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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We did not encounter any issues with stability. Zabbix is very stable. I can't remember a Zabbix server ever failing.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We did not encounter any issues with scalability.
How are customer service and support?
I've never contacted Zabbix technical support. I had no need to. The Zabbix forum was enough for my issues.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I switched from Nagios to Zabbix. For me Zabbix is more intuitive, flexible, offering more options out-of-the-box.
How was the initial setup?
I didn't have troubles implementing it. The official documentation is more than enough.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Zabbix is free - no hidden costs, no paid features. Just download, install and enjoy.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I had the option to stay with Nagios or switch to Zabbix. I switched.
What other advice do I have?
Make a plan for components you want to monitor, how these components are related, what groups and templates you want to create.
Also at the beginning don't be afraid to use templates provided by Zabbix - it will help you start. After that you can slowly tweak them or add new ones.
Make the database backup - that should be obvious.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Highly recommended open source monitoring software for servers and network monitoring
Zabbix provides flexible functionality over Nagios and other open source monitoring softwares like opennms, zenoss etc. It is widely used in market these days due to its easy administration and configuration.
Pros:-
1. Zabbix provides a user friendly GUI interface for administration and configuration for monitoring servers and network.
2. Zabbix is open source software, so no licenses needs to be purchased.
3. Zabbix clients can be configued easily by installing Zabbix client software on client machines on the network. Zabbix client machines can be of either windows, linux or any unix machine.
4. User parameters can be configured for customized scripts.
5. Configuration/administration documentations are available on official web site of Zabbix and videos/additional documentations are also available on other popular websites like youtube etc.
Cons:-
1. Installation is little complex, tedious, time consuming and prone to user errors. However, once installed, it provides user friendly interface for all administrative tasks.
2. Some scripting knowledge is required in order to make changes to configuration files.
3. Adding custom services requires reloading the config or restarting the service.
Alternate Vendors:-
Nagios, Zenoss, Cacti !!
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor
I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want using these, but they require quite some expertise before you can use them. Then there are the ones that are not open source, the enterprise softwares and cost you some money, but on the other hand, they are extremely easy to set-up and learn. You can have them up and running in a matter of minutes. And then there are those which are completely cloud based. They can be free of cost or charge some money depending on the software. The good thing about these is that you don’t have to install any extra software, and it can be managed completely online but then again these have limited features and you cannot exploit them to the full extent as you can do with the open-source and to some extent the enterprise software, so I won’t suggest you to use these, because these are generally not the complete solutions and require other support software to achieve the same. Below I have listed the outstanding pros and cons of the various Network analyzers that you can look into.
Nagios
Pros:
Nagios offers an extensive set of collector plug-ins that allows users to gather performance and availability data from a broad range of operating systems, including Windows and Netware
Nagios has a web interface that helps users check network health from anywhere
Creates reports on trends, availability, alerts, notifications — via the web interface
Monitors network redundancies and failure rates
Cons:
Web GUI is not good
Steep learning curve is required for managing config files to run devices and tests
Zabbix
Pros:
Zabbix is fully configurable from its web front end and so it is easier to use Zabbix
than the popular Nagios — whose configuration requires several text files
Further, Zabbix combines both monitoring and trending functionality, while Nagios
focuses exclusively on monitoring
The Web monitoring function of Zabbix allows users to monitor the availability and
performance of web-based services over time. Moreover, this functionality allows
Zabbix to log into a web application periodically and run through a series of typical
steps being performed by a customer
It’s open-source and has a well-designed Web GUI and overall concept
Zabbix offers good alerts, dedicated agents and an active user community
Cons:
Zabbix is not suitable for large networks with 1,000+ nodes, due to PHP performance
and Web GUI limitations
A lack of real-time tests, as well as complicated templates and alerting rules
Solarwinds
Pros:
SolarWinds’s ConnectNow Topology Mapping allows users’ environment to be mapped
in real time automatically. This provides graphical visibility into users’ networks,
requiring no additional work or tools
SolarWinds’s Integrated Wireless Poller monitors wireless devices for security and other issues and reduces the difficulty in managing these items, allowing more widespread use of wireless technologies
Excellent UI design
Customizable, automated network mapping
Great community support provided by Thwack
Mobile access
Native VMware support
Cons:
Unable to configure alerts from the web-console
Clumsy “Group Dependency” configuration
Reporting module needs better ad-hoc reports
No native support for Microsoft Hyper-V. Features SNMP only
PRTG Network Monitor
Paessler has completely redesigned its Web interface to make it simpler to use. In addition, the company has added support for a mini-HTML interface for mobile devices, including iPhones, BlackBerrys, Androids and Windows Mobile devices. What’s more, with the iPhone app — available through the iTunes App Store — IT managers can not only receive alerts about network status, they can also take action.
Pros:
Google Maps integrated with the Web interface, allowing monitoring software to display
geographical maps
Functions of advanced maps for creating custom network views
Real-time availability of up to a year of actual historic data, not aggregated data
Integrated native Linux monitoring functions
Monitoring of virtual environments, including VMware, HyperV, Xen and Amazon Cloud Watch
Installation of reliable alarm system enabling alerts via e-mail, SMS, instant
messenger, pager message, HTTP request, syslog, etc.
A variety of new sensors and remote probes to monitor distributed systems, including
xFlow sensors for monitoring via NetFlow or sFlow.
Very easy setup,
broad range of sensors,
self-contained design
**I did not find any cons!
Spiceworks
Spiceworks is a network management and monitoring, Help Desk, PC inventory and software reporting solution for handling IT in small and medium-sized businesses.
Pros
● Fast installation
● Main dashboard completely configurable
● Easy to use monitoring console
● Active user community, with forums, ratings and reviews, how-tos and whitepapers
● Free
● Easy to install and configure for Windows environments
● “All in one” solution for Inventory, Monitoring, and Help Desk
● Great starting point for IT management
Cons
● On larger networks, performance can be slow
● Limited scalability
● Does not facilitate managing control of monitored devices
● Some initial device configuration is required to be recognized by Spiceworks
● VMWare and Unix systems not discovered nearly as easily as Windows
● Does not provide the same depth of monitoring and control as enterprise-level
products
Software
Faster Config Process
Good web interface
Compatible to leading OS
Better Graphics and Navigation
Cost Effective
Free?
Mobile Access
Integrated Maps
Nagios
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
Zabbix
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Solarwinds Orion Network Performance Monitor
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Paessler NetworkMonitor
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Spiceworks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Inputs
If you want to try out an open-source software, which is absolutely free, you should opt for Zabbix. You can also try out the PRTG Network monitor as it is free for up to 30
sensors. Considering the fact that currently we do not have a lot of servers, you can opt for
the PRTG monitor as it is much simpler than Zabbix with almost all the same features and actually much better GUI. Like Zabbix it also has excellent community support and once you
feel that you need to add more sensors you can opt to pay for those using the PRTG Network
monitor or go for Zabbix. The problem with softwares like Zabbix and Nagios is that
they require a very steep learning curve and unless you devote a person for that purpose
it would be really time (that implies money) consuming. So basically its just the same. I would
suggest to give the PRTG Network Monitoring System a try.
ZABBIX is a 'all-in-on' and 'true opensource' monitoring solution but needs needs improved reporting functions
What is most valuable?
This software is the most powerfull monitoring tool that I know. Actually since 2005, when I started to work with ZABBIX, this software keeps growing and growing. Each new version ZABBIX SIA company (who maintain this software) delivers improvements and new features that help IT professionals to take care of their infrastructure. Some of the main features:
Flexibility to 'learn' things (is trivial to extend ZABBIX features)
All things (historical data, configuration, etc) are in database
Automated inventory hosts (hardware and software)
Web monitoring (a robot to check websites)
ZABBIX is a 'all-in-on' monitoring solution. We don't need any other monitoring tool since we use ZABBIX.
How has it helped my organization?
Actually we are ZABBIX partners (premium and training) to Brazil and LatAm and our goal is to help other companies using ZABBIX.
What needs improvement?
I think ZABBIX needs improved report functions. Since ZABBIX version 1.8 we are using the ZABBIX API to integrate ZABBIX data with others tools (Pentaho, QlikView, etc.) when ZABBIX built-in reports are not enough.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using ZABBIX since 2005.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
None.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
None.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In some scenarios/projects we need to adjust ZABBIX components (agents, proxies, nodes, GUI, database, etc) in line with each one. What I mean is that we need to know ZABBIX and also know the customer's environment to have a successful deployment without stability and scalability issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service: ZABBIX SIA has almost 70 partners around the world and services are delivered in local customer languages :)Technical Support: ZABBIX SIA partners has levels (Reseller, Certified and Premium) and Premium partners are the best ones :)
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Yes, we used a lot of other monitoring tools (6 at the same time with distinct functions). We switched to ZABBIX because:
ZABBIX is a 'all-in-on' monitoring solution
ZABBIX is 'true open source'
ZABBIX is 'Commercial/Professional' supported
ZABBIX has a 'centralized' approach. All things are done using the ZABBIX GUI
How was the initial setup?
Its depends, if the customer environment is complex, the initial setup will be same. Here (at Unirede) the initial setups are always straightforward because we already have good expertise with ZABBIX and infrastructure areas.
What about the implementation team?
In-house team.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Our setup was done with a in-house team and the costs are a 'ZABBIX Certified Specialist' to take care. But we are a ZABBIX Premium Partner and our customers choose ZABBIX (instead other commercial softwares) mainly because a ZABBIX deployment is not too expensive ;)
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Of course. We need to check other oprions all the time. Some software we evaluated: Nagios, Zenoos, HypericHQ, PandoraFMS, BigBrother/Quest.
What other advice do I have?
People need do a POC (Prove of Concept) to check if ZABBIX will fit in their needs. We also have a lot of blogs talking about 'Monitoring Solutions' and a lot of 'comparisons', but I think the best way to start is to choose to work with a ZABBIX Partner around the world and talk about your needs.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Easy product with all the features you need but it would be nice if it had predictive trending.
What is most valuable?
Low Level Discovery is imho the best feature in Zabbix. It will do some auto discovery of network devices, filesystems and snmp oid's.
How has it helped my organization?
If you are serious about your infrastructure then you have to know what is going on. With Zabbix we know when servers are using to much cpu, memory, disk IO, etc. Besides getting notified when something goes wrong, we are also now aware of how good our infrastructure scales, something that can save us money and frustrations.
What needs improvement?
Zabbix has it all except for predictive trending. This would be a nice extra feature. Also the SLA (it services) part can use some improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the product for about 2 years now, the company I work for was using it already before I joined. About a year ago I passed the Zabbix training course.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
Deployment of Zabbix is easy and very straightforward. The only thing to do is install clients on your devices that you want to monitor. And even that is not always needed. It is also possible to do some checking from the server side. Also, it runs on almost every platform available on the market today.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Zabbix is written in C, developers have high standards before accepting code from the community. Zabbix itself uses little resources and is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
If it scales then it is Zabbix. The only thing that can be in your way is the database and the hardware it runs on. As Zabbix uses a database you need descent hardware and a good DB if you have alot of machines to monitor with lots of items to check.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service: For us, as partner the support we get from Zabbix is great. We get answers quick and they always take our issues seriously.Technical Support: There is professional support from Zabbix SIA that can be bought. They even offer to develop custom features in Zabbix if you like. Of course there are also the Zabbix partners like the company I work for that can provide support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before I knew about Zabbix I was working at another company where we where using Nagios (opsview). Glad I had a chance to learn Zabbix, there is just no way to compare Zabbix. This is real time monitoring :)
How was the initial setup?
Setup of Zabbix is easy. There is a great manual how to install and use it on most of the systems be it with rpm or deb or from source. It's probably the easiest open source monitoring platform to install. Also there are almost no dependencies needed that are not in the os already.
What about the implementation team?
As a Zabbix partner and official trainer we of course did the setup on our own.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product self is free there is no hidden cost or no cost for a enterprise version or some features that get disabled later. The product comes 100% free and it stays that way.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
In our company we are always following the latest trends on the market so we try to follow them all as much as needed. Our preference goes mostly out to Zabbix of course.
What other advice do I have?
Tweak the standard templates and make sure you don't run the DB on a virtual platform.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Since Zabbix 3.0 there is now predictive trending and much more. In fact Zabbix is now the only open-source solution that delivers a complete set of features.
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I have not used Anturis, but I have heard that this is very good monitoring tool for cloud servers.