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 |
| Server | Yes | - | Comma-delimited list of IP addresses of ZABBIX servers. Connections from other IP addresses will be rejected. |
| 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 | - | User-defined parameter to monitor. There can be several user-defined parameters.
Example:UserParameter=use rs,who|wc -l |
Note: Example of the configuration file can be found at 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:
Step 1 Create configuration file.
Create configuration file c:/zabbix_agentd.conf (it has the same syntax as UNIX agent).
Step 2 Install agent as a Windows service.
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.
Step 3 Run agent.
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
Command line syntax:
zabbix_agentd.exe [-Vhp] [-idsx] [-c <file>] [-t <metric>]
ZABBIX Windows Agent accepts the following command line parameters:
Options:
-c --config <file> Specify alternate configuration file (default is c:\zabbix_agentd.conf). -h --help Display help information. -V --version Display version number. -p --print Print list of supported checks (metrics) and exit. -t --test <metric> Test single check (metric) and exit.
Functions:
-I --install Install ZABBIX agent as a service. -d --uninstall Uninstall ZABBIX agent service. -s --start Start ZABBIX agent service. -x --stop Stop ZABBIX agent service.
The file contains configuration parameters for Zabbix_agentd.exe. Supported parameters:
| Parameter | Mandatory | Default value | Description |
| Alias | No | - |
Sets the alias for parameter. 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. |
| DebugLevel | No |
3 |
Debug level, one of 0 – none 1 – critical 2 – errors 3 – warnings 4 – debug |
| Include | No | - | Use this parameter to include a file into the configuration file. Number of parameters Include is not limited. For example: Include=c:\user_parameters. conf |
| ListenPort | No | 10050 | Port number to listen. |
| LogFile | No | - | Name of log file. If not set, syslog is used. |
| LogUnresolvedSymbols | No | - | Controls logging of unresolved symbols during agent startup. Values can be strings ‘yes’ or ‘no’ (without quotes). |
| MaxCollectorProcessingTime | No | 100 | Sets maximum acceptable processing time of one data sample by collector thread (in milliseconds). If processing time will exceed specified value, warning message will be written to the log file. |
| NoTimeWait | No | - | The parameter has no effect. |
| PerfCounter | No | - |
<parameter_name>,"<perf_c ounter_path>",<period> Defines new parameter <parameter_name> which is 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. You may run typeperf –qx to get list of all performance counters available in Windows. |
| PidFile | No | - | The parameter has no effect. |
| Server | Yes | - | Comma-delimited list of IP addresses of ZABBIX servers. Connections from other IP addresses will be rejected. |
| StartAgents | No | - | The parameter has no effect. |
| UserParameter | No | - | ') 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
