PeerSpot user
Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Consultant
My extended experience with Zabbix or how to cook toasts

Hi everyone,

I want to share a story about cooking toasts and tell you how we were expanding the functionality of Zabbix by a coil of wire and an integrated circuit Open Source solutions. First things first.

Imagine, you work in an organization (and it can be yours) where its business process is supported by one or more IT systems. There is a monitoring system. Then a little blurred vision, and it is not clear whether /the industrial system is free or Open Source. However, there aresituations when all the sensors aregreen, but the business process gives unexplained setbacks, showing a decrease of key indicators. Matter-of-factly, the situation is out of control and your intervention is required. It’s quite a common case. A systematical approach for solving this problem will provide a drafting services model.

Tom Wujec who provides services for the visualization of the processes occurring in the companies (not just IT), carried out a curious study. He asked different people to draw the process of toasting. See below for some results of this work.

What do we see on this pictures? Right you are. You can see objects and links presented in any system. The more you see them , the more the approach will be systematical. The correct degree of granularity will more accurately monitor the "health" of business system. To construct a circuit, you can try to use the Visio, but much more interesting is to take a marker to draw connections, adhesive sheets for objects and to portray your system on the whiteboard. The more is the quantity of yellow leaves, the more are the links, the higher is the chance to determine the maximum number of monitoring points for right resolving of the problem.

And now it's high time to tell you about our experience in the field of expansion of standard functional Zabbix and of systematical approach described above. There are exactly two of them.

The first is Mapping systems and the installation of thermal services’ card. In view of our considerable experience in the monitoring of the banking business processes, we give an example of exactly this area. Let’s consider three of the most common banking systems. If there is a more typical system in your bank it will not be considered here.

Home banking (online banking):

Enterprise serial bus (ESB):

Decision-making system (Credit convey):

In our application, it will look like this (yes, the structure is somewhat broken, but visibility still persists):

You can go to a lower level in case of need. And, last but not least, when you move the object pops up pop-up window with the description of the event and with a link to the graph in Zabbix

Through this approach, and given the level of details, we get friendly dashboards in the output, and at the same time a simple problem of localization tool. A few words about the features of our system:

- Visualization of the dependencies among enterprise systems;
- Set up of the degree of mutual components’influence (due weight);
- Integration with Zabbix (objects on the heat map are associated with flip-flops);
- Pop-up windows with text events when you hover over the event object;
- Visual Interface Communication Configuration objects;
- Visual communication setup interface of objects with triggers Zabbix.

As an example, some already developed interfaces.

Adding objects to a heat map:

Adding integrations from Zabbix:

Connecting Zabbix triggers to objects on the heat map:

The system is based on Google Charts and Bootstrap. While this is an alpha version, we plan to develop it further, adding useful pieces of industrial systems, which have been working successfully for many years. I will try to keep you in touch and to publish posts on the basis of practices developed.

The second experience is the integration with Zabbix and heat maps of synthetic transactions functionality. In fact, it’s a continuation of the heat map, and the look from the other side. Definitely controlling the system only from the application and infrastructure, you will not have the necessary information completeness. Synthetic transactions will allow having a look as a user and isolate the problem even before the first user requests to the Help Desk.

Synthetic transactions are based on the framework phantom.js (but nothing prevents you to go to casper.js, to pure selenium or anything else on your liking). In our test lab the execution of scenario is configured through cron and then the data are transferred to Zabbix by Zabbix trapper. As an example, the test scripts are logged into the MTS (Russia's mobile operator) personal account and receive money from the demand balance and the traffic in the Internet package (I can send it to you if you interested in this script). In the banking community, the most likely use of this tool can be, for example, online banking. Nobody will prevent you to log into the system and flip 1 dollar from one account to another.

Collected items from our example are as follows:

Each has its own schedule.

I do not want to say that the use of Open Source solutions monitoring is a tablet from all troubles. I will reveal an open secret: as in physics, there is the law of conservation of money and effort. The more money you invest into a finished product, the less effort for improvement, and vice versa. Always should be guided by common sense, the available budget and the human factor: ready to be your team to throw in the recess of business monitoring on the first call?

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Junior Network Engineer at Easy Systems
Real User
Straightforward installation, high performance, but support could be improved
Pros and Cons
  • "The performance and bandwidth are valuable features."
  • "The performance reporting could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution to monitor our network devices.

What is most valuable?

The performance and bandwidth are valuable features.

What needs improvement?

The performance reporting could be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for approximately two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability could be improved, there are some limitations.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have 11 people using this solution in my organization. We have four engineers and six technicians that do the implementation and maintenance of the solution.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is good. However, the support could be more knowledgeable.

How was the initial setup?

The installation is straightforward and it took approximately one hour.

What about the implementation team?

We did the installation ourselves. However, I had to watch some video tutorials and view some PDF help files online to complete the installation.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There is a license required for this solution and we pay annually for our license.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Zabbix a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Adilson Dombaxi - PeerSpot reviewer
Adilson DombaxiJunior Network Engineer at Easy Systems
Real User

The Zabbix is top because is fundamental easy to manager.

Buyer's Guide
Zabbix
May 2024
Learn what your peers think about Zabbix. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2024.
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IT Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Free to use with good functionality and good stability
Pros and Cons
  • "There are lots of great features and functionality within the solution."
  • "The user interface could be a bit better. They could update it a bit."

What is our primary use case?

I primarily use this solution in some of our different monitoring systems, including our different servers, and applications. We use it for the maintenance of the main server in the laboratory.

What is most valuable?

The ability to connect with monitoring is very useful for us. It's great that we can monitor different applications. We can even monitor remotely.

I recently tested the solution's ability to hold up to rebooting machines remotely and we were able to do so with ease. 

There are lots of great features and functionality within the solution.

So far, we've found the solution to be quite stable.

The product has a large community and therefore has lots of documentation around various aspects of the product.

What needs improvement?

I don't recall coming across missing features. It's a fairly complete solution.

The user interface could be a bit better. They could update it a bit.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution offers very good stability. It doesn't have bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze on us. It's been reliable from the very start.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have never tried to scale the solution. I can't speak to its level of scalability.

However, it is my hope that it is. It's important to be able to scale it.

We only currently have 10 people on the solution. It's a small group and therefore we haven't yet had a need to expand it.

How are customer service and technical support?

While I haven't ever actually reached out to technical support, I'd say that it would important to have access. If there was a question the community couldn't answer it would be nice to know if we could turn to Zabbix directly for assistance. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did previously use a different solution prior to Zabbix. It was a suite of applications that included, for example, DLP and myShell. I haven't used it in a very long time, so I can't speak too much about my experience with it or how it compares.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup isn't overly complex. It's largely straightforward.

There's also a fairly sizable community around the solution and there's just so much documentation and insights from other users you have access to, therefore it's very easy to find answers to your questions when it comes to implementation.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We use a free community version of the solution. We don't have to pay for licensing. 

What other advice do I have?

I'm not really a user. I deploy the solution.

Overall, I would rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
IT Administrator at a retailer with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
The dashborad helps us to anticipate problems.
Pros and Cons
  • "Dashboard and the customization of the items and triggers are the most valuable features."
  • "It should be easy to modify the front end."

What is most valuable?

Dashboard and the customization of the items and triggers are the most valuable features.

How has it helped my organization?

With just one look at the dashboard every morning, we can anticipate problems.

What needs improvement?

It should be easy to modify the front end.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for five years (started out with v1.8).

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There were no stability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There were no scalability issues.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, we were using Nagios. The front end was poor so we switched over to Zabbix.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The product is an open source and free solution.

What other advice do I have?

It's a complete solution. There is a learning curve but it is worth it.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Network Security Specialist at SON Corporate Group
Real User
Enables the ability to execute a custom script on devices to solve problems in seconds.

What is our primary use case?

  • OS monitoring with SNMP or Zabbix agent (Windows(server and client), Linux and mac)
  • Database monitoring with Zabbix agent (mariadb-oracle)
  • Device monitoring whit SNMP (Cisco devices, Mikrotik and firewalls like sophos nad juniper)

How has it helped my organization?

Creating a trigger to get alarmed on it and take action to solve them (automatically), and get management info to improve performance.

What is most valuable?

Zabbix scripts is the most valuable feature because you can execute a custom script on devices to solve problems in seconds.

What needs improvement?

It is a little complex to config and implement so I'd like for them to make it easier to config, for example, a configuration for SNMPv3 or trap listener on it.

For how long have I used the solution?

Still implementing.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We still do not have this software completely under the stress, but it has worked well so far.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Like other software, its efficiency and scalability depend on a variety of circumstances, one of the most important is to allocate enough resources to it and its database.

How are customer service and technical support?

There are good resources to help with fixing your needs.

And while this is an open source software but has a good support team, however, we have not had the support needed before.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Because zabbix is a open source NMS however it is very powerful and highly scalable.

How was the initial setup?

Its launch is more complicated than other software and requires more steps for settings. But when it comes to how it works and how to categorize the information in the database, you'll have a better idea of what you can say.

What about the implementation team?

We did this ourselves.

What was our ROI?

Of course, as with other network management software, the return on investment depends entirely on management responses to the information that is available from these systems.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This is definitely a free software (it's open source), and You just need to allocate some resources to launch it

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Of course, we compared it with similar tools like Nagios, Zenoss, PRTG and OP Manager , and we chose it based on the benefits

What other advice do I have?

When you learn how to work with it, you will love it.

It is a complete network management system that will meet all your needs.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
IT Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Poor server monitoring, does not scale well, and lacks performance
Pros and Cons
  • "The implementation process is very straightforward."
  • "The server monitoring could be better."

What is our primary use case?

Our company works with the health ministry in our country. We implement the solution for them and they use it as a monitoring solution in order to watch trends and server patterns, etc.

What is most valuable?

The solution works well for monitoring our on-site server.

Sometimes, the server can go down. When this happens, the solution has the capability to alert us to problems and will automatically notify us of any issues via email.

The implementation process is very straightforward.

What needs improvement?

The server monitoring could be better.

I'm not well versed in Zabbix, so it's difficult for someone like me to handle the setup. They should work to make the implementation much easier. It would improve the useability of the solution.

The solution needs to have a higher quality of performance. Performance is very important to our clients, and this solution doesn't perform very well. The quality and code are difficult.

The solution does not scale well.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using the solution for one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

HIgh performance is important to us, and this solution just doesn't offer it. It's unreliable. The quality just isn't there right now.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Our company needs a solution that can scale, and this product does not offer good scalability. It's one of its biggest downsides. If a company needs to expand the solution, they'll find that they won't be able to effectively.

How are customer service and technical support?

We haven't had any issues with technical support. They've satisfied our needs to far. We don't have any complaints about the service they offer their clients.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup isn't too complex. It's fairly easy to implement and set up.

What other advice do I have?

We're just a Zabbix user. We don't have a special relationship with the company.

I would rate the solution three out of ten. I would rate it higher if there was better scalability potential and the performance was of a much higher quality. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
PeerSpot user
David Collier - PeerSpot reviewer
David CollierCo-Founder at Nobius IT
Top 5Reseller

I'm surprised that you believe that scalability and performance are an issue. Having said that, much depends on the configuration that is implemented. I'm not suggesting that this is the case with your implementation, but we have often seen customers simply implementing the Zabbix "appliance" (a single VM) as a production instance. A full Zabbix implementation is highly scalable and performant with many hundreds of thousands of "values per second" possible. Of course, as with any monitoring software it does require a degree of administration. For example, if you are using only a single server for Zabbix you may wish to consider splitting the web server, zabbix server and database across multiple VM's. We also implement multiple web server front-end which are load balanced.


It's also possible to tune the number of pollers that are running to further improve performance.


I hope that gives you some ideas.

PeerSpot user
Gerente de Informática at a tech services company
Consultant
Move from a reactionary approach to a proactive evaluation of equipment or systems
Pros and Cons
  • "Health and communication links availability."
  • "Look and feel."

What is most valuable?

  • Monitoring servers
  • Health and communication links availability

How has it helped my organization?

By using the solution, we moved from a reactionary approach to a proactive evaluation of our equipment/systems.

What needs improvement?

Look and feel.

For how long have I used the solution?

Six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Not in the version we’re currently using.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No.

How are customer service and technical support?

We only use the free version without support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Yes, we used to use another solution. We migrate to Zabbix after evaluating when it was implemented as a part of a web-based software solution that was acquired by the company in which I was working at that time.

How was the initial setup?

The installation process was simple.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Nothing, because we’re using the free version, which covers all our current needs.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

No.

What other advice do I have?

You’ll be pleasantly surprised if you give the product a chance.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user656028 - PeerSpot reviewer
PostgreSQL Database Administrator at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
Gives Flexibility Of Building Checks Without Relying On Special Plugins

What is most valuable?

  • Multi-level infrastructure maps. You can set up highly customizable maps of your infrastructure, including each component status, maps which can contain submaps, and if something’s wrong at the submap level - the submap will be shown with problems.
  • Agent and agentless monitoring. Installing an agent is the easiest way, but SSH, SNMP, Impi, custom scripting and other protocols are supported.
  • Templates. There are a broad set of templates that define monitoring items for common OS and applications, you can build your own or use one developed by the community.
  • An API for you to create, modify, and delete most things programmatically, including items, triggers, charts, etc.

How has it helped my organization?

As we know how are systems are supposed to work, Zabbix has given us the flexibility of building our checks without relying on special plugins. If some monitoring item is not provided already, building your own is very easy, and any scripting language will do. We’re able to pinpoint with accuracy where issues lie, and respond to them in a cost effective way, due to the nature of it being open source, with fairly decent documentation and optional commercial support.

What needs improvement?

The Java gateway for monitoring Java applications didn’t work for us. Our JMX Service URL’s are somewhat complex, but we were able to write our own JMX checks.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

When your checks grow to a certain volume, you need to adjust some settings on the server related to cache sizes, preforked workers, and so on. This is expected as with any service that grows beyond its default settings, there’s documentation about it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The system is as scalable as your database is. We applied partitioning on the biggest tables to keep the performant at 14 new values per second. You can setup a distributed architecture consisting of an N number of proxies capturing data and reporting to N master servers.

How are customer service and technical support?

Fortunately, we’ve never needed it, because we have very talented engineers in our team and there’s plenty of documentation available online. There are also user forums which are helpful most of the time.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

A fork of Nagios called Icinga, it’s pretty good, but something like the Zabbix Maps feature was a must have for us. We needed something very schematic and flexible to show the overall status of our systems.

How was the initial setup?

It wasn’t complex, but we have very skilled engineers.

The quickest way to go is to have a turnkey virtual instance tailored to your needs by Zabbix, or use one of the freely available ones.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The product is open source with optional commercial support, which is recommended to reduce the learning curve, avoid pitfalls, and keep the project going.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

SolarWinds. Nice product, but our particular project was more in line with the Linux, PostgreSQL, and the Open Source philosophy.

What other advice do I have?

If you’re into the Open Source and freedom principles, don’t mind getting your hands dirty, and have the technical skills, Zabbix is a good choice. Commercial support is available if you don’t want to go at it alone, lack sufficient technical skills, and you need help to keep the project going.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Zabbix Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Zabbix Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.