Architecture Flashcards
What language is the Zabbix agent 2 developed in?
The Zabbix agent 2 is developed in the Go language.
What Zabbix components are developed in the C language?
The Zabbix server, proxy and Zabbix agent (variant 1) are developed in the C language.
What language is the Zabbix front end developed in?
The Zabbix front end is developed using the PHP language.
What language is the Zabbix Java gateway developed in?
The Zabbix Java gateway is developed in Java.
What are the three main Zabbix components?
The three main Zabbix components are:
* Zabbix Server: data collection, problem detection, notification
* Zabbix frontend: configuration and visualisation
* Zabbix database: configuration data, historical values
Can the Zabbix components be installed on separate machines?
Yes, all components can be installed on the same or separate machines.
What are the additional (optional) Zabbix components?
The additional (optional) Zabbix components are:
* Zabbix Proxy: monitor remote locations, distribute load between proxies
* Zabbix Java gateway: monitor Java applications, can be attached to Zabbix server or Zabbix proxy
* Zabbix web service: generate scheduled reports
What component is used to generate scheduled reports?
The Zabbix web service generates scheduled reports.
What component can be used to monitor Java applications?
The Zabbix Java gateway monitors Java applications and can be attached to a Zabbix server or Zabbix proxy.
What components does the Zabbix server have?
The Zabbix server has:
* Data collectors (pollers, trappers, pingers…)
* Internal processes (history syncer, task manager…)
* Caches (configuration cache, history cache, value cache…)
What is passive mode?
In passive mode the Zabbix server connects to the zabbix agent or proxy.
What is active mode?
In active mode the zabbix agent or proxy connects to server.
Passive and active modes can work simultaneously.
How frequently is data sent to the Zabbix server by a proxy server?
Collected data is sent to the Zabbix server every second by default.
- All data is stored into a local proxy database for a limited amount of time.
- The data is still collected by the proxy in case of network issues between the server and proxy
What process collects data from the Zabbix passive agent?
The poller process collects data from the Zabbix passive agent.
What process accepts data from a Zabbix active agent?
The trapper process accepts data from the Zabbix active agent.
How many instances of the trapper processes can be started?
The active Zabbix agent can be configured to have between 0-1000 trapper instances.
What are the two most important parts of the Zabbix active configuration?
The two most important parts of the Zabbix active configuration are:
* Hostname
* ServerActive
What Zabbix components can perform pre-processing?
The Zabbix server and proxies can carry out pre-processing.
device > collected data > preprocessing > transfformed data > database
What are the scenarios related to a failed pre-processing step?
Either error handling can be introduced using “custom on fail” scenarios or the item will become unsupported and further steps will not be processed.
How are problems detected?
Problems are detected based on collected data using items and evaluation of collected data using triggers.
How are problems raised?
Problems are raised based on the result of a trigger expression:
Problem: trigger expression is TRUE
OK: trigger expression is FALSE
What types of events are created by Triggers?
Triggers create Problem and Recovery events.
Problem - create a problem
Recovery - resolve the problem
How many Zabbix event generation modes does zabbix support?
Zabbix supports two event generation modes:
1. Single: only one event is generated when a trigger goes into the problem state
2. Multiple: a new event is generated upon every evaluation of the trigger e.g. used in log files and SNMP traps.
Avoid multiple problem generation unless their is a specific need.
Where are notifications generated and sent from?
Notifications are generated and sent only by the Zabbix server.
What delivery channels (media) are supported by Zabbix?
- SMS
- Webhook
- Custom alert scripts
What zabbix component sends messages?
The alerter process sends messages
What is an action?
An action is a set of conditions followed by an automatically executed set of operations.
What functionality is provided by actions?
Notify users with different messages:
* For problem detection, updates and resolved problems
* For acknowledged and unacknowledged problems
Execute remote commands:
- On Zabbix server, proxy and agent
- Via SSH and Telnet
- Via IPMI
Escalate to other users or user groups:
* Inform different teams if a problem is not resolved for significant amount of time
* Unlimited number of escalation steps is supported
Run global scripts and custom scripts
What types of operations are supported for trigger and service actions?
- Operations: Executed during the problem
- Recovery operations: Executed when the problem is resolved
- Update operations: Executed when the problem is updated (acknowledged, etc.)
What causes “internal events”?
Internal events are generated by problems in the configuration:
* Not supported items
* Not supported low-level discovery rules
* Unknown triggers
What is the severity classification of Internal events?
Internal events have “Not classified” severity:
User media filters must include this severity, otherwise the messages will not be sent.
Do internal events use the same actions are trigger actions?
No, internal events use “internal actions”:
* Event type (items, triggers or LLD rules)
* Templates, hosts and host groups
* Tag names and values
