ZabbixManual1.4/ZabbixProcesses

ZABBIX Processes

ZABBIX Server

ZABBIX Server is a central process of ZABBIX software. ZABBIX Server can be started by executing:

shell> cd bin
shell> ./zabbix_server

ZABBIX Server runs as a daemon process.

ZABBIX Server accepts the following command line parameters:

-c --config <file> specify configuration file, default is /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf
-h --help give this help
-v --version display version number

In order to get this help run:

shell> zabbix_server -h

Example of command line parameters:

shell> zabbix_server –c /usr/local/etc/zabbix_server.conf
shell> zabbix_server --help
shell> zabbix_server -v

The configuration file contains parameters for zabbix_server. The file must exist and it should have read permissions for user ‘zabbix’. Supported parameters:

Parameter	Mandatory	Default value	Description
AlertScriptsPath	No	/home/zabbix/bin	Location of scripts for user-defined media types.
DBHost	Yes	-	Database name. Usually ‘zabbix’.
DBName	Yes	-	Database name. Usually ‘zabbix’.
DBSocket	No	-	DB socket name. Used for non-TCP connection to MySQL database. Example: /tmp/mysql.sock
DBPassword	No	NULL	Database password. If password is not used, then this parameter must be commented.
DBUser	No	NULL	User name for connecting to the database.
DebugLevel	No	3	Debug level, one of 0 – none 1 – critical 2 – errors 3 – warnings 4 – debug
DisableHousekeeping	No	0	If set to 1, housekeeper will be disabled.
ExternalScripts	No	/etc/zabbix/exter	Location of scripts for external checks.
FpingLocation	No	/usr/sbin/fping	Location of ICMP pinger. It must have setuid flag set.
HousekkepingFrequency	No	1	The parameter defines how often the daemon must perform housekeeping procedure (in hours). If PostgreSQL is used set the value to 24 as it will perform command VACUUM.
Include	No	-	Use this parameter to include a file into the configuration file. Number of parameters Include is not limited. For example: Include=/etc/zabbix/db_conn.conf
ListenIP	No	-	Interface to listen by trapper processes. Trapper will listen to all interfaces if this parameter is not set.
ListenPort	No	10051	Port number to listen by trapper processes.
LogFile	No	-	Name of log file. If not set, syslog is used.
LogFileSize	No	1	This parameter controls log rotation setting for LogFile.By default, ZABBIX automatically roatates log file when it reaches 1MB.This parameter is in MB.If set to 0, no log rotation will be performed.
NodeID	No	0	Unique NodeID (0-999). Must be ‘0’ or missing for standalone ZABBIX Server.
PidFile	No	/tmp/zabbix_server.pid	Name of file to store PID
PingerFrequency	No	30	ZABBIX server ping serversonce per PingerFrequency seconds (1-3600).
SenderFrequency	No	30	The parameter defines how often the daemon must try to send alerts (in seconds)
StartDiscoverers	No	1	Number of discoverers to start (0-255).
StartHTTPPollers	No	5	Number of HTTP pollers to start (0-255).
StartPollers	No	5	Number of pollers to start (0-255).
StartPollersUnreachable	No	1	Number of pollers forunreachable hosts to start (0-255).
StartTrappers	No	5	Number of trappers to start (0-255)
Timeout	No	5	Do not spend more than Timeout seconds on retrieving requested value (1-255) Note: Example of the configuration file can be found at misc/conf/zabbix_server.conf
TrapperTimeout	No	5	Do not spend more than Timeout seconds on processing of traps (1-255)
UnavailableDelay	No	60	How ofter try to connect to unavailable host
UnreachableDelay	No	15	How often try to connect to unreachable host
UnreachablePeriod	No	45	If a host was unreachable for more than UnreachablePeriod seconds,change host status to Unavailable

ZABBIX Agent (UNIX, standalone daemon)

ZABBIX UNIX Agent runs on a host being monitored. The agent provides host's performance and availability information for ZABBIX Server.

ZABBIX Agent processes items of type ‘ZABBIX Agent’ or ‘ZABBIX Agent (active)’.

ZABBIX Agent can be started by executing:

shell> cd bin
shell> ./zabbix_agentd

ZABBIX Agent runs as a daemon process.

ZABBIX Agent accepts the following command line parameters:

-c --config <file> specify configuration file, default is /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.conf
-h --help give this help
-v --version display version number
-p --print print supported metrics and exit
-t --test <metric> test specified metric and exit

In order to get this help run:

shell> zabbix_agentd –h

Example of command line parameters:

shell> zabbix_agentd –c /usr/local/etc/zabbix_agentd.conf
shell> zabbix_agentd –help
shell> zabbix_agentd –print
shell> zabbix_agentd –t “system.cpu.load[all,avg1]”

The configuration file contains configuration parameters for zabbix_agentd. The file must exist and it should have read permissions for user ‘zabbix’. Supported parameters:

Parameter	Mandatory	Default value	Description
DebugLevel	No	3	Debug level: 0 – none 1 – critical 2 – errors 3 – warnings 4 – debug
DisableActive	No	0	Disable processing of active checks. The agent will not connect to ZABBIX server to get list of active items.
EnableRemoteCommands	No	0	Enable remote commands. ZABBIX server will be able to send commands for execution by the agent.
Hostname	No	System’s Unique host name.	The hostname. hostname is used for active checks only.
Include	No	-	Use this parameter to include a file into the configuration file. Number of parameters Include is not limited.For example: Include=/etc/zabbix/user_parameters.conf
ListenIP	No	-	IP address to bind agent to. Useful if the host has multiple interfaces.
ListenPort	No	10050	Port number to listen.
LogFile	No	-	Name of log file. If not set, syslog is used.
LogFileSize	No	1	This parameter controls log rotation setting for LogFile.By default, ZABBIX automatically roatates log file when it reaches 1MB. This parameter is in MB. If set to 0, no log rotation will be performed.
PidFile	/tmp/zabbix_agentd.pid	Name of PID file.
RefreshActiveChecks	No	120	The agent will refresh list of active checks once per 120 (default) seconds.
Server	Yes	-	Comma-delimited list of IP addresses of ZABBIX servers. Connections from other IP addresses will be rejected.
ServerPort	No	10051	The agent will connect to this server port for processing active checks.
StartAgents	No	5	Number of agents to start.
Timeout	No	3	Do not spend more that Timeout seconds on getting requested value (1-255). The agent does not kill timeouted User Parameters processes!
UserParameter	No	-	wc -l Note: Example of the configuration file can be found at misc/conf/zabbix_agentd.conf.

ZABBIX Agent (UNIX, Inetd version)

The file contains configuration parameters for zabbix_agent. The file must exist
 and it should have read permissions for user ‘zabbix’. Supported parameters:
 Parameter Mandatory Default value Description
 Yes - Comma-delimited list of IP
 Server
 addresses of ZABBIX
 servers. Connections from
 other IP addresses will be
 rejected.
 No 3 Do not spend more that
 Timeout
 Timeout seconds on getting
 requested value (1-255). The
 agent does not kill timeouted
 User Parameters processes!
 No - User-defined parameter to
 UserParameter
 monitor. There can be
 several user-defined
 parameters.
 Example:UserParameter=use
 rs,who|wc -l
 Example of the configuration file can be found at
 Note:
 misc/conf/zabbix_agent.conf

ZABBIX Agent (Windows)

ZabbixW32 is ZABBIX agent for Win32 systems. It will work on Windows NT 4.0,
 Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista.

Installation

Installation is very simple and includes 3 steps:
 Create configuration file.
 Step 1
 Create configuration file c:/zabbix_agentd.conf (it has the same syntax as UNIX
 agent).
 Install agent as a Windows service.
 Step 2
 ZabbixW32.exe install
 If you wish to use configuration file other that c:\zabbix_agentd.conf, you should
 use the following command for service installation:
 ZabbixW32.exe --config <your_configuration_file> install
 Full path to configuration file should be specified.
 Run agent.
 Step 2
 Now you can use Control Panel to start agent's service or run:
 ZabbixW32.exe start
 Windows NT 4.0 note. ZabbixW32 uses PDH (Performance Data Helper)
 Note:
 API to gather various system information, so PDH.DLL is needed. This
 DLL is not supplied with Windows NT 4.0, so you need to download and
 install it by yourself. Microsoft Knowledge Base article number 284996
 describes this in detail and contains a download link. You can find this
 article at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;284996

Usage

zabbixw32 [options] [command]
 ZABBIX Windows Agent accepts the following command line parameters:
 check-config Check configuration file and exit.
 help Display help information.
 install Install ZABBIX Win32 Agent as a service.
 install-events Install ZABBIX Win32 Agent as event source
 for Event Log. This is done automatically
 when service is being installed.
 remove Remove previously installed ZABBIX Win32
 Agent service.
 remove-events Remove ZABBIX Win32 Agent event source.
 This is done automatically when service is
 being removed.
 standalone Run in standalone mode.
 start Start ZABBIX Agent service.
 stop Stop ZABBIX Agent service.
 version Display version information.
 And possible options are:
 --config <file> Specify alternate configuration file (default is
 c:\zabbix_agentd.conf).
 The file contains configuration parameters for ZabbixW32. Supported
 parameters:
 Parameter Mandatory Default value Description
 No - Sets the alias for parameter.
 Alias
 It can be useful to substitute
 long and complex parameter
 name with a smaller and
 simpler one. For example, if
 you wish to retrieve paging
 file usage in percents from
 the server, you may use
 parameter

"perf_counter[\Paging
 File(_Total)\% Usage]", or
 you may define an alias by
 adding the following line to
 configuration file: Alias =
 pg_usage:perf_counter[\Pagi
 ng File(_Total)\% Usage]
 After that you can use
 parameter name "pg_usage"
 to retrieve the same
 information. You can specify
 as many "Alias" records as
 you wish. Please note that
 aliases cannot be used for
 parameters defined in
 "PerfCounter" configuration
 file records.
 No - The parameter has no effect.
 DebugLevel
 No - Use this parameter to include
 Include
 a file into the configuration
 file. Number of parameters
 Include is not limited.
 For example:
 Include=c:\user_parameters.
 conf
 No 10050 Port number to listen.
 ListenPort
 No - Name of log file. If not set,
 LogFile
 syslog is used.
 No - Controls logging of
 LogUnresolvedS
 unresolved symbols during
 ymbols
 agent startup. Values can be
 strings ‘yes’ or ‘no’ (without
 quotes).
 No 100 Sets maximum acceptable
 MaxCollectorPro
 processing time of one data
 cessingTime
 sample by collector thread (in
 milliseconds). If processing
 time will exceed specified
 value, warning message will
 be written to the log file.
 No - The parameter has no effect.
 NoTimeWait
 No - <parameter_name>,"<perf_c
 PerfCounter
 ounter_path>",<period>
 Defines new parameter
 <parameter_name> which is
 Parameter Mandatory Default value Description
 an average value for system
 performance counter
 <perf_counter_path> for the
 specified time period
 <period> (in seconds).
 For example, if you wish to
 receive average number of
 processor interrupts per
 second for last minute, you
 can define new parameter
 "interrupts" as following:
 PerfCounter =
 interrupts,"\Processor(0)\Inter
 rupts/sec",60
 Please note double quotes
 around performance counter
 path. Samples for calculating
 average value will be taken
 every second.
 No - The parameter has no effect.
 PidFile
 Yes - Comma-delimited list of IP
 Server
 addresses of ZABBIX
 servers. Connections from
 other IP addresses will be
 rejected.
 No - The parameter has no effect.
 StartAgents
 No - User-defined parameter to
 UserParameter
 monitor. There can be
 several user-defined
 parameters. Value has form
 <key>,<shell command>. Do
 not use spaces around pipe
 ('|') characters!
 Example:UserParameter=test
 ,echo 1

ZABBIX Sender (UNIX)

ZABBIX UNIX Sender is a command line utility which may be used to send performance data to ZABBIX Server for processing.

The utility is usually used in long running user scripts for periodical sending of availability and performance data.

ZABBIX Sender can be started by executing:

shell> cd bin
 shell> ./zabbix_sender –z zabbix –p 10051 –h LinuxDB3 –k db.connections –o 43

ZABBIX Sender accepts the following command line parameters:

-z --zabbix-server <zabbix server> Hostname or IP address of ZABBIX Server.
-p --port <zabbix server port> Specify port number of server trapper running on the server. Default is 10051.
-s --host <host name or IP> Specify host name or IP address of a host.
-k --key <key of metric> Specify metric name (key) we want to send.
-o --value <value> Specify value of the key.
-i --input-file <input file> Load values from input file.
-h –help Give this help.
-v –version Display version number.

In order to get this help run:

shell> zabbix_sender -h

ZABBIX Get (UNIX)

ZABBIX UNIX Get is a process which communicates with ZABBIX Agent and retrieves required information.

The utility is usually used for troubleshooting of ZABBIX Agents.

ZABBIX Get can be started by executing:

shell> cd bin
shell> ./zabbix_get -s127.0.0.1 -p10050 -k"system.cpu.load[all,avg1]"

ZABBIX Get accepts the following command line parameters:

-p --port <port number> Specify port number of agent running on the host, Default is 10050
 -s --host <host name or IP> Specify host name or IP address of a host. 
 -k --key <key of metric> Specify metric name (key) we want to retrieve.
 -h --help Give this help.
 -v --version Display version number.

In order to get this help run:

shell> zabbix_get -h