
169
PERFORMANCE COUNTER MONITORING
Zabbix can gather information from Windows performance counters:
perf_counter[counter,<interval>]
performance counter values
perf_counter_en[counter,<interval>]
performance counter in English (recommended)
typeperf -qx command returns all counters
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Theory
170
WMI QUERY MONITORING
WMI queries is another way how to collect metrics from Windows machines:
wmi.get[<namespace>,<query>]
Execute WMI query and return the object value
Windows Management Instrumentation Query Language is used
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Theory
171
QUESTIONS?
Zabbix 5.0
6.0 Certified Specialist ● Day 1
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172
Time for a break :)
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