Updated April 17, 2023
Introduction to Zabbix
Zabbix is defined as an open-source monitoring tool used for monitoring of servers, network, IT components, cloud services and virtual machines. The Zabbix monitoring tool is used to provide the monitoring metrics and monitor the network utilization, consumption of disk space, and CPU load. The tool supports various operating system like Mac OS, Solaris, Linux and many more. The tool use a different database to store the data and monitor the applications. The Zabbix monitoring tool is developed in C programming language, and PHP language is used for the web frontend.
What is Zabbix?
- It is the name of monitoring software used for monitoring network server applications so that performance bottlenecks can be identified and resolved.
- In the Zabbix tool, client-server architecture and the small agent is installed on the client-side so that data can be gathered and can be sent to the Zabbix server.
- The Zabbix tool uses the encryption communication so that data can be protected. It contains several components like server, web interface, database storage, agent, proxy.
- The tool offers several features which help the user to monitor the network servers, applications.
- The Zabbix monitoring tool is available as an open-source tool that can be used as a monitoring platform for education, energy, finance and banking, government, healthcare and marketing sector.
- All sector monitoring is possible in real-time for finding the issues in the network and servers. The Zabbix tool gathers the data and analyzes the data so that performance metrics can be created.
Why we use Zabbix?
It is used for monitoring of servers and applications. The tool offers several features that are mentioned here:
1. Data Gathering
In this feature, the Zabbix tool checks for application performance bottlenecks and the availability of an application. The tool also supports custom check. The tool offers several monitoring services like JMX, IPMI and SNMP.
2. Alerting System
The user can be notified of the issue that occurred in the networking servers. The notifications can also be made customized. The user can also have customized the actions so that they can be automated when any issue has occurred in the system. Macro variables can be used in the notifications to inform the user using communication channels like email, SMS, etc.
3. Real-time Graphing
The Zabbix tool provides the feature of real-time monitoring of the network servers and application for performance issues. All the items can be immediately graphed as the tool has an in-built feature to make the graphs in real-time and display them in the tool interface. The tool also provides functionality to measure the website’s response time and check for website functionality.
4. Various Visualization Options
The tool provides a feature to create the custom graphs to easily combine multiple items in one single view. The reports are generated by the Zabbix tool so that analysis of issues can be performed. All the resources can be easily monitored using a monitoring tool.
5. Data Storage
The data is stored in a database that is connected with the tool. The tool also maintains configurable history. Various type of database is supported by the Zabbix tool that helps to manage the data easily.
6. Easy Configuration and Templates
The Zabbix tool is widely used for monitoring purpose by individuals and organization because the tool helps to add the monitored device that is known as hosts. Once the host is added, monitoring activity of the host can be performed, and templates can also be applied for the monitored devices. The tool also offers a feature of group checking using templates. One template can inherit the property of another template that provides additional flexibility to the user. Zabbix proxy is used for the remote monitoring purpose, and the tool is suitable for complex environments.
7. Easy Web Interface
The Zabbix tool offers a web interface that is developed in PHP language. The web interface can be easily accessed from any location. The logs generated by the web interface can be audit easily. The tool also has a permission system in which the user can be authenticated, and only valid users are allowed to use the tool. The accessibility of features can be limited for specific users according to their package.
Importance
It is used for monitoring of application and network server and also has several importance that is mentioned here:
- Money Saver: The Zabbix monitoring tool is an open-source monitoring tool that individual and organization can use, and the source code of the software can be easily accessed. When an organization needs to reduce the operational cost, the Zabbix monitoring tool can be used as an open-source tool. The configuration and set-up process is very fast in the Zabbix monitoring tool.
- Zabbix Agent: It is a powerful tool used to monitor the network and servers and also helps to manage the database. Zabbix agent provides the functionality for monitoring of the network. Capacity can be easily expanded by using the Zabbix Agent.
- Remedial & Notification Module: The Zabbix tool sends the notification and alerts for any unusual behavior in the network. By this feature, user can send notifications so that important information can be provided and appropriate actions can be taken. There are several options by which user can receive notifications like SMS, email, Jabber and many more.
- Easy-to-use GUI: It has its own importance as the GUI offered by the tool is easy to use that can be easily used by the user to monitor the network and servers for finding performance bottlenecks. The interface provides functionality to easily configure the tool and can be used to present the visualization. The complete IT environment can be visualized from a single GUI offered by the Zabbix tool.
Conclusion
It is an open-source monitoring tool used for the monitoring of network servers and application and helps the users to identify the performance bottlenecks present in the network. The tool offers several features that help ease the process of monitoring and debugging threats and issues.
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