Hair of the dog that bit you - My Zabbix Summit Hangover
People always say that the best remedy for hangover is to consume the “hair of the dog that bit you”
Its an old English saying and means if you’ve got a hangover then have a little more of what made your head hurt.
So what was that I hear you say.
Well it wasn’t alcohol, more information overload.
I’ll tell you a little about it while I describe an issue I had doing IT Monitoring with SNMP and how the Zabbix community helped solve this one .
I attended the Zabbix Summit last Thursday 25th November 2021, did you?
I knew most of what Zabbix was planning for version 6 which is out soon.
What I didn’t anticipate was the amount of detail the Zabbix staff shared with us in their sessions.
An information hangover
It was almost an information overdose. The Zabbix crew showed us how the new version of Zabbix version 6 is packed with new and updated features.
If you didn’t attend then I know you would have found it challenging to consume all the content. It certainly impressed and left their mark at the end.
If you did attend then I know you’d agree that the guys at Zabbix who organised it did a great job and must have been worn out.
Zabbix partners met with Zabbix staff the next day. We heard Alexei, CEO and creator of Zabbix, not surprisingly say he was tired, he did sound a little worn out.
Well done to Alexei and Artur the “compère par excellence” and the all contributors for a terrific event and amazing constant information delivery to us all.
Hangover cure
Now coming back to my “hangover”, as I said in my case, the “hair of the dog that bit” was more information. This time it was concerning IT Monitoring using SNMP.
Luckily the Zabbix community is a goldmine. Did I tell you there was a session on that during the summit?
I’ll tell you a recent issue I had with SNMP and how the Zabbix community helped me solve it (I think).
Don’t worry I’m not going to go into any great detail on SNMP here.
Back at work the day after the summit, the usefulness, nay importance, of the #Zabbix forum hit home.
Have you ever worked on IT Monitoring with SNMP using private MIBS?
Some of them are large. When you examine their definitions, table structures they include will generate very large xml files to import into Zabbix to make templates.
With Zabbix if those files are > 2MB then the import will fail.
In my case some were >10MB
Oh dear.
Zabbix community to the rescue. Sure enough tons of others had found this limitation over the years and typically solved it.
In most cases it’s at least a Zabbix front end configuration limit with different constraints depending on the web server you use.
Great posts I found to solve it for nginx and apache are these.
Don’t re-create the wheel
It’s always a relief when you see someone else has been there before you and fixes are shared for everyone else.
That’s the main reason for this post, especially if you’re just starting or thinking about using open source and Zabbix.
I’ve never had a situation where an issue wasn’t solved thanks at least in part to the Zabbix community.
Its a goldmine really.
Community saviours
So thanks to all who support the community.
That includes of course the Zabbix experts themselves who take the time to reply as well.
To those guys I say thanks but also please DO consider changing the above limitation as an option in your installations.
It would lighten the administration of tons of *.conf and *.ini files outside of Zabbix.
Zero license cost
To readers I’ll say that if you’re considering a new solution for IT Monitoring with SNMP or other means, stop and think.
Do not rule out open source and Zabbix at least until you talk to us at Nobius.
With us you can swell the ranks of customers like Punch Pubs and Co that moved from a paid proprietary solution ‘that let them down), to a no license solution.
Its powerful, expandable, already integrated to tons of 3rd party products and simply a great foundation.
It is modern, it really scales, and is easily expanded. Nobius has used it for monitoring of non-IT devices too like CCTV and other. See below.
When doing IT Monitoring with SNMP, you’ll find it the most economical yet powerful solution out there.
With no licenses to pay, you have really got nothing to lose.
And don’t forget, the Zabbix community won’t let you down either.
SolvIT – Sounds like hangover medecine
Nobius has created SolvIT, a new integration between Zabbix and InvictaDesk by InvictaSoftware.
Its a light but powerful IT Ops solution that automates ticket creation from Zabbix alerts, and includes bi-directional ticket and alert handling.
Demo
Here’s a demo of what it does.
About Nobius
Nobius is the only Zabbix Certified Partner in the UK.
We’ll be happy to capture your requirements and help solve your issues.
See our IoT Flyer to learn how Nobius applies Zabbix to non-IT monitoring as well. With it we cover CCTV, HVAC, access control, pumps, fans, …
You don’t need other systems to monitor them, use the same solution as the IT Monitoring solution using SNMP.
If you’re interested to learn more about Zabbix version 6 and its amazing new features, contact Nobius, Gold Sponsor of the event at info@nobius.co.uk.
For more information on our services see our video and website Nobius.co.uk
Credits
Images courtesy of
Michael Rucker’s blog
Global Perspectives
David Leonard
Photo by Erriko Boccia on Unsplash
No animals were unfairly treated in the creation of this post.
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