Zabbix Reviews

• 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.

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.

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.

Three years.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Highly adaptable to almost any environment and technology. The use of features, like Low Level Discovery, Templates, and Macros, allow an easy and customizable deployment over large environments.

Regarding notifications, the ability to use different media types and custom scripts gives Zabbix virtually no limits (mail, SMS, Telegram, Slack, etc.). Integration with other Open Source solutions, like Grafana, expand the possibilities for data visualization.

Availability problems are easily detected, minimizing downtime. Performance problems are detected before having an impact in customer experience. There is a centralized view of the whole IT system (HW to apps), and new devices services are easily integrated.

Reporting and SLA customization.

Five years.

None.

None.

None.

We are partners, so customer service does not apply to us.

We are partners with Zabbix. The response whenever we needed their technical assistance was excellent.

We used Cacti for data visualization. We switched because of the benefits of using Zabbix as a central monitoring solution instead of having multiple tools to manage.

Straightforward. Documentation on the initial setup is available at Zabbix's website and easy to follow.

We are Zabbix's partners.

Being truly Open Source, the only investment is in the time needed to get to know Zabbix and all the features it brings. This time is later gained in downtime minimization, easy scalability, and overall system status visualization.

Zabbix is Open Source, there is no licensing or pricing. As with any monitoring tool, there is a time cost which is required to learn how to use it well.

We evaluated Nagios. We preferred Zabbix for the easy to use GUI and because it is 100% Open Source.

In our opinion Zabbix is an amazing monitoring solution which allows for any service or device to be monitored. In most cases, integration is supported out-of-the-box. In some cases, additional scripting or minor development is required.

• Stability
• Flexibility
• Expandability

My favorite features are auto-discovery and LLD (low-level discovery) with Zabbix (and with some programming experience), you can monitor absolutely everything.

Also, it is worth mentioning the good quality of documentation and great community support.

Before we implemented Zabbix, we were blind.

I'd like it if they'd have implemented some sort of SNMP auto-discovery.

Almost seven years (from version 1.8.2).

There were some issues, then I made an upgrade from version 1.8 to 2.4.
I had to migrate existing MySQL DB (that is sitting under the hood) from one engine to another.

Yes. But again, it was an upgrade issue.

From the very beginning, I used distributed monitoring that was based on the Zabbix nodes conception, but they got rid of the nodes since version 3.0.0.

So, I had to change Zabbix Nodes with Zabbix Proxies. Finally, I have found out that the Proxies have better performance, stable matching, and are easier to configure than the Nodes.

I know they have one but I never had a chance to use it.

Before Zabbix, It was another Open Source solution: Nagios. Actually, I set them both up simultaneously.

So, I had a chance to compare them side-by-side. Finally, I chose Zabbix.

Setup is the very first step. This step you have to perform just once. The process is easy and straightforward, but the product itself is not easy to use.

I would suggest reading documentation before the installation. It has a steep learning curve.

The monitoring of IT infrastructure is not a piece of cake. Don't think you can install it with a couple of clicks and be done.

To implement have a good implementation, you have to read the documentation thoroughly.

Like any other Open Source product, you can spend some money on support, but the product itself is free of charge.

No, I did not evaluate other options before choosing this product.

The most valuable features are the monitoring and the ease with which we can set it up at customer sites with our custom Zabbix proxy and tools. It is very agile and it is easy to do custom setups.

The dashboard and the graph section could be a little bit more professional.

We have been using Zabbix for about five years.

There were no issues with stability, but we needed to adjust some of the standard values in the configuration. However, that was to be expected.

I haven't scaled yet, but we plan to do this with two front-ends, two Zabbix cores, and HA MySQL.

We haven't used technical support yet. I have attended a course with one of the employees at Zabbix, and he was very good.

We did not use a solution previous to this one.

The initial setup and the subsequent upgrade were both very easy.

There are no licenses.

Just go for it. The possibilities are endless and very large.

Scalability, everything can be monitored.

Reporting is weak, if you want something better you must write your own SQL scripts/

3 years.

Sometimes.

Yes, web-page Zabbix server, database can be separate machine.

Never used the technical support.

Yes, previously used Cacti or Nagios but Zabbix has node communication.

Straightforward, if you understand basic things about databases or web services, it's easy.

All data is stored in the database. If you have more than 200 hosts you need a fast disk or good tuning of the OS/database.

We value the auto-host discovery, template import, bulk import/export features. Newer versions also add nice features, such as multi-IP per host.

We operate an HPC cluster. On several occasions, the datacenter(s) counted above 1000 hosts. An easily scalable solution is most valued against other solutions which are simpler to operate and have a smoother learning curve, such as Nagios.

The design of Zabbix allows the user to change metrics and check on the server side, instead of changing them on the client side, via a configuration file.

I use an older version of the product, so I cannot answer this question.

We have been using the solution for seven years.

The underlying database needs proper tuning and maintenance to avoid table fragmentation.

We had some scalability issues with a large number of nodes. It was as if the underlying relational database is on the same machine and has fragmented tables. The server CPU could ramp up to 100% and the metrics are not refreshed properly.

We switched in order to get the benefit of the ability to redefine metrics server-side, nested templates, and the really powerful graphs available at the time.

The initial setup was really straightforward. However, as soon as you reach 100 monitored clients, the default MySQL configuration doesn't scale up. I'm sure that a newer Zabbix version relies on better backend solutions for data storage.

It's free software released under the GNU/GPL license.

We evaluated Nagios.

It is unnecessary if you have below 100 hosts. Otherwise, it's a great tool, with a nice web interface.

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

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

It should be easy to modify the front end.

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

There were no stability issues.

There were no scalability issues.

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

The product is an open source and free solution.

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

It monitors almost everything.

It provides high scalability, alerting, notification, templating, and end-to-end security.

By proactively monitoring, it helped us to fix problems before any major disaster.

There are a lot of areas for improvement, specifically in the dashboards and reports functionalities.

I have used this solution for four years.

There were no stability issues.

There were no scalability issues.

I haven’t used technical support yet.

The initial setup is a bit complex, as lots of things need to be planned carefully during the implementation of the solution, such as the hardware sizing, customizing templates for monitoring the customer's environment, and much more.

It is a true open-source solution, so there are no licensing costs.

We evaluated many products such as HPE SiteScope, Nagios etc.

An in-depth knowledge of the product is needed to customize it, according to your customer's needs.

It is advisable to hire a consultant and do a PoC (proof of concept) before arriving at conclusion.